I had always thought that bbesports is legit. My friends and family recommend it, and it's been mentioned on BC many times before as a legit shop. So, when I went back to Beijing over the holidays, I swung by their store and picked up a few Nanoray 700 FX for 980 RMB (~$160) each. When I tried playing with them though, they felt waaay stiffer than this racket should be. Turns out bbesports had turned to the dark side and sold me fakes. =( They're very well made copies. When I compared them with a racket that I know is legit, the only cosmetic difference is the lack of a black border below the "FX" on the shaft. The grommets also lacked the grooves found on Yonex grommets. Don't buy from bbesports anymore! =(
There's no such thing as grooves on the grommets, that's caused by stringing. And the last pic, you brought a TW code from China?
So I was thinking that the second pic was maybe a production run difference. I've found some more non black border pics http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...Vhn0pFS6-ku4FAgoA&sig2=_T7_uA21VP4gcGInUSG77A And http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...MygWMBY&iact=rc&uact=3&page=4&start=22&ndsp=9
eh.. my friends bought heck load of rackets from them (4+, I recommend them to go there) and no, it is not fake. the cone code and shaft serial is actually as expected from 11 November 2011 production (feb 2011 at 24XXXXX, and should be around that mark on nov 2011). they usually have SP and CH code, not sure why they have TW though.. but it is not as bad as having JP code (IMO, TW code is more reliable than SP, CH or JP..)
if you want a more elaborate inspection from us give us the pict of the butt cap and the bag (usually they failed in these areas). but I doubt they are selling fakes as I went there 5+ times (from feb till july last year) and always inspect their rackets (esp Yonex) and it turns out, all of them are genuine
To me, the grommets do look different, not because of the grooves, but the shape, height, and shine of it. The first one is reminds me more of the Yonex grommets I'm used to seeing. As for the no black border on the FX, if you take a closer look at the bottom of the F there seems to be an indent of the white border, could be a production error or could be fake. Best way to check is to send in the shaft and cone code to Yonex to see if it's legitimate. Nowadays, a lot of people are cynical and they'll say everything can be faked that you can't even tell the difference. I haven't handled many fake rackets and I don't know the manufacturing process, but the way I usually tell is if the racket is real if it has the appropriate weight, headheaviness, stiffness. If I'm buying secondhand, I usually check for grommet quality, serial code is engraved, weight distribution, stiffness. If I'm buying from a store I check Yonex's authorized sellers and then I check the racket's characteristics again. But since you know the 700FX is supposed to be a flexible racket, yet it feels stiff then clearly something is off.
it's quite hard to believe that they will sell fakes, especially this is not a popular model, if you wanna provide more detailed pictures to check do post
