Thoughts on Tennis Balls:an Australian Perspective

[JSouza]

There are many threads out there reviewing and discussing tennis balls, and a lot of the info in those threads is very useful so a general thank you. What is posted here is actually helpful to a lot of people.
But here in Australia, its kinda unbelievable how much we have to pay for tennis balls. I hear guys talking about buying cans of Penns from Walmart for $2. For any level of quality, that is ridiculous to me.
Here you pay, for a 4 ball can at 95% of retailers a minimum of $10.
Does anyone know why there is that price differential? It isnt 1975; almost no balls are manufactured in the USA. They are made in China. And so the shipping costs to the US are if anything greater than those encountered when shipping to Australia.
I'd love to see some downward pressure on the prices of tennis stuff (inc apparel and shoes: barricades can cost $185 or more here).
Also, I've bought almost every single type of tennis ball available here. Including of course, the Slazengers that have a the tag of being the best in Aus. And there is no argument: Penns hold their bounce the longest and play the best.

[ramos77]

Totally agree.

The best ball in terms of price for me, is the 9 pack of Wilson US Open extra duty you can get from Big W. It's $5 a can

We get ripped off for everything here.. Not just tennis equipment and apparel.

I dont think the Slazangers are as good as they used to be, still very good balls though.

I don't mind the aus open wilsons at all. Where I pay comp, everyone plays with the wilsons or the slaz, so I just buy the same.

[ramos77]

oh and another thing, I've opened far too many cans with flat balls in the past year. WTF is with that?

[GoSurfBoy]

Played Futures in Central and S. America had the same, faint-at-the-price 'sticker shock'. Luckily, the perks of being somewhat decent players, we were generally given balls, but random hits here and there, playing some social stuff, etc., I would bring balls. That's a BIG gesture, there, when it was $10 a can!

Ouch. One can would buy you 2 or 3 nice meals.

I was told it was Duties placed on such foreign and 'luxury' items. Anything 'local' was quite inexpensive. Anything imported got hammered, but since there's very little income tax collected, revenues are paid by VATS, as most make very little money.

However, I would have thought that Australia would be producing their own balls?

I would be in favor of $5/can+ balls, here (Federal Sales Tax), if it meant getting rid of the IRS and the INSANE tax code, but the bloated-and-growing-ever-larger Federal gubmint' would NEVER do anything to lay off 175,000 ''Revenooers".

[JSouza]

Originally Posted by ramos77

Totally agree.

The best ball in terms of price for me, is the 9 pack of Wilson US Open extra duty you can get from Big W. It's $5 a can

We get ripped off for everything here.. Not just tennis equipment and apparel.

I dont think the Slazangers are as good as they used to be, still very good balls though.

I don't mind the aus open wilsons at all. Where I pay comp, everyone plays with the wilsons or the slaz, so I just buy the same.

I havent seen those, didnt really think of looking for tennis balls at big W. Will have to check that out

[JSouza]

Originally Posted by ramos77

oh and another thing, I've opened far too many cans with flat balls in the past year. WTF is with that?

Yes! its just been happening more and more lately. I bought 3 cans of Aus Open Wilsons once. All 3 were flat. Couldnt believe it. Pretty much put me off those balls forever

[JSouza]

Via one of the 2 big online stores ( South American River being one of them...) you can buy cases of balls for around $2-4 a can, mainly Penn championships. So thats how I tend to get mine. But you still get slapped with $40 postage, which lessens the cost savings a bit...

[Chotobaka]

The flush in your toilets spins in the wrong direction. But you are spot on regarding the tennis ball rap@ & bake.

[ramos77]

So I popped open a fresh can of slazenger hard courts today, the bounce was perfect but they are way too hard IMO.

what has happened with this ball? Or am I just too used to the wilson aus opens?

[ramos77]

Originally Posted by JSouza

Yes! its just been happening more and more lately. I bought 3 cans of Aus Open Wilsons once. All 3 were flat. Couldnt believe it. Pretty much put me off those balls forever

One of the posters here gave me a good tip. squeeze the can to see how hard it is, the harder it is the pressure is inside the can..

also, I've find it's best to buy from stores that sell a lot of balls, and therefore keep ordering in fresh stock. cans that sit around for ages will go flat...

the wilson aus open are good balls, give them another try..

