flame6753 Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 Okay, so I have been using eBay for about 2 years now. Now I have enough experience to tell trustworthy sellers apart from the scams. I buy frequently, so I know when where and what price to pay. But JUST when I think I finally find the perfect seller, I get scammed again. Okay, so a year ago I bought a 16gb memory stick PRO Duo from a seller for 67.00 more or less. This is when I was just beginning to gain experience ebaying. So I didn't know better not to trust Chinese sellers, or a person that has less than 100% good feedback. I got it in 4 weeks (wtf?) and it didn't even work. It didn't even register as a memory stick at all, just a piece of plastic with no insides. Not even my computer recognized it as anything when inserted. So, I look at his return policy, only to find out that USPS doesn't track packages sent to china. So I'm like.. ah Hell no, this mofo is letting me keep this for that. So I file a complaint with paypal, and since they have no proof that I would be able to return it to the seller (Because i couldn't provide tracking even though I wanted to, how convenient) they wouldn't refund me. I end up sending it back to him in china using his return policy, and I pray that he refunds me. Never gave me a refund, and pretends like he never sold me the item. I never got reimbursed for that item, so I ate the loss of 67.00, Plus like 8 dollars to ship back to china. That was my one and only mishap on ebay, and I've been able to buy 100 other trinkets just find and dandy with my knew knowledge of never buying from china, and only trust power sellers with near 100% feedback. One time, I thought I never received an item, but I asked the seller and he refunded me. Then the item came two days later Just two days ago, I decide I really want a 16gb pro duo. I remember my experience and decide I will give ebay another shot, but for me to play it safe. I searched for a long time, and I find the perfect seller. He has over 36,000 sales, and received all 100% positive feedback. To make it better, the sellers location is 45 minutes from my house. I just ordered another one for $59.92. (Note that all this time, in stores the item costs 120$+ and 110$ directly from sony, so both times I would have been getting a good deal) The item shipped in just one day! I received it, and as soon as I opened it, I could tell it was fake. Real Memory sticks have a certain texture to the printed text, and two different shades of black on the surface. Plus, this fake card was flimsy. Luckily, this person has a nice return policy, so I will send it back tomorrow with shipping confirmation and eat the loss on that. I will then use my refund to buy the 16gb from "walmart.com" for 73.54, and have it shipped to my local store for free. If Walmart sends me a fake one, I swear I am not buying on line anymore. So heed my words, we all need bigger memory cards at some point. But from a fellow sonic fan-gamer to another, if you ever decide to buy one, don't even take the risk, because it isn't worth your time. Even if you think the seller is trustworthy, just save up and buy straight from sony or in store. It's more money, but at this point it's worth it to know that its NOT A FAKE PIECE OF SHIT If any of you guys think you have been doofed, here are picks of my fake and Real cards to compare to The fake Memory stick I bought a year ago. As you can see, it only has one shade of black, the text is cheaply printed on and is faded. Card is flimsy. I kept it just to want people, I'm stuck with it. http://flame-ex.com/IMG_0541.JPG The fake Memory stick I bought 2 days ago. They try to match the current style of Mark 2 cards, but you can see the text is still cheaply printed (although a little less cheap) and there is still only 1 dark shade of black http://flame-ex.com/IMG_0543.JPG My REAL store bought 8GB Memory Stick. Text is professional looking, and there are two distinct shades of black. Card is sturdy. http://flame-ex.com/IMG_0546.JPG All three cards front and back for comparison. http://www.flame-ex.com/IMG_0550.JPG http://www.flame-ex.com/IMG_0547.JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serephim Posted October 29, 2009 Report Share Posted October 29, 2009 Pfft. I bought a used Sony 4GB memorycard from GAMESTOP and it happened to be a fake. I was wondering why the hell i'd get past 2 GBs and all the data written on my CFW would be corrupt in one way or another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaSpeeds Posted October 29, 2009 Report Share Posted October 29, 2009 Where I live (Wisconsin), it only takes 5 minutes to walk down to the store and buy a 16GB flash drive for $50. But yeah.... on ebay it's always "buyer beware". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron C-T Posted October 29, 2009 Report Share Posted October 29, 2009 This is the sort of thing I'd buy off Amazon.com. Deal's just as good, really, and you know you're getting something that'll work. Or Newegg, too, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flame6753 Posted October 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2009 Even amazon is taking a risk, because they don't get all of their items straight from manufacture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron C-T Posted October 30, 2009 Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 Maybe not, but it's a legit store. Not some guy at a computer meaning you can probably have an easy time of getting a replacement, etc. And the risk is a lot less being that chances are you're getting it in its original packing, etc, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DimensionWarped Posted October 30, 2009 Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 Amazon also has a pretty heavy policy against counterfeit goods. By the way, unless you happen to be a big phone gamer, I don't think you really need a big SD card. Sure, you can use them to watch videos on a Wii or something with the appropriate homebrew, but I really just don't find them very necessary beyond 4 or even 2 gigabytes. For that, I keep a usb thumb drive on hand. EDIT: Oh wait, this is for a PSP. In that case, I think I know why you'd need a big memory stick... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverbounD Posted November 11, 2009 Report Share Posted November 11, 2009 I bought a couple of fake PS2 controllers off ebay. They were only 6 bucks a piece and look and feel just like the real thing its great. The only real difference is that they have the star wars imperial sticker as the x button odd but not a problem. One funny thing is due to the fact that the guys I bought if from were from China somehow they confused what I said and gave me a refund so I ended up getting the controllers for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flame6753 Posted November 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 WORLD IS CORRUPT, I WENT TO WALMART LAST WEEK AND WAS PLEASENTLY SUPRISED TO SEE THEY NOW SELL 16GB FOR 80. I INSPECTED THE PACKAGES FURTHER TO SEE THAT THE ONES IN THE BACK WERE REAL, WHILE THE FRONT PACKAGES HANGING WERE COUNTERFEIT!!! Even the psp guy who works there agreed with me and he didn't realize it before. BEWARE. Lol didn't I TELL you!! OMG this made my day, seriously wtf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSF Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Hahah, Wal-Mart? Not even the department stores around here do that. There are stores which have both counterfeit and originals, but at least they're in separate locations... I grab the bags/packages mostly in the back in some cases, like pizza doughs (the older ones are in the front, but I want soft ones, not a rock solid circle.) Semi-related: Best scambait ever - http://encyclopediadramatica.com/P-p-p-powerbook (yeah, it's ED but believe it or not, there are no NSFW images. Although you could catch a nasty ad if you don't use adblock or something.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssbfalcon Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 That was simply amazing... Related, I recently bought an extended battery off of ebay for my G1... Yeah, it was from China, but I did enough research on it and read about people who bought it over at the XDA boards, and found it was actually a good quality product... It's a matter of finding the legit sellers and the ones who are out there to get the people who just rush into buying... Ebay is one tricky beast sometimes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts