Again, counterfeit electronic components

[ronwer224]

There have been several threads on this board about counterfeit products shamelessly sold by especially Chinese sellers on Ebay. But nothing seems to be done about it. 

My hobby is electronics and I have bought a lot of components on Ebay during the last 15 years. In the beginning I had no problems with semiconductors I bought on Ebay. My projects worked, so all seemed well.

But the last 5 years I noticed a sudden increase in counterfeit components, even the very cheap ones. Examples are the very cheap and antiquated Operational Amplifiers (opamps) like the LM358 and TL071. Even these are now being faked!

As  a kind of test I bought some more modern opamps in recent times, but all of them are either straigth forward fakes, or display erratic behaviour (production errors?). 

Ebay is so nice to refund me my expenses, but that is hardly enough. Why not block sellers that consistently offer counterfeit products? Three strikes out... 

I have plenty more examples of fakes. Like the N-channel JFET J310 being some simple mediocre NPN transistor instead. Or  BF245C JFET's producing ugly waveforms in oscillators. Transistors that are supposed to have high amplification not even producing half the amplification they are supposed to. 

Due to this, whenever I seriously need to buy semiconductors, I avoid Chinese sellers, see if I can buy from an American/European source, or even better, I order from Mouser Electronics. 

But for me it would been even better if Ebay could have a major clean-up among sellers that are not trustworthy, and restore their reputation as a reliable source for electronic components. 

[peacenowar]

Hello,
I also wonder how to solve such problems.
It seems to me that some kind of forceful method is needed; appeals to conscience do not work in Chinese communism-capitalism...
It is possible to create a database with a collection of positive reviews about successfully purchased quality components and the “right” sellers.
IMHO, the honest reputation of a seller is a constant value over time; if it has been accumulated through honest work, then no one will want to destroy it. Therefore, these valiant guys can and should be advertised. The only thing is that such information is scattered on the Internet and I would like to summarize it...
This would increase the efficiency of purchases and reduce the income of dishonest dealers.

Regards,

Vlad

[ronwer224]

I agree entirely! It should be Ebay themselves who should take the initiative. I cannot possibly understand that it is in Ebay's best interest to allow unscrupulous sellers to continue to sell fakes/counterfeits. Ebay loses customers and credibility. As I stated in my first post, I stopped ordering certain types of components on Ebay. I am not a huge buyer, but if many enough buyers do the same, it might represent a considerable economic loss for Ebay. And also for the trustworthy sellers, who are being avoided simply because they are Chinese. 

[fab_finds4u]

You are so right. My significant other bought electronic components on eBay since 1998,  and had a walk in shop since a few years before then. He used to buy from SantaFe, West Labs, Rag Shack, etc.  On eBay he had good luck at first and then  around  2012 he stopped buying transistors here unless the seller was from Japan. In 2015 he purchased a matched set of 32 pills from a seller he used a lot that didn't sell fakes.  That's been awhile so I have  have no clue if he is still ok.

Anyway, my S.O. had all the componets to build a 32 pill linear and was halfway into the build when unfortunately he passed away. I have not gotten around to selling a shack load of stuff yet because there are a lot of people with golden screwdrivers using you for their parts dept. I gues one day one day I'm gonna load it all up and show up at a ham fest or cb shoot out and sell it.  I'm gonna need an enclosed trailer, lol 

[janet9988]

Heck, ebay does not even remove reported illegal items pointed directly on the prohibited list.

[shock78]

I agree.  I have had so many problems with counterfeit chips even when purchased from US sellers.  The problem is that the US sellers  buy in bulk from Chinese counterfeiters.  While they may not know the chips are counterfeit, they also don't have the capacity or desire to test the parts before selling them to the rest of us. Mouser and other reputable suppliers spend a lot of time and money checking out their sources to ensure the "pedigree" of the parts they sell us. 

My most recent experience was buying a darlington transistor.  You would think nobody would bother to counterfeit these inexpensive parts but the ones I got had the wrong pin-out and were clearly just plain transistors.  So they were even cheaper transistors remarked with a different part number.  A great way to cheat people and make money without having to actually make counterfeits. 

[lamayzingfinds]

I'll never buy from Chinese online resellers.... Im sure not all are scamming, but it's not worth it.  

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.