Bogus SIDs on eBay

[seppoman]

about HKSS: I bought some SSM2044s from them and all of them worked and didn’t look suspicious in any way. Before I ordered, I also heard of these rumours and researched it on google - at least on SSMs, nobody except chipsforbrains (who is a competitor being annoyed that hkss sells cheaper) ever claimed there was something wrong with these ICs or had actually bought bad ssms. All you can find is hearsay about mafia and childrens work and fake parts etc. Of course I can’t say much about other semiconductors or parts, but to me it sounds mostly like a bad campaign. It’s true though that the communication is somewhat lacking - I’ve asked them how to add postal insurance as the ebay auction doesn’t allow the selection of that option and got only a very vague and not insurance-related reply. That they use more than one ebay name doesn’t seem too suspicious to me either. Of course there’s always some risk in dealing with foreign sellers that obviously don’t speak english very well, but if I can get some otherwise rare part from them for a good price, I’d say there’s no reason not to try them.

S

[dj3nk]

Once i ordered a xbox drive from hkss and never got anything. he sent me a tracking number which hasnt exist. I need to wait weeks for getting my money back. But it was paypal who gave me my money back, not him. He didnt even answer to any email.

[stryd_one]

I know now that is same person but didn`t know before I placed an order.

So, now you know, and it didn’t make any difference whether you knew or not really did it? The items still got to you. So why are you bringing up this seller out of nowhere? It’s soapboxing.

I think it is pretty easy to connect Newark and Farnell but what does goodbuy711 and HKSS have in common? Same Logo somewhere?

Yeh, you’re talking about needing to know beforehand. It doesn’t make any difference. You’ve found this new information now, and instead of just going “that’s interesting, who cares” you’re making this forum into a soapbox.

And yes, it is Chinese New Year at the moment, and the vast majority of Asia is running in holiday mode.

I never said I order anything from him recently.

You didn’t say otherwise either.

After I wright him an email that I`m going to claim my money back some secretary, said he is on vacation. : What the F she was doing those few weeks I was trying to get and answer from anybody from goodbuy711 or who ever it is?

Like I said, they should have mailed you sooner in my opinion. Why are you arguing the point? It seems to me that we agree on that. Again, you’re soapboxing. This is not the right place. Do you see me posting about every slow-to-respond ebay seller I come across?

I know about time difference, but I also know that time is not shifted -2 weeks.  :

Dude, soapbox! I already said that I don’t think it’s acceptable that an ebay seller should take two weeks to respond to you. And this is not the place to bring it up.

Ebay feedback makes not much sense for electronic parts.

Your problem is not electronic parts. The parts are fine. Your problem is with a seller who is slow to respond to emails. That’s got almost nothing to do with midibox, and certainly nothing to do with fake SIDs.

It is not a knob, or a switch! Do you wait for months to finish the project so you know the part is OK or you leave the feedback after you receive the goods. I think most people leave the feedback after they received what they pay for.

Your complaint has nothing to do with the goods, your only complaint is that he was slow to email. There’s still nothing that’s been shown to be wrong with his parts. Regardless, leave the feedback for him in the ebay site not this one. It’s not relevant.

seams you feel more passionate defending the sellers than feel sorry DIY people.

What the fuck man, I never said anything of the sort, in fact I said the opposite:

“If you’ve got real proof then bring it please, because midiboxers should be warned”. Nothing I’ve said has been in favour of either the DIYer or the seller - it’s only about making sure that the truth is known and that people, no matter who they are, are protected.

I know how bad must that guy feels after he wiped off the paint from SIDs. :'(  He probably didn`t bought it to resell it. He is probably one of us, DIY folks.

I’m not talking about dead SIDs and neither are you! Still, if the seller sold them as 100% working and they were not, and the buyer took the sensible measures to protect their purchase like paypal protection, then they can get a refund. If not, then they took a calculated risk and lost, and that’s the buyers fault. I think it’s good if they want to protect their fellow DIYers and warn them. You however are implying HKSS is involved in that kind of practice by introducing him to this thread, and in the end your only motivations for doing so are a few communications problems and a bunch of rumour.

I don`t believe I spread rumors by quoting the other people posting

.

What do you call it then? I mean, one person tells you a rumour and then you tell someone else the same rumour, what else could it be?

I found very strange seller have multiple accounts and he is responsible for that, and found myself kinda tricked I bought from one and received from another that I didn`t wanted to buy from

OK fair enough - take it to ebay. If you feel that we need to know that hkss and goodbuy are the same person, then say just that. You could use the afficial ebay thread, where it would be on topic. But there’s no need for unfairly associating him with fake SIDs.

What rumors  press wrights about celebrities? Whos gay, who did liposuction,... Who gives a F. If I like the record, Ill but it, If I don`t it is not because frontman is gay.

If only you applied the same logic in this case!

I`ll repeat. I dont know do I nor say I bought fake parts but there are people that did.

Who? Where? What happened after that? Is there any kind of proof? Did they get refunds?

I’ll repeat too. Bring the proof if you have it, but don’t spread rumours here.

So, let`s be aware of it.

We’re all fully aware of the rumour. Man, I totally agree that if there is a problem then DIY crew need to be made aware of it… but consider this: What if it is all rumour? What if HKSS has never sold counterfeit goods? What if he feeds his family or pays his rent by running an ebay store? How do you think that you effect his life when you talk shit with no basis and steer people away from his store?

You talk about how important it is to protect the DIY community, and I totally agree - but how about considering the person running the store too?

If there are no subjects with this thematic at the forums I would probably borrow more money and buy much more than I did.

