Search results

All those fake Butterfly blades that used to be so common on AliExpress? They seem to have moved to wish.com: https://www.wish.com/search/table%20tennis :D Iskandar

Ali Battleship is one of the Seven Eachengs, by the way. All of the Eachengs are good. As I said, though... prices between them vary wildly! Do a search before buying, you might save major moolah. Iskandar

The old Gold Arc rubber was also ridiculously priced, and I couldn't figure out why it was so expensive (compared with, say, Hurricane or Tin Arc). Turns out it's got Japanese sponge. Gold Arc 5 and 8 are actually made by ESN in Germany (it says "Made in Germany" on the package, and 8 actually...

Remember that Gold Arc 5 and 8 are NOT Chinese... And European/Japanese rubbers often cost more on Eacheng than on European sites. Same rule applies, to, say, Palio Aeolus (anyone know why it costs so much?). Sounds like a really fast bat.. :) Iskandar

"Stuor", huh? ;) Haven't seen them before now. Congratulations, you've found the epicenter of fake blades. I mean, $23.26 for a Ma Long Hurricane Long V? That's not to say they're bad blades.. the only way to tell is to buy one and see, fortunately they don't cost much. Just be aware of what you...

Wow! I can't ever remember getting a warped blade from anyone. Even the cheap blades at Daiso or those $3 thin hardbats I bought at K-Mart years ago weren't warped. I've heard it was an issue in the distant past - Bernard Hock had a local plywood factory make his plywood and he made sure there...

I should add that Eacheng is very good if you want to specify the weight of blade, or if you want to order a matched pair, etc. You could even ask them to "send the lightest blade" and they will. I think you could also buy a blade and two sheets of rubber and they'll glue the sheets onto the...

The big name in "copy" blades was HRT/Huarite. In particular they had a Clipper that had the red outer core plies that was even called a Clipper (I had one, gave it to someone) and they made copies of all those Stiga hardwood blades (rosewood and ebony-faced blades). They seem to have gone...

Someone sent me a PM to post here about AliExpress. I'll cover some of the stuff mentioned above. 1) A good deal? Certainly for Chinese stuff. Definitely not for European stuff - you CAN get Andro, Stiga stuff etc. but it's often MORE expensive than European stores. I do like that all packets...

Natural latex rubber is an amber color, much like honey. That's what I remember of Tornado - the topsheet was very transparent, you could see the pips underneath, and was the color of natural latex rubber. The yellow Tuttle Octopus is very different, it's just plain opaque yellow. If it were...

Or more likely one that's not been released yet and/or is still under testing at ITTF. Still, if it's an experimental sheet of an existing rubber, I'd like to know what it is. Note the printing is on the sheet. Experimental sheets, or samples sent out for testing to vendors, often lack the...

Access isn't the problem with Quantum X - it's available easily on AliExpress. The problem is the price. ^_^ Before the two color rule (when was that .. 1983?) there were NO rules about what color you could have on your bat. Cheap Chinese bats came in all sorts of colors. I've heard of (but...

Compare that to this: Iskandar

See all the loopy writing? Iskandar

The X version logo doesn't look like Bernadette's rubber either. Wonder what it is, really. Iskandar

Ninety six bucks???? Good god.. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32588212867.html Are they serious?????? :rolleyes: Doesn't look remotely the same, though.. no loopy writing. Iskandar

What's a Quantum X? Iskandar

Get the green... The green topsheet, at least, is transparent. Yes, of course it isn't ITTF-approved, which means it's not tournament legal. Doesn't make any difference to me.. :) It's great for freaking out club-mates. Packaging is nicer than your typical Chinese $5 sheet (it's more like a...

I wouldn't worry too much about it.. Igor often makes up stuff... Incidentally, I bought a sheet of the Tuttle Octopus. Get the green - the yellow is ugly. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33036579978.html Iskandar

Chinese penhold players regularly leave a 1cm strip next to the handle uncovered, as is allowed for in the rules. I don't buy into the handle ballasting - even if you are using your wrist muscles to move the bat (which you should not be doing), you're not reducing the bat's moment of inertia...