About Us
Seybert’s Billiard Supply is located on US 12 in Coldwater, MI 49036. We have been servicing Southern Michigan, Northern Indiana, Ohio area with billiard supplies since 1979. We are authorized Brunswick, Predator, and Diamond pool table dealers as well as certified table mechanics on all the above-mentioned brands.
If you are in the area, please consider this our invitation to stop in and have a look around. We always enjoy it when a customer drops by from out of state, or out of the country for that matter. We have had visitors from Europe, and all over the United States and it is always a kick to meet our customers face to face.
Our Team
The Seybert's Billiard Supply staff consists of Master level players in both APA and Valley. Rick Matzke our store manager is a BCA certified instructor and a true student of the game. Rick is always available to provide you with his opinions and expertise if needed
We have the experience, feedback and opinions of many people that might be of service to you in helping with your decisions as you move on to purchase that new cue, shaft, table cloth or any other billiard related items.
In addition, if you are looking for information on pool table installation, we have on-staff 3 certified table mechanics that have set up, repaired, or recovered hundreds of tables of all makes, models and styles. If you have a question regarding a table repair, recover, or set up, please do not hesitate to ask.
Seybert's Billiard Supply is proud to have quite a few pool players on staff that have done well in the amateur ranks over the years. We have put together teams consisting of employees, family and friends and have made it to the APA nationals in Vegas on quite a few occasions. If you happened to have been one of the teams that beat us out there, be sure to mention it. We very seldom have the opportunity to overcharge people.:)
Full Disclosure, that picture over there is one of our first trips to Vegas... We are all quite a bit older (and hopefully wiser) today!
About Seybert's Billiard Supply
As told in a recent article in Billiard Retailer Magazine by Travis French.
Seybert's Billiard Supply is one of the most unlikely E-commerce success stories anywhere. Although the company's path to success is anything but common, its winning strategies shouldn't come as a surprise. As evidenced by their Web site " www.seyberts.com" these guys (and gals) know the game.
While most successful online retailers build their Internet business as an extension of their stores, Seybert's took the road much less traveled: using its successful E-commerce Web site as a springboard to opening a brick-and-mortar store.
Though its retail store has been successful, Seybert's remains very much an E-commerce phenomenon. The operation even caught the eye of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who cites Seybert's in his book, Business at the Speed of Thought, as an example of how even small businesses can build a big Internet presence.
But, it is their knowledge of billiards, not technological wizardry or a sophisticated E-commerce business plan, that has made Seybert's one of the leading billiard E-tailers in the world.
Naturally, it was a love of billiards that brought the owners together. Two pool-shooting buddies playing in the same Local Pool league. Sid Kreis & Jim Tong. Tong owned Seybert's Implement Sales & Service, selling farm equipment in the small town of Coldwater, Mich.
Because of his interest in billiards, Tong began selling a few Adams cues from a tiny side room at his dealership. Kreis, meanwhile, had discovered computing and the Internet.
"I was a meat cutter by trade and managed a meat department in a nearby town. A buddy of mine was a computer guy, and he was bugging me to get a computer and get on the Internet," he says. Once Kreis discovered the internet and the capabilities that were available, he thought, 'What a great medium for catalogs, for marketing and sales.' So I read a few books and built a Web site."
In 1998, Kreis approached Tong about selling cues on the Internet. "Jim said, 'That sounds great. What's the Internet?'" Kreis recalls.
Tong had just started selling the newly debuted Predator cues line out of his tractor dealership and once the new line was introduced on their internet site, it proved to be a match made in billiard heaven. Seybert's is now the No. 1 Predator dealer in the world and has been the number one dealer for a number of years.
Seybert's sells just about anything billiards-related that can be shipped by common carrier: cues, shafts, cases, chalk, racks, books and other accessories. In addition to Predator, Seybert's sells McDermott, Pechauer, Viking, and Lucasi and a host of other cue lines including some custom cue makers.
As sales took off, Kreis kept his job at the grocery store for a while before going to work for Tong's tractor dealership. "We didn't know how this would fly," he says.
It flew just fine. Today, Seybert's ships product all over the world and is known throughout as a major Internet Billiard Supply Store.
The company has been especially successful in customizing cues, particularly in pairing Predator shafts with other cue manufacturer's cues. Now, this practice is commonplace on the internet, but it was Seybert's foresight that started this approach.
Spurred by Internet sales, the little cue shop quickly expanded to take over more of the tractor dealership, giving the fledgeling business room to show some pool tables and accessories. Eventually, the expanding Billiard Supply had grown so large that it was moved down the road to a much larger building for a larger showroom as well as room for the stock to be shipped with the internet orders.
In 2000, they incorporated Seybert's Billiard Supply, and Tong brought Kreis in as a partner. That store has since expanded many times over.
Online retail remains the heart of the business, accounting for 90 percent of total sales. Web sales continue to grow.
E-commerce has obviously worked for Seybert's, but the company's secret to success has nothing to do with bandwidth or HTML. Tong and Kreis insist that their knowledge and love of the game have driven the company's growth. The manager of Seybert's, Rick Matzke is a BCA certified Billiards Instructor and can usually be seen or heard offering his advice over the new cue purchase or how to handle that new jump cue.
"Everybody in our organization knows billiards," Tong says. "It seems like everyone wants to get into [on-line cue sales] because it's a great product and it's easily shippable. But you have to know what you're selling."
Kreis says. "We're drawing shoppers from Indiana, Ohio and Illinois and all over the country. People drive these distances to come to our store because they've gotten to know us through the Internet."
The company has also sponsored billiard tournaments, including the UPA championships in Las Vegas that were shown on ESPN and the Predator Open World 10-Ball Championships, and the World 14.1 Straight Pool Championships.