Counterfeit Callaway X-20

Just a heads up for other Callaway users out there. My wife bought me a set of callaway X-20s with graphite shafts last year.

I used them until last month without too many problems. After learning she had only paid £370 for the set I was a little suspicious. I then found out she got them from a Calafornia seller on ebay. I phoned Callaway and provided the serial number from my 8 Iron and it matched an exact set, so I thought she got lucky and kept using them.

Last month to be sure I took them to American Golf. They did a magnet test on the head which passed, they looked almost identical to the real deal. 2 things gave them away as being fake. The kerning on the word "Callaway" on the back of the heads were very very slightly larger and the grip had a strong rubber smell. The salesman said it was one of the best fakes he had ever seen. The shaft was cheaper than it should be but they actually hit fine.

So we are £370 worse off and the not so proud owners of worthless clubs. It did give me the perfect excuse to go shopping for new clubs though

Just a heads up for anyone who thinks they can get a bargain on ebay. Don't.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm sorry that happened to you. There are some sorry people out in the world trying to make a living ripping people off but they all have something coming back to them one of these days.

I was actually in the market for some X20s, so you possibly saved me from purchasing some fakes! I'm going to keep my eyes open now!

There are a lot of fakes out there, especially on e-bay. I once watched something on TV about all the face merchandise being made and golf clubs was one of the best sellers. They were so good, some experts could barely tell the difference.

Yea, ebay seems riddled with fakes. Especially from Singapore etc but as described in my experience from other places too. If a price seems a little cheap then stay away I would say. I also got burnt buying concert tickets on ebay so I have given up on that site completely.

I used to buy everything golf related on e-bay, but not anymore. Got burned once on a wedge (paid for it, never shipped, guy disappeared). There are so many fakes that I don't want to take a chance. I know there many reputable sellers out there, but I like to only buy new, and you just never know. I get everything from a local pro shop now because I know it is shipped directly from the manufacturer. Pay a little more, but the peace of mind cancels that out.

What is it with Callaway and Taylor Made fakes? Are they just easier to make? Better selling clubs so there are more people willing to take a good deal? We see it on here all the time about fakes and you never hear about a fake MP-67 or a Vokey wedge.

They only fake the main stream items. MP-67, although popular amongst avid golfers, isn't really popular with the average weekend duffers. I have heard of Vokey fakes, they're starting to creep up.

I knew they were bought off ebay the second I saw counterfeit.
You can get real clubs off ebay, but it's a risk I don't think anyone should take.

You'd have to be Ebay savvy AND golf savvy to take advantage of the discounts without getting punked. In general, stay away from foreign sellers (China, South East Asia, etc.) and go with sellers that have positive feedbacks in the thousands who have been selling golf equipment on ebay for years. Those guys don't sell fakes.

thats exactly right. ive been on ebay for over 10 years. i have over 4000 transactions with over 2500 of them being sales. i have NEVER been ripped off, nor have i ever bought a counterfeit club. you just have to know who to buy from. the people who get ripped off get ripped off because they dont do any research on the seller, and they buy from sellers overseas (and local) who have ridiculously cheap prices for Vokeys, Callaway, Camerons, etc.

to the OP, that sucks you got ripped off, but dont think that ebay is filled with nothing but counterfeit clubs. on the contrary. you just have to know who to buy from. in addition to the thousands of legit single sellers like me, there are also bigger name sellers like 3BallsGolf, GolfEtail, rockbottomgolf, etc that are all legit. you just so happened to run across a deal that was an obvious red flag to those who know better, but you fell for it. so you got shafted. ebay is awesome if you know what you are doing. ive bought 99% of all my clubs within the past 10 years from there with 100% good results

Yep. Ebay is great, you just have to be extra careful.

If you have a bad feeling about the seller or the price is too good to be true, stay away.

They hit fine and you used them for several months with little trouble, at what point did they become worthless? Can you expand on exactly what the problems you experienced were?

Perhaps you were using the term "worthless clubs" as a euphemism for "not as advertised", I can certainly understand the disappointment and frustration in that. From a strictly functional stand point it seems like you had a set of clubs that were paid for (and no hope of returning them) that you could have continued to use.

Because I have only been playing under a year I was worried I was learning to hit bad clubs well. If I later moved on to "real" quality clubs I may have developed an unorthodox swing which wouldn't work.

I didnt want to risk that. I think of them as worthless because I dont want to risk it.

