it might be better to provide us with many pictures of your racket. I don't have the data, it looks close to the real one (the shaft serial and cone code) but to make sure, it's better to provide some more photos (butt cap, around t joint, the yonex sticker, and the bag)
an ads for $140, the seller said it's a 4U version, I just see the ads, haven't see the racket outside yet, The serial look legit to me?, guess it was made in 2004? is possible for the fake rackets and have real dates too?
you made a mistake on how to read the cone code it should be: 12 01 0 4 (and 2 region code) it would be DD MM Y X *X means nothing so: day 12, month 1 (January) 2010 you are saying 2004 because you look at X as year, X means nothing (possibly batch number or revision number)
every single high end yonex is made in Japan when they put TW, it is the distribution code (area where racket distributed) TW means for Taiwanese market. SP, while it means Singapore, but the usage now broadens to many countries in asia (let's say now SP is for sunrise distribution) what do you think about IP, International pacific? so it is made in pacific? they also have KP, korean player, or DP danish player for me, based on shaft serials and cone code, it looks genuine for me. but again, I don't have the data, so don't really count on it
I don't know man...but in that pic...that's one damn long fingernail on his pinky finger. Must get alot when digging for gold. Something tells me to stay away.