Darren, can we have? Bargains!

Darren,

Are we allowed to have a thread where people can post links to fantastic deals in the sales?

Thought I'd check first.

Chris (looking to spend his xmas money) 

I cannot see any reason why he wouldn't allow you to post a link to a fantastic deal that you have found in the sales.

He'll be on soon so should be able to answer you.

Russ

Some may disagree, and I know the new one will be out for the start of the season but,

http://www.americangolf.co.uk/golf-clubs/golf-drivers/nike-sq-dymo-wide-body--1-driver/

Not bad for a driver that was worth over £200 a few weeks ago.

This aint bad either - again £350 at the start of the season, what a difference a few months makes.

http://www.direct-golf.co.uk/golf_drivers/nike_golf/sq_dymo_2_square_str8-fit_driver_golf_drivers/p9452

I do like the Nike golf stuff though.

Not a bad deal for these balls...

http://www.direct-golf.co.uk/golf_balls/srixon/distance_golf_balls_dozen_golf_balls/p2405

I love bargain hunting, although its not a bargain unless you really need it.

Just goes to show what a rip off new clubs are in the first place if they can discount down to that level.

Personally I don't like to pay more than £30 for a golf club so these kind of deals are still very unattractive to me.

Made in China just does not ring any bells with me in respect of golf equipment. All the main manufacturers are not manufacturers at all, just one large marketing machine. Every year they claim an improvement over the previous year and so on and on.

If you really are serious about your game then one has to look at the Japanese for the build quality.

Got to agree with you there John.  I never understand why the clubs cost SO bloody much at first and within 8 months hundreds of pounds are slashed off them. 

They cost that much because there are far too many gullible people out there in the marketplace. So many new players taking up the game and think that is how much they have to spend to be any good, when we all know that one cannot buy a game.

I popped down to my club today as they were advertising a cut price sale, but there was nothing there that interested me at the prices they were still asking for.

The course, however, is open for play again. No buggies for me though.

Don't see why not on.  Assuming you are a member of golfshake.com and haven't just signed up to post and are also posting links of interest and not links you have an interest in.

So yes all fine, it will be worthwhile for all.

No spammers though

The reason manufacturers charge a fortune for new stuff is down to R & D, marketing, advertising costs.  When they are bringing out something new, the price of last years "must have" it is reduced to moe realistic levels. For example, my Nike Driver cost me the princely sum of £60, was £250 when released.  In my opinion Nike are the worst offenders for overpricing then slashing!

Also, beware of counterfeit gear, certain auction sites are full of the stuff!!

The best thing to do with 'New' equipment is wait twelve months before buying it!

Now, if you do this then you suddenly won't have the 'New' model, but you'll have 'Last year's model'.

People are always after the latest gear so if you wait a year you'll find some bargains out there.  Not only that but the gear you'll have will only be a year old.

Russ

As John mentioned manufacturing in China, I thought I would give you guys a bit of an insight. 9 years ago I was the General Manager of clothing manufacturers in southern china. We made stuff for all the big names, one ski suit we manufacured cost about $220 in labour and materials and retailed at $4000. The site I was managing had about 1400 staff of which something like 800 lived on the site (including myself). Easily the biggest site and workforce that I ever managed.

Nike were one of our customers and they invited me to visit one of their running shoe manufacturing sites. That site had 32000 workers who also lived there. The dormitories where they lived were 16 storeys high!  Adidas had an identical site right next door. The size of these operations have to be seen to be believed, The average wage back then was about $40/month, so you got what you paid for, the quality was never as good as UK production standards but the price pressure from the customer meant that quality had to suffer for the cheaper production costs.

Anyway thats enough rambling from me, hope you all have a good new year, and a successful year on the course.