Before buying a table tennis table, it would be good to decide what you want to use the table for and where you will place it. There are a number of points you need to take into consideration before purchasing a table.
Table tennis – Outdoors or Indoors?
Do you want to play table tennis, also known as ping pong, outdoors or in your house or garage? An outdoor table is a more expensive option that an indoor table. If you want to use the table tennis table for instance in your garden, then the table needs to have a deck that can withstand all kinds of weather conditions and the legs of the table should have a protective coating.
A collapsible table could be a good compromise, after using it outdoors, you can fold it and store it in a dry place, like for instance your house or garage.
Make sure that the table you would like to purchase has the correct dimensions. The table tennis table should be 9 feet long (274 cm), 5 feet wide (152 cm) and 30 inch (76 cm) high. When playing competition, official rules require that the table surface should be matt, dark green or blue colored and made out of wood or a derivate of wood. The net on ping pong table should be 6 inch (15.24 cm) high.
Official Table Tennis Table
Official rules regarding the surface of the table from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) require that an official ball that is dropped from a height of 12 inch (30 cm), should bounce at least 8.75 inch (22.2 cm) back
All of the official rules do obviously not apply when you are buying a table tennis table just for fun.
A good table should be at least 0.8 inch (2 cm) thick and the legs of the ping pong table should be sturdy, since they need to carry a lot of weight.
Price categories
Table tennis tables are available in various price categories, starting most of the time around $100. Deciding what the best choice is for you depends on your needs (e.g. do you want to play ping pong indoors or outdoors, recreational or competition, should it be collapsible or not, etc), your personal taste and obviously your budget.