Dodgy sellers?

Vernier

Discovered this morning I needed a 'USB stick'. Had a look on eBay, as you would.

If you look at many of the apparently UK sellers in the above link offering free postage you will find several different user names, all based in China (but item location Glasgow), and with mainly single-digit feedback, all for buying, received on the 2nd and 3rd Dec, and none for selling.

Strange!

Flyonthewall

Actually for USB sticks, due to fakes, I always check sites like ebuyer and computer shops first rather than ebay.

Anyway, it might be that it's the same seller and they have multiple accounts. Perhaps got some feedback on each to appear better to buyers and then selling as a private seller on multiple accounts and getting more free listings (as they are starting at 99p).

RFW

A lot of Chinese sellers have a lot of accounts. It isn't always 'dodgy'. One seller I deal with in China has regular problems with accounts due to people buying and not being happy waiting a month for goods to arrive, despite being told that's how long they take.

They rotate accounts so DSRs drop off and they can keep top rated seller status, occasionally they start new accounts. I often look for their new accounts as others think they are dodgy and I can get a good price!

Obviously some may well be dodgy, especially with some electric or computer related items.

Vernier

I agree that it is obviously the same seller, or perhaps group of sellers.

Another puzzling thing is that the feedback received all seems to be from genuine sellers in various countries, and yet was all received on 2nd/3rd Dec. How could that work out?

Unfortunately the limited information eBay now includes in feedback pages makes many interesting avenues of research impossible!

melliott1963

Vernier wrote: »

Discovered this morning I needed a 'USB stick'. Had a look on eBay, as you would.

Definitely NOT!

eBay is the last place I'd look for USB Sticks. As has already been mentioned, there are loads of fakes, so trying to find the genuine among the fakes is not easy (if impossible).

Stick to a 'proper' retailer like eBuyer, Dabs or Amazon (but don't use a marketplace seller).

GabbaGabbaHey

Wherever you buy your memory stick or SD card from (even if it's a reputable seller), I would always test it with this software before entrusting any of my valuable data to it:

http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/h2testw-14-gold-standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/

Vernier

Thanks for that link, Philip. I want the stick for updating firmware in a satellite receiver, so a duff one could be bad news!

forgotmyname

As mentioned USB sticks are one of the things its worth paying extra and buying from a known source.

Its easy to take a 4GB card/stick and label it as 32GB. They supply software than compresses your files so you think its actually 32gb.

But try copying a 30GB zip file and it crashes. You can get software to test them to check the genuine size.

Lots of fake MP3/MP4 players on ebay every year.