Yeah, there are plenty of them. For some stupid reasons, I ended up buying one lol. Well, the seller said that it’s genuine, but the price is kinda too good to be true! I was trying to grab the new Yonex ArcSaber 10 for around $70 where as the retail here costs around $250-300!
The seller had confirmed to me about 2 times that the racket was genuine. So, I made the order and it arrived today.
After some minutes of excitement, I began to check whether the racket is as genuine as the seller said. It turned out to be a fake 
How to tell that the Yonex badminton racket is a fake or genuine?
The easiest is the serial number, in which my racket fails gloriously. Every Yonex badminton racket will have 2 serial numbers, the batch number and the manufacturing date.
The first is the batch number. It’s unique per racket and there can be no 2 rackets sharing the same number.
The second serial is the manufacturing date of the racket. It’s coded: DDMMY[A Number][Country of Distribution]. The ‘Y’ is the year after 2000.
So for example, a racket with a serial of 120837SP means manufactured on 12 08 (200)3, distributed to Singapore (SP). Mine is 202329CH. Now, do you see something fishy? This means that my racket was manufactured on 20-23-2002???? That doesn’t sound right, does it?
Although I wasn’t hoping much, the fact that the eBay seller actually said that it’s genuine, is bugging me. I sent an email to the seller to see what he’s got to say. I won’t expect much though. I probably won’t be getting a refund, but I’m kinda mad if the racket is a poor quality one. I’ll give it a try this Sunday and hopefully it’s a “good” fake quality.
It’s kinda odd really, because there are other indicators to differentiate between a fake Yonex racket and a genuine one (taken from an eBay guide), and my racket looks like it passes all tests:
A genuine new racket will always have a tight plastic wrapping around the handle. They always have a bar code down one side. Beware of fakes that use just cling film, or loose plastic tubing.
A more recent feature is the Yonex hologram sticker. These are little oval stickers, usually gold in colour, on the cone above the handle.
Most rackets these days have a 2 sequence serial number. The second number gives the most information, as it gives the date when the racket was made. The first is the batch number. The numbers should be laser etched. If it’s been printed on, then it’s fake.
and according to a few friends:
It should have a “JAPAN” on the bottom of the racket and the “A” should look more like a triangle than a letter A.
As you can see above, it looks as if the racket has “passed” the genuine tests, except for the serial number itself I said, it “looks like”, because I don’t know what the real racket looks like.
Oh well, I’ve learnt my lesson at least! Have you got any horror stories on eBay?
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{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
That is why I scare to buy stuff online.
hello michael =)
am so sorry to hear about that fake yonex racket. I know for a fact there’s class a, class b fakes.as you said lets just hope that its a good quality fake so you can still use it =) btw thanks for commenting on my post! really appreciate it! see you around =)
Owned!
Don’t buy physical goods online and you would be less likely to be scammed, eh?
If we buy from shops, at least we can check the goods ourselves.
You said you bought it from ebay, how is the seller’s rating? Now is a good chance for you to give him a bad rating lol since he sold you a fake one!
That sucks for you. Looks like you tried to get a good deal on something and got taken from the rear… =P
I haven’t been scammed on something yet … but I know plenty of people who have. They all feel stupid afterwards, but there’s not much you can do I guess
For every serious seller on eBay there is at least two that try to take your behind.
It’s annoying to spent 70 bucks on fake racket. I never buy stuff on eBay, and if i can get a brand new product with that amount of discount, I wouldt never buy it.
But still, nice detective work on finding the tell-tells on fake Yonex Racket. Great Job.
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How come you don’t know what a real one looks like if you know its 250-300 there? You should just head down to the store and go take a look.
To be honest, all those features you mentioned can be easily faked. I have a set of Callaway golf clubs that are “a-faux” quality. They have everything that the real thing has. You won’t be able to tell until you set the two side by side and then check the minute details like the feel of rubber, the tightness of the stitch, the logo on the zipper, etc.
At the same time, I have to say that the clubs work great so I hope you get your $70 worth
.
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@Deimos: That’s what making me to go ahead. The seller’s rating is about 150-ish good feedback. Either these poor people don’t know they got fake rackets or maybe I’m the unlucky one to get the fake.
I’m in contact with the seller on eBay. He said he got it from an agent and told him it was genuine. We’re still negotiating on what to do next. I’ll keep an update on this here just in case you’re interested
@Jacob: I bought a Canon Ixus digital camera once on eBay for AUD$600. The retail shop at that time sold it for AUD$799
@Enterpreneur: I’ll put the racket to the test this Sunday. So hopefully it’s a good quality fake one.
The seller is planning to either refund me some $$ or send me a new racket (in which I asked him back, how does he know it will be a genuine one this time?!)
Well at least the seller is responding well (looking at the positive side of it)
ah, unlucky. I’ve bought lots of stuff from ebay mostly books and im happy with it.
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Gotta love Ebay. Same thing happens with golf clubs. Most are fake. If the price looks to good to be true then most likely it is.
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[He said he got it from an agent and told him it was genuine.]
If what he said is true and he is not lying, then it turns out that he was victimized too. -_-
Duh! Double duh! -_-
I scare buying online because we can’t verify those stuffs before we get it.
Golf clubs?
Wonder how much it costs to ship…weighs a ton
Deimos: Not sure if he’s lying or not, but I managed to get a $50 refund, yay! He offered $6 earlier, and after a few emails going back and forth, he refunded $50.
It’s a good lesson for me, at least!
huh then too bad oh.. shortcoming of purchasing items online @@
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i don’t want to buy original yonex rackets. it’s very expensive, and there are so many fakes around. my 4 year old RSL 4300 racket still works fine for me. I have a SOTX and a karakal sl-80 as back-ups.
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@Vickie: When it involves branded items with a lot of fakes around + cheap prices, then yeah, it can be bad
@Ceblogger: I played my fake Yonex yesterday and actually quite impressed with it lol (compared to my current one)
Of course I’ll definitely get a real Yonex when I go back overseas, but will probably buy an old model.. I’m not gonna pay $250 just for a racket!! (unless if I’m going to a world tournament or olympic!)
which ebay seller did you buy it off of? email me the screen name to mwuf15@gmail.com.
thanks
How does the racket feel? I see plenty of those fake rackets on ebay, especially the nanospeed series. I’m thinking of getting that arcsaber 10 myself… because like you, 250-300 for a racket is just insane.
I’m not some pro player, so spending $60-$70 for a good racket isn’t bad… but as some of the comments have mentioned, I hope I don’t get a crap ass quality fake racket.
Well I quite like the racket, definitely better than my cheap racket. It’s quite light and so far I have no complaints yet
You are right about it, but you don’t want to sepend $60 if the racket is fake and it actually costs around $8-10 to make one!
Michael, is the fake racket still holding up ? I am not a pro and dont want to spend $250-300.
Am thinking of getting a fake in case its a good racket.
Hey,
I suggest you rather go to a nearby sports store and spend that $70 and get a racquet from there. even a Carbonex or muscle power will be worth the money rather than spending $70-$90 on something which is fake and unreal. Rather get a lower end yonex rather than getting something thats nothing. These China made product is nothing but garbage. My friend had this Nanospeed which he bought of net ofcourse and got scammed…His frame of the racquet broke while he smashed the bird while me and him were playing. it was embrassing!
hi there, it seems that i also fell victim to a fake yonex badminton racquet on ebay :S well, im not too sure about it.. but it was kinda cheap (around 70 euros!) and it seems that the seller has sold a lot of these racquets and has got good reviews. now, after i purchased it (i still need to pay it), i googled and saw that there are a lot of fake yonex racquets at ebay :S can i maybe send you the link? i dont want to publish it here.. gaah, i totally dunno what to do now
i blindly bought it (it was a Buy-Now-auction) cos I thought I would save a lot. Now I’m insecure. :S Help 
sure I will try to help. I have over 5 yonex racquets and I know a little about them but I will try to help.
hey guys. Yeah it’s still holding up, lol.
But honestly, don’t buy it! At the moment I’m going to buy a ProSpeed racket (http://www.prospeed.com.my). According to some badminton geeks in the forum, it’s almost as good as Yonex racket in an affordable price.
Rather than buying a fake racket, I’d suggest you to buy a ProSpeed one. I’m going to order 4 (3 of my friends decided to buy one each too)
@Lee: Have you checked the serial numbers to confirm whether it’s fake or genuine? You can post it here or contact me through the contact form if you wish. Once you can confirm it’s fake, try emailing the seller about it
Hey there,
I just got my racquet last night from a guy taht came back from thailand. He bought bout 15 assorted top of the line yonex racquets there and is selling them for 100-125 a piece (b/c he’s a really nice dude). I picked up a ARCSABER 10 and the serial is 7629078 ans # on cone 230482TH.
Thanks
Umm..the serial looks legit, but my best bet is for you to post it on the Badminton Central forum and ask them there : http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/
Lots of badminton experts and geeks there
Hey Michael,
I just became the winning bidder for a NS9000 and Arcsaber 10 on ebay last night, for the price of $26, shipping $55, =total $81. i know it’s too good to be true, and after reading your post, i feel i’m halfway being a victim of fake yonex racquets. I haven paid yet, i asked the seeler about the return policy and he hasn’t reply.
Do you know if its possible to not pay for it now, even though i won the bid. i might not be able to see your reply, could you please email me your comment on this issue to my email? simple_ordinary@hotmail.com
thanks!
The price sounds too good to be true, but hopefully it is a genuine racket. If you can grab the serial number from the seller, then you can check its validity. I’ve sent an email to your email address so we can discuss this further.
I’m done with buying Yonex rackets on eBay. I’m loving my new ProSpeed rackets now
are the fakes of good quality and are they good to play with ??
They are quite good to play with but why would you pay $70 for a racket that’s probably caused them $5 to build? I bought a ProSpeed racket and very satisfied with it
i bought a nanospeed 9000 yonex racquet off ebay last year for about $45. i don’t know if it’s fake or not but i love it. not a thing wrong with it and he strung it like perfect.
