Simon_the_furry
Hall of Fame
*winces*
Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?
- Thread starter flashfire276
- Start date
Got Pro Kennex Copper Ace at Goodwill for $5.
PT630Wannabe
Professional
Enjoy it. Best PK I've played.
Thanks. Do you know the specs for the racquet ? It weighs 340 gms with the strings. An arm friendly racquet ? Do you know, what the number on the grip means ? Serial number ? AK233988.
PT630Wannabe
Professional
Both of mine weigh 340g as well. Swing weight measured at 302!
PT630Wannabe
Professional
And yes very arm friendly. I've never had it on the RDC machine but it feels very low 50s at least. Very flexible.
ToastyTilapia
Rookie
Dude I've got one of those Donnay Graphite Borgs and it's amazing! Great find! Grommets are falling off on mine too but it's got barely any head rash or scratches.The first crack at a post-photo bucket world. Apologies in advance...
Wimbledon has now been and gone so the rackets have disappeared once again from the charity shops. Not before your humble correspondent rampaged around Greater London, however.
Merton and Tooting were happy hunting grounds:
Prince supreme graphite 90 (1986, mint, plays like a dream), Dunlop 300g hotmelt (has seen better days, bit of a rattle in the handle, complements my vantage and angell nicely from a designer lineage perspective) and Slazenger Panther Pro Ceramic (W. German, previous owner appeared to have a hitting technique of tarmac first, ball discretionary). Donnay graphite composite from the early 80s too, as yet untested. £16.
Edgeware
Donnay Borg graphite composite
Grommets flying off to all corners, buffed to high heaven and still looks dog-eared, potential death crack in the hoop. Plays magnificently, an absolute revelation. £1.
Wimbledon
I scoured the shops immediately before the championships and found relatively little. The buggers evidently turned the tables over after I left like something out of The Sting so when I popped back down there was a bit more by way of bounty:
All in, about £40. There's still a JK in its press and loads of prince and donnays down there but these seemed the best of the bunch. Head Pro Mid Plus Spesh Edition scrubbed up nicely once the wire wool was applied but not a fan so far from a brief hit. The Fischer superform XL Stan Smith was a proper bucket lister and plays wonderfully, provided all thought of a one-handed backhand is dispelled from your mind. The Dunlop is an addition to a collection of 200gs that is already somewhat out of control. From what I can tell from my learned colleagues on this forum, this is an early 90s fin de siecle job. From playing with it briefly, it retains the proud 200g tradition of crushing a forehand like no other racket.
Eltham & Borehamwood
For a high street with 9+ chazza shops, there are precious few rackets (incidentally, if Snauwaerts are your thing, All Aboard in Mill Hill have a lovely Sam 50). The only ones I found were a Head Magnum graphite and this:
This seems to be a late 90s blood relative of the PT630, but maybe the runt of the litter. Still a super racket, very responsive and manoeuvrable but perhaps a little lightweight. £6 for both.
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MrRandom247
Semi-Pro
$2 - Wilson Pro Staff Tour 90 - 6/10 condition - yellow inside hoop, always wanted one, its a bit tired
Just ditched a PS 6.1 Classic on an online sale @ 10€.
That's an absolute bargain here in Portugal, but it's 4 1/2 grip sized, and I already have one 6.1 classic.
I had to fight my will to just get the damn racquet, but in the end I know I'm not comfortable with thick handles, so I had to leave it
That's an absolute bargain here in Portugal, but it's 4 1/2 grip sized, and I already have one 6.1 classic.
I had to fight my will to just get the damn racquet, but in the end I know I'm not comfortable with thick handles, so I had to leave it
graycrait
Legend
Prince NEOS 1000 with a bad tensioner for $100 alsoSCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wouldn't think it would be too hard to rebuild the tension head. Or I wonder how much TM would charge to rebuild it? Great find and should be a moneymaker for you.
graycrait
Legend
I have a NEOS 1000 and just haven't crossed that threshold where I must have a WIse.
PT630Wannabe
Professional
Found a Prestige Tour MP yesterday. $3. Collar was crumbling so I shored it up with silicone and then slapped a leather grip over the collar. Not the most elegant solution but i just want to string it up and give it a hit. It's in my grip size of 4 1/4, so no panic about the pallets on the suspension grip.
frinton
Professional
Found a Prestige Tour MP yesterday. $3. Collar was crumbling so I shored it up with silicone and then slapped a leather grip over the collar. Not the most elegant solution but i just want to string it up and give it a hit. It's in my grip size of 4 1/4, so no panic about the pallets on the suspension grip.
Nice find at a even nicer price
Congrats.I have an older prestige as well with a crumbled collar... who can recommend a more elegant solution to the problem? Thanks
PT630Wannabe
Professional
Nice find at a even nicer price
I have an older prestige as well with a crumbled collar... who can recommend a more elegant solution to the problem? Thanks
If the rest of the suspension grip seems ok, i may remove the collar altogether and use some marine epoxy to shape a collar and then just re-wrap the grip up over it. It will look more like a modern head grip.
coachrick
Hall of Fame
You done good, I reckon! IMO, one of the best rackets ever made! They DO tend to go a little soft in the head and "breathe" like crazy during stringing. One of my favorites was Head Redline 17 @ 64#(Ektelon H) back in the olden days!!!
