What to do with old bowling balls?

[Amyers]

Billf is joking, but that's the other problem with selling used balls. There is no real consensus on ball life anymore. I've heard people say they throw 100 games and the ball is dead and I've heard people say with proper maintenance and regular cleaning they throw the same ball for 2 years and claim it reacts like new.

A lot of used balls on Ebay the people claim they threw it like 5-30 times...maybe they just bought it, tried it, and didn't like it. But for a person that believes a ball only has 100 games or less of life...they'd never buy used.

I try to use the general consensus average of 400 games. But as an arsenal bowler, I don't always use one ball versus another and since I tend to change an entire arsenal at once (especially if I'm changing weights)...I use 1000 games/arsenal.

Have I noticed "ball death"? Not really. My release is too inconsistent to tell if a ball dies or if I just didn't put as much hand in the shot.

I think part of it depends on what you are looking for from the ball. If your looking for that super hard charging turn the ball had OOB I can see where you would lose that within 100 games and maybe not able to get it back. I've found that I like most balls better once I get 50-100 games on them. The only ball I've had die is my Asylum and it had well over 400 games and maybe quite a bit more. It may have been revivable but by the time I paid to de-oil and resurface I would have had another $50 bucks in it and just didn't feel it was worth the risk.

I don't understand the people that get rid of balls after 10-20 games if that's really how many they had and I don't get paying 80+ for a used ball. It's not that I think it hurts them to plug and redrill just you've got 110+ in it at that point anyway who cares about the 20-40 dollars you saved by buying used. I have bought some used balls for $50-$60 dollars from my proshop but that's the redrilled price then it makes sense.

[Aslan]

My spare ball I bought used for $35 drilled. My old spare ball (16lb) I bought new from MWhite and he just charged me the $55 to drill it.

The only reason I bought the used spare ball is it was already plugged, it's a plastic ball...no different than any other plastic ball...no diminished performance issues...so why pay an additional $15-$20 for a new one?

Other than that...bowling balls are just too inexpensive new to consider buying them used. I can get newer, high performance balls online for $70-$150. I may not be able to get the newest, latest, greatest ball in the history of the WORLD*!!!

* until 5 months later when the company releases the NEXT greatest, best ever, most awesome ball ever in the entire world...

...but at my current skill level...I bowled a 207 with a house ball 2 weeks ago. I bowled a 133 last night with my resin balls. I don't have the skill to see the difference. It's like buying a dog a diamond stud collar....the dog doesn't know the difference.

[NewToBowling]

I would only buy used if I was an experienced driller and had my own drill press at home. Otherwise I'm spending $60-70 to drill a ball anyways, might as well get new

[JasonNJ]

Have I noticed "ball death"? Not really. My release is too inconsistent to tell if a ball dies or if I just didn't put as much hand in the shot.

When I first got into bowling last year, I got an Ebonite Pursuit-S on clearance and I thought the ball was awesome. After about 150 games I noticed it stopped hooking the same and my carry was way down. At the time I had no idea that balls could die. So I did some research and found that you could get a ball baked. I figured the ball was dead anyway so I experimented and I baked it in my regular oven I set the oven to the lowest temp I could which I think was 145 degrees and baked the ball for about 20 minutes. Within 5 minutes the ball started to sweat and I would say about a tablespoon of oil came out of the ball.

The amount of oil that came out surprised me because I would usually wipe down my ball with a towel before every shot and I cleaned the ball using Tac-Up after every bowling session. After the ball was baked, I want to say I got about 90% of the ball reaction back. I have since bought a reviver oven and a ball spinner and once I notice my ball reaction isn't the same, I bake it and resurface the ball.

[AlexNC]

I have seen it suggested to use older/unused equipment to experiment with different setups - for example getting it plugged and then redrilled with no inserts or even experimenting with Sarge Easter grip.

[billf]

After seeing performance change and learning about de-oiling, resurface etc. I started logging my games. After a season of seeing how many games each ball took to see a noticeable drop in performance I began a maintenance schedule.

My Storm Victory Road had over 3,000 games when I sold it. Still moved but was about a board less than when new. My Nexxxus died with 487 games on it. My Reckless lost half it's movement after the first resurface. My Motiv Revolt was my favorite and strongest ball. Added polish to use it on wood, resurfaced again to use on synthetic and now it has about 30% of it's original movement and only has 284 games on it. My Storm Lights Out stopped moving with 38 games on it. Baked, resurface several times, re-drill no matter what I tried that ball never moved a board again. That damn thing went straighter than my plastic.

My point is each ball is different. Manufacturer and model make no difference. Keep up with all the maintenance to protect and prolong your investment but accept that sometimes it just isn't enough. Kind of like a car blowing an engine just out of warranty even though you did all the preventative maintenance.

[Aslan]

I retired my Storm Frantic after about 487 games. I didn't notice any ball death...but it did crack in half sitting on my bowling ball rack about a year after I retired it.
Maintenance: Towel wipe after every strike shot. I tried to give it a de-oiling bathtub soak after every 9-20 games.

I replaced this arsenal after this many games:
Hammer Rhythm: 556 games (didn't notice ball death, but hard to say)
Brunswick Slingshot: 298 games (definitely no ball death)
Columbia Encounter (N): 151 games (hard to say, the ball sucked new...didn't get any better over time)
Columbia Encounter (A): 134 games (same as above...ball was kinda 'dead' when it was new)
900Global Bullet Train: 250 games (maybe a 'little' ball death...hard to say)

Normally that would add up to a little over 1000 games...but Arsenal #1 was very poorly (by me) pieced together over time. It's hard to say if the Rhythm or Bullet Train truly died or not because I made the mistake of surfacing the heck out of those balls. The BT was at 500 abralon and the Rhythm at 1000 abralon. I have a feeling that doing so caused them to roll out and hit light. I don't think it was the ball, I think I did that myself. And that arsenal was dehydrated every 10-30 games in my ball homemade ball dehydrator. A LOT of oil would come off the Rhythm and Bullet Train. I also had the Rhythm resurfaced at the pro shop once.

If I have a chance to notice "ball death"; it'll probably be with the Lethal Revolver. I have 160 games on Arsenal #2 and 80 of those games are with the Lethal Revolver. So at this rate it should have 500 games on it. The other balls don't get used nearly as much.

ALSO: If anyone WANTS any of those balls USED from Arsenal #1....I certainly would be willing to part with them for the LOW LOW cost of $60 shipped to your door. I might even autograph them free of charge and/or include some random piece of junk I have laying around in my apartment. You laugh; but when I defeat Chris Barnes at the 2025 USBC Senior Masters....you could say you have one of my early bowling balls from back before I was famous. If you live in Missouri...just owning the bowling ball might qualify you for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

[Blomer]

Check some high school teams. Email their coaches and see if anyone is in need!

[Cajun]

Anyone need my address? Always willing to take a free ball

[Aslan]

Anyone need my address? Always willing to take a free ball

I'll put you first on the list when the eventual day comes that I just give up and sell/give away all my bowling stuff. Another 133 game and you might just luck out.