What are some technology items you should never buy from Ebay?
>SD cards
>>54822830
Pretty much anything you don't want to gamble on. ebay has pretty enticing offers and cheap prices but you're gambling your money most of the time. A lot of the reviews are fake and/or paid for.
>>54822830
Controllers.
Especially Dualshock 3's for some reason. They sell fakes ones in droves.
>>54822869
>Pretty much anything you don't want to gamble on.
I've never had an issue buying camera lenses off eBay. It would be pretty damn hard to fake a Canon L lens. So hard that if you could do it, you would be more profitable starting up your own brand name lens line like Sigma or Tokina. With used you have to judge whether or not you trust the seller's description (photos; score; details). With new you have to remember there's US and "gray" market. It's the exact same item but the manual might be in Chinese and some manufacturers (i.e. Nikon) will not honor the warranty.
I've also bought old CPUs and RAM off eBay without issue so far. Another thing that's impossible to fake and if the specs are off (i.e. someone claiming a 2ghz processor is really the 2.6ghz model) you know immediately and can get a refund.
mechanical hard drives. people generally can't ship them properly
>>54822830
Other things you need to watch out for include:
>USB mass storage devices
>cables of almost any description
or, indeed, anything that is commonly the subject of fakery. >>54823113's assumption that fakers would set up their own brand easier than faking someone else's doesn't take into account the pure dodginess of Shenzhen province after-hours Friday night specials. I've decapped fake chips that worked fine, markings were perfect, and turned out to be FPGA/microcontroller/software clones, which is actually more effort than just ripping off the shadowmask would have been.
That said, if the seller has a good rep and has been around for a while and clearly sells a lot, you may well be fine. It's a market stall. Treat it as such.
Pay more attention to Amazon Marketplace, because eBay has more feedback quality-control than Amazon, which has almost none.
Really, look out for Amazon's reseller shit - all the dodgy of Taobao with not enough of the cheap. Even the "legit" ones don't actually have things in stock until you order them and really act as direct wholesale middlemen.
>>54823252
>cables of almost any description
I've never had any problems with stuff like that. Though I'm talking about where you need a quick 99p adapter cable or some shit. Like recently I bought a USB to SATA adapter from Ebay that works just fine.
>>54822830
SSDs.
All SSD sellers are scammers.
>>54822869
There's never any risk though. Any issue raised is always sided for the buyer.
Not to mention the majority of the common sellers now are authorized retailers like Newegg, bestbuy, etc.
Just limit items from US and you're pretty much guaranteed to have a good time.
Any kind of video converter
Wireless adapters, especially from singapore.
>>54823464
>complaining about lag
>playing on a console
>>54823484
fucking idiot
>>54823448
Not true.
>>54823464
Would that not be a HDMI splitter? I'm pretty sure they generally introduce lag of some sorts.
Any kind of storage device really.
Quick/cheap cables tend to be fine in my experience. I mean how do you fuck up a USB cable?
>>54823571
it's AV to hdmi
the AV is split, one into the converter and the other into the TV in front
Maybe there's latency from the splitter, but it's not enough to notice.
I was looking for a cheap solution to playing older consoles on my monitor, this wasn't it.
On the plus side, I told the seller it was broken (which is kind of is) and they refunded me.
Ive literally never had a problem with buying from eBay before
>>54822869
Haha, that's bullshit.
The safety net is entirely based on the demand side of the equation. Sellers will get fucked into pieces if they get just a few major complaints about false advertising.
eBay is safer than ever.
>>54822932
I picked up a fake DS3 for $7, can't even tell it's a knockoff other than the analog sticks being a little tighter, it even has an accelerometer.
Actually I'm pretty sure it's the one you posted a photo of
>>54823634
http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/02/02/google-engineer-benson-leung-finds-a-usb-type-c-cable-that-isnt-just-dangerous-on-paper-it-allegedly-fried-his-hardware/
Badly wired cable not respecting the standard specs and fried a laptop.
>>54823721
The wire sticking out of the top is a giveaway
>>54823762
Didn't notice that, I just glanced and assumed it was miniUSB like mine is.
>>54822869
what is buyer protection
>>54822830
Ball torture type writers. That's poor hygiene.
>>54822830
Brand name headphone/earphones from hk/china
>>54822830
Where is the cheapest place to buy legit SD cards? Alibaba?
>>54823921
Patriot microsd cards on amazon are probably your best bet. Their 64GB version includes 70MB/s transfer speeds and costs $16.
>>54822830
3D Printers. Every ebay one sucks and is plagued with electronics and extruder issues
>>54822830
time machine
>>54823721
Have you ever even held a real Dualshock 3? The fake ones are fucking awful. And the one in the picture is so terribly bad just by looking at it. My dumbass friend once bought one off Ebay and it felt like shit (Though it was higher quality than the one in the picture) and even the minor things just put us off massively like how the buttons pressed and how the analogs felt. I mean it's the input device you're going to be physically holding and using for fucks sake. I would never skimp on a controller. Just like I wouldn't on a mouse.
>>54823762
There's that "P3" on the home button and you say the wire is the giveaway?
>>54823921
Mymemory is pretty good (And on Sandisk's list of certified retailers)
>>54822830
>he did not buy a shark
>>54824274
>Have you ever even held a real Dualshock 3?
Of course, one came with my PS3.
>the fake ones are fucking awful
I must've gotten the best fake then, because the only noticeable difference in use is that the analog sticks are a bit tighter.
>>54824153
what happened? crystals missing?
