Major Retailers & Trade-Ins

[GreekGodX]

I'm sure many people on this site have dealt with trading in clubs at places like Golfsmith, Golf Galaxy, TGW.com etc. I'm looking into trading my irons in to get something a little more player friendly. The R7 CGB's get the ball in the air way to high and I feel like I've gotten more consistent enough to maybe get X-20s or G10s. Or possibly a good used set of G5s.

My question deals with the actual trade in process: How thorough are they looking at the clubs? Are they extremely strict on the condition? If you are borderline on 2 conditions will they most likely give you the lesser quality?

Another subject I want to get peoples opinion on is people selling back clubs that are counterfeit. Do any of these stores look that in depth into the clubs? What are the chances that a used set from one of the retailers is a counterfeit that someone traded in?

[golf_junkie27]

I've dealt with Golfsmith and they will do whatever possible to give you the least amount of money.

Example: I took my 907D1 driver for an exchange. I've hit less than 50 balls. They wanted to give me $90. I can guarantee you they would have sold this driver for three times that amount.

You are better off selling them, yourself.

[Brooklyn]

yeah ebay or craigslist usually has pretty good success i just sold my Hibore XL the other day for like 30 bucks less than i bought it for.

[GreekGodX]

I have tried posting other clubs on craigslist with no success. With very accurate descriptions and multiple pictures and I never caught anyones eye. It is easy to just walk into the store throw the clubs on the counter get x amount of money without doing much waiting or work.

[larlev]

Forget Golfsmith....ebay or craigslist

[TourSpoon]

Ebay...

The retailers are about making money. They buy low and sell high. I am certain that what Golfsmith, etc are selling is legit.

[GreekGodX]

What about all the counterfeit clubs on ebay that people unknowingly buy then trade them in at a major chain store..How well do you think that places like Golfsmith, Golf Galaxy etc. check out what they are buying back and then selling? Could we be getting scammed going to a major retailer buying used clubs at a discount that in fact are not legit?

[Craig Mac]

I went to GG to trade in my TaylorMade Burner 3 hybrid that I bought 3 months prior from them for $190 and they offered me $60 for it, I may have played 4 or 5 rounds with it and used it at the range, hitting it maybe 50 times. It was in better shape than the used one they were selling for $140. They will give you as little as possible for it.

As far as the counterfeit part, my boss bought a HiBore XL on ebay and a few months later he went to trade it in and they said they couldn't take it because it was counterfeit. So he sent it to Clevland and they verified that it was a counterfeit club. I can't speak on the retail stores as a whole but this particular employee was very observant in picking up on the counterfeit club. I never would have noticed, it was a good reproduction.

[flybub]

I took my Cally X-14's to dicks. They did not even look at them and I only had 4-PW. They gave me $140 for them and Dicks was also running their get 15% more on your trade so I ended up getting just over $150 for my irons with graphite shafts which I thought was very good considering there were only 7 irons (but the guy working there also insisted Callaway makes the HiBore line).

[brianzchuk]

Golftown offered me $100 for my 3-gw X16's (without seeing them)...They use a company called Global Golf to set the prices, or so the golf dude there told me. I'm assuming that they buy all the trade-ins.

[shaggy023]

I'm sure many people on this site have dealt with trading in clubs at places like Golfsmith, Golf Galaxy, TGW.com etc. I'm looking into trading my irons in to get something a little more player friendly. The R7 CGB's get the ball in the air way to high and I feel like I've gotten more consistent enough to maybe get X-20s or G10s. Or possibly a good used set of G5s.

Trade-in companies like Global Golf and Dallas Golf inspect the clubs that come in very closely, especially if a driver has been reshafted (they'll knock you for that) or any other odd defect.

Are they extremely strict on the condition? If you are borderline on 2 conditions will they most likely give you the lesser quality?

Yes. Very rarely will they give you the higher amount.

Another subject I want to get peoples opinion on is people selling back clubs that are counterfeit. Do any of these stores look that in depth into the clubs? What are the chances that a used set from one of the retailers is a counterfeit that someone traded in?

You will probably never see that happen. While the general sales staff might not be able to tell the difference between a OEM club and a fake one (especially if they are new), most of the people who work in the trade-in/re-sale departments know a genuine club from a counterfeit one.. I have seen fakes that are very very close to the real thing, but if you are around clubs all the time, you can definitely weed out the bad ones.

Kevin