Reddit reviews My Ping Pong Buddy

Funny. I once made a ball collector out of a box about the same size as the one in your pic.

What I did was to string rubber bands across one side of the box, and it worked great to pick up a bunch of balls all at once. Adding a handle would have been my next move, but my club has a couple of these now.

I'd be worried that thing would damage the balls. I made my own for about $15 that looks similar to the My Ping Pong Buddy. I remember different versions of them being sold closer to $50-75 several years ago but I see they're down to $45.

I just bought the cheapest painters pole I could find for around $8, which was probably the most expensive part.

You can find the nets on certain kinds of oranges at the grocery store. Be careful though, you want the stiffer and thicker netting. I'd recommend using a double layer too.

I do wish mine had a telescoping pole like this.

And a cheap badminton set can be purchased at Walmart (or elsewhere) for around $5-6. Although I did have a couple of the cheaper ones break on me after several sessions of use, so I'd maybe invest in slightly thicker and more durable badminton set. You'll need to bend the handle but be careful not to kink it. Applying some heat will help.

And finally the most tedious part is stringing it. I've reused the badminton strings but fishing line will be stronger.

Oh, also, I just taped the pole to the badminton handle, but I'm sure there's a nicer way I could have done it. Maybe with a PVC coupler or something you could find in the painter's section for coupling poles together.

It may not be worth the time and effort, since they're only about $45 these days, but my homemade one (after repairing it 2 or 3 times) IS still working well.

https://www.amazon.com/Mypingpongbuddy-My-Ping-Pong-Buddy/dp/B004UZW20W

These are perfect for picking up balls easily.