VXB is alright if you are buying in small numbers. If you are looking for true bulk pricing and supply, you are going to be ordering from China, just like most yoyo manufacturers do.
An example, a friend of mine, who throws with me regularly, his bearing of choice are the Crucial Grooved bearings. He’s recently acquired many yoyos and he’d like to put in his bearing of choice into all those new awesome yoyos he’s gotten.
Someone may wish to carry inventory of spare bearings of their favorite kind(or their competition set) so in case of a problem, they can just swap and go with bearings.
Myself, as a collector and player, I also experiment with bearings from time to time, so it’s good to have spare bearings around so when something finds a new home, I don’t have to order a replacement bearing of that kind for a bit. I am a bit short on KK’s, Crucial Grooved and CenterTracs, but I have plenty of Trifectas and OD 10 Ball and YYJ Speed Bearings. Sometimes, if something just doesn’t seem right stock, if cleaning the bearing and Dry Play treating it(and it passing my tests) doesn’t seem to give me the results I want, I will start trying out different bearings.
Also, when I was in Vietnam, I carried 5 Trifecta bearings with me and 1 YYJ narrow bearing(for my Go Big). I should have snagged a couple of OD 10 Ball and a couple of YYJ Speed Bearings as well just because many of my yoyos I do choose to use flat bearings in. Fortunately, I didn’t have any bearing issues.
Gotta mix it up a bit if you want to see a real difference. Before you even put it on your yoyo, you will notice a difference between several of Toxic’s strings and standard poly… “Normals”, Dragon, and Thick Metz… all remarkably different.
There are a large number of bearing manufacturers in the US and in China… they will gladly sell to you in bulk, but we’re typically talking minimum orders of 200+
Boca does offer smaller quantities but they’re all overpriced. VXB is crap.
Your best best is contacting whomever is selling the bearings you like, and seeing if they’ll sell you larger quantities at a discount (most probably will)
You’ll develop this. With the new YYJ H3X, it was decent with the stock YYJ Speed Bearing, but I popped in a new wing cut Terrapin X 10-ball and this removed this “thunk” kind of feeling the H3X was doing when throw in a break-away. Then, I added a Type X string and that combination really smoothed out how the yoyo played.
I’m not saying this to push the Terrapin X product, but needless to say, it’s a product I would highly recommend. My point is rather that, of course based on preferences, a bearing can make a difference.
I will say that next week I will be contacting John to get a couple of Terrapin X wing-cut D-sized bearings if he has them around. For the most part, unless I need something else, I have been buying Terrapin X bearings. For all my other bearings, with very few exceptions(my loopers), I dry-play treat all my bearings.
I think I’m the only person in the universe that likes a dry Center-Trac, like honestly, in my Ava it feels absolutely heavenly. But maybe that’s just because it’s an Ava… it’s deliciously decadent though.
Anywho, to keep to the topic, I’d recommend trying to speak to YoyoStores, or find a company near your home that happens to sell bearings, and put in an order.
I agree. Hate to say it (sort of, not really) but I’ve really begun to like Center Tracs! It has nothing to do with the string centering either, I just think they spin really well! Same with 10-balls. Both are great in my opinion
Another thing, off topic in a way, but am I the only one who really can’t tell a difference between string centering and flat bearings?
Before you even put it on your yoyo, you will notice a difference between several of Toxic’s strings and standard poly… “Normals”, Dragon, and Thick Metz… all remarkably different.