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Online is definitely going to give you the best options for the best prices in this hobby. The big box stores don’t really carry yoyos that are worth buying. Depending how serious you are looking to get, I personally recommend the Recess First Base for a great beginner yoyo. It is plastic, comes responsive out of box, has an extra bearing to make the yoyo unresponsive, and is only ~$20. This a great yoyo to grow with because as your skills advance, you can then change the yoyo to unresponsive and keep going.
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@Mygoldendoe Also look at clyw.ca fools gold yeti if they still have them it’s a $5 plastic throw that is going to be 99.5% as good as the normal yeti. It is full unresponsive, but for $5 and the quality it’s at, it’s a ridiculous bargin (it’s how I got a friend a little into throwing).
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Shoot I haven’t been active here that much. So I guess I’ll introduce myself now. Anyway, one of my friends was doing these cool tricks with his yoyos and I wanted to learn too. I have been throwing for a little over 5 months, starting unresponsive on the OD sugar glider. Almost instantly, I received a warm welcome from the community (I did not expect this at all) and have been learning ever since! Since my beginning, I’ve gotten an SK from a friend (he bought a teal one from yye, but got a teal/brown halfswap foe some reason, and messaged OD and they sent him a full teal one and let him keep the halfswap, which he gave to me) a kuntosh 5000qv, a rally, a windrunner 7068, (the rally and windrunner were given to me by @Astralis for doing a trick challenge from him) a cognition, a wedge, (not-so-secret-santa from @FrankieJR , thanks!) a PLSTC, (given to me by @sfyoyos because I was starting a club at school, which never got created because the teacher hosting it never replied to my emails even after reminding him at school multiple times. Now I teach people at school using it) and my favorite yoyo, a diffraction v2. I’m getting an MK1 Umbra and DANG 2 for christmas tomorrow. (Thanks @MarkD for adding the DANG 2 for no reason) I also won a 44graviti vulcan- thanks @44morgan ! I post tricks somewhat often on instagram and at the throwers discord. The hardest trick I’ve done so far (only hit it twice) is the reverse brent stole to rejection ninja vanish, but I’m trying to work on 1.5 and 2.0 hooks and other competition tricks because I’m planning on competing at VA states and Scales v3 online. I’m going to try to be more active around here, so expect to see more from me! (Even if it is just really bad trick circles)
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Welcome @Legs09 
By the way guys I chat with Legs daily and he is one cool kid that is a great asset to the community
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@Legs09 just might be the biggest MK1 fan out there. Every day he’s repping the green Diffraction 2. Really excited to see you here on YYE, buddy!
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Hello Yoyo Fam,
My name is Brandon. I got into throwing 'round about fall 2017 as a form of physical therapy for recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury. At the time, I remembered how I enjoyed throwing as a kid in the 90s. It was unintrusive to those around me, and my hand-eye coordination felt better because of it back then. So, I took to the internet and looked up the state of throwing on Youtube.
As I picked my slackjaw off my keyboard after watching amazing videos for nearly three hours, i immediately began shopping for an inexpensive throw to get into unresponsive play. Settled on getting a Replay Pro. After nearly a month of just not getting how to bind, it finally clicked for me.
Then I saw videos of fingerspinning and fell in love with that aspect of horizontal play. I still suck at horizontal, but I do enjoy grinds and am getting better at them.
Steadily, I began collecting yoyos that looked fun and comfortable to throw for my clumsy hands. I started responding to folks in r/throwers and on youtube. Lo and behold, the people of this community are wonderful and make it ridiculously marvelous to be a part of.
TL;DR - Rediscovered throwing while trying to improve myself. Met friends worthy of being lifelong. Y’all are awesome and I am a better human for having known you.
PS - I met someone at WYYC2019, but lost the note I wrote with his YoYoExpert Forum handle. Hope I bump into you again, fellow yoyobro.
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Welcome @Flynx
Your story was inspirational!
I hope you have been recovering well
Merry Christmas 
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Hi, I’m a lurker and thought I should at least post here to say hi since I’ve become addicted to yoyo’s and this thread popped up.
I threw back in the 90’s, when people played DDR music for their performances. Looping was all the rage, and we had stamp cards that restricted us from learning “advanced” tricks. My career ended at the first card, the store eventually shut down, and the 90’s came to a close with it. I became interested again around 2010 when a car company had yoyo meets at their shop and uploaded a video of it to their blog. It peaked my interest, but I never did much except browsing, reading, and watching performances on youtube over the years because I had so many other expensive, time consuming hobbies. This year I had some life changes that gave me spare time and I had the desire to learn. This last October I finally made the plunge and started learning.
