Check Out this Fake TaylorMade Driver

[ChetlovesMer]

 

This is kind of funny. Yet, kind of sad. 

I've seen fake watches before. I don't think I've ever seen a fake driver. 

[Cantankerish]

Lovely.  Good video.  Disheartening human nature.

[FlyingAce]

Google “fake eggs”. Read about it years ago and still don’t understand why there is a need to make fake eggs...

[Double Mocha Man]

28 minutes ago, FlyingAce said:

Google “fake eggs”. Read about it years ago and still don’t understand why there is a need to make fake eggs...

I eat "fake eggs"!  The're called Egg Beaters and they have no cholesterol. They're made from the egg whites.  Scramble those with a little cheese and add a turkey sausage and that heavy dose of protein holds me for 18 morning holes at the course... without having to stop at the turn for the fattening/lethargy-inducing polish dog my friends eat.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Double Mocha Man
tipo

[CharlieB]

This is what the Chinese manufactures do. Taylor Made probably has their driver manufactured in China. They take the specs off of it and start making their clone of it. They then become a competitor to Taylor Made by selling fake products. This is exactly what our government is fighting. I was a Purchasing Manager before retiring. I seen this first hand.

[leftybutnotPM]

1 hour ago, CharlieB said:

This is what the Chinese manufactures do. Taylor Made probably has their driver manufactured in China. They take the specs off of it and start making their clone of it. They then become a competitor to Taylor Made by selling fake products. This is exactly what our government is fighting. I was a Purchasing Manager before retiring. I seen this first hand.

I would bet that many if not most of the things you own are made in China. It is not what "manufacturERs do". It is what unscrupulous people do worldwide. It's just that China is where the technology is. Your government is not fighting it, it is making your residents pay tarriffs on Chinese made goods that cost a lot less than American made ones and fooling ignorant and uneducated people with zero grasp of economics into thinking that China is paying. And this applies to legally produced products. The fake/ counterfeit market is something completely different.

You are disparaging a nation of a billion people because some people are dishonest.  

Edited October 31, 2019 by leftybutnotPM

[Adam C]

Golf is littered with fake drivers, but also fairway woods, irons and putters. This has been an issue for decades. This is why they say you should buy only from recognized OEM retailers. If you go to any OEM website, they will have a list somewhere of official retailers.

[CharlieB]

A company works through a broker in China. You give him a sample of your product. You agree on a price, pay for the tooling, and finally pay for the shipment before it leaves port. He then has control of YOUR tooling and moves it to a storefront shop without any quality control. They change the materials used, then they start selling them on EBay, or wherever at cut-rate prices. When you re-order they shift the tooling back to the original manufacture of your first order. They have now copied your driver and are selling it to unsuspecting buyers. This is not all businesses in China, but it is a large problem. This is what our government is fighting.

[Cantankerish]

I am fairly certain you are both correct on this.  It is a fraught topic...probably best to leave it alone.

[ChetlovesMer]

Yes, Gentlemen, please let's avoid politics in this thread. 
The reason I found this video so interesting and I thought everyone would like to see it was:

1 - The performance drop off was huge. The quality drop off was also huge. Did you hear that noise it made?

2 - Warning everyone not to buy clubs from Wish dot com. 

3 - To discuss Fakes in general. I think this fake would be pretty easy to spot. But, I've seen some fake Scotty Cameron putters which if I wasn't told it was a fake, I may not have been able to tell. 

[xrayvizhen]

I've seen fake irons of pretty much all the manufacturers, including Titleist, Callaway, Taylor Made and Mizuno. About half the owners of these clubs were totally unaware. They just thought they got a really, really good deal from some Ebay dealer, were initially reluctant to believe the truth and then totally pissed off when they realized they got thoroughly screwed. Even more disheartening, and leading one to believe the human race is doomed, just as many people knew what they had bought were counterfeit and couldn't care less.

My own opinion on the matter of counterfeit stuff in general is I just don't buy anything at all off of Ebay, no matter what the product is.

[Vinsk]

9 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

- The performance drop off was huge. The quality drop off was also huge.

That’s the tough part for amateurs. They hit that fake driver, the ball goes 235, sliced, and they figure...‘well...that’s about right.’

[Mr22putt]

LMAO

Love the packaging and love that Sheils broke the driver...lol.2

2 weeks from HK is pretty fast shipping.

[boogielicious]

On 10/31/2019 at 12:38 PM, ChetlovesMer said:

 

This is kind of funny. Yet, kind of sad. 

I've seen fake watches before. I don't think I've ever seen a fake driver. 

There is a mall in Shanghai called Pearl City, where you can buy fakes. It is set up as a touristy place with the fake stuff in secret areas. My buddy bought two fakes Rolex watches for his daughters for $10 each and they looked really close. I was looking for him and he was in a hidden area behind some bookcases. it was kind of cool actually.

We compared them to real ones at a real Rolex ship in another city and they were spot on. They also had Gucci, etc. I got a really neat chess set in the tourist section for $20. The golf stuff was obvious fakes though.

One of my friends traveling with us was from Australia. She was bartering with a lady for a fake NFL Drew Brees shirt. She asked me if $80 US was too much. I told her I could get her a real one for $50 back home. So she walked away. The shop lady was so mad at me! Kept yelling at me in Mandarin whenever she saw me after that!😜

when I got home, sure enough the NFL site had them for $50. It was off season.

[MarvChamp]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

There is a mall in Shanghai called Pearl City, where you can buy fakes.

And in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, etc. On the other hand, some of the same shops that turn out OEM products do make their own designed lines of golf clubs (not clones or fakes), some of which look pretty nice and at a very favorable price point. But as an amateur, why would I trust my eyes rather than trust the engineering and quality control of say, Mizuno or Srixon, and pay the price for that? So I steered clear. Best, -Marv

[Adam C]

Just FYI, there are still reputable dealers on Ebay but you have to do your homework. Be able to track a seller back to a source is key, do internet searches of the seller, and check what they have been selling previously. Again you can find legit dealers through OEM sites, even some Ebay based ones will be on there.

Couple simple rules for spotting fakes and bad dealers:

Be wary of any seller with either too few reviews, or many reviews but only over a short time.

Anything coming directly from oversees is suspect.

Bad grammer. Not always the case but if the seller can't put together simple sentences might want to stay away.

Any post showing a generic image of an item and not the specific one mentioned, I think is super shady.

Finally, good old "If it seems too good to be true...

 

If you think you bought a fake follow your ears and nose. Fakes usually will sound different, although with things like putters it can be hard to tell. And if the club has a chemical smell usually coming from grip, good chance it's fake.

 

[CharlieB]

Do any of you think that a company like Titleist would buy parts of their clubs from China and assemble them here?

[Double Mocha Man]

32 minutes ago, CharlieB said:

Do any of you think that a company like Titleist would buy parts of their clubs from China and assemble them here?

Is this a trick question?