In ancient times performers used spiked cups to pick up balls from the table.
How about loading this like a large load amidst a routine and revive the technique?
http://www.thetwistercleaner.com/

or buy some rubber mounted brushes, cut the rubber to size and make an insert to the same effect that would be retained in the chop cup of a combo cup.

A little crazy, but...

How about a short piece of invisible thread across the mouth of the cup.
It acts like a shelf.
Slide the cup back and it picks up the ball.
Tap the cup and it knocks the ball off the shelf.
It takes some manipulation but it can work.

Not crazy ...

In "Scout Around" a toothpick temporarily wedged in the mouth of the flexible silicon cup allows for retention of a "keep" and picking up from the table -- then can vanish for later effects.

Double-sided tape on the inside upper portion of the Cup can allow for a temporary "seizing" of a load with smooth sides, while a fuzzy small ball or cork will not stick.

Smart!
I gather that you meant the elastic Fin Jon type of IT

Speaking of IT with the standing performer in mind, a (non elastic but solid -Vectra Line type) thread can be stuck to the outer bottom of the cup on one end and a ball at the other end. It can act as a hanging servante as in Gaetan Bloom's buttons through the table.
It's easy to move the right hand from right to left behind the cup (leading the hand with a small chest rotation) to catch the thread in the curled fingers without having to glance and it delivers the ball into the palm. It just requires to get the audience to accept the move as genuine once (by not catching the thread and pointing at the left hand). Then, the move being established as legitimate, the steal gets totally unnoticed.

For a vanish, it is exactly like for a lapping and Slydini's advice fully apply.

I only used the principle for small balls and haven't worked at this for a (light) large load but it may be a solution to avoid getting to the pockets.

There is a set of cups with a picker-upper insert, inter alia, on the market.

How about Chop cup from RNT-2? I wonder why they make these things in the first place?

The Buma House of Magic cups have an insert that will pick up a ball as well as a chop cup inset and a Foo Can like insert.

AL is referring to placing a cup mouth down over a tabled ball and using the thread shelf to collect up the ball, lifting the cup will allow for a clean vanish with no stealing beforehand. The chop cup requires the ball to be dropped into the cup.

Al's idea is very simple but darn clever, I love it

Wsgumby do you own a set of the bum's?

Im interested to know if the gimmicks are fixed in the cups (foo can gimmick aside) or can the vanisher be removed during performance so the cups can be shown cleanly empty

btw bumas bums was a typo

Not if you adapt your routine to include a PK ring. I use an ungimmicked cup, but that wouldn't stop someone from combining the two methods.

Porper has a prototype that picks up and drops balls... totally different, hope he makes some.

The gaffs are made so that they are entirely separate. You can start with them in or load them part way through. Totally up to you. Buma is a very clever man (and a very nice guy to boot!)

Bri

In the videotape of Mark Wilson's trip to China, the local magician who performs for Mark shows a bowl that, if placed over a ball, will turn it into an egg. If placed over the egg, it changes it back into a ball. In the china bowl, it was a ring, fitted to the inside edge of the bowl and glued into place, if it is lined with broom straw, glued into place, pointing toward the center. If made with a full ring with a wire divider in the middle, you could make one to friction fit into your cups.

Could be interesting...