How you choose a yo-yo depends on several things: your age, your skill level, and how much money you are willing to spend.
- If you are in 2nd grade or older, and you are just beginning, our new top recommendation for a beginner yo-yo is the Yo-yo Factory FAST 201. It is virtually indestructible, can be taken apart when you have a tangle, has a ball-bearing axle, comes back up when you want it to, looks nice, and is cheap too.
- If you are in 1st grade or younger you should go for a yo-yo that is more durable and/or much cheaper. Durable is the better choice, but cheaper is good too since at that age it’s not clear how much you will really want to play with your new yo-yo. Our recommendations are the Spintastics Manta Ray, Spintastics Technic, or the Duncan ProYo/ProFly. This is the only age group where a dollar-store yo-yo would be ok (although it is still not recommended).
- If you have already played with yo-yos some, and are looking for a more advanced yo-yo our first recommendation is the Duncan Freehand Zero. A good way to find out what you like is to try out yo-yos that your friends have, or go to a yo-yo club and ask if you can try out their yo-yos.
- If you are an intermediate or advanced player, you should just buy our high end yo-yo. You might also look at the Pros pages and buy some of the yo-yos that our Pros recommend. Most will be advanced yo-yos, and some are quite expensive, but all are top quality. The Pros choose their yo-yos very carefully, but what they like may not be the same as what you like.