Need a racket recommendation

What brand are you interested in? If it's Yonex

You could try the Voltric 50 - SHould be in your price range

 

beginner? arc002! done!

 

my professional advice is this: go for the...are you ready for this..? .. the model that is... hope you're listening to me closely... the flashiest, brightest, blingest racket you can find .. it's all about impressing the ladies in your class!!!

arc002 won't get you any girls... lol jk
if this just on a temporary basis, anything that makes you feel comfortable and swing easy and feels slightly stiff should do. however, if you're serious about taking it up as a hobby or will be playing regularly, 50-100$ is a decent beginner budget. a good yonex, victor, li-ning etc etc may help you learn and achieve control and accuracy easily at first, without much stress. good luck!

 

Personally if I were you I would save up for more money and buy a racket in the top class range so you end up actually keeping it once you get better. As an example the Victor thruster tk-6000 isn't too much above the 150$ range and same with the victor meteor Mx-90. Yonex arc saber 11 and voltric 80 would be good bets in the crazy $$$ department.

I remember when I was still in school not really knowing what I wanted or how I wanted to play and just bought a racket that once i got stronger I grew out of. Now I have a slightly offensive control game that requires mid stiff to stiff rackets. I don't know how hard you can hit it but if you can baseline - baseline clear with almost any racket without overly exerting yourself you would be in the same boat as me.

If you don't mind top heavy feel the TK-6000 4U is the one I'd choose in your position. Reason being it is a racket that is made for the offensive game and has a lot of good reviews. Don't really know why I personally haven't gotten it yet other than I just prefer the feel of the damped yonex rackets.

http://www.mybadmintonstore.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1835#.UuFSkbRlBaQ

Also another racket that I think you would love is the Apacs virtuoso performance. The Apacs brand makes very good value for the money type rackets. Most of their budget/clone ones are the same but some of their own ones are very good. I personally own it and find it to be a very good all rounder with a powerful smash and the only reason that I just don't use it is because again I prefer the feel of damped yonex rackets on my shoulder. Only costs 80-100 bucks at the moment so it would be in your price range. Just get it strung with half decent string/tension and you would be good to go.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/APACS-VIRTUOSO-PERFORMANCE-Badminton-Racket-Free-String-Grip-/171173330413

Others to check out just for the sake of reference would be the RKEP XP-70, Victor MX-60 / MX-90, Yonex arc saber 11 and Voltric 80 if somehow you find an extra 100$ in your couch lol. All good rackets from what I've read and all offensively inclined.

EDIT : yea people make fake rackets but most of them are yonex fakes. No idea on li-ning. But li-ning rackets are crazy money like yonex for what you actually get.

 

jonbagels, i haven't thorougly checked out the page fully - do check the seller's profile, prev comments, feedback. is he willing to send you the racket/cone serial #s so you can check online? it's time well invested.
the racket itself seems legit. that particular model IS top of the range, with proven results. it has to be hadneld carefully and you should be at least semi-trained well enough to utilize it's full potential.
is there a chance you can try out a few models yourself? your body will tell you what model you're suitable for (stiff vs flexi, head heavy vs head light vs even balanced, big vs smaller grip etc). hope this helps, you're going to get a lot of great advice from the experts here .
may you have fun umm.. badmintoning..er..baddying?..er shuttletime..er..u get the idea!