My coach mentioned that he could get Yonex AS50s for $24/tube on a bulk buy from Taiwan. Is that a good price? I'm wondering if I should take up his offer. Cuz I'm currently paying those prices trying out different shuttles anyways. I was hoping to find something suitable and maybe pay around $15-20 per tube on a bulk buy. It's nice to play with A+++ shuttles once in a while (even if I'm not that good)
not sure if this idea was covered and if it was, sorry for the repost, but is there anyway we can recycled the cork? i see a lot of people reuse used birdies for practice/warmup purposes, but i also see a lot of people just toss the birdies to the trash after they are done. if there's a way to recycled or reuse natural cork maybe it will help with the shortage, and better for the environment? on a more negative note, the price of the shuttles might still be higher if there is a cork recycling system. the reason for this hypothesis is that i see paper being more expensive when it's recycled paper, the higher the % of paper being made from recycled material, the higher the price. what do you guys think???
well about recycling cork, it would require a massive coordination of all badminton players to bring them together somehow. i'm sure feather and cork shuttles would decompose and not harm the environment as much as say, plastic, but that doesn't solve the shortage. could you explain to me how more recycled product results in a higher cost? i would never expect that :O
i only figure out that it would cost more because when i compared prices to copier paper, the 30% recycled paper is always more than non-recycled paper, and 100% recycled paper is the most expensive. now it could be different with cork because we're trying to use 100% cork, and not cork with recycled material. so maybe recycled is not a good choice of word, rebuild and reuse maybe??? besides that, the only reason why recycled cork would be expensive is because of the process of recycling but i know nothing about that process.
imagine the collecting cost and shipping cost to have to ship all the cork to China. on top of that, the labor to strip the cover from the cork, and then even then, it will not be original uncut cork but only processed one that is cork pieces glued back together.
forgot to mentioned that it might not be that big of a task to have people recycle cork if at all possible. just make the announcement here on BC as well as any other place that sells products that involves high usage of cork like a winery. then the announcement would spread like wildfire.
So I cut open my Hang Yu No.1 Aqua (highest grade) and was expecting a synthetic layer as they're pretty cheap. Low and behold, full cork no synthetic nonsense! After steaming these in the shower, they felt much better and less dry. They lasted 1-1.5 games and although the feathers have retired, the cork and leather look brand new and intact! No Aeroplane denting nonsense! Yes I still prefer the feel of Aeroplanes, but these arent too shaby either! I can get 3 tubes of these for the price of 2 Aeroplanes. Its hard to say no to these as they're more durable and full cork
Not sure if yours is like this package. According to the web site, it is the top grade and should be natural cork.
That's the one If hang yu can make an all natural cork and sell it for $8 less and include a plastic shuttle toy keychain, I don't see how Aeroplane can't just make theirs all natural. Until they do, I refuse to go back!
One of the guys I play with orders it directly from the Rep off the website in bulk. Otherwise, there's a few local places that sell them for $20 or so per tube
maybe i don't play enough to notice or my friends and i are playing with old batches of black label, but if it wasn't for this thread i don't think i would notice the drop in quality. aerosensa 30 is still a better alternative, but a few bux more per tube i guess. but black label for 19/tube i think it's still a pretty good deal!!!
I got a friend to buy a few tubes of Aeroplane Black EG1130 online in China. Will cut and post pictures are I exhaust a few. This is my first time playing with them.
So I was playing with some Aeroplane blacks tonight and a couple were just crap. Literally 2-3 hits max and the cork literally blew up on a solid hit and the feathers collapsed. Here's some pics: Two that died plus a new bird for reference:Another shot:Side view:And here's the money shot. The uneven cork core couldnt take the brunt of the impact and there's only one way to release the pressure. Upwards!!Another pressure release shot. The feathers are still like new. Leather surface looks brand new!Here's the crap synthetic layer. Didn't take much force to take the feathers out! It's almost as if the cork layer separates from the synthetic layer when the force is too great. No chance to even dent yet!
Used 3 birdies this evening. Impress they can last through 2 games each. Here's some pictures of the birdies.