I’m vegetarian, I’ll take red peppers and green olives for the holiday season 
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Woot! See ya there. @smileypants707 is buying. Great dude! 
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Sorry, thin crust, pepperoni Pizza it is…
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I’ll take double cheese and double pepperoni, pls. tyvm.
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Where are you guys? The waitress is looking at me funny!
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This would not be the first time I was overruled
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Amazing how these topics go off the rails so quickly. Especially around supper time. 
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I thought I heard a derailment back there somewhere. 
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Amazing! I wonder, how much cheaper the yoyo could have been without the added cost of special loop packaging!
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But do you have any spare strings?
I don’t know about you guys, but I like the DV888
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The problem with this debate is that there are too many different discussions being treated as answers to the same question.
- Is the 2009 era design Yoyofactory DV888 a high performing yoyo in 2018?
No, obviously not. Like many (most?) yoyos from that era, it has been surpassed in design and performance. Can you still learn on it? Sure. Can you still do modern tricks on it? Sure, if it is set up correctly. Is it the best choice for that purpose? No, there are any number of better options out there in 2018. Many from YYF themselves and many cheaper than the $30 that the DV888 sells for.
- Was the DV888 a high performing yoyo in 2009?
No. There have always been better performing yoyos. That said, in 2009 it was a solid performing yoyo and it was pretty unique as far as a low price for a modern metal yoyo. If you were throwing a DV888 in 2009, you probably weren’t bummed about it. Don’t forget, tricks and combos were different almost 10 years ago. That makes a big difference as far as what is considered “high performance”.
Perhaps more importantly, remember that there were some truly groundbreaking yoyos when they were released that have been surpassed as time has gone on. With it’s rim weighting and small axle, the Duncan (Playmaxx/Duracraft) ProYo was an insane improvement over other fixed axle yoyos. The Yomega Brain was wildly successful with its auto-clutch design and probably put more yoyos in somebody’s hand than 90% of what is on the market today. The TK Silver Bullet 2 was the first yoyo with a bearing and it had the first adjustable string gap. Both features were light years ahead of anything else at the time. The Tom Kuhn Pocket Rocket was the first yoyo with friction stickers. The friction sticker concept was a game changer for yoyoing even if those particular friction stickers were kind of crappy. Every one of these yoyos is still available to buy new today and every one of them would be considered terrible by the standards of modern play. Should they be discontinued? While the DV888 wasn’t really on the same level as those technological breakthroughs, it is easy to forget how amazing it was to have any sort of affordable metal yoyo 10 years ago. Those things just didn’t exist like they do today.
- Is the DV888 on the list of “worst yoyos ever”?
Absolutely not. Anyone who believes this is either missing some chunks of yoyo history or is being willfully obtuse. There are any number of yoyos that are “worse” by any objective metric and many of them have been listed already. This is true no matter if we’re talking about tricks of the day (when they were released) or modern tricks.
- Is the DV888 on the list of “worst yoyos for sale today”?
Again, no. There are any number of pieces of junk out there that are far worse. Any steel axle yoyo ever, for example. And don’t forget, the Aerobie Aerospin is still in production.
- Is the DV888 on the list of “worst yoyos on the market today from a company that is connected to ‘serious’ yoyoing”?
Here’s where we start to be able to have some debate. The DV888 is pretty low on the list at in 2018. Especially when you start to consider “value for $”, there are a dozen other options that could be listed (two dozen? more?) that are better throws for the same or less money. And as options increase, so does the power of “personal opinion” in a debate like this. So I wouldn’t argue with someone if they wanted to tell me that they thought the DV888 was the worst yoyo out there today. But I would ask them for some clarification. In what context are they judging it? And in that context, is it worse than a Tom Kuhn Pocket Rocket? A Yomega Brain? A Duncan ProYo? I also wouldn’t argue with someone who told me that they really enjoyed the DV888. Personal opinion is pretty far ranging on a topic like this.
- Should Yoyofactory be selling the DV888 in 2018?
Honestly, I think this is the REAL question that most people are getting at. There is an argument that goes “YYF has a lot of better yoyos for less money. So why are they still putting this out of date yoyo out there and trying to get people to buy it?” and there is some logic there. But without knowing the whole of the backend of YYF’s business dealings, it’s really tough for us as observers to make a claim that they would do just as well with some other yoyo. As with any company, YYF’s job is to turn a profit. There’s a decent chance that the DV8, with it’s mass market packaging and wide distribution brings in a decent chunk of revenue. Likely more than many of the yoyos that we all like to praise as “good throws”.
So, the question is, why should they stop selling a product that makes them money? To be cooler in our eyes? If YYF isn’t cool because of all the other throws they produce and all that they do for yoyoing through sponsorship etc, then likely they are never going to be cool. And that’s fine. Different strokes for different folks. But a company that stops making a profit generating product seems like a good way for that company to go out of business.
All in all, I don’t love the DV888, I don’t hate the DV888. As far as similar size similar era yoyos, yeah, the 888 is a better throw as far as I am concerned. That said, I’m happy if the DV888 makes YYF money that it can use to support itself and the energy it puts into the yoyoing world. And if some kid starts throwing because his mom saw the DV888 at Big 5 Sporting goods, that’s rad. The kid’s second yoyo can be one that we all think is cooler. Just as long as he actually starts throwing so that there is an opportunity for that second yoyo.
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[drops mic]
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How long did it take you to type that 
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Ha, ha, I actually used it “on stage” for a BAC competition. (Okay, okay, it was for the ladder competition in the year it was released, but they did make us stand on stage for the judging.) I won the old people category, so the DV888 is a competition winner at BAC. 
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I don’t know that I would frame that debate point with “Should they?”, but I am certainly curious why they bother. Who are they targeting with that product at that price point? I certainly hope it’s not beginners (to unresponsive play). I mean, would anyone really recommend a DV888 at $30 over some other throw with better performance and lower price to anyone who wasn’t looking for one purely for nostalgia’s sake?
You know, I thought YYF said a while back in ask.fm that they were going to discontinue it because they’re were other offerings they had that were better at that price point. I guess they changed their mind.
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I liberated a splash DV888 from my son’s collection (it looks mint to me). I slapped a one drop 10 ball flat C bearing on it, and put a new yellow plutonium string on it… PM me your address @Glenacius_K and I will mail it to you and you can experience the … uh … greatness… of this yo-yo for yourself. 
(The way I look at it, this improves my son’s yo-yo collection. I was the one who bought it for him before I knew better.)
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It could be a combination of the two