Henry Hub
Hall of Fame
Nice find at a even nicer price
I have an older prestige as well with a crumbled collar... who can recommend a more elegant solution to the problem? Thanks
I got a Pro Tour 600 off the other place which is in great condition (including bag signed by a certain Croatian fan of said racket). The collar split apart as soon as I peeled off the grip but that sadly is part and parcel of this racket build. Ended up just taking the same route of winding the grip up over the collar section and wrapping some transparent tape round. Looks ok as an interim solution but thinking about gaffer tape to create a distinction between grip and ersatz "collar".
Few recent additions to the collection:
Head Ti Radical Oversize, £8 in Camden. God only knows where the strings came from but they hit a surprisingly meaty ball.
Wilson PS95 6.1 - buttcode SES with Taiwan sticker (so according to @Sanglier on the superb appreciation thread, this is a 1992 edition). Different paint job than my 1994 (UGP) version. £6 in Belsize Park including bag.
With apologies for transgressing against the rules of the thread, this is also from the other place. Part of a lot of 7 rackets, the rest of which were junior and starter bats that went to the next charity shop I went in. £15 for all 7 so just over £2 for each of these.
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1010
Rookie
@BDAZ it seems you can't receive messages
@Henry Hub Great find. I love older PSCs. Sent you a message too
@Henry Hub Great find. I love older PSCs. Sent you a message too
coachrick
Hall of Fame
Very nice find. I played the FRS and ESC models a bit; but that Competition was a very popular racket along with the Davis models for the 'country club' setFound another woody for $3.
Looks like Pro-Fected nylon...a little "cheap" for the caliber of frame. I thought the hand-written serial numbers were darned cool(month and year of production, I believe)...but they wore off right zippy. Pretty flexy in the throat, that steel-reinforced fiberglass overlay was prone to delamination...yours looks great!
Henry Hub
Hall of Fame
Slim pickings recently over this side of the pond. That said, the prices have also fallen so I have picked up some vaguely interesting bits and bobs:
Mizuno Pro MV, £3 in Balham. The photo is misleading as the racket doesn't have a mark on it. Google keeps its cards close to its chest on this one but a quick search on this forum suggests that it was a MJ Fernandez stick.
Babolat VS Control for £1.50 in East London. No cracks but its got more scarring than the English Patient. Again from a TW forum search, it seems to have come out around 2003 but I know no more than that so any info as ever would be gratefully received.
Prince TT Warrior MP, half price so swept up for £1 in Tooting. Perhaps a function of the white paintjob but it had so much grot on it, it might as well have been stored up a chimney for the past 15 years. Took 30 minutes to clean and it turned out ok - only a couple of chips, otherwise in good form. Don't know much about this one but @n8dawg6 seems a fan. Any good?
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Mizuno Pro MV, £3 in Balham. The photo is misleading as the racket doesn't have a mark on it. Google keeps its cards close to its chest on this one but a quick search on this forum suggests that it was a MJ Fernandez stick.
Babolat VS Control for £1.50 in East London. No cracks but its got more scarring than the English Patient. Again from a TW forum search, it seems to have come out around 2003 but I know no more than that so any info as ever would be gratefully received.
Prince TT Warrior MP, half price so swept up for £1 in Tooting. Perhaps a function of the white paintjob but it had so much grot on it, it might as well have been stored up a chimney for the past 15 years. Took 30 minutes to clean and it turned out ok - only a couple of chips, otherwise in good form. Don't know much about this one but @n8dawg6 seems a fan. Any good?
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frinton
Professional
Slim pickings recently over this side of the pond. That said, the prices have also fallen so I have picked up some vaguely interesting bits and bobs:
Mizuno Pro MV, £3 in Balham. The photo is misleading as the racket doesn't have a mark on it. Google keeps its cards close to its chest on this one but a quick search on this forum suggests that it was a MJ Fernandez stick.
Babolat VS Control for £1.50 in East London. No cracks but its got more scarring than the English Patient. Again from a TW forum search, it seems to have come out around 2003 but I know no more than that so any info as ever would be gratefully received.
Prince TT Warrior MP, half price so swept up for £1 in Tooting. Perhaps a function of the white paintjob but it had so much grot on it, it might as well have been stored up a chimney for the past 15 years. Took 30 minutes to clean and it turned out ok - only a couple of chips, otherwise in good form. Don't know much about this one but @n8dawg6 seems a fan. Any good?
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Nice rackets and flooring ;-)
...fail better!
