Carbonex 9
Model CAB-9
Price history
No verified sales on record yet, so we don't publish a market value for the Carbonex 9. Asking prices don't count — only completed sales do. A price chart appears once 3 clean verified sales are logged.
0 verified transactions on record · USD · methodology
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Carbonex 9: the aluminum-framed 1990s Carbonex with a gold T-joint
The other Carbonex 9
Yonex’s 1996 Asian catalog lists two Carbonex 9s side by side. The plain Carbonex 9 is the intermediate one: an aluminum frame on a graphite shaft, joined by a conventional T-joint that the catalog photograph shows as a separate gold piece at the throat. Its printed specification matches the Carbonex 8 on the same spread line for line, just as the Carbonex 9 Tour’s matches the Carbonex 10’s.
Aluminum frame, graphite shaft
The catalog’s Carbonex “High Performance” spread runs Carbonex 15, 10, 9 Tour, 9, 8 Tour and 8, each with a “Hard Hitter” label. The 9’s block reads Conventional T-Joint, Player: Intermediate, Frame: Aluminium, Shaft: Graphite, with ratings of 5 for flex, 3 for power and 4 for control on the catalog’s own scale, which does not say which end is stiff. The 9 Tour beside it is the graphite-framed, built-in-joint version at the Advanced level. No “New” flag marks the plain 9, so 1996 is its first documented year, not a launch date. Yonex prints no weight, balance, flex word, item code, price or country of manufacture for it.
Taufik’s first Yonex, model unconfirmed
No Yonex source documents a player using this frame. On its Legendary Players site of 2013, Yonex quotes Taufik Hidayat: “My first encounter with YONEX was in 1993 when my father gave me a wonderful present – it was the Carbonex 9 racquet, which was really popular at the time.” He did not say which Carbonex 9, and neither the plain 9 nor the 9 Tour is documented in a Yonex list before 1996.
One photograph, no named colorways
Yonex documents no editions or named colorways of the plain Carbonex 9. The 1996 photograph shows a red frame, the gold T-joint piece, a black-and-white patterned grip and a black full-length cover with a red print and the model name. The Carbonex 8 beside it shares the construction and ratings but is shown with a copper-toned frame and a blue joint piece. The Carbonex 9 Tour has its own page.
Off the lists by 1999
Yonex’s 1996 spreads print no prices, so no Yonex list price is known. The Yonex spec chart that the collector who scanned it dates to 1999 keeps the Carbonex 9 Tour and the aluminum-framed Carbonex 8 but drops the plain 9, and the Carbonex pages of the 2000 Asian catalog do not show it. No Yonex Japan or Yonex USA listing is documented, so 1996 is both its first and its last documented year. No verified sales are recorded yet.
Joint, frame and name
No counterfeit of the Carbonex 9 is documented. The identity risk is the name: resale titles use “Carbonex 9” for both 1996 models. The plain 9’s separate T-joint piece at the throat and its aluminum frame set it apart from the 9 Tour’s one-piece built-in joint and graphite frame; the printed name and the joint color separate it from a Carbonex 8.
An intermediate Carbonex of the 1990s
The plain Carbonex 9 sat in the intermediate tier of Yonex’s mid-1990s export line, with the Carbonex 8 and 8 Tour, below the graphite-framed Advanced models. Its launch, price, weight classes and country of manufacture are undocumented.
Yonex’s 1996 Asian catalog is the only Yonex specification for the plain Carbonex 9: an aluminum frame, a graphite shaft and a conventional T-joint, photographed with a red frame, a gold T-joint piece at the throat and a black cover with a red print. It gives no weight, balance, flex word, item code or country of manufacture, so a seller’s weight, flex or “made in Japan” claim is not Yonex’s. Check the throat: a one-piece joint with no separate T-piece is the graphite-framed Carbonex 9 Tour, and a blue joint piece with “Carbonex 8” on the shaft is the 8. On a frame about 30 years old, check the joint, grommets and hoop for cracks, and for looseness where the shaft meets the T-piece.
The plain Carbonex 9 is a collector’s piece from the mid-1990s intermediate tier, and the name Taufik Hidayat gave his first Yonex, though which Carbonex 9 that was is undocumented. Resale titles mix the two 9s, so the throat construction and the printed name decide which racquet is on offer. Claims about its year, weight or factory need evidence beyond the listing.