Counterfeit Golf Clubs on EBay

[dkm978]

Common sense eliminates most (if not all) of the problems with buying on eBay.

Agreed. I have purchased a callaway driver, and a taylormade five wood among others and both were the real deal. Check pictures, feedback, and other auctions. Also be wary of a buy-it-now that seems waaaay too good to be true. (i.e. 5 dollars for a "new" odyssey putter)

[AndrewM]

Its only for those new comers

I thought everyone on ebay started in 99 or so like I did

[shinujk1]

Everything that has been posted makes sense but I bet there's more counterfeit than you realize....

Always going with the big ebay retailer don't make the prices too attractive....
Used clubs could be legitimate but pictures may not be the same as the ones they send you
The manufacturers can't always tell either....my friend just bought a Taylormade R7460 driver on ebay and when he tried to register it; the # could not be confirmed....he even took it to Golfsmith and they couldn't tell either.....it's not as easy as people think....

[Guest]

Has anyone had any experience buying from empire-golf on eBay? I see the seller has been active since 04 and selling Golf equipment since Dec 05 with 99.8% positive feedback.

I am particularly looking at the Callaway x-20 irons and am trying to determine if these are legit. I tried calling but got an answering message and haven't had an email response.

Thank you for any assistance,

-M

[test123123]

Buy it from shops if you can.

[motius]

I bought a "new" Callaway FT3 Driver last summer from an ebay online store located in Canada (as am I), that had a 99.9% positive rating with thousands of feedbacks, which was supposed to be shipping from Canada. When I received it, it actually had shipped from China (not Canada) and was fake. I might not have noticed (it was pretty authentic looking with a serial number and everything), but the shaft had a very small crack in it, which lead me to suspect a problem, and I discovered it was infact a counterfeit. I went down to my local retailer and carefully looked over one of theirs and noticed that the grip on my fake, while looking the same, had a funny smell and different feel, and also the "plasma weld" around the face and body of the head was just a shiny black metal groove, rather than the duller, coarse plasma weld on the real thing.

I confronted the seller about the fake (and damaged) club, complete with pictures - they claimed that they didn't know, and got it through a distributor. Fortunately, I had paid via PayPal, and the seller didn't want me to file a fraud claim with them and they gave me a full refund.

Since then, I have not purchased any more golf equipment on ebay (well, except a replacement head cover for my 5W).

[Guest]

Thanks for the responses. I know you get what you pay for and if my gut tells me something isn't right I should just walk away. I think I will listen to my instincts (+ your advice) and pay a little more for piece of mind.

-M

[hurley9192]

I've bought tons of clubs on ebay and sold them and haven't had any issues with counterfeit clubs. However, to echo other sentiments, make sure there are actual pictures, the seller has close to or 100% positive feedback and the price isn't outrageously low.

[Guest]

I have had a similar experience on Ebay. I have purchased two drivers in the past couple of years, both Nike Sasquatch (460) and suspect both have been counterfeits. Both of the drivers had a China point of origin (does Nike manufacture in China???) and both appear to be non-standard in terms of the grip, shaft and paint job. How can I tell for sure? Don't want to accuse a seller of selling a counterfeit unless I am right.

The reply by Motius caught my eye.... most recent purchase was from a seller in Canada with good feedback rating but club came from China.

[shinujk1]

I think this is going to be a big problem for EBAY as more counterfeit products get unto EBAY with stolen identities

[test123123]

I had a a bad experience once in eBay. I have bought a set of Callaway X18 irons. Luckily it is easily identified as a fake because the serial number is 11 digits instead of 10. I also took it to local pro shop and compared it with the geniune one and the fake one has larger sole and the grip is badly made (bad smell, the paint job is not align).
The fake one looks so real, it is very hard to tell the difference from the photo in eBay.
By the way the seller has 100% rating.
:(

[bwinger79]

I have bought countless clubs off E-bay and have never had an issue. Make sure you know your seller, use Paypal in case you do get a knock off, and know what you are looking for. You can always get the serial number off the clubs(usually 5 iron) from the seller and call the manufacturer to make sure they are real before you purchase them.

[LBlack14]

I'm suprised how uninformed some of the members of this forum are. Rockbottomgolf is 100% legit!!! If in doubt, always check serial #s. Don't look at the color of paint as someone else suggested in this thread. So far never had an issue buying clubs on ebay, and I've bought a boat load!!! Not saying that it don't happen, just do your homework!

[bwinger79]

Rockbottomgolf.com is a great site for clubs.

[Carland]

Has anyone purchased any equipment from "thegolfhabit" on eBay? I am concerned because several posts warn about counterfeit TaylorMade equipment. I have bid on a set of TaylorMade rac lt2 irons. There are still several days for bidding but I don't want to buy a set of fakes. Thanks.

[Mizzle]

So far I have had no bad experiences purchasing golf equipment off Ebay. I basically stay away from anybody who is using stock photos and not actual photos of the item they are selling.

Also checking the feedback of the seller if very important. The following tool can be used to see all feedback that was Negative, Neutral or mutually withdrawn for a user:

http://toolhaus.org

I have seen sellers that have 100% feedback but when using the tool there has been feedback that was mutually withdrawn where the buyer is complaining about the club being fake. I assume that the seller offers a full refund if they withdraw the negative feedback.

Also if the price seems to good to be true, there is a good chance that it is too good to be true and probably fake. Another site I use from the PGA is:

http://valueguide.pga.com/

It shows you how much clubs are selling for on Ebay (Low, average and highest selling price)

I hope this info will be helpful for someone.

Cheers,
Miz

[Carland]

Thanks for the toolhaus.org site. The seller that I bid with has an overall good rating but about 25 negative reviews (mostly for slow delivery or mis-described equipment). No claims of counterfeit merchandise. The "mutually withdrawn" reviews are fishy because there's no explanation about why the negative review was withdrawn.

I guess eBay is a leap of faith. In the past, I have had success buying a brand new but older model Ping Anser putter that I really like. I was hoping to do the same thing with the TaylorMade rac lt2 irons. We'll see.

[withdrew]

By the way the seller has 100% rating.

100% rating means NOTHING.

If they sell bogus clubs to people that don't know any better, of course they are going to get positive feedback. Also look CLOSELY @ the feedback. I could buy 200-300 cheap items, promptly pay the seller and get 200-300 positive feedbacks, but how many items have I SOLD? How many customers have I SATISFIED? Click on the links- look at past auctions and look at the winning bidders, and then see the winning bidder's history, to double-check if that guy is an educated shopper... eBay can be equally horrible and awesome, so you gotta watch out!