The most expensive badminton racket: who pays $3,999 for this?!

As I was browsing badminton gear, I stumbled upon several high-priced rackets which made me wonder: what is the most expensive badminton racket out there?

It led me down the rabbit hole of comparing rackets and brands when it hit me… the most expensive racket isn’t your typical performance racket…

And sure enough. After some research, I discovered this one costing far more than your usual $200.

My first thought was: $3,999 FOR THIS SHIT?!

AND IT’S SECONDHAND!

Of course, it was a Chanel racket rather than one of the usual suspects of badminton brands. However, that doesn’t count as it’s obviously a status symbol rather than one we’d normally play with.

Read on to see which other expensive badminton rackets I came across including the most expensive performance racket we players would actually complete a game with on court. I’ll also look into the surprising way the pricing of badminton rackets works.

The most expensive badminton rackets (both for fun and your actual games)

Before diving in, let me point out that I’m not considering special edition rackets or sets with more than one racket or item within the package. I also don’t count any upgrades such as special offers or the price for a restring.

I did see some other expensive badminton rackets costing several thousands of dollars on Amazon, but there was something odd and off-putting about those, so I chose not to include them here.

For example, this product has a suspicious-looking brand name in the 4U weight class which is usually categorized as normal or slightly on the lighter side rather than being super light.

The second most expensive racket I came across was a huge non-playable racket seemingly made for marketing purposes. As demonstrated by Badminton Insight, it’s far too big to play with:

Moving on to the “standard” performance rackets you might actually use during your games. There’ll be a tendency for the best badminton rackets to cost more while demanding better skills from the player (more on that in a minute). 

Combine that with rackets sold in the west tending to be more expensive as import tariffs and taxes are added to the price, and you land in the $250-$300 range per racket.

As it turns out, both Li-Ning and Yonex appear to win this questionable “prize” with the following rackets price at about the same depending on the store.

Li-Ning Studio in Singapore (although not in the West) sells the Li-Ning Axforce 100 for the equivalent of $295 at today’s exchange rate.

Meanwhile in Europe, Badminton Shop (yes, that appears to be the actual name of this store) sells Li-Ning’s Axforce 90 Max Tiger (and Max Dragon) for a few dollars cheaper ($293) when converted from Euro.

They do sell top-of-the-line Yonex rackets for about $10 (and Euro) less, so the range is about the same.

I’ve found the pricing to be about the same across several other websites, so this appears to be a fair representation.

The top Victor rackets tend to come in slightly cheaper at $30-$50 less depending on the model, country, and store. This example is from Victor’s official store in Europe.

Next, let’s look at how badminton racket pricing works.

The surprising way racket pricing works

When we aren’t sure which of two products to get, many of us go based on price and assume we get what we pay for.

With badminton shoes and other gear that’s usually correct. But with rackets, it isn’t that simple.

Sure, the more you pay for a racket, the higher quality materials are used and the country it’s manufactured in is sometimes one that’s seen as better for craftsmanship, which looks better for branding.

There are also professional player endorsements, branding and marketing, along with technology and build quality.

But as a rule of thumb, they also require better technical stroke skills to take advantage of in your game.

In other words, not only do you pay more for certain rackets, but you also need to be a better player to use them. As such, beginner players shouldn’t buy these rackets as they’ll have a poorer experience on court and more difficulty with their strokes. On the other hand, rackets suitable for them tend to cost just a fraction as you’ll find in my guide on the best beginner badminton rackets.

A beginner player getting a top-of-the-line racket is like badminton suicide or playing video games on hard mode.

I hope this persuades you to avoid making the mistake I did and picking a badminton racket based on how expensive it is. Instead, consider the suggestions I’ve outlined in my guide on choosing the perfect badminton racket for you.