Ada Harga Ada Rupa, Rupanya

Do you know that badminton is a poverty sport? As in, the more you play the sport, the more you're tiptoeing the poverty line. To play badminton, you need a racket, shuttlecock, and a court. Unlike padel, pickleball (eww), or tennis, badminton racket is practically a disposable toy. You look at it wrong it cracks (looking at you, Nanocrack!)

Thankfully, racket's price is not that ridiculous. As long as you avoid the flagships from the big 3 (Yonex, Victor, and Li-Ning), you're good to go. Nowadays the tech are quite good that the smaller brands can manufacture decent rackets for decent price, definitely lower than the big 3. Heck, I even found a discontinued, discount-bin flagship from Dunlop in Amazon for 16€ a piece that plays like one of Victor's flagships. So, if you can find the sweet spot between the price and your specific needs, then you're set to play.

But then there's shuttlecock.

MY GOD IT'S EXPENSIVE. AND PRICE GETS HIGHER DAY BY DAY (I think).

A tube usually contains 12 shuttlecocks. Price per tube varies greatly, you can find 10€ a tube until like idk, 100€++ a tube for Yonex F90 if I'm not mistaken. The thing is, buying a shuttlecock is a slippery slope. When you buy the cheap one, it doesn't fly nicely or not flying at all even, very bad QC, bad durability as well. You ended up using more and definitely cursing more because it's unplayable. Now, you upgrade it to more expensive one, in the middle. Better flight, better feeling, better QC, and better general durability. But it still doesn't last you that long, maybe one or two games. Once you go AS50, F80, F90, or equivalents, you'll see massive improvement in every aspect, except durability. They still only last you two games.

Let's do the math.

For a mid-range shuttlecock, you'll spend around 30-35€ a tube, so almost 3€ per shuttle. In a 2 hours session, you can have about 6 games. If a shuttle lasts for 2 games, then you'll need 3 shuttles. Total 9€ per session. That 9€ burned, won't come back in any form. And it can be higher if you play more than once a week. Sure, there are plastic/nylon, hybrid, even carbon shuttles, all with higher durability than normal shuttlecock. But they're, at least up until the day I wrote this, still far away from being 'usable'.

I mean, of course you don't have to buy the more expensive one. Like I said, there are lots of options available on the market right now. At the end of the day, it depends on what you need and what you want. If you're happy with nylon then go with it. I still play with nylon in my non-league badminton groups, and I absolutely have nothing against it considering the situation. I still have a blast with nylon, and everyone can enjoy the game too because they don't have to think about changing the shuttle ever. As long as you're satisfied and having fun with what you're playing with, then nothing's wrong.

The problem lies when you want the quality but not willing to pay for it. Want All England or Olympic quality but not willing to pay All England or Olympic price. Want to drive a Ferrari but only willing to pay for a Prius. Just like in life, want to have a good life, but not wanting to pay the price in effort, in hard work. Work hard in school and uni, then you can get good grades. Be serious at doing your job, then you'll get rewarded. Sure, there is politics involved at work, working hard and being serious doesn't guarantee anything. Not even a raise, not even promotion. But at the very least, hopefully, you got the skill, both for work and in politics. There'll always be a price to pay, and pay peanuts got monkey quality.

Unless you're, uh, you know, know someone. Someone way up on top of the tree. Then you'll get all the monkeys with all the peanuts you want.