Carbonex 21
Model CAB-21
Price history
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The ancestor: Carbonex 21
The oldest appreciating racquet
The Carbonex 21 is the oldest appreciating racquet in the database — one of the few pieces that predates the era of player signatures and limited colorways entirely. Released in 1995, it was designed as a pure competition instrument during a period when Yonex was establishing its dominance in the global badminton market. It has no story beyond itself, and that is precisely the point.
What made it excellent
The CAB-21 and its sibling the Carbonex 20 set the standards in the late 1980s and early 1990s for quality and power graphite racquets. The oval head shape and box frame construction, combined with HM Graphite in both frame and shaft, produced a racquet with a small, unforgiving sweet spot that rewarded clean technique with exceptional power — rated 9/10 for power, an 'excellent singles racquet' that was not for beginners.
The 30-year value proposition
At $150 for a 30-year-old Japan-made graphite racquet with genuine competition heritage, the CAB-21 is the database's deepest value proposition for the historically minded collector. It cannot appreciate the way a grail-tier Lin Dan piece can, but it exists in a category with no substitutes: the last all-graphite Yonex flagship before nano-materials changed everything. Finding examples with original grips and minimal frame wear is increasingly the challenge.
Oval head shape — not isometric. Box frame cross-section on shaft. HM Graphite only — no NANOMETRIC or nano-material designations. Even balance (slight head-heavy in some variants). Made in Japan. No Yonex hologram (pre-dates program). Original grip tape is a strong condition indicator.
Stable floor value. Appreciates slowly as mint examples disappear. The entry point to the Carbonex collector tier, and genuinely irreplaceable as the founding artefact of Yonex's carbon era.