@___Team Yo-Yo Maniacs - TYM - Guide for buying a yo-yo - first inform yourself, then buy it in a yoyo shop! Yo-Yo Shopping Guidline

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Yo-Yo Shopping Guide - Information for buying a yoyo

Which yo-yo is good for beginners, advanced or pro players?

This question is asked very often. To say in advance, there is no perfect yo-yo which is good for all tricks and is the favorite of every player. Like a beginner driver needs no Ferrari in the driving school and a Formula 1 car is not able to drive on a rally track.

Yo-Yos with a butterfly shape (wide string gap) are better for string tricks (1A, 3A, 5A). In general yo-yos with a normal round shape are more suitable for looping tricks (2A).
So for the different tricks, the suitable yo-yo should be bought. A yo-yo with imperial shape for looping and a yo-yo with butterfly shape for string tricks. Advanced players also can buy special yo-yos for e.g. offstring play (4A). As string tricks are the most common tricks, the first yo-yo should be one with a butterfly shape.

YoYo shape: butterfly and looper

Another difference is the price and the maintenance of a yo-yo.
Good yo-yos start with a price of about 15 Euros and more. Yo-Yos for over 100 Euros are often not better than yo-yos for 60 Euros. These are mostly collectors items. Today the standard is, that all good yo-yos have a ball bearing.

The yo-yo must be demountable, then knots around the axle can be removed easily. Yo-Yos which are easy to care have a ball bearing that stucks on the half. Then the bearing does not fall out as the yo-yo is dismounted. It is also nice if the yo-yo needs no friction pads or similar expendable items for the response system.

A yo-yo with low response, that comes only back to hand with a bind, should be choosen after some training. For beginners a yo-yo with more response is easier to wake up. Sometimes also the string gap can be adjusted. Maybe a small and a wide bearing are included and so the gap can be made wider for unresponsive play.

Yo-Yos with a clutch are nice to learn a sleeper, but you don´t learn how to get the yo-yo back to hand. These yo-yos are for little kids. Yo-Yos with light and sound are funny, but they are no real sports tool.

When purchasing a yo-yo, you should also buy some spare strings. Strings wear out, get dirty and break by the time. Beginners may change their strings every two weeks. Pro players change their strings maybe every one or two hours.
It is also very helpful if you can test a yo-yo from another yoyo player or try out different yo-yos in a yoyo shop.
For the first yoyo tricks take a look into a yo-yo trickbook or search for video tutorials.

If you have questions on a certain yo-yo, just ask in our yoyo forum. Here the yo-yo experts answer your questions (in german or english) and give you some recommendations for a yo-yo which fits your skill level. There you also get information in which yo-yo online shops to buy it.

In this article are some special yo-yo terms. You can take a look in our yo-yo lexicon.