Regular plastic spare balls vs. the novelty spare balls you see online?

[zdawg]

I'm looking to get a spare ball, and in looking at my local pro shop they have Maxims and White Dots (I think) for fairly cheap. On the other hand, online I've found some interesting choices with some balls having the logo of your favorite sports team, or others that are clear and have something inside like a skull.

Is there any difference in quality, I know the manufacturers of the Maxims and White Dots but for novelty balls I'm not as familiar and just wondering if for some reason the novelty balls are of inferior quality.

I'll most likely go the cheapest route possible which will mean buying something locally like the aforementioned Maxim/WhiteDot/etc, but thought I'd ask beforehand. (oh and I did see a skull ball in the proshop for the alley I bowled over the weekend, but none of my local proshops keep them in stock normally)

[Amyers]

I'm not sure that it makes much difference on the plastic stuff with one exception if you are planning to use the ball as a strike ball you might want to consider something like the taboo spare that has a good core in it. If it's exclusively for spares get whatever you like but your paying a lot extra in a lot of cases for those balls with skulls and teams for no better performance.

[zdawg]

I'm not sure that it makes much difference on the plastic stuff with one exception if you are planning to use the ball as a strike ball you might want to consider something like the taboo spare that has a good core in it. If it's exclusively for spares get whatever you like but your paying a lot extra in a lot of cases for those balls with skulls and teams for no better performance.

Gotcha, and yeah I was thinking about it tonight while bowling and decided I'll just stick with the cheaper spare balls at the proshop.

[Mike White]

Viz-A-Ball have the image on the surface.

Ebonite has come up with a way to put the image below a transparent shell.

I've only seen this first hand with an Angry Bird ball, but I've seen advertisements for Hammer's new crop of "plastic" balls using the transparent shell.

[fsbjcm]

I bought a T-zone this week for just the 10 pin. I can not explain how much easier it is to pick up that pesky pin now instead of trying to flat palm my mastermind. And when it got really dry out there I used it as my strike ball with surprising success! Pretty happy with it. I used to have an Ebonite urethane ball with a skull in the middle of it that was pretty cool, but I lost it years ago. It was a gift, and I never really got into bowling back then, but really wish I'd have kept that thing.

[bdtrob300]

Go with the cheapest piece of plastic you can find. there's no difference.

Now as far as the Taboo, I don't quite get the thinking of putting a core in a spare ball. But I know alot of guys here locally that use them for spares and burnt shots. Just not my thing, I guess...

[Amyers]

Go with the cheapest piece of plastic you can find. there's no difference.

Now as far as the Taboo, I don't quite get the thinking of putting a core in a spare ball. But I know alot of guys here locally that use them for spares and burnt shots. Just not my thing, I guess...

The general idea is its fine for spares but if you re playing on truly dry burnt up conditions you've still got a hard hitting ball that is controllable in the bag. My house usually doesn't run that dry but I have seen a few days where I have had to play ridiculous lines to get my light oil ball in the pocket.

[rv driver]

I'm thinking of a Pyramid Path for a spare ball. They're cheaper than any ball I've seen thus far...