A) That Lining and Yonex don't do it doesn't mean Victor Europe shouldn't do it. B) They can prevent sales but they don't have the power to remove racquets. That should be separate. C) Depends what you define as commercial - from what I read in this thread, there is a FB site for sales and there are many threads for selling new racquets on BC. So it has gone to the point of some action by Victor Europe. In my very personal opinion, setting up a FB site for selling wasn't a good move being past was might be 'reasonably expected of selling a few used products'. In fact, if you look at BC rules, they are there to advise sellers against commercial selling and the onus is on the seller to prove they are not commercial. We can't monitor every single thread so sellers have to take responsibility for themselves.
Where do they draw the line as commercial? If we look at post #35 from another user from Germany who also encountered problem with Victor International, he clearly stated it was only 5 rackets and they actually destroyed the rackets just because it's non European coded. That's actually attempt to remove non European coded rackets from their market.
Again: That's totally up to Victor to define where they draw that line. Based on the existing law, they could engage at every single non-EU coded racket that is sold or imported. We have the e-mail communication between @ucantseeme and one of the big guys from Victor International in post #44 in which he clearly states that they tolerate if an individual imports a single racket for private use. Apparently, importing 5 rackets at the same time seems to cross the line towards being commercial in their understanding. Sadly, we don't have any hint when it comes to re-selling those rackets. And that is exactly the reason why I'm still hoping to get some sort of clarification from Victor Europe regarding this. I have also sold <5 non-EU coded, used Victor rackets through BC over the last 2 years and I would love to know if it might put me in serious danger to receive a nice letter from their lawyers too at some point in time if I continue my (by all means non-commercial) sales activities at that level. Companies these days should not underestimate the marketing and promotion power of an open and direct communication with their customers.
I would have to agree that is totally up to Victor Europe on where the line is drawn. I re-read that post #35 and it's not quite clear on the circumstances of the case whether he was re-selling or buying for his own personal use. How would Victor Europe have known and obtained his contact details about it if he was buying for his own use? Five racquets is about my usual upper limit. I have one model that I do have 8 racquets of (all non-Victor). What if my family and I all use the same racquets? We would need 14 racquets I am not sure what is to be gained going after somebody who buys racquets for personal use if that was the case. If it were me, I would probably say sod it and I will buy my racquets elsewhere. Remember, this is Victor Europe rather than Victor Asia. I strongly suspect they are two different companies.
Yes of course Victor Europe (aka Victor International) and Victor Taiwan are two different companies. Victor Europe just holds the right to sell the products of Victor Taiwan in Europe. Besides that Victor Europe has also their own products - for instance the Victor clothing team line which always looks boring. As far as I know they also have their own rackets which you can't find in Asia. But no professional player is using them. They always use rackets from Victor Taiwan. Victor Europe also has no clue about the products they are selling. The best example is the blue version of the Bravesword 12. They have DE coded BraveSword 12's with G5 and G4 grip sizes but the sticker on it always says G3 (which is the old notation). This is so bad - a local seller also had the problem that someone bought a replacement Bravesword and got one with a different grip size as his former one, so he returned it.
Victor seems to have too much time and money to spend on tracking people doing this. I agree they should go for those who are serial offenders clearing selling new goods for profile but reselling used goods should not be illegal. I mean, the cost of resources to track and contact people and the legal staff they need to do this probably outweighs the money they would lose in imported racquet sales by individuals. The problem they have is that the cost of racquets in Asia have always been cheaper than in Europe, if they can standardise the prices to some degree, like Apple do, then they would probably put an end to this issue overnight and probably end up with greater sales.
I agree. I had a case with tennisnuts. I was looking for a 3U MX80 OC. Germany sold at this time just the 3U of the OC and the 4U of the N. Stated on Website of Victor International. I emailed tennisnuts before I ordered and the friendly woman told me, that it is 3U, G3. I ordered it and what I got? An OC MX80 4U G5 on the cone with DE-code. Sticker said 3U G3. I needed to pay after some discussion the shipping return which was 17€ for getting nothing than wasted time and trouble. What the heck, how got Victor International a MX80 4U of the OC in the european market? The european market is so randomized with exclusives, limited editions and side orders, I also think, that they don't know what they sell. I also emailed Victor International, that I want to buy grommets. I would order a big amount and I run a string business to clarify that I'm not normal guy. Nathalie told me to visit a shop ask an expert stringer. That these expert stringers were the reason for buying a stringing machine and they never changed my grommets...OMG. Has any german guy visited a shop which stocks grommets for sell? Especially Victor grommets? None. But they are not as worse as Yonex, which never replied my e-mails. Thanks to Li-Ning who understand how to treat their customers. Their service is friendly and excellent.
There is basically nothing they can do to prevent private re-selling, as long as you can credibly prove that it was a private sale, not a commercial sale (it's a question of numbers, I guess, and where/how you do it - setting up a special site for sales is NOT something a private individual usually does to get rid of their used rackets). If they could, they would, these are the people who tried to prevent everyone from buying their products in Asia when they chose not to order them themselves - I bought 2 pairs of shoes after my reseller told me they had ordered 12 pairs of those (in my size) for the entirety of Europe, and I was on the waiting list in something like the 18th spot AFTER those were sold....so I went ahead and ordered them elsewhere, which is my right as a customer - provided I do pay all the import taxes and fees and whatnot - and still they tried to prevent it, claiming those were fakes. One word to describe Victor International: pathetic. I get that they have to protect their market, paying for the rights to sell Victor products in Europe, and so they try to prevent illegal resellers from encroaching on said market, but the practices I've experienced are pretty nasty. Oh, and even though the Braveswords broke like kindle, they were incredibly squeamish about replacing them, only doing it for the one where the wooden handle just broke mid-rally, sending me a bullshit letter for the other ones (basically a page full of 'your racket might have been cracked beforehand, and you're not supposed to use it to pound nails into the wall'). Nothing against the products or the brand, I've actually had a great first experience with them, but the European guys are scum. And the Braveswords' durability was sh*t.
The problem with that is that Apple is a global brand, while Victor is not - Victor International is basically a completely separate entity from Victor, and they buy their products from them like a normal reseller, and pay to have the exclusive sales rights in Europe. That means they have to make profit by making their products more expensive than the Asian ones (one more 'station' between manufacturer and customer where profit needs to be made). Some price increases are a bit ludicrous though (the shoes I mentioned were something like 40% more expensive iirc).
