RF97A real ? Drakulie please help if you can

gmatheis

Hall of Fame
Drakulie I just put your name on here because I thought you might know the answer.

I recently purchased 2 RF97A's used through another retailer, I don't have any reason to suspect they are not real but my friend gave me his RF97A's to string and I decided to pop off the butt cap just out of curiosity.

They are a bit different inside, as you can see in the pictures. One of them you can see the pallet and the graphite and the other the butt cap seems to cover that and have 2 oval holes. Both seem to have some sort of foam inside.

one of them is a size 2 and the other is a size 3.

Did Wilson just use slightly different butt caps, or is one of them a knock off?

IMG_0140.jpg

IMG_0138.jpg
 
Those are blade buttcaps. But match the throat silver/black perfectly

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wilson_Blade_Juice_Steam_/descpageWILSON-WVARG.html

I recently put them on my rf 97's due to the edge of the prostaff buttcap. Rf's come with red, so they have been modified.

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wil...t_Sensor_Butt_Caps/descpageWILSON-PSSSBC.html

As you see the stock rf97 buttcap has sharp edges, they should of used this one

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wil...t_Caps_non-ProStaff/descpageWILSON-WSSBC.html

Its a 3/8 vs a 1/4, the 1/4 is rougher and has perfect ovals. Not sure what they did there
 
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Those are blade buttcaps. But match the throat silver/black perfectly

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wilson_Blade_Juice_Steam_/descpageWILSON-WVARG.html

I recently put them on my rf 97's due to the edge of the prostaff buttcap. Rf's come with red, so they have been modified.

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wil...t_Sensor_Butt_Caps/descpageWILSON-PSSSBC.html

As you see the stock rf97 buttcap has sharp edges, they should of used this one

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wil...t_Caps_non-ProStaff/descpageWILSON-WSSBC.html
No! When the RF 97 first came out the butt cap was black.
 
No! When the RF 97 first came out the butt cap was black.

My replacements are an exact match, maybe he bought them from a customized dealer.

A first gen rf97 that came with a black cap would be more consistent in physcial design
 
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I'm more concerned with what is under the cap when I pop it off.

One racket (bottom one) the butt cap seems to have a plastic cover (not the one with silver "W" logo I'm talking about after you pop that out) with 2 oval holes

The top racket doesn't have that inner cover and you can see the rectangular shape of the frame.
 
Mine has the bottom one's buttcap (albeit in a 3/8th grip size) and I know for a good reason that it's a legit one.
 
Both buttcap styles have been used on the RF97. No need to worry.

Do they make these in someones garage with spare parts? I can understand being off a few grams but different buttcaps?

Maybe one is a euro, that would be understandable
 
Both buttcap styles have been used on the RF97. No need to worry.

I think this is the case, there is nothing about either of the rackets that makes me think they are fake, the graphics all seem correct, they play fine, they all have hologram stickers with what I assume is a serial number. etc...etc...

I was just curious why they had buttcaps that were so different inside ... but I think they are both legit.

Thanks for the reponse.
 
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