I buy a lot of stuff from eBay and Amazon, including batteries on occasion. Invariably, there has been a pretty good correlation between price and quality, but considerably more so with batteries.
It really sucks paying $100 or more for a quality OEM laptop battery, but the alternative is to throw away $40 and getting junk that at best will not be very useful and at worse will burn your house. Batteries are a tough business, ask Samsung... Didier KO4BB On October 10, 2016 1:13:45 PM EDT, "Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)" <drkir...@kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote: >On 10 October 2016 at 09:35, Charles Steinmetz <csteinm...@yandex.com> >wrote: > >> Poul-Henning wrote: >> >> And for voltage references, "pre-owned" is likely to mean "better". >>> >> >> Perhaps, but third-world recyclers are not known for gentle treatment >> during the parts removal process. > > >I had some cheap ($10) GPS receiver boards shipped to me in a plastic >kitchen bag from yikunhk on eBay. 4 boards in the same bag, all >scratching >each other. The bag was not anti-static. > >There are all number of possible explanations of why boards can be made >so >cheaply, when the ICs appear to cost more than the boards. > >* The chips are counterfeit >* The chips are similar to what they are supposed to be, but have been >relabeled. >* They are made at the same factory as the real devices, on what I've >heard >described as the "ghost shift", where they are not officially made, but >are >the same devices. >* They are recycled. >* They are stolen. > >It is anyone's guess once you start buying semiconductor devices from >eBay. >Maybe you are lucky, maybe you are not. > >You dramatically increase the probability a part is good if sourced >from a >reputable source (e.g. RS or Farnell in the UK). That is not to say >that >the parts are not counterfeits, as even the best suppliers can get >caught, >but they are more likely to be ok. > >I recently bought a supposedly original Samsung battery for my Samsung >Galazy S3 phone from a local shop. The phone had all sorts of issues >with >this battery, so I concluded it was a poor counterfeit. I thought I'd >be >safe buying directory from Amazon (not a 3rd party), but on reading >reviews >on Amazon, I was not convinced those were genuine Samsung batteries >either, >so I did not buy from Amazon. > >Eventually I bought a battery from the Samsung website. The phone now >works >ok. I don't know if Samsung actually make the batteries themselves, >but I >think I have a better chance of buying from the Samsung website than >from >anywhere else. > >I've had "Duracell" batteries leak. At one time I used to blame >Duracell, >but now it has cross my mind whether they might have been bought on >eBay >and were counterfeits. I can't recall where they were purchased, but >now I >will only purchase batteries from sources I consider reputable. > >Dave. >_______________________________________________ >time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com >To unsubscribe, go to >https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >and follow the instructions there. -- Sent from my Moto-X wireless tracker while I do other things. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.