Henry Hub
Hall of Fame
It's actually the super-rare Prince TT Class Warrior, comrade.
frinton
Professional
Henry Hub
Hall of Fame
Sorry to mislead - jaggy and I are harking back to a 1970s UK sitcom, citizen smith. On reflection, there's probably a rather limited appreciative audience on here for our material...!
dak95_00
Hall of Fame
Those Prince paints from the TT series and some Volkl frames around the same era are grime collectors. I enjoyed your description of it being hidden in a chimney. That seems about right to me.
What did you use to clean it up?
Henry Hub
Hall of Fame
Just the classic workman's tools: cloth, cillit bang spray, a bit of dogged perseverance paired with a glass of red wine and US Open semis on the telly in the background...
It was pretty grotty but a cakewalk compared to trying to clean up the awful sticky paint on the Hotmelt 300g, which is the kind of job that makes Sisyphus grateful for his lot.
PT630Wannabe
Professional
Nice find at a even nicer price
I have an older prestige as well with a crumbled collar... who can recommend a more elegant solution to the problem? Thanks
So I finally redid the collar on the Prestige Tour MP. The marine epoxy works like a charm. Once it's cured you can sand and shape it. Just be sure to use latex gloves when handling the putty. It gets into your fingerprints.
MrRandom247
Semi-Pro
Um, feeling guilty here, bargain of mostly Wilson accessories:
New sealed with a little pack warping due to age/humidity.
Craigslist type deal:
1x Unique shock eye red, never seen one before
1x Wilson Contour replacement grip - black
1x pair Wilson sweatbands - white
3x Yonex cotton headbands - white
3x pairs Patrick sweatbands 1x white, 1x blue, 1x black
4x Wilson Pro Feel shock absorbers - black & red W logo
6x Wilson Vibra Fun shock absorbers - yellow smiley face
8x Wilson Shock Traps shock absorbers - white/clear
12x Pro Feel Plus shock absorbers - black W logo
39 items for next to nothing
Giddy up!..
New sealed with a little pack warping due to age/humidity.
Craigslist type deal:
1x Unique shock eye red, never seen one before
1x Wilson Contour replacement grip - black
1x pair Wilson sweatbands - white
3x Yonex cotton headbands - white
3x pairs Patrick sweatbands 1x white, 1x blue, 1x black
4x Wilson Pro Feel shock absorbers - black & red W logo
6x Wilson Vibra Fun shock absorbers - yellow smiley face
8x Wilson Shock Traps shock absorbers - white/clear
12x Pro Feel Plus shock absorbers - black W logo
39 items for next to nothing
Giddy up!..
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sbaniak
Rookie
Found a Head Graphite Pro (EU black non-Power Wedge) at a local Recycling center... always wanted one.
https://imgur.com/a/jcsve
https://imgur.com/a/jcsve
dak95_00
Hall of Fame
I haven't posted in awhile here about finds. Some recent:
$1.99 finds
Prince Thunderstick CTS OS
Prince Graphite II
Prince Magnesium Pro
Under $5 finds
Bancroft Professional wood
Head Composite Professional aka Comp Pro
Prince CTS Blast
Donnay Blue Ace
Prince Graphite 90
Yonex MP-3i
I'm sure there are others I've missed. My sickness is real but I'm proud of myself for for the many I've left behind.
$1.99 finds
Prince Thunderstick CTS OS
Prince Graphite II
Prince Magnesium Pro
Under $5 finds
Bancroft Professional wood
Head Composite Professional aka Comp Pro
Prince CTS Blast
Donnay Blue Ace
Prince Graphite 90
Yonex MP-3i
I'm sure there are others I've missed. My sickness is real but I'm proud of myself for for the many I've left behind.
Nice find! Super jealous as these are my main sticks now.
Both mine had crumbled collars. I just wrapped some folded overgrip. Add some electric tape and it looks fine. Plays likes dream for me. I'm using cyclone 16 @ 58lbs. It settles a lot lower.
PT630Wannabe
Professional
I ended up molding a collar out of marine epoxy. Wrapped the leather up over top. Looks great. And yeah. Beautiful playing racquets. If you ever find yourself running low, hit me up. I could be convinced to sell it.
For a nice profit
I have 2 that I am using. Im not getting anymore. Every time I think I have found the 'one' I end up reselling all but 1.I've decided, my bags going to consist of awesome old school rackets that I can choose from to beat all comers!
vsbabolat
G.O.A.T.
Love the Rossignol F200Here's my top three that I acquired from thrifting or trading thrift finds.
The POG and the F200 both came in an Offer Up bulk purchase @ $2.00 a racquet. The PS 85 was acquired in trade with a board member for my mystery Zytel racquet.
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r2473
G.O.A.T.
This is on my local classifieds. 400 old racquets. Thought some of you might want to contact him and see what he has:
https://www.ksl.com/classifieds/listing/45700992
https://www.ksl.com/classifieds/listing/45700992
coachrick
Hall of Fame
Wow...that's pretty pricey; but there are likely some interesting rackets in there...along with some pretty pedestrian woodies . I've got a couple dozen frames from the '70s-'90s that I hope to post soon...no woods to speak of.
