Circular economy with golf clubs

When mothers are not playing with or reading to their young children, they are taking care of the next generation of shoes, toys, bodysuits or mud pants. Flea markets and Ebay are a hit. Fathers are given the job of organizing the next running bike or bicycle, bobby car, skis or the next child seat, kitchen tower, triptrap or helmet. In any case, the second-hand market and therefore the circular economy are very important, when it comes to families with kids. If you look at other areas of everyday needs, things are not so different in many areas. Be it a used car, a used racing bike, second-hand items such as books, furnishings or sports equipment.

But what does that look like in the golf world? Golfers are familiar with used balls in the form of refurbished or lake balls, but the trade in used equipment is rather uncommon for the rest of the equipment. The majority of golfers keep their old clubs in the cellar and don’t really know what to do with them until they are too old and no longer really suitable for giving away.

Is there no market for used clubs? Already. Especially as – apart from the greasy, worn grip – all parts of the club can be used for a long time and the technology from the year before last works well. After all, the press releases on new clubs have been reminiscent of rocket science for years. Super forgiving material with high MOI values and a timeless look has long been the standard.

Sales platforms and used club forums

If you’re now thinking about selling old irons, woods or putters, then we can encourage you: you’ll get more money for it than you think, there’s a bigger market than you think and the set from the cellar or garage will be bought from you faster than you think possible. And: you are doing something good for the environment with this form of recycling management.

The easiest way would be to post a notice on your clubhouse bulletin board, plus possibly tell the pro that a beginner looking for equipment might be able to find it at your club. Otherwise, you can offer your clubs online for example on ebay.

Here are a few tips: Take three to four pictures from head to grip, on which you can ideally read flaws and loft/flex values. Then fill in the input mask under “post ad” in a few really easy and self-explanatory steps. And then you could, for example, enter 1 euro/pound/dollar and negotiation basis for the price and activate the “buy direct” function. In this way, an interested party can offer you a direct purchase price and you can simply accept or reject it. This can make it easier for you to make the sometimes difficult assessment and you can simply wait for offers.

Recall campaign by online retailer All4Golf

In addition to the possibilities of your own golf club and classified ads, there is also the web portal www.golfbidder.com/de with an extremely large offer for buying, selling and exchanging golf equipment or various Facebook groups such as “Golf clubs and equipment exchange”, “We love golf – buy/sell/give away”, “Golf equipment second hand & new”, “Golf exchange, golf equipment, golf clubs, equipment”, “Golf (er) – sell/give away/raffle” or “Golf flea market” with more than 30,000 members in some cases, where you can offer used goods.

The “old for new” campaign from the German online retailer All4Golf is still in the development phase, but could well offer you a very attractive circular economy opportunity. How does it work and why is it good? We asked: “It’s actually quite simple,” says Johannes Jurecka, who comes from outdoor outfitter Globetrotter and has been the new COO and Managing Director of online specialist All4Golf since spring 2022. “The customer fills out the questionnaire about their old clubs on our website www.all4golf.de/alt-gegen-neu. Our experts then get in touch by e-mail and give the customer feedback on the purchase price of the bat. If the customer agrees to the purchase price, we will send the return box to the customer. After checking with us, the customer will be sent an All4Golf voucher in the amount of the club buyback value by email.”

Why is this good, what happens to the old, repurchased clubs, and how are the manufacturers involved? “This gives customers the opportunity to monetize equipment that they no longer use and treat themselves to new equipment at a top price,” Jurecka continues. “We have various partners who either resell the rackets or recycle them properly.”

Manufacturers are not involved at all: “This old-versus-new campaign is purely an All4Golf initiative” and has been well received. The company is very satisfied with the response from customers: “We are still at the very beginning. Such an exchange option must first get around on the golf courses. But overall, we have clearly exceeded our own expectations.”

There are certainly other ways of recycling golf equipment and there is no reason for discarded cutlery to gather dust and rot. You can easily create space for new things, do good with a good feeling and buy new material again.