Fakes on eBay.. just how bad are they?

Mike Sweeney

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I picked up four Elana 10,000uf 80 volt caps as part of a project I have. I've been getting an assortment of caps for fitting into a replacement package for a 2285B Marantz and I have been trying different brands and types. But, I ordered these off my phone while at a event and bored. Got to thinking about some of the comments I had read and even though the seller has 198000 feedbacks and 99% +, I decided to dig a bit. What I found is that currently Elana doesn't make a 10,000uf cap at 80 volts.. and I can't find where they ever did. By the time I went back to the seller and asked, they had already shipped the caps. But they never addressed my concerns about the caps being fakes.

So the caps arrived tonight. The caps look like the were printed by my 14 year old. really shoddy printing. Not one of the four met ESR spec of 10,000 uf .. all where about 8,000uf with high resistance. The real kicker is when I hooked them up to my leak tester. None of the four made it over 50 volts before total failure on leakage. Two started to leak at 25 volts.

So in short, the caps are pure crap.. 6 bucks apiece.. I've already started the process for return /refund.

With this said, my other order off eBay of 4 Nichicon's at 6800 uf and 63 volts but with radial leads checked out perfectly. Number match the catalog.. measurements right on the money.. no leakage till I go over 55 volts ( 75)and then it's only a bit.
 
Wow. That would be frustrating. I usually buy from one of the big boys (Mouser, Digikey) but they don't always have what I need... I'll pay more to get the right part the first time, every time but don't let "Them" know that ; )
 
I've bought some metal film resistor assortments that have been great (stuff described as: 10 of every value between 10 ohms and 100 meg 1/4w metal film). Hard to imagine it would be worth faking them, but culls that didn't meet spec somewhere would be a concern. I measure twice and cut once : )
 
Many years ago I used to buy caps from ebay. I still do at time, but buy from people I have purchased from before. The reason for this is that many of the caps I had previously received from "Overseas" were bogus. I got tired of testing them to find ones within tolerance, and low ESR.
There were some I got that were great caps at bargan prices, but like I said, make sure you know where they are coming from and who is selling them to you.
 
Do not buy parts on e-bay. Buy from Digikey, Mouser, Allied, Newark, Electronic Surplus, B&D Enterprises, Arrow, Avnet, Audiolab of Georgia, Antique Electronics, or Consolidated Electronics. These are the reliable sources I have found. Avoid e-bay.
 
I haven't bought caps on ebay, but I got burned on some fake Furutech FP-202 banana plugs. They were very convincing, but after I bought some from Douglas Connection I knew I had been had. I'll be trying to get my 79 bucks back on the fakes. I hate scammers.
 
I bought three United Chemcon caps from a trusted company but needed one more. The vendor only had three left. Since they would be seen I didn't want to mix with another brand. I rolled the dice with eBay and lost. The printing was bad and I noticed that the inards were loose lightly shaken you could feel a soft thumping. I didn't even test it. Tore it apart and found the guts to be about a half the diameter it should have been. I'm convinced some of this junk is bad production runs and picked out of the trash to be relabled.
 
Scammers best customers are people looking for something for nothing, looking for that "score", so to speak. If it seems like a deal that is really good, maybe too good, it probably is.
 
Scammers best customers are people looking for something for nothing, looking for that "score", so to speak. If it seems like a deal that is really good, maybe too good, it probably is.

Sometimes but often it's just a newbie that doesn't know any better and gets scammed and worse, turned off to the hobby.
 
Newbie or not, far as I know, most people do at least some research on pricing....that's why they decided to buy where they did.

If that price is a lot different than in other places that should be a red flag. This is just common sense.

OTOH, doesn't necessarily mean it is a scam, but it probably should mean "maybe I should do a bit more digging before I pull the trigger".
 
Newbie or not, far as I know, most people do at least some research on pricing....that's why they decided to buy where they did.

If that price is a lot different than in other places that should be a red flag. This is just common sense.

OTOH, doesn't necessarily mean it is a scam, but it probably should mean "maybe I should do a bit more digging before I pull the trigger".

Yeah but you're assuming everyone is looking to pay less, when many just want to pay a fair price and often you will find fakes at prices that seem reasonable. That's where it burns a lot of people. If you're buying something you know costs $1000 and it's listed for $100 then you're on your own.

Ebay is no longer a place to get bargains. Often it's the only place to find something. Like try buying a relay for an old integrated amp. Sometimes they are unobtanium and the only place you'll find it is ebay.
 
Yeah but you're assuming everyone is looking to pay less, when many just want to pay a fair price

A rose by any other name.

Call it fair, call it not getting raked (or raped), whatever; they're still looking for a better price.

Looking for a better price is not a problem itself. I expect we all do it on a pretty regular basis.

The key is the price you see relative to elsewhere.

People know if they are looking for an unobtanium part. If you find it for a song and dance vs. the typical unobtanium price... big red flag (or at least it should be).
 
I paid 69 bucks for 4 FP-202G connectors vs roughly 95 through most certifed dealers. I though it was plausible vs the sellers who were selling 8 for roughly the same price. I figured it was a good deal but not too good to be true, so lesson learned.
 
I'm not sure why there would be disagreement with any of what I've said in this regard.

The underlying point to all of it is, "if it's too good to be true it probably is". I'd guess that adage predates everyone on the forum.

That doesn't cover every conceivable situation, but it's a damn good place to start.
 
I paid 69 bucks for 4 FP-202G connectors vs roughly 95 through most certifed dealers. I though it was plausible vs the sellers who were selling 8 for roughly the same price. I figured it was a good deal but not too good to be true, so lesson learned.

Overpriced fake. Your situation is exactly what I am talking about. At that price, you're not trying to "beat the system" and some manufacturers like DefTech for example sell at "middleman pricing" direct to end users. I suspect that pisses off dealers but it's not unheard of. I don't know if DefTech is still doing it, but they had some great deals on ebay years ago on what I guess was liquidation of old stock when the new models came out.
 
I'm not sure why there would be disagreement with any of what I've said in this regard.

The underlying point to all of it is, "if it's too good to be true it probably is". I'd guess that adage predates everyone on the forum.

That doesn't cover every conceivable situation, but it's a damn good place to start.

Not disagreeing at all with that.. but you made it sound like everyone on ebay is trying to get something for nothing... maybe I just read it that way. :)
 
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