I wake up every morning throwing a break away into a kwijibo or cold fusion just to get my “fix.” I’ve found so much meditation and love for yoyo’ing, I’m always thinking about what I want to try next. I always had that interest and respect for it, I just never gave it enough time and effort in practicing as a kid after the store shut down. I’m still really new to all of this, but since I’ve been reading up on it through out the years here and there I’m relatively well read. I just have to start putting my knowledge in motion.
I just picked up some throws for black friday and have to say. I don’t know if I have the funds in my life to afford this new drug. I seriously have so many hobbies and interests that adding this will make me go nuts. I’ve discovered that this rabbit hole of collecting yoyo’s comes down to their personality and characteristics. They will always land any trick you throw at them, but every throw has a different personality, and you’re always looking for one that fits your own personality “just right.” I can see where this rabbit hole takes me, and I’m really not sure how I’m going to acquire old yoyo’s i’m in love with without a nice budget to bankroll my new drug addiction.
In any case, I’m sure I’ll be responding and replying to threads now and then since I’m in this for the long haul. I can already see myself throwing a sick combo to impress the kids when I’m 90. This community is something I hope to contribute to and help grow.
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Hey man, welcome to the conversation
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Thanks! Glad to be here!
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Hi @suspense, welcome to your new most amazing addiction. Buying secondhand can make the hobby much more affordable. Make sure and check out the Facebook YoYo BST and r/Throwers in addition to the Buy / Sell / Trade on this forum.
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Thanks! I don’t have a Facebook, and I just hopped on the reddit. I’ve actually been lurking the BST here for a month or so in order to get a good judgement of prices, keeping an eye out for what I like. So far I’ve only bought from YYS/YYE stores and I snatched a Mystery Box from OneDrop. I’m trying to keep my collection small, with the “staples” and my own favorites. I’m definitely going to start hitting up the BST once I get more tricks under my belt.
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Hi all! My name is Frank. I first started yo-yoing in the late 90’s as a kid. I remember there was a craze at the time. I owned a few different yomega throws like the fireball. I never really progressed very far with the lack of internet and young age. I recently stumbled upon the hobby though again after impulsively buying a Duncan Butterfly XT I saw at my local store. Since then (~ 3 weeks ago) I have fallen into a rabbit hole. I now own a few different throws. I moved from the Duncan XT > YYF Velocity > Shutter which I am really enjoying. I can perform a few different binds now and am currently working on double or nothing. I can land a lot of the basic tricks including brain twister, and some front and side mounts, I can land trapeze ~ 80% of the time, and if I miss the string I am able to quickly adjust. I’m just having a blast though overall. It’s so easy to fall into a zen like state and yo-yo for hours… really enjoying it. It’s just a great way to get away from computer screens after a day of work and de-compress. I can’t wait to meet more like minded people and continue to learn and advance in this awesome little hobby.
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Hey welcome Frank @venom.
Good to have you here.
Links down looking for club in Reno
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I recall a time way back when I was first introduced to the yo-yo, a simple Duncan. I found it fun at first, but became bored very fast and away the Duncan went into the toy box never to be seen again. Fast forward lots of years and me liking to do fun stuff when I discovered a YouTube video of the 2018 World YoYo Contest! That was all it took for me to pick up another Duncan at Walmart for $3 and my new adventure began. So how are my yo-yo skills after a year? Well, not that great, but way better than when I was a kid! I look forward to many years of yo-yoing with newer technology.
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Greetings, just a quick FYI, the post you replied to is from 2012, and the user that posted it, @chuckshort1, hasn’t been seen on the boards since Oct 20, 2016. Threads can run pretty long around here, and go well into the past sometimes. You might want to try posting in the the Yoyo Contests, Clubs and Events category and mention you’re looking for a club in the Reno area. Good luck!
Also, I used to throw with Chuck back in the '90s from time to time, he’s a good guy, so I kinda hope you find him!
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Sounds a lot like my own story! Had a Fireball as a kid, never really learned anything past rock the baby and such. Came across a regular Butterfly in a hobby store about a year and half ago and away I went lol. Welcome to the hobby!
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Hi everyone! My name is Jonathan and I started throwing in the mid-90s, took it pretty “seriously” from 1999-2004 before deciding it was officially a fun side hobby. Still have a few dozen yoyos that I kept, along with a few new ones.
I decided to sign onto this forum because all these years later I’m teaching people I work with how to yoyo. Fancy that!
If you looked at my username and the timeframe and it rang a bell - yes, that’s me.
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