Shuttlecock purchase in China?

Discussion in 'Shuttlecock' started by wilwat, Jun 25, 2011.

  1. wilwat

    wilwat Regular Member

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    Hi all,

    My gf is in China for a month or two visiting family and wants to get me some shuttlecocks. Unfortunately most of the brands are different than what gets exported to the US so I am generally uninformed. Moreover she doesn't play much so she can't really judge their quality. I was wondering if anyone has some recommendations. The best she got last year were YY Club Y-6 shuttles. RSL was pretty good, while Tonak, Double Happiness, and YY-Club Y-Special were not so good. I think I will get more Y-6 as middle quality but was hoping to get a few tubes of high quality ones as well (on par with AS-30, Aeroplane-Black, YangYang 300b etc).

    I was wondering if anyone has some recommendations. Any thoughts would be appreciated.:)
     
  2. wilwat

    wilwat Regular Member

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    So it seems the mystery brand really high quality shuttles are YY Club Y-1, Snow Peak C1101, Chao Pai Red, and Sea Lion C1101. I guess I'm wondering if Snow Peak and Sea Lion might be the same. I've heard Snow Peak and Chao Pai are both good. I've never heard anything about YY Club Y-1 but I was very pleased (bang for the buck sense) with their Y-6's. Any thoughts?

    Here is a link to where she plans to buy from - I can't read Chinese :(
     
  3. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    Tronex yellow is a good budget choice. YY AS05 is also good for the buck. Chao Pai Red and Purple are good, but maybe a bit pricy.
     
  4. ryanli

    ryanli Regular Member

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    I feel the best choice in China should be ChaoPai Red, since they are made in China. you should be able to get it at about 120yuan per tube from sports shop (or even cheaper from taobao, if you can find some friends speask Chinese:))
     
  5. badder

    badder Regular Member

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    Why do you want to buy from China? I don't think you will save that much $$ than buying them locally unless you import a few hundreds. For anything equivalent to AS-30 or above, like Aeroplane Black, US price is cheaper than in China. I spent 120 CH yuan on RSL No1, just to try it. That is about the same price as Aeroplane Black you pay here. I was paying less than $17 for RSL No1 before when purchased online.

    Chaopai Red is not available everywhere, and I believe the price is most likely the same as US local price.
     
  6. ryanli

    ryanli Regular Member

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    Actually badder's opinion aboat the price is very true. So i guess it may not worth to buy in bulk in china. Instead maybe you can buy one tube for every brands(categories)That you may interested. Since there are so many differen badminton shuttlecocks sell in China and thosr have been imported to US may only be ones that have higher profit.
     
  7. wilwat

    wilwat Regular Member

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    Disagree

    I think the prices are far better in China, I hate to say it but it seems to me their is a significant prices difference that I would attribute to transport costs, fixed transaction costs and income differentials. YY-Club Y6 strikes me as comparable to Yang Yang 99A. 99A costs about 17 dollars from badminton alley here in the US. The Y-6 cost 50 RMB. That's about $7.75. That's more than 1/2 off! Consider high end stuff, Aeroplane black is currently on sale in the US for 20.50 at badminton alley assuming I go to the retail store and don't pay some outrageous shipping og 7 bucks or so. I can get comparable shuttles for 110RMB from China for about 17 dollars. A smaller differential but still there. I don't know where to buy chao pai red in the US but they cost 110RMB as well. I think they may be being sold in Fremont CA, but I am sure they aren't being sold for 16.92. So why have my gf pick up some shuttles for me in China? Because they are cheaper and in some cases dramatically so.
     
  8. wilwat

    wilwat Regular Member

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    Yeah, the idea is not to buy in bulk and sell but just get enough to last me through the year. I'm planning on getting several varieties to see what I like. I'm not sure what governs what get's exported. It would seem bigger firms are able to ship their brands, but not the smaller players. I get the impression the profit margin on shuttles in pretty small and most of the money comes from other products.
     
  9. wilwat

    wilwat Regular Member

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    Yes, the Taobao website is quite good:)
     
  10. badder

    badder Regular Member

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    I agree what you said. My point is that high grade shuttlecocks have less price difference. Only those middle and low end ones. However, those middle and low end ones are not durable and not cost effective.

    Take a look at how much you will use for a year and figure out how much you will save a year. Then you can decide if you need take that trouble to bring some back from China.

    I was in China last week and didn't buy anything. I use 10-15 tubes a year. For Aeroplane Black or Chaopai Red, it won't save me more than $10 a year, so never bother. For those middle or low end ones, I need to use double of that amount, so won't save me any money either.
     

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