Fake or real Prince O3 Speedport White MP?

jeff33702

New User
Be easy on me. I was thinking of getting back into tennis after a 17 year leave. My original DB90 is cracked so on a whim, I checked out the local craigslist and found a "new" Prince O3 Speedport White MP. It never even occured to me that there might be counterfeit tennis racquets, of all things - but after buying it and thinking about the "if the price is too goo to be true" rule, I'm worried that I got duped. I haven't shopped for gear in forever, so I didn't think to check some of the most obvious things.

Most of the pictures online have more rectangular ports on the bottom of the racquet, while mine are approaching triangular. Also, pictures online of what I believe are authentic units have more of a radius where the yoke meets the frame. Unit is missing the barcode/hologram/identifying markings and maybe the most strange thing about it is it's black handle.

The guy I got it from said he does some work for a local tennis shop and they he gets gear on trade sometimes. He seemed nice and we BS'd for a while. Hopefully I don't have to take this back to him but if I do, I got the impression that he'd be cool about it.

Here are the pics:
IMG_0446.JPG

IMG_0447.JPG

IMG_0448.JPG

IMG_0449.JPG


Thanks guys/gals. - Be kind, learning my lesson. Was just out to find an OK unit to hit some balls around.....

Jeff
 

jeff33702

New User
I looked at one at the store and I think some of the confusion was that most of the pictures online are of the "pro" version, even if the product being sold isn't.

There's still something screwy because they labeling where the hologram is just isn't there at all.
 

jeff33702

New User
Still curious on this.

While the one at the local retailer looked pretty much the same - there are still these key differences
-NO HOLOGRAM OR SPECS INSIDE THE THROAT
-Paint lines not straight..sloppy - but the one at the store was the same

I have to wonder if these are out-of-spec prices that sneak out the back door. Shouldn't the manufacturer be held accountable for controlling what makes it out the door? I understand that they go for cheap labor and sometimes factories that are contracted to produce a product end up making a "special" run of the same product and selling it cheap - if this happens, shouldn't the main company do something to prevent it or at least advise consumers about this?

Jeff
 

The_Question

Hall of Fame
Can you provide more shots of inside the throat? Cause that engineering code (TX208A) doesn't look right. It should have more prints about weight, stirng type, length, etc near by.

By the way, you can still get some sticks similar to your DB90 on e-bay, such as CTS Response, CTS Synergy DB24, DB26, etc...
 

The_Question

Hall of Fame
Oh snap, I'm going for it!!

fAkE!!!

I have the Speedport Tour and many other O3 frames (Royal, TourX2, Red), they all have that info inside of the throat.
 

jeff33702

New User
I've seen a couple racquets for sale on here that were advertised as having this type of product number on the throat. I'm really curious to see if there is some legitimate reason that it's printed this way.

I have a feeling the guy I bought it from will give me a refund on it, so I should be OK.
 

Ljubicic for number1

Hall of Fame
I think you will find it is real but not a commercial retail racquet. It looks like it has come from the Prince experimental line. Alot of the prince experimental frames have found there was onto the auction site over the years.
 

Zielmann

Semi-Pro
It is awful suspicious, then again if it's fake, it's like the guy didn't put in any effort at all to trick you. I hope that it's real, for your sake.

This would be the time to take it into a pro-shop and have somebody look at it. Maybe measure weight and balance to see if it checks out. And if all else fails, contact Prince and see what is up with it. If it is legit, they should certainly be willing to explain what the deal is.

What you've got going for you though, is that I haven't known of any confirmed fake Prince frames since the O3's came out. It's just such an unusual design with the holes like that... Well, I guess there was one: it was a normal frame painted to look like there were holes in it. Set up so that you couldn't tell against whatever backdrop they used for their Bay listings. Clearly, yours has the speedports, so this isn't the case here.
 
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