Mizuno MP-68s From Ebay: Authentic or Knock-offs?

[bplewis24]

A few points I should make:

1) I actually won this ebay auction before I signed up here and read about knock-off and counterfeit clubs. If I knew then what I know now...
2) They were sold to me 'new' with rifle 6.0 shafts. I don't see any stickers labeling the shafts as "Rifle" as I assume the "R" is for "regular" flex.
3) Note the ferrule in picture 4. I haven't seen a ferrule of that kind on any of the stock Mizuno picks (my local pro shop is closed at this hour and the clubs just arrived, so I can't go compare until tomorrow).
4) Is that Chinese lettering on the sticker in picture 5?

Well, let me know what you think:

If I never signed up at this place I may have never started worrying about whether the clubs were authentic or not. I guess it's true: ignorance is bliss .

Brandon

[jpalermo]

those look pretty shady to me.... how much did you pay?

[bplewis24]

those look pretty shady to me.... how much did you pay?

$600. Bidding started at $550 and only one other person bid.

Brandon

[jpalermo]

open a paypal dispute immediately..... also go to made in china.com to see if they are counterfeiting the mp68's

[jpalermo]

where did the box come from, ems? chinese writing on the box?

[ajschn06]

The label on the clubface is a dead giveaway. I'm pretty sure those are fake. Other things that show they are probably fake: no shaft label, the fact that the auction started at 550 and only had one other bid. I'm guessing a bunch of people sent questions to the seller to provide authentication, which he was unable to do, so noone else bid. You can try to open a dispute, but those don't usually go well.

[ajschn06]

Also, the ferrule that is shown doesn't look anything like one that the big companies use. It looks more like one that a clubmaker would use.

[Ben]

I wouldn't be so quick to pawn them off as fake. The UDS Concept thing on the face is in Japanese (Mizunos being Japanese, as if we didn't know that...) and in picture 5 that is Chinese/Japanese. That is the sign for "pon" in that case with 8, reading "happon". or 8 things that are tubelike or cylindrical. I'd imagine you bought these as a set of 8 clubs?

Your best bet is to take that serial number and contact Mizuno to verify originality.

ajschn06, makes a good point about the ferrules though. If you check against google images you wont see them look like that.with the two silver bands. All the images shown have just straight black ferrules.

[J_Bone]

I'm sorry to tell you, but those are FAKE .

[bplewis24]

I thank those who have responded for the input so far. I plan on doing a few things:

1) Contacting the seller and inquiring about the set and being up-front in being suspicious of their authenticity. He emailed me from his personal (& work) email address to give me the tracking number. I'd like to see what he has to say about where he got them and info on the shafts.

2) I've already emailed Mizuno as their call-in customer service number is down for the day. I will also give them a call tomorrow with the serial number.

3) Taking them up to the pro shop tomorrow afternoon to have a local pro check them out.

To respond to a few questions:

The box appears to be generic. There is a ton of wrapping/tape around the outside of it, and I'm not ready to peel all that off to see what is written on it. They were bought as a set of 8 clubs (3-PW) from an individual seller in Canada who has 100% feedback. He is not a volume seller, and some recent feedback shows that he has sold clubs before.

[jpalermo]

$20 says they were shipped ems..... and another $20 says they are as fake as Pam Andersons... B@@B$!
Happen to me once.... Set of AP2's.... Opened a dispute and got my money back..... Paypal buyer protection on items over $500. Contact the seller and tell him they are fake and if you paid with a credit card thru paypal you can dispute it with the cc company too..... You will get ur money back. Aren't most sets sold in 8's?

[bplewis24]

The thing that gets me is the ferrule. I mean, the club heads themselves appear 100% legitimate. My eye is obviously untrained, but looking at them closely for the past 2 hours and looking at pics online, they seem to be the real deal (I imagine I should try and hit them to find out for sure?). But everything from the hosel above looks suspect. The ferrule is different from stock pics, the craftsmanship where the ferrule and hosel meet doesn't appear perfect (should it?), and the shafts aren't labeled.

Is it possible this is one of those cases where the heads were stolen from a Mizuno warehouse and a Chinese manufacturer shafted and gripped them?

Brandon

[jpalermo]

open your paypal dispute immediately..... plastic wrapping around the outside of the box definately means ems..... those counterfeiters do drop shipping which means that the seller is in canada and they ship from china..... as soon as you mentioned the plastic wrap its a done deal....FAKE..... i know it sucks, i was stoked about the ap2's till the showed up in a dark plastic wrapped box....

they may look nice now, guaranteed they are not forged, shaft walls uneven, cheap cheap cheap materials,the guy who sold them to you paid probably 200-300 for them. don't try to justify it to urself anymore and take the necessary actions to get your cash back.... ebay case, paypal dispute

[padge]

Im with you, the ferrules are def not correct, mine on my flihi is straight black. But I beleive the heads are real.

[ajschn06]

What irons did you get in the set? One of the pictures says something like 5-9, and p g s. I look at that as 5-9 irons and pitching gap and sand wedges. If that's the case they are most certainly fake, as MP-68's don't come in gap or sand wedges.

The other thing, with the box being wrapped in a bunch of tape is something that they do when shipping from China. I was looking at some of these counterfeit sites at one point, and one of the customer service reps told me they had people who would put an ad on ebay for the clubs, and once the item sold they would place an order with their website and have it sent straight to the buyer. EDIT: This would be the drop shipping that was referred to in an earlier post

[jpalermo]

PM sent with a link to where they most likely came from.....

[jpalermo]

Post a picture of the shipping label on the outside of the box.....

[bplewis24]

Edit: does the youtube embed code not work on this site?



Check that out. I think that's an EMS logo. What is EMS, exactly?

Brandon