Tricks Of The Trade: Updating your irons

By E. Michael Johnson

History lesson: Hot List irons from '09 and their trade-in values.

Golfers tend to hold onto their irons longer than most of their other clubs. Many assume that iron technology doesn't change as rapidly as other categories. It's also partly economic: A set of new irons likely will cost between $600 and $1,000. To make that investment a bit more palatable, consider this: You can trade in your old irons for good money.

Since 2004 the PGA.com Value Guide has been an easy-to-use vehicle for turning used clubs into currency. The guide lists about 60 brands with more than 6,500 models that are accepted as trade-ins by more than 10,000 PGA professionals at over 6,600 locations. Here we show the six game-improvement irons that earned gold medals on the 2009 Golf Digest Hot List -- clubs that could use an upgrade -- along with their sale price then and trade-in value today.

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