Hi. I'm from Israel, a friend is coming back from the US soon, and I want him to get me a victor BS12. I've read tons of posts here, and the only thing (store) I'm sure about is MBS, but they don't have the BS12. I don't mind the price so much (badmintonwarehouse ~140, badmintonshoponline ~150 but both are supposedly not genuine, while all the others are around 185$) , I just need to be 100% sure about the store itself. I don't want to try to claim the warranty or argue about the product if something happens, remember, I'll be in Israel and the store is in the US. So... BadmintonAlley - no victor. Amazon.com - Sounds trustworthy, but... BadmintonAvenue ? I've sent E-mails to all victor sites asking for help identifying real\fake retailers, and got no answers so far. Hope you could help. Thanks, Leo
if ur keen on buying online, might as weel buy from Eric.RKEP(Taiwan). RKEP Genuine Victor Stuff guaranteed. You can also try Chris from SG. Chris Also guaranteed authentic.
Racket supply is the supplier for Badminton Avenue, they get their stuff from taiwan same as Eric.RKEP but eric will give you a better price.
Thanks everyone for replying. Eric's Ebay store (hope I got the right link) doesn't have any victor rackets there. Emailed him a question. The second link (Chris) is exactly what scares me when buying online. The site layout is... well, not as it's supposed to be for an online store. no prices, no information.. Rackets supply seems ok, I'll just wait for a reply from Eric, if he offers a better price, I won't need to order it from the US and have my friend bring it to me, I'll just ship it directly to Israel. Thanks! If anyone remembers additional online stores... don't hesitate
OK! Placed an order with RKEP and I feel very good about it. Like all the posts here suggested - fast reply, accurate information. Sounds like I'm dealing with a pro. Thanks for the help everyone.
i second RKEP, bought tons of grips from them and their response is lightning quick! racket supply is the only store i know in the bay area that handles victor and they also have a demo but since you're ordering online that bit doesn't apply to you.
Badminton Avenue, Racket Supply, Badminton Express in the USA are all okay. I've either been to or bought from each of them. Chris's (Singapore) is okay too. The site doesn't look all professional but you're not meant to order stuff directly from the site (with a shopping cart and all), you just email him with what you want basically. Edit: Badminton Warehouse is also okay, but you'll be getting DE code not US code and G3 not G2. Shouldn't be a big deal since it'd be hard to claim warranty either way. However the BS12 I tried from them felt a bit strange, not necessarily fake strange, just different from other BS's I've tried before. It could have been because of the weird string I was using on it though, and I haven't tried another BS12 before so for all I know all BS12's could be like that. Badminton Shop Online should be okay too, but shipping could potentially take a very long time and communication is pretty iffy. Still might as well go with Eric.
Fyi FYI, I emailed victor through their website: Hi, are: 1. http://www.badmintonshoponline.us 2. http://www.badmintonwarehouse.com Official Licensed victor retailers? and they replied: Dear Lior, This is Wesley, the area manager of VICTOR Rackets Ind. Corp. Thank you for the enquiry and being interested in our products. After checking your information, we here confirm that the both sites you provided are not our official licensed retailers. May we know your location ? so that we will inform our local distributor to serve you and provide some directions. Thank you for well support to VICTOR and understanding. Look forward to receiving your reply soon. Good day. Sincerely, Wesley Chao
I think there might be a reason for this response, yet those stores' products will most likely still be okay. Reasoning: Badminton Warehouse, a US-based store, retails German distribution code (DE) Victor products, not US coded products. They are technically not supposed to do this, just as you're not supposed to retail Yonex SP coded rackets while in the US. Arbitrage and the grey market are some related terms. Others can explain the reasoning for why this isn't allowed better than I can. So while I did confirm with the German distributor through email that Badminton Warehouse sources their products from them, it seems kinda 'under the table' to me. So they might not be registered with the umbrella Victor Corp. Mostly the same idea for the other store, except they're based in Hong Kong (not in the US, as the website's TLD would have you believe). Honestly this doesn't matter. Just buy from wherever you're comfortable with. If you're not comfortable with the dubious nature of Badminton Warehouse or BadmintonShopOnline, then you can still buy from all the other ones I mentioned. (They're all reliable.)
I understand the concept of parallel import, I tend to take advantage of it in Israel when it comes to different items, my fear from buying online and having it shipped here, with no option to claim a warranty... scares me. the price was ~40 dollars less then most other online stores. You talked about "wierd feeling" with the racket, that's exaclty what I'm scared of, especially in such a delicate matter of weight, balance, etc'. After reading two bad reviews about one of the sites( not mentioning which because I can't contribute to the general opinion about the site without actually buying from it) , I just had to consult with people here about "where to buy the racket". I'm still waiting for my racket from Eric, but I don't think I'll have any problems with it. Next racket will be a li-ning which I'll buy personally on my next trip to England. At the end of it all, I just need the racket to play some badminton and unwind. Great weekend everybody!
btw: Does Victor have an US location and an independent company like Victor Germany too? If it is so, the thread starter should NOT ask the local Victor company if the TW-coded racket is genuine or not. Otherwise Eric from RKEP could be warned, because he's not allowed to sell the rackets outside of Asia?! I just know from himself that he's not allowed to sell his stuff to customers from Germany (and probably other countrys in Europe). If he does, please just skip the stupid question if the racket is genuine.
Yes, it does. Racket Supply is the US distributor. Accordaz is completely right about the second part about Eric. Don't get our favorite supplier in trouble!
I am going to buy a BS11. I heard that Victor changed the stiffness of BS11 for the new version (less stiff?) except US area. If I buy a DE coded BS11 from badmintonwarehouse, I wonder how stiff is the racket? I prefer the old version. The stiffness is 4 out of 5. Anybody can advise? Thanks.
Still 4/5. You heard slightly wrong. They changed the stiffness for almost nowhere except for mainly TW, where it's now 3/5. Everywhere else is still 4/5.
