Do you own more than 6 balls?

[manke]

I have 7 but take 3 with to league.

[Aslan]

Go ask Aslan how many he has sitting in his closet waiting for a good time to introduce them to his arsenal.

1) I can only carry 6 at a time, and only have 2 hands, and only have one hand I can come close to bowling with....so having all 23 bowling balls drilled would serve relatively little purpose.

2) It cost me just over $1500 to purchase/acquire the 23 balls...it'll cost me over $1200 to drill them. Just cuz can I can afford to buy them...doesn't mean I can also afford to drill them.

3) I have a theory that much of the cracking of bowling balls has to do with the change to them post-drying/curing and after drilling. For a ball to crack without drilling, would theoretically/chemically be more difficult. Possible...for certain...and it's happened. But most balls that tend to crack do so after drilling and use. So....if I can keep them undrilled for a longer duration...it might prolong their life.

But yes....in retrospect...purchasing 21 in two years while only using 14 over that time....probably coulda "passed" on some of those bargains.

[NewToBowling]

Yeah balls become less and less of a bargain when you have to spend another $70 to get it drilled. Which is why I was so excited to get free drilling on my Haywire

[Ptnomore]

Yeah balls become less and less of a bargain when you have to spend another $70 to get it drilled. Which is why I was so excited to get free drilling on my Haywire

You guys need to find a house that includes drilling in their price of the ball. Mine does it such that he makes little to nothing on the ball, so his advertised prices include drilling and is usually very competitive if not cheaper than any place else. His prices usually beat the best price I can get online. But with that drilling come free surface adjustments, and hassle free returns if the ball should crack, discounted de-oiling, resurfacing and replacement finger inserts.

I only ever had to return one ball, and that was because after drilling, and bowling with it, I realized that it was a 14lb ball, when I ordered a 15lb ball. When we checked it, the ball was only 14 lbs, but was shipped in box marked "15lb". I've never had a ball crack in the 6 or 7 years that I've been back to bowling. The only ones that I have seen crack here were ones that were stored in the car.

[Amyers]

You guys need to find a house that includes drilling in their price of the ball. Mine does it such that he makes little to nothing on the ball, so his advertised prices include drilling and is usually very competitive if not cheaper than any place else. His prices usually beat the best price I can get online. But with that drilling come free surface adjustments, and hassle free returns if the ball should crack, discounted de-oiling, resurfacing and replacement finger inserts.

I only ever had to return one ball, and that was because after drilling, and bowling with it, I realized that it was a 14lb ball, when I ordered a 15lb ball. When we checked it, the ball was only 14 lbs, but was shipped in box marked "15lb". I've never had a ball crack in the 6 or 7 years that I've been back to bowling. The only ones that I have seen crack here were ones that were stored in the car.

It varies by area but I can usually get a much better deal ordering from my PSO than ordering online then paying the PSO to drill unless the ball has been severely discounted. no supplies and thing like that I almost aways buy online.

[NewToBowling]

You guys need to find a house that includes drilling in their price of the ball. Mine does it such that he makes little to nothing on the ball, so his advertised prices include drilling and is usually very competitive if not cheaper than any place else. His prices usually beat the best price I can get online. But with that drilling come free surface adjustments, and hassle free returns if the ball should crack, discounted de-oiling, resurfacing and replacement finger inserts.

I only ever had to return one ball, and that was because after drilling, and bowling with it, I realized that it was a 14lb ball, when I ordered a 15lb ball. When we checked it, the ball was only 14 lbs, but was shipped in box marked "15lb". I've never had a ball crack in the 6 or 7 years that I've been back to bowling. The only ones that I have seen crack here were ones that were stored in the car.

Pro shops price their balls competitively with online vendors. A Haywire is $129 local or online. You aren't saving any money. Pro shop will charge $50 to drill ball so that is $179 for drilled Haywire locally. Add $20 for grips/inserts and it jumps to $199.

So there is no discounted drilling. It's not like they're advertising $140 Haywire drilled. That would be a deal. But full disclosure I did get my Haywire drilled for $129 for Black Friday. But that is a definite loss leader for them.

