Carbonex 21
Model CAB-21 · Yoo Yong-sung
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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Carbonex 21: the late-1980s slim-shaft racquet Yonex USA still listed in 2020
A name that lasted three decades
Few Yonex names lasted as long as the Carbonex 21. An advertisement from Yonex’s Singapore-based distributor, which names Yonex as official supplier to the 1988 Thomas and Uber Cups, introduced the “exclusive new CAB-21.” Yonex’s Asian catalogs still listed it in the mid-1990s and in 2000. It reached Yonex’s US site and global export list in the mid-2000s, and Yonex USA still carried a red, Japan-made Carbonex 21 on its site in mid-2020. Yonex Japan, by contrast, never sold it in its domestic lineup. No documented Yonex source gives a launch date; the 1988 ad is the earliest record.
Torque-less, with a 7 mm shaft
The 1988 ad sold the CAB-21 on two features. Its “jointless construction” used Yonex’s built-in T-joint, which the ad said was patented worldwide and which Yonex claimed built in power by stopping the racquet from twisting. Its 7 mm full-carbon-graphite shaft was pitched as aerodynamic, cutting the air “like a knife.” The shaft carried the legend “Super slim carbon graphite shaft for anti-torque, superior power and control,” which later frames and cases repeat. The Carbonex name itself was a decade older. Yonex’s corporate history records the Carbonex 8 badminton racquet in 1978 as the world’s first under 100 g, so the 21 is a later member of the family, not its founder.
A Sydney finalist’s racquet
Yonex has published little about who played the Carbonex 21. The one name it gives is Korea’s Yoo Yong-sung, a Sydney 2000 men’s doubles silver medalist with Lee Dong-soo, whom Yonex Japan’s staff pages listed on the CAB21 in 2004. Like any staff-page entry, that records his current racquet, not what he used in a particular match. Many listings say the Carbonex 21 was used by Park Joo Bong, Wang Chen and Wong Choong Hann. That line traces to a 2009 hobbyist review of an old Carbonex 21 SP, the same review behind the often-quoted “9/10 for power,” and no documented Yonex or press source supports it.
Striped, silver, slate blue, then red
The Carbonex 21 changed color several times under the same name. The 1988 ad shows dark frames with colored stripes. A Yonex catalog that its hobbyist host dates to 1996 shows a silver-gray frame with a yellow-and-black case, in the “hard hitter” Carbonex group, rated for professional players, with high-modulus graphite frame and shaft and Yonex’s 1-to-5 marks of 4 for flex and power and 5 for control. Yonex’s 2000 catalog shows it in slate blue, rated Stiff, in 2U (90–94 g) only, tagged for its built-in T-joint and box frame. Later frames were red, as Yonex’s 2011 catalog and Yonex USA’s pages to 2020 show, in 3U and 2U. Some frames carry the marking “Carbonex 21 SP,” and retailers also sell a “Carbonex 21 Special,” but no Yonex catalog, price list or product page lists either as a separate model. SP is also a Yonex distribution code: a BadmintonCentral administrator explained in 2002 that it marks racquets destined for Singapore, home of the distributor that ran the 1988 ad. That would make it a market marking rather than a model name, though no Yonex source confirms it, and nothing documents a different construction.
A second life in the US
Yonex’s US site shows when the racquet arrived there. Its Carbonex page carried only the Carbonex 20 Muscle in mid-2004, and by October 2005 it listed the Carbonex 21, rated Stiff, in 3U. US retail copy in 2006 said Yonex had reintroduced it in a new color. Yonex’s export list of November 2006 gave it as Stiff, high-modulus graphite, 2U and made in Japan, and Yonex USA’s red Carbonex 21 page stayed up into mid-2020. By September 2020 Yonex’s global Carbonex page showed only the 6000 N, 7000 N and 8000 N. Yonex has published no production end. The verified sales shown above are pre-owned frames from Asia resale. Listings rarely say which generation a frame belongs to, and sellers use SP, Special and plain Carbonex 21 interchangeably.
Generations, not fakes
No counterfeit report specific to the Carbonex 21 has been found, and Yonex published no model-specific guidance. The practical risk is dating. One name covers frames made from the late 1980s to around 2020, in at least four finishes, sold through Yonex distributors across Asia as well as in the US. A common claim, that an old Carbonex 21 can be recognized by its lack of a Yonex hologram, has no source, and a Carbonex 21 SP photographed for a 2026 Japanese resale listing carries one beside its size ring. Judge a frame by its finish, markings and condition rather than by a missing sticker.
From the Carbonex 21 to the N series
Yonex described the Carbonex 21 in much the same terms for three decades: a round head on a box-section frame for a solid feel, with a slim, stiff shaft. Its 2011 catalog still sold the Carbonex series that way, with the 21 beside the Carbonex 20 and the newer Carbonex 35, and Yonex USA’s last page for it promised “a solid feel for great handling and a smooth swing.” It was never presented as a flagship; the 1996 catalog that lists it shows more than a dozen Carbonex models. Its distinction is longevity: a design of the late 1980s still on a Yonex list in 2020. After it, the Carbonex name passed to the 6000 N, 7000 N and 8000 N.
Read the printed name, Carbonex 21, or the item code CAB21. Yonex documents a round-shape head on a box-section frame, a high-modulus graphite frame and shaft, a built-in T-joint and Stiff flex. Weights depend on the era: Yonex’s 2000 catalog lists 2U (90–94 g) only, and its 2006–2020 lists give 3U (85–89.9 g) and 2U (90–94.9 g). Yonex states made in Japan for the frames it listed from 2006; its older catalogs carry no made-in line. Yonex published no balance point. Match the finish to the era: striped dark frames in 1988, silver-gray in the mid-1990s, slate blue in 2000, red later. A hologram sticker, if present, should resist peeling, and the O in YONEX should be narrow, not wide and round.
The Carbonex 21’s appeal is its long life: an Asian-market racquet of the late 1980s that Yonex kept selling, in new colors, for about three decades. Decide which generation you want and confirm it from the finish and markings, since listings rarely say. Expect any frame to have been played, and check the head, the T-joint area and the slim shaft for cracks before paying. Treat player associations in listings as unproven.
Verified prices last updated Aug 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.