[Saba Sports News] On April 21, some fans revealed that the racket Shi Yuqi threw into the stands after winning the 2025 Badminton Asia Championships had been hyped to an astronomical price. Along with Shi Yuqi’s championship racket, another racket used by Kunlavut Vitidsarn to claim the title at the 2025 Badminton Asia Championships was also put up for auction on Xianyu, a Chinese second-hand trading platform. With three days left until the deadline, the bidding price has already surpassed $180,000.It remains unclear whether the two rackets were coincidentally caught by the same fan, or later acquired by the same collector. In response, some fans joked: if Shi Yuqi himself knew his racket was worth this much, he probably would not have thrown it away.According to public records, even at the current bid of $180,000, this has already set a new record for the highest auction price in badminton racket history. Previously, an ordinary match-used shuttlecock signed by Lin Dan was sold at a charity auction for $73,000, which stands as the highest publicly reported auction record for a badminton item.
In my opinion, the “highest auction price” for a badminton racket is a phenomenon within the niche collectibles market. It reflects the value of sports IP and fan economy, rather than the actual pricing logic of badminton rackets as sporting goods.