TaylorMade Tour Burner Driver Golf Club

I have become somewhat of a reluctant expert on Taylormade Tour Burner counterfeits. After nearly getting burned (no pun intended) by a seller who was drop shipping counterfeits from China I was fortunate enough to buy a legitimate authentic Tour Burner from an authorized reseller. The experience has left me much more aware of all the counterfeits on Ebay and how to identify the obvious fakes. The Tour Burner, unlike the Tour Burner TP comes with only 1 stock Taylormade shaft, that shaft is the 60g Fujikura Speedshaft with a checkerboard background pattern. It also comes with a Taylormade Tour Velvet lite grip, with no graphics other than the Taylormade name on the underside bottom of the grip. In their haste to rush out their fakes the counterfeiters used the graphics, weight, and grip from last years Burner in the Tour Burner counterfeits. All Taylormade Tour Burners with a shaft weight of 50g or 55g are absolutely without a doubt COUNTERFEITS. In addition it seems that the counterfeiters have not duplicated the Tour Burner headcover, which has white side panels and a large raised rubber "B" in red on a BLACK background on the head. Counterfeits either come with a red and yellow headcover without the "B", a red and yellow headcover with a red flat "B", or no headcover at all. (For examples of counterfeits go to www.dhgate.com and type in Taylormade Tour Burner in the search bar, which believe it or not is a clearinghouse for Chinese counterfeit merchandise).

Here is a description of the club specs for a counterfeit pulled directly from tradekey.com a noted counterfeit website, notice the shaft description:

Body Construction :Titanium
Crown Construction :Titanium
Face: Titanium
Lofts: 8.5° �#8226; 9.5° �#8226; 10.5°
Hand(s) :Right �#8226; Left
Face Angles: Square
Shaft Flexes: Regular �#8226; Stiff �#8226; X-Stiff
Standard Graphite Shaft: TM RE*AX SuperFast 50 Graphite
Lie Angle :60°
Grip :TV Lite 60
Head Size :450cc
Interchangeable Weights: No

While there is no foolproof way to determine whether or not the Tour Burner you are bidding on is genuine or not, at least stay away from any auctions containing the warning signs I outlined above. Making this even more incredible is the fact that some people are buying the counterfeit clubs at auction giving the seller positive feedback and then reselling the counterfeit once they have figured out they have been taken. If you do buy a counterfeit please tell Ebay and PayPal and leave the seller negative feedback as a warning to others.

The real Tour Burner is a great club, don't get short-changed buying a fake.