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Blind Buying Experiences-The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

SuperStroke
I didn't pull the trigger, but the Epic Flash was this past year's "holy cow" driver in a lot of people's opinion.

I cannot hit that driver for love nor money.
 
dazeedmonds said:
We’ve all done it. We find a great deal, and we buy the newest, bestest, dreamiest <THING> and then it shows up and it’s the wrong shape, the wrong size, it’s left handed, or worst of all: it just doesn’t work. Sometimes it works out ok, or even great. Lets hear your stories, good, bad, funny, or sad.

I’ll start. As a rule, I don’t buy clubs blind. I want to hit it, touch it feel it. I’ll demo stuff and buy the same model on the used market. The one exception? Irons. Mostly it’s hard to find some of the stuff in stores to try, so I’m forced to take a flyer and hope.

All that said, my wife bought me irons for christmas one year. A used set of TEEs, I’d given her a list of sets I wanted to try and she picked up a set from Global golf for me. Mostly I just wanted to try graphite in my irons to see if that would help my elbow pain. They worked out great, helped with the elbow pain, and I haven’t had a set of steel shafted irons since.
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Most of the time mine are blind due to where I live & all but 1 has seemed to work out. The 1 bad was a 2 iron I bought because it had "Bubba" stamped on it which is my nickname & figured I could hit it since I hit my 1 iron so well. Yeah nope, every time I hit it, it is a disastrous shot. So now it's a dust collector.
 
Some eBay fun (or not) over maybe a month on the hunt for a new (or ish) driver in the $100-$150 range. A TM driver fan, but Twist Face, not so much. As usual, decision swayed by forum posts here and there (that other site). Who need's fitters when you have random threads to rely on?

Used Honma 747 455 with a Vizard Type A in S flex, the construction and condition were meh, but the S shaft was just a noodle; back it went.

New TM 2017 M2 Draw, just couldn't stand the colors or look of the head, no worries with eBay returns and dropped another $8-9 for return shipping.

New Callaway Big Bertha Epic Star; went way over budget. Looks and plays fantastic; the Goldilocks for now.
 
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W/S Cortex has come up well short of the 'good' list, so far. :confused:
 
Some mizuno mp64s that were on sale via ebay with a shaft that I had success in the past with... man, that was an inconsistent 3 month experiment.
 
Being in the midwest, with limited access to stuff, I've bought a ton blind over the years, some was completely wrong for me, and I just had to unload it quick. But lately, I've tried to make a point to attend brand demo days and try the stuff direct from the rep and get fit on it with their tech.
 
millsan1 said:
I didn't pull the trigger, but the Epic Flash was this past year's "holy cow" driver in a lot of people's opinion.

I cannot hit that driver for love nor money.
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That’s my story with the Cobra F8 hybrids and so many people love them.
 
I haven't had good luck buying without trying first, with one exception. I had not tried hitting Callaway Rogue irons that I am gaming now, but read enough reviews about them to pretty much know I should be good with them.
 
I can't buy anything blind any more. I have to be fitted. Nothing worse than getting $1000 worth of TM woods, hybrids, etc and not be able to hit them because the shafts were wrong for me. I go to a fitting every year now at demo days, get what I should use and if I don't order them then, wait and order when the price gets reduced.
 
Bad - I was a fan of the M1 and M2, but liked the sliding weights of the M1, so I figured an M3 would be great. Newer tech, etc, etc. Ordered one and hated it from about the 3rd hit. At this point I was swinging well, and that thing launched ridiculously high compared to the earlier offerings (for me), and spun more. Fought it for a very brief but thorough bit, and wanted to throw it in the trash from that point on. Just traded it last night towards a Mavrik. Good riddance.

Good - I made an educated guess on replacing my Nike Slingshot Pro irons from .. '06 (?) with CF16's and Tour V 110 shafts and my handicap was basically halved almost instantly. I will probably die with those clubs in my garage. I just can't sell them. They changed everything.

Ugly - Every face balanced mallet ever. I'd putt better with a snake.
 
only had a good buying experience...partially blind. my brand new Z565s. the seller had me at new Z565s...my imagination did the rest.
 
So last season I had an F9 and it was working pretty well but just not as well as I hoped. I may have had one....or four too many drinks one night and saw a pretty good deal on a new Epic Flash on ebay. Being in the inebriated state that I was I put a bid down on it figuring that it wasn't high enough to win the thing. The next day I wake up to see I won and spent some money that I probably shouldn't have :oops: Anyway, It showed up and it ended up being a pretty damn good fit! Happy ending on that one but I've had my share of blind buys on ebay that don't work out. Luckily I don't have to spend too much since lefty stuff is usually a decent deal :)
 
On the good side for me with a blind addition to the bag. I have been fortunate to win a club that ended up being a fantastic addition to the bag. Ping G410 SFT 5 wood is a great club and is one that I can get up off the deck and hit that one as far as I do my 3 wood which I struggle with. It's a club I likely would have never tried, but it just works.
 
Full disclosure. I almost always buy blind. Being in a rural area with poor selection of gear, ebay is where I turn when I want a deal/new gear.

The Good:
Pretyt much my entire current bag, except for the Altitudes. I got lucky. Everything worked out well for me, and I love using every club.
Cleveland Altitude Irons - the #1 all time favorite blind buy. I expected the world, and they delivered.
Callaway XR16 Driver - bought for cheap on ebay weeks after they were released, it has stuck in my bag since, and nothing has beat it out.
Callaway V-Series Heavenwood - the fairway finder, the trouble escaper, the green finder. So worth it.
Swag Handsome One Raw putter - bought because of a ridiculously low price, it stuck in my bag, and I don't ever want it to leave.
Wilson Staff C200 irons - I wanted these from the day they were announced at a THP event. They have knocked out like 3 other sets of irons from my bag.
Cleveland RTX-3 wedges - one of two surprise buys last year that stuck it out in the bag. I love hitting my wedges again because of them.

The Bad:
Toulon Memphis - my putting went to absolute junk after grabbing one. I loved the look, but fought with it for an entire season when I went stretches of multiple rounds without sinking a single putt
Cleveland RTX-2 custom wedge - I don't know what it was, maybe the longer neck on the wedge, but I was in shank city from the day I put it in the bag, to when I took it out.... and that was only maybe 5 or 6 rounds max.
Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 816 driver - all I could hit, all day every day, was ugly knucklers...... not good.

The Ugly:
Callaway Apex Irons - I just couldn't get the ball off the ground with them. My first foray into graphite, and ended up with shafts that were just too stiff for me
Callaway Apex CF16 irons - I tried the Apex rout again, with shafts that should have worked for me (they worked fine in other irons). Same deal, different head, I just couldn't justify keeping them when I hit my Wilson Staff C200s better
Cleveland CG Black CB irons - I wanted to love them. I adored the look of them. Just couldn't hit them to save my life. On the plus side, I pulled the Recoil graphite shafts that came in them, and they went into my Altitudes for many years.
 
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