E bay stuff

Swanrad2

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No connection - but some of this stuff looks cheap. Also never bought from China (occasional poor stories)

seller:antiquechina2009

Any good?
 

stevebrassett

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I have bought a few things through ebay from China with no problems. However, my daughter bought something from Amazon that was supplied from China (this was stated on the item description) and got charged duty on it, together with a £12 admin fee from Royal Mail.
 

BarryH

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I have, in the past, purchased goods from china. They took an age to arrive. In one case almost 2 months.
 

stevebrassett

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EugeneR

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I've bought a few items from China on EBAY and, roughly, had issues with around 20% or so. Delivery varies from a few days to a few months.

Examples:
- GoPro helmet strap did not fit my GoPro. I bought an identical replacement, which worked.
- Pocket-sized oscilloscope for £35 but the probe was unreliable; replaced the probe for £3 and it has become a really reliable tool since.

Given the lack of compliance, sometimes, to our safety standards I'd be reluctant to use anything in a critical environment. For example, not sure I'd use my 300A electronic relay to remotely switch on/off the boat's inverter.
 

ShinyShoe

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Interesting. On item

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DT-380-Di..._Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item43c6341165

from the same supplier, it says he is in China. Maybe he visits?
Assuming he is truthful (and he risks bad feedback if delivery takes an age from P'mouth) then he possibly has a UK distribution point (quite common with some of the Chineese Ebayers). But he may have less commonly sent things or perhaps things that he struggles to import in bulk for tax reasons or CE marking reasons that are shipped from China.

Never had an issue with China supply. Slow but OK. Buy RFID Tokens for sailing club car park barrier and some have a poor reliability rate. But I'd say for 20p versus £1+ UK price and maybe 1 in 5 failing... not exactly a problem.

Curiously had two MP3 players since Christmas from UK stock (probably linked to China supplier) and both pure junk.
 

coopec

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I buy a lot of items off eBay. I will never buy from a seller with less than 99% positive feedback (and a lot of Chinese sellers don't make the cut-off) Hong Kong sellers fair better though. I've ordered and received a couple of items recently which they claimed were stainless steel but when I tested them with a magnet they were obviously mild steel. In each case I demanded my money back (and got it) and also I dobbed them in to eBay but I don't know that eBay takes any action as the Chinese seller is still selling them as "stainless steel". A bicycle cable (inner and outer) cost me $A1.00 and the postage was $A1.29. That's equal to about a little over one British pound!! (You can buy macerators for about 35 British pounds)
 
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