Good fake racquets are hard to come by. Surely lots of ppl here have encountered fake racquets before. Since they're fakes, most of them are really bad (heavy, breakage, shaky, etc.), but sometimes they're surprisingly good. let share our *interesting* experiences in fake racquets, preferably when it involves a GREAT fake racquet. I have 2 fake racquets in total. Both of which were bought during my 2005 summer trip in China. 1st racquet - Yonex Muscle Power 99 with Nanospeed Bag Location: GuangZhou Fake Street My uncle had brought me and my cousins to GuangZhou for a couple of days on his business trip, during which we did a bit of sight seeing, food tasting, and Badminton playing lol. Well I wasn't expecting to play badminton, but the company my uncle was dealing with had their own badminton facilities !!! So I played one of the employees with his own racquet - a mp100. I couldn't believe how great that mp100 felt, and inquired the person how much he has paid for it. He told me that it was 200RMB (approx. $40CND) I could not control my joy, and I immediately went to the place he was referring to...actually it was a whole street full of racquet dealers, where fake racquet shops are packed with ppl and real dealers had no customers. Anyways, so I Hastely picked out this supposedly 3U MP99 for 150RMB. The racquet felt light to my liking at the time, but I think it had to do with the fact that my muscles haven't relaxed enough after my games, because it's actually felt like a head heavy 1U . The sales girl was cute enuf so that i didn't bother thinking too much. She strung the racquet on the spot quickly at 20lbs (wasn't willing to string at higher tension cuz she said that new racquet should let it get use to lower strain, but now that I thought about it, she didn't want the racquet to shatter at 22lbs ). Anyways, that was my worst investment to date, and now I only use it for wrist training. 2nd fake - Yonex Muscle Power 007 with ??? Yonex Muscle Power 1010 Bag... Location: Beijing, 7 story shopping mall/resturant A couple of days before my flight back to Canada, I was invited to dine in the top floor of this mall/resturant. As soon as I came off the 5th floor escalator, magic happened - a badminton shop that's no more than 5 square metre big appeared b4 me. The shop owner looked down and bored...figures...no one would know a badminton shop existed at such a random place. So I walked in a inquired prices about various racquets on display. Most of them were fakes and I was perfectly willing to buy, since I strongly believe that good things will eventually come out of them (bought too many great fake video games disks from China before). So I directly inquired if they're fake and the person acknowledged that fact and started commenting on how I seem to know the stuff and how difficult it is to do business now a days (they all say that once you start to bargain ). He later recommended this 2U Muscle Power 007, which I immediately felt in love with for its name. I took a few swings at it and it felt more like a head heavy 3U. Bcuz i "seemed to know the stuff", he made an offer of 140RMB for the racquet to including new BG65ti strings and grip of choice. He mentioned that he loses money by offering this kind of price and I almost laugh out loud on the spot. Anywho, after dinner with friends, I picked up the newly strung n pro griped new racquet - best purchase of the summer. I hope the next time I go to beijing, the shop won't be closed. I have been using the Mp007 for almost a year now and I have tried, from friends, many high end racquets (ns8000, at700/800, mp99/100, BK-Photon...Real ones) all the while, and none of them played/felt as great as the mp007. So personally i recommend instead of going for highend, go for those that suit you. As well, my 2 cents on the Chinese good: In china, cheap but good stuff are often found in most unlikely place (kinda like if you want great chinese food, go to a chinese farm), so the next time you see a ghetto-like street in china, take a stroll down that path and u might find something to your liking.
if you happen to visit Jakarta, go to "taman puring" or "glodok" for deals... the place to buy cool looking stuffs at dirt price compare to the real one (they look good from far, but far from good). I've heard about another place called "pasar ular" in priok/ north jakarta region, but never been there.
