Ebay mizuno clubs, please help, brought as gift for husband

Hi ,

Im really really new to all this

I brought a set of mizuno irons for my husbands and then only researched that there are fakes around!

I have not paid for the item as yet but from what i read the serial number is etched

Im from australia and i have been told the serial numbers are different from USA mizunos

Anyways if anyone can help out this is the link to the ebay item with the pictures of the irons

the serial numbers dont seem to be etched on the irons but the other clubs look like  they do

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item;=200647902024&ssPageName;=ADME:X:RTQ:AU:1123

If you look at the 3rd picture , you can faintly see the serials on them, the irons look like there ingraved

im going to be calling up Mizuno in australia tomorrow

I'm not a Mizuno expert. I'm judging from what I know of E-bay.  Seller answers questions, adds a personal touch to the description (the Chinese don't)  claims not to be a dealer.

Looking at his freed back, he sells and buys nothing but golf clubs and isn't a dealer?  His one negative feedback mentions he's buying counterfeit clubs and failed to send clubs to winner. Seller shoots back with buyer took days to pay. (looks like your situation has happened before)

I would definitely have those serial numbers checked.

well the numbers start with 250  , i thought they had letters and then numbers?

I only have 2 Mizuno wedges,

One has numbers followed by 2 letters on the plastic hozzle.   The other doesn't have a serial number and the hozzle is different. (since it's a junk barrel club I don't mind)  Both wedges are the same series.

Your best bet is to make that phone call.

First of all, I appreciate the fact you're trying to get your husband some golf clubs.

That said, you admit you're new to the golf arena. It takes awhile to get familiar with golfdom, and in the early going it's best to buy clubs face-to-face. You get to check for counterfeits, and the golfer gets to test out the clubs to make sure they fit the swing.

So, I would go with face-to-face until you get more familiar with golf. Then, I would only buy something online that I had seen first-hand.

Good luck!

These would have been good questions to ask before bidding.

Taken from another web site

Thanks for the responses everyone. The clubs I received were indeed fake. Just a little back story. I bought them off a 100% feedback seller on ebay. They were used and sold for $498 usd so I didn't really have reason to suspect they were fake until I received them. Turns out though that he received them from a private seller who had recently "lost his job".

FYI to any potential MP-53 shoppers...here's a number of differences on the fake MP-53s that you may want to watch out for:

Only the 7 iron had a serial number. A real set of Mizuno MP-53s in the US has a serial number laser etched on each iron hosel.
The serial number was an AA series which according to Mizuno, would belong on a set of MP-58s. Real MP-53s sold in the US has an AL***** serial number according to Mizuno.
The serial number font and size was completely different from an authentic set of MP-53s.
The R300 shaft on the fakes was missing the etching 3/4s way down the club.
The ferrule on the fakes was shorter and shaped differently from real MP-53s. It was very noticeable when comparing in person.
The grips had an odor to them.
Though the fakes had replicated the mizuno logos pretty well, when comparing the heads to real MP-53s in person, the size and shape of the heads were slightly different.

I've reached out to the seller and he agreed to refund my money. He says he didn't know they were fake. He said he saw the serial number and thought they were authentic

My girlfriend figured out the hard way that eBay has a time restriction on filing for fraudulent claims.. check what the time frame is and if you still are inside of it, file a claim and PayPal or eBay's fraud protection insurance should kick in.

I bought my Mizuno's from eBay but from a seller with 99.9% positive feedback that had been on eBay since the 90's. Due diligence goes a long way on that website.

Good luck and I'm sorry to hear about your situation.

That does not look like your standard fake peddler, but you never know. The pictured clubs appear to be authentic however you may not get the pictured clubs.

Contacting mizuno only goes so far, serial numbers can be duplicated, and not all clubs will have serial numbers on file, only those sold at retail would.

Here is the mizuno picture the ebayer sent of the serial number

I called mizuno australia and they said the Australia mizunos dont have serial numbers!

So the seller must of got these from overseas and not australia..

The ebay seller left me this message as well "Please also note if you use Paypal you are protected against fake items as part of there policy. Look forward to your payment."

as someone else posted the serial number should be etched in, this looks like its engraved in

any more thoughts???

I will call mizuno USA this week, im not paying for them if i think there fake

From the Mizuno Forums:

"if the irons are stock off the shelf irons then they have the numbers under the grip on the shaft, if they are custom fitted then the numbers are on the ferrule"

Granted, it is from a user post, I have seen similar posts on the Mizuno forums regarding this issue.

I emailed him asking if they were brought from a Australian store

He emailed me back saying he brought them from a PRO GOLFER in the USA!

Does that serial number look correct for a MP 53 ???

The serial numbers in the picture don't look correct.  The club I just looked at in the store has a etched serial number that isn't as prominent as it is in your picture, starts with "AL" and is not in the same orientation (upside down) from the "Grain Flow Forged".

Best bet is not to pay.... file a claim with eBay telling them you believe they are fakes and why.

were they "cheap"? my buddy is a club pro here in wisconsin, I get clubs at 10% over cost and my ap2's were still $708 bucks for 5-PW. if the deal is too good to be true, it usually is

iron covers are usually a dead give away. was a victim of the counterfeit club game a couple years ago. did a bunch of research on them and actually started frequenting the Chinese sites that sell these things. mizuno, titleist, callaway and ping were the most popularly counterfeited ones. if he uses the term OEM factory they are fake. it appears to me that he copied and pasted the listing from someone else's listing or is somewhat knowledgeable to a small degree with the whole upright thing. most of the Chinese counterfeiters just list them clubs. dead give away here in the us is ems shipping. screams fake. not sure what you guys use in Australia. he may have bought them as fakes and is turning around and selling them off. who knows. best to buy clubs at a store or do your homework. if you don't want them, don't pay. sounds horrible, but in the end it's your dough and not that big of a deal. you get a non paying bidder strike and the eBay police won't come knocking on your door to take your to jail, I promise.

Yeah i decided im not going to pay for them and suffer with a ebay strike!! lol...im going to go buy the real deal from a golf store this month and save myself the grief

Just took a look at the listing on eBay. My gut feeling tells me that they are real. Sometimes it could be too good to be true and that doesn't have to set off reg flags like that. My Mizuno JPX 800 pros have the serial number on the hosel of each iron and it looks like the one that the eBay seller is posting. My experience with dealing with counterfeit items is that if the seller is confident enough to take such a clear picture of the serial numberer other telling feature to determine if it's real or not, the product is real. People could get in a lot of trouble for selling fake products. Also if you look at the sellers feedback rating, he has a pretty reputable rating, and only 1 negative feedback within the last year. He sells a lot of golf equipment too. Seems pretty reputable to me.