[taxexpert2]

Hmm. I have four balls in my apartment. Went to my son's house yesterday hunting for an old ball he had drilled as a spare to see if it would help me with the 10 pins I leave. Low and behold I found two older balls I had used way way long ago. I don't even remember one of them and it is in pretty good shape. The other one is realy beat up. So, I guess I "OWN" six balls. I found the spare ball my son had used so now I nominally own 7 balls. (Amazingly my son and I have very close drill patterns except my fingers are bigger than his - I can throw his balls comfortably but he can't throw mine). We will see tonight how this spare ball works out for me. I don't think he actually every used it but once or twice.

[Tony]

1) I can only carry 6 at a time, and only have 2 hands, and only have one hand I can come close to bowling with....so having all 23 bowling balls drilled would serve relatively little purpose.

2) It cost me just over $1500 to purchase/acquire the 23 balls...it'll cost me over $1200 to drill them. Just cuz can I can afford to buy them...doesn't mean I can also afford to drill them.

3) I have a theory that much of the cracking of bowling balls has to do with the change to them post-drying/curing and after drilling. For a ball to crack without drilling, would theoretically/chemically be more difficult. Possible...for certain...and it's happened. But most balls that tend to crack do so after drilling and use. So....if I can keep them undrilled for a longer duration...it might prolong their life.

But yes....in retrospect...purchasing 21 in two years while only using 14 over that time....probably coulda "passed" on some of those bargains.

What is the purpose served with having 20+ balls that aren't drilled ? It has sounded at times that you're not satisfied with the current selection of drilled balls so why not drill up a couple new one's and give them a chance ?
I can honestly say I could never just buy the balls and leave them in the box, every ball I have purchased so far has been drilled and used within a week or two. I just ordered a Storm IQ tour 30 and it arrived in 2 days instead of the 5 to 7 days quoted, I am trying to wait until after Christmas to get it drilled but it's more likely I'll get it drilled next Tuesday or before ...... I might try and see if I can trade my PSO my used a half year 15lb Hyper cell Skid in exchange for the drilling setup for new ball....

[Amyers]

What is the purpose served with having 20+ balls that aren't drilled ? It has sounded at times that you're not satisfied with the current selection of drilled balls so why not drill up a couple new one's and give them a chance ?
I can honestly say I could never just buy the balls and leave them in the box, every ball I have purchased so far has been drilled and used within a week or two. I just ordered a Storm IQ tour 30 and it arrived in 2 days instead of the 5 to 7 days quoted, I am trying to wait until after Christmas to get it drilled but it's more likely I'll get it drilled next Tuesday or before ...... I might try and see if I can trade my PSO my used a half year 15lb Hyper cell Skid in exchange for the drilling setup for new ball....

Not to put words in Aslan's mouth but we've talked about this enough I feel I can comment for him. He purchased these balls early on buying balls that were discontinued that he was getting at reduced prices which he felt made them a good deal. Unfortunately he went crazy with it making multiple arsenals in two different weights to experiment and without any clear plan on how the balls would fit together. It's a very hard way of making an arsenal as I think he would admit. it's much easier to have one ball you like and go in and say I want something more/less aggressive, more/less angular, or handles more/less oil and build that way or walk in and have a PSO help you pick out 4-5 balls that work together than it is to bring a rag tag collection balls in that have mostly been purchase at random and tell him to make it work.

I will say the economics of his ball purchasing is different than mine. I can purchase most balls fully drilled and slugged for less than $150 and can get anything for $175 complete. In Aslan's So. Cal. form what he has said those prices are more like $200-300. Which might make me think differently too. At this point in my opinion he would be best off to take a couple of those that makes sense for his next arsenal and keep them sell the rest on ebay or racks on bowling facebook and take what he makes to get balls that actually complement each other but to each their own.

[NewToBowling]

And from what I gather Aslan mostly bowls on house patterns with a few weekend tournaments on sport. For house I can safely say two strike balls max with a spare thrown in the mix. Once you start gravitating towards more advanced sport patterns I can see a need for 3-6 balls. "Most" house patterns have so much hold area you really don't need a full arsenal.

Overthinking can definitely mess you up. Sometimes the reason why one roll reacted different than another may have to do with your release, approach, speed, hand variations, target, lay down point than anything to do with the ball and/or oil transition.