That kind of s u c k s gr8bowler. So if you have questions you go and pick the brains of your local shop, waste their time, and then buy elsewhere. Why not just call up the place you are buying from via the internet and pick their brains?

Benefits of buying from a local Pro Shop
1. build good customer relationship
2. support local small business
3. Pro Shop can watch you bowl and make an educated suggestion for a good ball for you. Takes a lot of guess work out of buying a ball.
4. you can get the pin placement and top weight you want with next to little effort.
5. even special orders typically arrive in less then 1/2 week. While shipping a ball can take 10 business days or more and you might not get what you ordered.
6. most instock balls can be fitted and drilled within a day or so of purchase. You're on the lanes with your new ball faster.
7. easy to deal with any warrenty problems.
8. most shops can return equipment that has funky pin placements or defects and get another without too much hassle and in less then a week.
9. its common to have fitting and drilling included in ball price.

Erin

Wow, gr8bowler, when you get that ball for 1/2 off, who drills it for you? When the pin placement is wrong and you can't get the ball to do what you wanted it for, who pays for shipping and restocking in hopes the online firm actually has what you wanted in the first place?

Building a great relationship with a Pro Shop is a money-saving process--where you can get a ball tweaked for nothing and get a few bells and whistles thrown in for free as well.

Telling the Pro Shop his time isn't worth anything is never going to get you the best service.

I hope they charged you for thier time when they drilled your ball. Fair market value would be, in my eyes, 50 to drill, plus 12 for finger inserts, plus 15 for a thumb slug.

and if say the core seperates or the ball cracks I'd charge them AGAIN to drill the replacement after THEY deal with getting a replacement.

Another good one is I'll get my next ball from your competition aka another pro-shop, now can you please clean my ball for free? Some people have nerve....

Of the eight balls that I currently have, I guess I bought three from a local Pro Shop and five on the internet. Where I live (and bowl) there are no real experienced ball drillers that really know their trade and there are no bowling coaches. The area a VERY rural area with the largest town within 75 miles having only 12,000 people. The town I live in is just about 2,000 people with one bowing center (6 lanes). My Pro Shop operator/driller just started doing drilling about three years ago. Luck for me, I'm a full roller and there isn't much that can be done differently in drilling for me. He does a good job and has no problem drilling a ball that he didn't order because he knows that if he can come within 30-40 bucks of what I would pay online, plus what I pay him to drill the ball (with inserts) that I would buy it from him. Like may bowlers, I'm not "made of money" and cannot always afford to pay $230 for a new ball. I seem to buy 2-3 new balls each year and it runs into more money than I could afford to spend if I paid retail each time. If bowling were my only vice (I'm heavily into golf also) maybe I could spend more on bowling.

Give up those golf clubs!!!!!

I think I'll order my next ball online as well. The price is almost half what it would be in a pro-shop, even after paying for the drilling and inserts seperately. I'll have the ball drilled at my pro-shop on base (I'm in the military), and unless I'm terribly mistaken, since the alley and pro-shop are owned/operated by the military, the people working there are hired by our Nonappropriated Funds (NAF) department. They're paid by the hour, and the pro-shop itself will not lose/gain money regardless of where my ball is purchased. It all goes back into the system to be divided among all NAF services on base.

Tony

Ok, I guess now I'll have to take my post back. I spoke with the pro-shop guy on base. It's kind of hard to do, because the hours are very limited. I found out that the price of the ball on base is just about the same as if I bought it online. The only extra is the inserts. Also, I'd like some advice on whether or not I should go for the thumb plug. The guy at the pro-shop said that the biggest advantage is that the thumb will fit the same in all of my equipment. Sounds like it may be worth it.

Tony

Well, the best advantage to a thumb slug is that there is no seam between the coverstock and inner core of the ball. Some bowlers are sensitive to this feel. The only way the thumb will be exactly the same is if you do a mold of your favorite thumb hole and just have it duplicated at your desire. But milling a hole (making it oval) takes some skill and with a good Pro Shop can be made pretty close. I myself prefer oval inserts. That way I KNOW the oval-ness is the same from insert to insert.

Also the material that the slug is made from and the inserts are made from is different then the interior of the ball. It may be slicker or tackier to your feel, but it will be the same.

I'd say go for it and see if you like it. Its probably a $10 investment. Worth the try.

Erin

There is a lot more to a thumb slug than what Erin is saying. The main reason to use them is that when a thumb slug is not used with a reactive ball, a horrible reaction takes place usually some place in your second or third game. The reaction is caused by heat of your body and the material used to make the ball. When this occurs, the ball will not come off of the thumb and it gets worse with every shot. It is because of this reaction that ball manufacturers recommend the installation of a thumb slug with every reactive ball. Have you ever seen someone try and throw a ball and the ball goes up instead of down the lane or somewhere that it should not? A properly fitting thumb slug will give you a great release every time. Thumb slugs are made of urethane plastic, not reactive material!

Sheldon, for the most part you are correct, but I know a number of bowlers who don't use thumb slugs and have no problems releasing the ball. So, I would avoid making that kind of blanket statement.

The biggest reason for using a thumb slug is so that you have a consistent feel from one ball to the next.

Like most bowlers, I use a thumb slug in all my balls, because I want the feel to be the same. There are two materials for sluge, urethane and vinyl. The vinyl slugs are softer and more succeptable to moisture than urethane slugs. If you have sweaty hands, I'd avoid vinyl slugs and make sure that you Pro Shop uses a urethane one.