[gavna]

Just FYI shipping costs from China or Thailand (or pretty much all of Asia) to OZ is for sure not cheaper than shipping to the US. Unfortunate for all of you in OZ but shipping there due to its being a heavy importer vs her global exports (which are few) makes the freight rates some of the highest rates on the market.

As ocean freight rates are based on the commodities shipped but for sporting goods shipping from all base China ports to Melbourne as an example are 2.5x higher than those to west coast USA.

It's a huge reason goods in OZ just cost more.

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by JSouza

Yes! its just been happening more and more lately. I bought 3 cans of Aus Open Wilsons once. All 3 were flat. Couldnt believe it. Pretty much put me off those balls forever

I played a tournament years ago that used to always provide Wilson US Open balls. For some reason, just that one tournament they used Australian Open balls. Every one of them was flat out of the can.

[tball]

That means that the demand is so high down there, $10/can is no object. You guys should slow down a bit. I think, you've popularized the sport enough.

[Bobby Jr]

Au$10 (basically US$10 these days) is pretty cheap for a 4 ball can of premium balls nowdays in Aussie. I've seen them up in the $13-$14 mark. The same balls - no joke - cost about US$15-16 in NZ.

A few times over the years I have tried to convince the odd online retailer in the US to ship a case of balls to Aus when I was there and it's worked once or twice.

It seems oddly hypocritical that TW happily ships Wilson tennis racquets and Nike shoes etc pretty much anywhere in the world despite it technically being banned by the suppliers and often stated on the product pages (Wilson for example) ... but, on the other hand, they wont ship balls overseas.

I'd really like to know why? If someone is happy to pay the shipping I can't see much reason not to other than sneaky protectionism reasons for local dists.

[Crisp]

Tretorn championship balls are surprisingly very very good balls. They have stayed hard in the coaching basket far longer than any wilson or Dunlop ball I have ever used. And this is when training high level itf junior players. And staying on topic they are cheaper than nealy all other balls when bought by the box.

[makinao]

AFAIK, standard Slazenger-Dunlop balls are still made in the Philippines. A 4-ball can of Dunlop Roland Garros or Slazenger Wimbledon goes for about PhPesos 330.00 retail, which would be about under AUS$8.

[mmk]

I was shocked at the price of balls the first time I was in Oz. Shipping costs have to be lower since you are much closer to the factories than we are here in the States. On the other hand, prices for most things are higher there than here. Part of it of course is your GST, but it seems to me that a larger part is collusion by importers. I know that Costco opened a store or two there over the last year, have you checked to see if they carry balls? I saw open stock Yonex balls in a bin at Rebel Sport for 0.99 each in March, but I don't know if they were meant to be pressureless, and what quality they are. Factor in higher racquet prices there, and almost no free public courts (we have tons), I'm surprised at the number of people who do play tennis there.

[gonzalocatalino]

Here in Argentina we have to pay even more for tennis balls... Any decent can of 3 balls (big brands) starts at u$s 10...
The dunlops rg or slazengers (4 ball can) costs around 15...

[JSouza]

Originally Posted by mmk

I was shocked at the price of balls the first time I was in Oz. Shipping costs have to be lower since you are much closer to the factories than we are here in the States. On the other hand, prices for most things are higher there than here. Part of it of course is your GST, but it seems to me that a larger part is collusion by importers. I know that Costco opened a store or two there over the last year, have you checked to see if they carry balls? I saw open stock Yonex balls in a bin at Rebel Sport for 0.99 each in March, but I don't know if they were meant to be pressureless, and what quality they are. Factor in higher racquet prices there, and almost no free public courts (we have tons), I'm surprised at the number of people who do play tennis there.

WHAT?! You guys have free courts. Whoah. Yeah here almost all courts cost $20 an hour or something.

[mmk]

Originally Posted by JSouza

WHAT?! You guys have free courts. Whoah. Yeah here almost all courts cost $20 an hour or something.

Within walking distance I have 2 courts. Within 5 Km driving distance, I have 46 free courts, available most of the time on a first come, first serve basis. Eighteen of them are have lights. Even with all those, I still belong to a club and pay for court time, but that is to play indoors. On the other hand, we don't have any cricket ovals I miss watching Mike Hussey.