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Thanks guys. That's comforting news re: the longevity of a good set. Re: Dangerous - good point. They're quite chunky pieces of metal and one of them landed not far at all from where my playing partner was standing. Such a shame! Let this be a warning sign for all those tempted by a cheap but good looking non-name set with little-to-no information available on the internet. I will try to secure the XR set and failing that will look at the others. Really appreciate all the advice for a newbie to the forums. Very welcoming!

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I had a chance to inspect the clubs before purchase, and all looked fine from what I could see .. I was wondering what I should be looking out for at the hosel and club head to try and identify shoddy manufacturing. Sounds like it's just a really extreme outlier that I've picked up though. The woods have been OK, but I did get noticeably less distance (even as a beginner) compared to some of the hire clubs I was hitting, so I think I might write these off entirely and get a new set. I'm tossing up between a new set of the wilson SGI's, the spalding elite's, callaway's strata range, or a used set of Callaway XR's. Unfortunately nothing else around in my price range in AU (for a lefty)..

Hi all, As a newbie to golf, I made the mistake of turning to gumtree (a second hand classifieds website popular in Australia) in a bid to keep costs down for my first set of entry level clubs. I bought what I thought was a nice affordable set of "Texan Classics", steel shafts on the irons. Unfortunately, the worst case has happened. 4 of the club heads have snapped clean off the steel shafts (all irons) through the course of my first round with them, all on fairly innocuous shots that made primary contact with the ball. You can see pictures attached. Now I know it is what it is, and I have lost my money on this set. Lesson learned about going down this route vs more verified means of buying clubs from reputable brands. I'd love to learn from this though, so that I (and maybe others?) can avoid the same mistakes again. Based on the pictures, what do you think the issue is with the clubs? Manufacturing? too much/not enough epoxy? Wrong type of epoxy? Or was I just completely swindled ie it's not steel at all? The guys at my pro shop wondered if it was a zinc alloy popular in the 80s, though based on the style and design of the clubs, I just don't think they are that old. The other question is, what can I (and others) do when inspecting clubs to identify faults like this (if anything) and avoid the mistake I have made. Thanks for your advice! Whilst I'm bummed about the purchase, I'm trying not to let it dampen my excitement for golf and instead am looking at it as a teachable moment. Unfortunately I don't have any avid golfers in my circle of family and friends to turn to for advice.