I have a friend who bought 20 packs of Yonex exbolt 65 strings from Taiwan. I believe they ordered it online for about 190NT vs the supposed original price of 260NT. From inspecting the actual string, it looks genuine to me, or very good copy, but im in no way an experienced stringer. However the cheap price and the stickers on the back make me very skeptical. Anyone else have experience buying these from an authorized seller in Taiwan? Any reason to doubt these are real? Here are some pictures: Reference string on left is 100% genuine exbolt 63. Writing/font look very similar.
I'm not a stringer, but I have bought packets of string before. I am not concerned by the stickers, they just look like something used for stock control, importing, or just for the TW market (manufactured in Japan). What I haven't seen before is the white cable tie. Did you put that on yourself?
I am a bit concerned about the color on the package and the actual color being mismatched. I don't recall Yonex just printing other stickers so they cover up other info.
No the cable tie is straight from the package. I usually use strings from reels, so never encountered these packets before.
The shop prob did this so that they can keep inventory and have their own computer system to read the printed barcode instead of yonex's packaging. However one key thing is to notice if the thickness matches that of a 0.65. I've seen fake bg66um strings and they feel thicker than a bg65 string
I have purchased the exbolt-65 in packets before from legit stores in the UK and they come standard with the white cable tie so this is nothing of unconcern.
Thank you. I've bought BG80, BG66U in the 10mtre packs and I've never noticed a cable tie (saying that, my stringer is always the one to open the packs).
Thickness is not an good indicator to judge. All Yonex strings I had my hands on were unstrung thicker than the gauge on the pack. Even BG65 differs in gauge slightly but noticeable depending on string color. IIRC the royal blue was significant thinner. I also got fake No.1 and it was much thinner than the original one similar to Aerosonic. I won't rely much on thickness if it is not extreme. There is only one way: String and try. Package is open. The manufactures date is quite sus or an old stock which explains the price. Never seen the black TW cardboard just the SP one. About stickers on packs I wouldn't worry.
Guess i should elaborate that the thickness should be relative to what you're purchasing. If its a bg66um or even a thinner string, but the string itself is gauged at 0.7 or thicker than a bg65 then I think thats a huge giveaway
I'm in Canada, but I buy boxes of these strings whenever I head back to Japan or Taiwan. The ones I purchased in Taiwan (BG66UM+Exbolt65) are packaged exactly as shown in your pictures. At first I was skeptical of the authenticity as well (due to the price), but after alternating between strings purchases in Canada and the TW ones, there is no discernable different in performance and my stringer doesn't notice any difference as well.
Thanks, thats great to know. I also recently bought a few packs of exbolt63 from another retailer and they look pretty much exactly the same as well minus the chinese stickers. Ive recently strung these tw strings and they seem to feel and play as they should.