I’m pretty sure it’s fake too. You can always check in the badmintoncentral forum whether it’s genuine. Or you can simply close your eyes and pretend that it’s real. But still, you are paying $45 for a racket that might cost only for $5 or 10
You rock. World needs more souls like you.
Thanks so much. You just save me big time. A buddy was going to see me his used Arcsaber that he purchased from Ebay. He paid almost $160USD for it and was going to see it to me for $120USD. I was about to buy it… when I read your article.
After looking at it carefully, I noticed the same details as your fakie. The biggest being the serial number! In addition to this, I would say to look at the grommets. The ones on this racquet did not look like they were good quality.
Thanks again!
Ouch, lucky you saw this post of mine then! Too bad for your friends for paying USD$160 for a fake arcsaber though
where do u test the serial code to tell if its real or not?
You can head off to http://www.badmintoncentral.com/ forum and ask the people there
Just wondering a few things. Lets say you are the minority and the majority of us who have the exact same racket as you, except it has a more sensible serial number. ( e.g. 101293SP ) How would you then tell if its a fake besides the price. Because if they could fake the hologram sticker, laser edged printing, decals etc. They couldve easily made up a serial code.
Or if that exact same racket ( with the sensible serial number) was being sold at a reasonable price, say around $150 ( the seller would say they got it from a factory Clearance. ) how then would you be able to tell?
I’m not sayin its the genuine product, i was just wondering how something fake could look so real if it is indeed a fake. =]
Hi There,
I Just bought a Yonnex Archsaber 10 from a guy in China, pretty much exactly the same story as you. Except I paid $24AU for it which frankly isn’t much at all and shipping was thrown in.
I got the Raquet today which was a surprise as after I thought about it I thought that I wasn’t going to receive anything or maybe a scale model of a raquet or something. But no it arrived in a bag, nicely wrapped with about $24 dollars worth of tape around it. I took it out and was surprised that it looked very much like what I’d ordered. I am in somewhat of a different boat from you, I used to play 10 years ago I just wanted a cheap raquet to get started again. This seemed to fit the bill and if I lost the $24AU well then lesson learned no real harm done. The quality of the raquet is a surprise, it’s light, the string tension seems about right and it does flex like it should. After playing a couple of games I was quite happy with it!Of course if I’d payed $150AU for it then I’d be miffed finding out that it’s a fake but I went in with eyes open. (it’s not like I really hoped they’d send me a real one) And I have to say that for a cheap raquet it’s not bad at all. It’s the attention to detail on the thing is amazing. I have compared it in a shop with the real thing and I can’t tell the difference. Having said that your article was very helpful, I sent my serial to the Badminton geeks and they should get back to me soon to verify what I really already know. But I have to take issue with one thing you said. Why pay $70 for a Raquet that cost $5-$10, how much do you think Yonnex makes them for? And I think you’ll agree that paying the very reasonable $24 for something that cost them $10 is par for the course to mix my sports metaphors. Still I’d like to take your advice and buy a Prospeed but they seem to have gone out of business.
$24 for a racket is good (in my opinion) – especially that the racket is not a bad quality one. If you are just playing for fun and not for competition, why not?
Prospeed gone out of business? Really? It’s a shame because I love their rackets!
hey chris,
just read up on ur comment. I’m very curious to know which which seller on ebay u purchased ur racquet from as I am also looking to buy one.
Hi Jason,
Sorry for the lateness of my reply. I have had trouble with my e-mail recently. In any case the guy who I was buying rackets from seems to not be trading on e-bay anymore. And those that do seem to be more expensive than I got them for. They are up to $40AU. Now this might be fine for you, I certainly wouldn’t be adverse to paying $40 for the rackets that I got. (I bought another one at the end of last year). However not knowing these sellers I can’t vouch for the quality of the rackets that they sell or if they are the same.
Kind Regards
Chris.
I just purchased an Arcsaber on ebay. I believe it to be fake after researching. I got too excited. I should have known better. Did you use PayPal to purchase your racquet? I would think I should be able to get a full refund if the racquet is fake since I used PayPal. I don’t think Prospeed is out of business. I think your link has an extra ) on it when it should end in just the my. I bought a Qiangli racquet for my GF pretty cheap on http://www.badmintonwarerhouse.com. It’s a decent racquet and pretty reasonable at $43. I was thinking of buying a Dunlop for a back up at a local sporting goods store for my Carlton, and got excited when I saw the Yonex ArcSaber online.
Yeah I was using PayPal to purchase. I didn’t get a full refund since I still wanted to keep the racket, so we arranged a good price
http://www.badmintonwarehouse.com oops my bad misspelled in first comment.
Thanks very much for the post. I was going to buy the arcsaber 9 from ebay and stumbleupon your posting. Probably am not going to buy it from ebay. Btw did you resell yours as a genuine?
Haha nah. I put it as my “reserve” or usually when someone wants to play but he/she doesn’t have a racket. You are wise not to get one from eBay
This just beggers belief, of all the things Asia couterfeits and they also copy badminton rackets crazy lol