Why Has the Butterfly Custom-Order Blade Lost Its Shine?
Over the past decade the two hottest blades have been the W968 and the Viscaria. Within Butterfly’s Viscaria family, rewind ten years and the most highly rated was the custom-order Viscaria.
In 2016 Butterfly announced it was ending its custom-order business. For the first few years after, Butterfly customs stayed coveted — enthusiasts’ dream blades, regarded alongside the W968 as the legendary “Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber” of the scene. But over the last two years, even as prices have climbed (especially for new ones), far fewer people are buying, and on resale apps many custom or “player-issue” blades simply aren’t moving. What happened?
1. Prices Have Become Unreachable
As the economy softened, custom prices climbed out of reach. In 2016 I helped a friend buy a custom Viscaria for about 2,400 yuan; now a new one is usually over 15,000, and a comparable new-spec custom Viscaria (2024 version) listed at 30,000 is not unusual. Ten years on, ordinary salaries haven’t risen anywhere near that fast. A Yoshimura Maharu limited edition that was ~2,000 yuan in late 2017 is now over 10,000. Scarcity raises prices, and Butterfly customs are discontinued — but most people genuinely don’t have the money, and that’s the reality. Some still pay, partly because of the wealth gap (some players are richer and it’s worth it for something they love), and partly to flip — like pass-the-parcel. From what I see, though, that resale churn has slowed a lot.
2. The Gold-Stamp Viscaria Took a Big Share
The gold-stamp Viscaria is also a custom-workshop product. As for its level, most players who’ve used a silver-stamp custom wouldn’t rank the gold-stamp in the same class — but it’s relatively new, while silver-stamp customs are ten years old, and newcomers prefer the newer thing, especially when there’s a sizable price gap. Plus the gold-stamp Viscaria is used by many national-team players (an endorsement in itself), while the silver-stamp custom is a bit dated. Now even gold-stamp Viscaria circulation has worsened, partly from price rises (including limited editions like the Boll 70 and Zhang Jike 70), and partly because people sense that — although customs (silver-stamp or gold-stamp) are generally held to be higher-level — the effect on your actual game isn’t that big. Players on retail Butterfly blades do just fine, like Chen Meng and Wang Manyu; broaden it out and you don’t even need a Butterfly — Felix does well, Chen Yi did well on a Galaxy 05X Max — and people gradually wonder whether all this talk of how good Butterfly customs are is a mirage. If you buy a popular structure, like a Viscaria-structure custom, worst case you sell at a small loss; a more obscure structure is a bigger loss. And with new and used prices now far apart, opening a brand-new custom or buying one just to try carries real pressure — the math doesn’t add up.
3. Counterfeits
Custom fakes exist, and “player-issue” fakes more so. A clarification: in Butterfly’s dictionary there’s no concept of a “player custom,” only a custom — so any box labeled “player custom” is definitely fake. Forgery has gotten sophisticated, even faking that little card convincingly. Then there are the blade-restoration masters — I genuinely admire some of their skill — who turn a damaged blade into a “minor blemish,” which makes me wary of buying used at all. Stored badly and then opened, a blade won’t last well either. And for most average amateurs, who may not even fully tame or penetrate a rubber, even a blade as good as a Butterfly custom offers limited help to their game. The thing is good, and missed — but the past doesn’t return, and fading is the natural order.