I have a real distaste for the label ‘budget metal’.
I don’t like it because it seems to infer lower quality and/or performance than more expensive yoyos which is often not true. Many of my favorite, and what I feel are some of my best performing yoyos fall into this category.
What are your thoughts?
I don’t think anyone is thinking low quality or poor play when thinking about the shutter.
I think the word budget has different meanings for different people. Maybe 10 years ago when I was a student, my budget would be much lower than it is now.
To me personally, a budget metal yoyo would be under the $50 mark. That being said I have a Orbis, Horizon, Popstar, and a few plastics. I use them all more than my expensive throws, less worry about damaging them, and they play great for the prices I paid.
I think it’s interesting that it’s called budget metal, but to any non thrower, $50 for a yoyo sounds like you’re taking crazy pills.
I agree, the term “budget metal” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. My $30 YYO pause is an absolute tank, It is crazy good. It isn’t just good for the price either, It’s good for a yoyo in general. Sometimes i think that if YYO charged C3 prices for their yoyos, they might be more popular.
When used as an adjective, budget literally just means “inexpensive”, so I’ve never though of it as automatically implying a lack of quality. IMO, it’s a lot nicer sounding than “cheap metal” or “low-end metal”. I’m actually huge fan of “budget metals”, I probably buy them more often than any other type of Yo-Yo 
I would have to say “budget” for me implies something that is cheaper but just as good for top level play.
Take for example something like Magic: The Gathering. Very fun game, but expensive, so we try to make decks which can compete well enough so everyone can have some fun. The analogy will end here since most Modern/Vintage/Etc. tourneys end with winners who have very pricey decks.
In yo-yoing, this is not the case. You can take a $20 plastic and win worlds (holla). So budget here goes even further in my mind. I simply read it as something less expensive, but every bit as competent.
You don’t need to spend money to have fun, compete, or even win.
And now the companies are making so many fantastic products which 100% back this up.
(MTG is different story…)
I didn’t realize Magic was expensive
Haha oh yeah man. I play mostly modern and EDH. Competitive modern decks can run you upwards $700 to $1000.
Don’t get me started on vintage. xD
Anyways, that’s a different conversation and I don’t want to hijack further haha.
I agree. The thing is, there is no word I can think of besides “budget” or “inexpensive” that doesn’t sound like “low quality”.
…
Oh, maybe “value” yoyo.
It’s all in context. When looking at a high end CLYW, a Shutter IS a budget throw. Fortunately price is not linked performance. I don’t see it as a negative. To me budget metal means a high end metal throw under $60 that performs as good or close to $100+ throws. Sometimes better.
No kidding, lol… Just the other day, I was in an Apple Store. I was standing next to two women that were waiting in line to each Prepay $850 Cash for the New IPhone 6s+.
And I overheard them talking about Krazy kids that shell out $50 for a yoyo.
One of my neighbors was whining to me about how his Barber raised the cost of a basic haircut from $16 to $18. Then the next day he wanted me to come across the street and see the new Custom rims he bought for his Mercedes AMG… $6000!
The Value of money… The worth of money…The ease or difficulty one experiences in letting money go is directly related to how well Heeled that person is.
I have an Uncle. He is a Millionaire. Every so often when I visit him, he asks me if I need some money. I never take it; ever. I don’t deserve free money. He is just a generous kinda guy I guess.
Yet… When he buys clothes, he goes to the Goodwill Store or Salvation Army and buys pants and shirts and shoes for like $5 each.
Bottom line: rich people can be really thrifty and poor people can be spend crazy or the other way around.
Back directly on Topic <> there are certain words in the English language that are just distasteful. Amazingly they usually sound almost equally horrible: pimple, zit, pus, hemorrhoid, slob, abscess, mucous, ugly,etc.
The words are useful in describing exactly what they indicate. But nobody likes the words.
Budget is one of those lame kinda words. Budget just doesn’t sound good. It sounds like it should be in any sentence with the word Walmart in it.
Liposuction sounds lamer than Budget. But Budget is still in the same category as pimple, etc.
But to me Budget doesn’t mean cheap. It just means ‘less expensive’.
I think to ‘get over’ the stigma of the word ‘Budget’ you have to get a yoyo like The Hatchet2.
If you see the Hatchet2 listed as a Budget metal and you play a Hatchet2 for a half an hour; you can free your mind of any relative descriptive application between the Words: budget and cheap.
Is that clear as mud?
I think value for money is the right word.
Very clear. Well said. I also gather you are a Hatchet 2 fan like myself.
I never knew you were a poet, doc. 
The new YYO Rave is around $100, which will be their most expensive to date. Will be interesting to see how people take to the higher price tag (even though it’s a bimetal).
https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xfa1/t51.2885-15/s640x640/sh0.08/e35/11910044_1617307335203680_1794223293_n.jpg
^ It still fits their business model, because it’s much more inexpensive than other bimetals on the market. I think people will be happy about the new release, and it’s price. I think they are holding true to what they have been known for so far.
I’ve read that people don’t buy things rationally, and to an extent it’s true and some companies (non yoyo) actually used this tactic to gain more trust from their customers.
There was one real life example of a person new to a business (a service I don’t remember exactly what it was). He opened up his business with lower price than most because he is new and afraid that charging too high will steer off potential customers, but what happened was the opposite. The lower price caused people to think that it’s of lower quality. A friend of him who understood his situation told him to charge more, he did, and he actually gained more trust by his customers that way.
Higher price can give the illusion of higher quality, while lower price can make it sounds like lower quality, even though you’re selling the similar thing. Obviously this won’t always work in every case, but as long as you’re clever enough this can be used to gain more respect and trust of the customers.
Saying that a yoyo is a “budget” one sure does feel like it’s of lower quality even though it’s not, at least that is what it sounds like for me. But even when you make new “better sounding” word to replace it, over time it will end up the same. Just like the word “retarded” that sounds pretty negative, but it’s really a word describing the “lower pace of learning”, not necessarily saying that someone is outright stupid.
Us humans have feelings and sometimes it affects our ability to make rational decision.
I heard that story about Martha Stewart… But it was probably just a story. When she was starting out she had a pie/cake shop. For the sake of the story we’ll say she was charging 10$ a cake. She didn’t sell many cakes. She increased the price to 20$ and they started flying off the shelf.
That being said… It’s the time of the internet. While I appreciate people can be manipulated into paying more because it’s perceived to be higher quality, it’s pretty easy to do your research and determine if the cost is actually justifiable to you.
I for one will pay more for an American made or local handcrafted type item and have more love for people who produce those types of products. Just to show my support I will give them more money for a similar product.
Budget just means low cost to me. I’m on a budget but want a yoyo, doesn’t mean poor quality. Also my budget can be different than your budget. Only negative for me is usually when people do a “budget” anything it’s usually only done a couple ways. 1. They learn their craft and do a lot of the work themselves (Onedrop) or 2. They contract a low bidder and suspend some concern for big picture economics (see Chinese government) Either one can result in a great or poor product.
Guys: the Rave is REALLY something to get excited about…