888 X and Galatic Goose

[tboy]

could we please have specs on the 888x?

[Mordel]

I'll stick with my spyy yoyos thank you. Steve is an awesome guy and his yoyos are flawless in a precision crafted small batch way, rather than the mass produced weird feeling that the newer yyfs tend to give me.

 To each their own though. I have a soft spot for choosing smaller companies over corporate giants in where and what I spend my bucks on. With that said, there are some great products that are manufactured in China. The name of the game is quality control. The knives that Spyderco comissions a plant in China to produce are of outstanding quality. Besides wanting to support Canadian businesses, supporting a company that is getting so huge that it is needing to outsource in order feed demand is something that I try to steer away from.

 The semi-ethical (though the yoyo industry is such a small niche) rationalization takes a back seat to the personal taste factor in regards to why I am such a hard sell when it comes to yyf products. With the collection of yo-yos that I have now, I have yet to discover a yyf that can compete with them. A big problem too is risk factor in buying a new yyf: the market is so saturated with whatever I buy that I'd be lucky to get three-quarters of my money back if I don't like it. The reason being that it takes at least a week for a parcel to get to me and by that time other people down south will have already posted theirs. I hate feeling like I am taking a risk when I am spending a bill on something. I am admittedly very curious about superstars and the severe, but there is no way in hell that I am going to risk paying retail for something that may sit and gather dust if I can't resell it like the vast majority of my past yyf yoyos that I had to sell for stupidly low prices so they weren't just taking up space.

[King Felix]

But usually metal yoyos that come from China (mass produced) are better for players that dont have the expectations that every metal is going to play like an ILYY. because even if the have a little vibe they play fine and it makes everything cheaper

This may be a bit off topic, but YYF seems to have waaaaayyyy better quality control than ILYY. I've been on the hunt for a wasabi 09 and a rocket, and Ive been blown away with how many of the respondents have ILYYs with vibe issues. I mean, even if theyre wonderful when smooth, or still play nice with the vibe, it amazes me that so many of these 120-140 dollar yoyos would even have slight vibe issues, especially once they are out of the pre-production stage. While Im not faulting ILYY as a company, Im just wondering... what gives?

That said, I doubt YYF would switch to production in China and not have total faith that their product would remain as good as before. The typical American image of China as making cheap, sub-par products is becoming quite dated, and undoubtedly YYF's new production facilities there cost less, and offer a product of equal or better quality. And since the 888x costs less, YYF is passing their savings along to the consumer. Im starting to rant though, so ill stop.