I've read a lot about Yonex hologram stickers as a way to tell if a racket is genuine, but I've never even seen one. I have six Yonex rackets, four bought from Central Sports, the largest badminton retailer in the UK, and two which I got free from the Japanese national team, so I know they can't be fakes, but none of them had any hologram stickers. Are they some sort of security measure which isn't used in the UK or Japan? What do they look like exactly and where on the racket are they found?
It is good news that there is not any hologram on your racket, because it means that your rackets are not from Hong Kong and Singapore.
REAL Yonex rackets contain serial numbers. I got me a MP100 in HK, but it had Thailand serial numbers. IT's all good because at least I know it's real. As for the hologram stickers, check out the cosmetics of the racket and look closely at it.
I thought we've covered this enough... I'll answer for the last time, and hopefully that puts this issue to rest. Essentially the "OLD" Hologram sticker that Yonex used was for counterfeit protection, against a few people who were producing fraudulent Yonex products. They're pretty much gone these days as technology used in the newer products, is really hard to duplicate now'a'days. Yonex no longer uses these stickers, because apparently there had been a heisting of a couple shipment of these stickers, and it didn't take much for people to make fake sticker designs on the computer, then go to the printers, and get them duplicated... Anyways... since the problem has been just about all but solved, Yonex decided to just allocate their products to respective countries rather than make a whole bunch of racquets and ship them out. When they allocate their products, and distribute them accordingly, then can keep track of how many go to each market, and also it saves the company money, so that they don't over produce. Why do you think that there are 10-15 year old Yonex racquets still on the market? Anyways... I hope this helps to clear up most of this now.
Kelvin, you seem to know quite a lot. However there is one question always in mind which I can't 100% confirm - are Yonex manufactured for different countries really equal ? Especially between Japan and other countries ? Except for CN racquets, I doubt there are differences existed besides the serial number.
Ok, I can answer this. The racquets are exactly the same. However, there are always little imperfections between the batch allocations... Manufacturing flaw, not anyone elses. This is only for racquets sold around the globe, as you know in Asia, you get some special models that never arrive over in North America, or even in Europe. Sometimes Europe will get a racquet that no other continent will get. It just depends on what market the manufacturer wants to target. I hope this helps to answer your question. Generally the racquets that I've played with from Japan, are equal in calibur to those designated for China. I'm not sure if there really is a "higher quality" racquet or not... but it would sure make for a good science experiment. I'll go visit Beijing, and see if i can pick up the same racquet, as i can in Japan... If there's any difference, I imagine it would only show up in the performance. I'll keep you posted, since I'm heading in your direction in the next month.
Investing for a few years, got really lucky with Amazon, Ebay, MS, Intel, HP... Anyways live in Canada, but I'll be heading down to the US starting in 2 weeks, so I might even be able to meet up with you, to play a few games with you. You live in So Cal, so I'll probably see you somewhere. Heck, I might even be able to swing around to meet Kwun, in Pitt, PA. I was hoping to catch spring break, but damn it all... I missed it by one whole month!!! My plan was to catch the beach parties down in Palm Beach, but missed it all by a month. Oh well.. there's always next year.
Uh..please bear in mind, I live in NORTH California. People and my friends call me the Yonex freak. hehe..yes..yes...I know everything there is to know about Yonex badminton products. People even say I would be a good sales representative! I do lots of research on where I can get rackets. You invest man? So how do you think our economy is going? The US Nasdaq is doing REALLY bad man.
Thanks. However I still think CN racquet is better than normal retail version (there may have other similar special version for other national teams) - as I've played with a lot of CN vs non-CN before (and of course, they are in same model and same specification), and I would say - almost anyone can feel the differences. p.s. I've two CN racquets myself - Ti-8 and Ti-10. When I bought the Ti-10 CN, I've compared it with Ti-10 SP in detail - as I said before, it is obvious for anyone to conclude that these two racquets are different (besides the model #).
Interesting... Thanks for letting me know... when I come over to HK... I'll come visit you as well. BTW... do you have icq? If so, my number is 780065
Sorry to dig up this old thread, but recently I bought a Carbonex 30 muscle online and I realised that it doesn’t come with a hologram sticker... does this mean it is a fake? Many thanks
