PSA: Watch Out When Buying Voberry Darts

Voberry's generic full-length darts (review and part 2) have caught on, and with them, the name "Voberry" has become very familiar in the NIC. These "Voberry" darts are quite safe, with flexible dome tips similar to an Elite tip.

However, Voberry is a brand, company, or d/b/a - not a tradename for a dart design. Recently, Voberry seems to be distributing another type of dart, known in the hobby as a "full vinyl jacket" (FVJ). These things have hard tips. You wouldn't want to play a game with them without eyepro, and I would keep them away from HvZ games. On the flip side, they are very accurate, and not necessarily a bad round.

All of Voberry's listings on Amazon for these darts appear to have an image in this format showing the range of foam colors characteristic of FVJ darts including the signature "mini-mega" red:

 

Particularly beware this listing for blue-foamed darts easily mistaken for the original "High Quality" Voberry product.

If you are looking for known good Voberry darts, and not FVJs, use ONLY the original Amazon listing with "High Quality" in the title and tons of customer reviews!

Now that is out of the way, these two darts are the most common generic Chinese darts on the market by far, dwarfing the number of listings for koosh tips, and in some cases it can be difficult to tell what type you are dealing with before you buy. Note key features that can help you identify FVJs from listings:

The tip design - FVJ tips are shorter than Voberry tips, and have a more square-cut, blunter end. In listing images, they will typically appear shiny or glossy like plastic, and when viewed end-on, they may look somewhat rebated in design, with the edge of the foam visible, whereas Voberry tips almost always cover that edge.

The colors - FVJ darts, like the earlier "Sizzliz" or "4 color" darts (which BW12 still sells!), are available with multiple foam colors. They also always have orange tips. If you see a duplicate listing other than foam color for your darts, they are almost certainly FVJs. Voberry darts are currently NOT known to be available with any foam color other than blue, though images of logo-printed ones exist.


This is an FVJ:

 

And this is a Voberry:

Pay close attention!

Voberry-type darts are the most common "7.2 cm knockoff elite" on the internet - you will often find them listed on ebay. However, your mileage, as to quality control, may vary when buying from these listings.

Credit to Reddit for catching this situation quickly.