I've been thinking the same thing. He's invited me to come over and take a look at his setup, so I figure I'll do that and make sure the strings are still sealed and such.
So long as nat gut is in the vacuum pack it's ok, right?
Is it safe to say that VS has the requisite stamping and such on the strings that most strings do to tell if he does a bait n switch on me?
Strings may be vacuum packed (original factory sealed) but this doesn't tell you much about the true history of the strings, such as how that packet of strings has been handled (subjected to extreme temps and so on for instance). That said, as this stringer is an MRT, you probably don't have too much too worry about, unless you go for the visit and your spidey sense tells you something is way way off ;-)
On the strings, it should say "Babolat VS Touch" then the gauge and then "Made In France". If you are getting the 17 gauge, then it would be VS Team instead of Touch.
This stamping does rub off quite easily and even during stringing a lot of it will come off so by the time you get your racquet back, you shouldn't expect to see the markings all over the place. But at least some of the markings should still be intact after freshly strung.
Also, the tennis shop he works at just closed down, so he may be stringing cheap to build up a stable of clients. I figure worst case scenario I'm out $50.
He's one of only two master certified stringers in the greater metro area, so I would guess that there's some level of expertise involved.
I would say ask him directly why his price seems on the low side given A) VS gut costs $42 from TW, B) Most stringers charge at least $10 for labour and often more if it's Natural gut because of the extra time and care involved.
I personally charge $18 for natural gut and $10 (Canadian dollars) for all other strings as natural gut jobs typically take me twice as long as other strings because of extra care and time required to do a proper job. This stringer might be willing to charge $8 (but maybe it's actually more because we don't know his cost to get the string, he might have a stock pile of VS that he got on the cheap when the store he worked at went under) because he wants to build up his client base as you suggested. The important thing is that he doesn't cut corners on the gut job so you might even ask him outright if that concerns you: "I hear from other stringers that gut jobs take longer, I am wondering how you manage to charge a low price on the stringing fee even when doing gut jobs?". I don't think that's offensive and shows that you have done your homework and know what the market price should be like. If the stringer takes offense to your asking, it would appear to me that he is not very confident in his abilities as a confident stringer should not mind being quizzed about his work - he knows that he knows his stuff and that he will stand up to scrutiny - in fact he should welcome it as it gives him a great chance to sell himself even more to you as your stringer of choice.
