I have become somewhat of a reluctant expert on Taylormade Tour Burner counterfeits. After nearly getting burned (no pun intended) by a seller who was drop shipping counterfeits from China I was fortunate enough to buy a legitimate authentic Tour Burner from an authorized reseller. The experience has left me much more aware of all the counterfeits on Ebay and how to identify the obvious fakes. The Tour Burner, unlike the Tour Burner TP comes with only 1 stock Taylormade shaft, that shaft is the 60g Fujikura RE AX shaft with a checkerboard background pattern (check the specifications tab for the Tour Burner on the Taylormade website). It also comes with a Taylormade Tour Velvet lite grip, with no graphics other than the Taylormade name on the underside bottom of the grip. In their haste to rush out their fakes the counterfeiters used the graphics, weight, and grip from last years Burner in the Tour Burner counterfeits. All Taylormade Tour Burners with a shaft weight of 50g or 55g are absolutely without a doubt COUNTERFEITS. In addition it seems that the counterfeiters have not duplicated the Tour Burner headcover, which has white side panels and a large raised rubber "B" in red on a BLACK background on the head. Counterfeits either come with a red and yellow headcover without the "B", a red and yellow headcover with a black flat "B" on a yellow background, or no headcover at all (if a new club is being sold without a headcover you need to ask yourself why that is, since all new drivers come from the factory with a matching headcover, no headcover is very suspicious). (For examples of counterfeits go to www.dhgate.com and type in Taylormade Tour Burner in the search bar, which believe it or not is a clearinghouse for Chinese counterfeit merchandise).

Here is a description of the club specs for a counterfeit pulled directly from tradekey.com a noted counterfeit website, notice the shaft description:

Body Construction :Titanium
Crown Construction :Titanium
Face: Titanium
Lofts: 8.5° �#8226; 9.5° �#8226; 10.5°
Hand(s) :Right �#8226; Left
Face Angles: Square
Shaft Flexes: Regular �#8226; Stiff �#8226; X-Stiff
Standard Graphite Shaft: TM RE*AX SuperFast 50 Graphite
Lie Angle :60°
Grip :TV Lite 60
Head Size :450cc
Interchangeable Weights: No

While there is no foolproof way to determine whether or not the Tour Burner you are bidding on is genuine or not, at least stay away from any auctions containing the warning signs I outlined above. Since the counterfeiters are putting serial numbers and authentic looking Taylormade barcode stickers on the fakes, that is no assurance of authenticity.  If you can get the serial number from the seller you can call Taylormade customer service and they can tell you if it is a real serial number.  Making this even more incredible is the fact that some people are buying the counterfeit clubs at auction giving the seller positive feedback and then reselling the counterfeit once they have figured out they have been taken. So if you see a seller selling a Tour Burner, or any other club for that matter and have little or no history of selling clubs, check their past ebay purchases and see if they recently won that club in an auction.  Chances are they are turning around and selling it because they are obviously not happy with it, probably because it was a fake.  If you do buy a counterfeit please tell Ebay and PayPal and leave the seller negative feedback as a warning to others.

The real Tour Burner is a great club, don't get short-changed buying a fake.

UPDATE July 08--It seems the counterfeiters are now using the Tour Burner 60g shaft graphics, but are putting a silver band near the grip end of the shaft no authentic Tour Burner has that band.  Also it still seems that they cannot get the headcover right.  They are still using the old Burner headcover and other variations including trying to copy the authentic design, but with poor results.  One copy I saw had a much smaller "B" and flame and they were embroidered, not rubber also side burner font was much smaller and overall looked like a bad copy.  Also grip is still wrong with old Burner being used.  Here is a listing that is a perfect example of what I am talking about.  Check it out if it is still available.  Here is the listing number 200234562424.  Best advice is NEVER buy a Tour Burner without the authentic headcover.  There is no reason that the authentic headcover shouldn't come with the club since Taylormade includes one with every club they sell.  Good luck.