I see them as worthless because there is no way in hell Id feel happy going to the course knowing I was playing fake ass crap. It would mess with my head too much. I like to be very happy with my equipment when I go to the course, all the way down toe even tees (cant play anything but natural wood tees) or the clothes Im wearing. I just couldnt stand knowing they were fake. Id probably just throw them in the garbage. Sorry about this man. That sucks.

Ebay is a great place to get good deals. My whole set is off ebay and all verified real.

Sorry about your luck but if it were me, I would keep on using them. If I liked them before I keep on liking them after I found out it was not real Callaway.

I haven't heard of many "fake" clubs other than Callaway and TM. Those seem to be counterfeited the most.

+1 to this. Like the saying goes "If it sounds too good to be true..." I've purchased almost all of my clubs, shafts, balls, two golf bags, shoes and apparel from ebay without a problem. You have to have a criteria and mine are simple: 1) Must be a power seller or close to it. 2) Money back guarantee if not satisfied with the product.

The minute I see "All sales are final" or "No returns or exchanges" I move on. Who operates like that besides an unscrupulous person? To the OP, I'm sorry you got screwed. Who was the seller? It would be good for a lot of folks to scratch that person off the list of possible sellers.

Hadn't thought of that, yea that makes good sense - thanks.

Call it a state of mind, I guess. I have a similar but different story.

I got started in golf back in October `08, when a colleague of mine encouraged me to buy some Callaway X-22 knockoffs while we were on business together in China. I knew they were fakes but was okay with that because (1) I was just getting started, wasn't sure I'd like it, and didn't want to spend much in case I ended up abandoning the game, and (2) several of our other colleagues had purchased clubs from the same shop in China and had nothing but good things to say about them. I got a great price for good (not great, but pretty darned good) knockoffs, and I was happy with the idea that I could get started on the cheap and then bail out if I didn't like it without being out much cash. After about six months of play and lessons, my coach felt that I would be better off moving away from those clubs; not because they were fakes or crappy clubs, but because he felt that steel shafts were more suited to my swing than the graphites that I had bought in China. By this time, my game and enjoyment had progressed to the point where I was shooting in the mid-80's to low-90's and was on the range or playing several times per week. Commitment was no longer a factor, and I had moved beyond those original clubs, so I bought some legit TM Tour Burner irons and woods last month. Anyhow...the point is that, unlike the OP, my head wasn't at all messed up with the idea of using fakes. To the contrary, I was thrilled to be able to play with good quality clubs for little money and know that they weren't at all hampering my game's future. I left them because of the graphite shafts. Otherwise, had those original clubs had steel shafts, I would probably still be playing them. Yes, I'm aware of the issues surrounding fakes, but their availability made golf easily accessible for me and thus brought me in as a committed golfer who has contributed plenty of money to U.S. golf in the last seven months and most likely will for many years to come. Cheers, - Mark

For the OP, sorry you got ripped on this. Part of the dangers of eBay.

For those that deliberately have bought counterfeit clubs, let's discuss a couple scenarios. For the first one, imagine that you've worked hard for years and spent a lot of money and invented something great, say a gadget that makes your car get 100mpg. To protect your invention, you take full advantage of the wonders of the patent systems, and patent your wonderful invention in the US, Asia, and Europe. Then you find out that some little factory in China has taken your exact invention and is now stamping out by the zillion for a lot cheaper than you can, with less quality. You'd be furious right? How dare they steal YOUR property?!?!

Now the next scenario. Someone in a van pulls up next to you in a parking lot, trying to sell some nice HDTVs for a cheap price. You KNOW they're stolen. You understand that knowingly buying stolen property is both morally wrong and a crime, and don't buy the hot goods.

Now consider the golf clubs. Someone spent a lot of research money and invented clever ideas which are unique, and they have secured protection of their intellectual property under international patent law. It is their property. The counterfeiter has stolen their property, and you have knowingly purchased that stolen property.

Wouldn't you feel violated if it was your property that was stolen? There are plenty of options of genuine inexpensive clubs out there if you're just picking up the game, including both new and used. Why do you rationalize purchasing someone else's stolen property just so you can get a trendy looking set of golf clubs at a cheaper price?

It seems easy for everyone to look at the counterfeit clubs from China as an opportunity, but let's not rationalize these as more than what they really are - theft of someone's intellectual property done by someone trying to make a fast buck without regards for long term business advancement or ethics.