Hangon, you said you didn’t know it was HKSS, So why didn’t you spend the extra money? Anyway, if you had, you’d still be in the same boat you are now: you have a bunch of working parts. Or you could get a refund. So what’s the problem again?

Same thing could do the guy that bought preprinted SIDs.

Which has nothing to do with HKSS so why are you talking about him? Soapboxing.

I`m definetelly can relate myself with goodbuy711 so I spoke about it.

Exactly. Soapboxing.

To me taking is not the same as spreading rumors.

Man how do you think rumours are spread? Talking (and typing, etc) is pretty much the only way! It may not be your intention to spread rumours, but that is exactly what you’re doing.

[Sasha]

Dude… chill out. I think you the one who is soapboxing here after all. I let yours be the last. Peace and out.

[DenDer]

Ok to come back on my previous post…This guy is from the UK so not from HK or some other distant place like let say Frankfurt ;D

I asked this guy if he tested them and he said that they were okee…he bought abatch from a guy in HK so must be the same M :-X er…

anyways gotta about 5 good working 6581’s gonna decide later which ones to use for a quadra sid and later when i get the Wilba PCB’s i already got 7x 8580r5 indahousaahh…still gonna need one…long life marktplaats…

[TheAncientOne]

HKSS is always going to be controversial. Some of the stuff they sell is your basic clone copy - cheap knobs, pots, so-called ‘Monster’ cables etc. Sometimes it gets worse. caveat emptor, (“let the buyer beware”) as the UK motto goes. I always tell friends “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.

If you go to http://search.retrosynth.com/synth-diy/search/search.cgi and search on ‘counterfeit’, you’ll find one documented case at least. There are more. Whether the problem is HKSS themselves or their suppliers. I don’t know. chipforbrains is a more serious synth rebuilt supplier, who has has specialist rare panels and pots made, and to quite good quality, (I know, because I have used them in repairs), as well as supplying NOS, (New Old Stock), parts. I think the enmity comes from HKSS muscling in on his market, and allegedly trying to sabotage his auctions.

There are current reports of phony SN76477’s, and a while ago a bunch of CA3280’s was doing the rounds. One trick is to label the blank chips used for setting up pick and place machines. Often theses an sanded to make the tops flat, before being screend as whatever the robbers wants you to believe they are selling. Another current fraud is in fake USB memory sticks that report as 2G or more, but have trick software in them to hide their actual small content until you start to load them up. These are old stock dodged up to make a quick buck.

We are not alone in this. The US military gets stiffed with bogus parts too - fake connectors that literally melt under load being one example. This is worse than your synth not working, these fakes can kill people.  As well as the flood of fake ‘new’ parts, the NOS market is full of dangers: specialist RAM re-badged to make it seem faster, old specialised ‘jungle chips’ rebadged to look like expensive TRW multipliers etc. The problem for the dealers is that they are often impossible to test without incurring very high costs, so they are taken in at face value, and the unfortunate customer gets to do the testing.

http://www.edn.com/article/CA497033.html?text=counterfeit%3E

Playbo$$'s caps were one of the rawest ripoff’s I’ve seen for a while. Power transistors are another nightmare - I know this from bitter experience - a batch of 2N3773’s I bought for repair stock, from a reputable dealer turned out to be rebadged 2N3055’s, ( I opened one up in desperation). I got replacement parts ,but lost a major repair customer, I’d repaired H&H amps for him for years. 6 worked for a while on the bench and blew in the field. We lost the trail at the importer, who had also been ripped off: no-one was compensated for the consequential loss which must have run into the £100,000’s region, (the importer had bought something like 25,000 transistors, which had been sent all over the UK).

Let’s be careful out there folks.

[stryd_one]

HKSS is always going to be controversial.

LOL you bet  : But that’s the problem… people spread rumour around, and before you know it, a half dozen alledged and totally unproven and partially documented posts on the internet create a culture where whenever a fake part is mentioned, crowds of people start flinging poo at hkss with no real justification. Even if he does have a few counterfeit parts, it’s hardly unique and hardly worthy of the degree of reaction it gets. It’s there in his feedback, as it should be.

Some of the stuff they sell is your basic clone copy - cheap knobs, pots, so-called ‘Monster’ cables etc. Sometimes it gets worse.

Ahem, proof please! Comon man, warning good, rumour bad, and all that… There’s plenty of warnings about transistors in his feedback, and if you google, but does it really need to come here if it’s in his feedback already? “Always check your ebay seller’s feedback before you buy” is great advice, and it’s all over ebay’s website. Aside from that, he gives refunds on fakes, and broken stuff which I know from personal experience.

caveat emptor, (“let the buyer beware”) as the UK motto goes. I always tell friends “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.

Them’s wise words!

If you go to http://search.retrosynth.com/synth-diy/search/search.cgi and search on ‘counterfeit’, you’ll find one documented case at least.

Ahh, I wouldn’t call a few words and a pair of pics “documented”. I could whip up a post with a couple of messed up chips and say they’re fakes and I bought them from him. Where’s the link to the auction, the item number, the feedback? Where’s the copies or screencaps of the email threads between buyer and seller? What about the refund? Did ebay buyer protection, paypal protection, and credit card online fraud protection all fail this guy? FWIW, I have some of the 4096 BBD’s from him and they are not painted or sanded and the pins are new etc, I can’t confirm they’re not fake because I’ve nothing to drive them, but they don’t look like those other pics at all.

There are more.

That may very will be true, but I’m yet to see them. I can find lots of posts referring to other posts referring to some story that some guy told them though

You guys really need to stop and think - when you say this shit about him, whether it’s true or not, you are disrespecting him and taking money from him. It’s the equivalent of walking up to the guy hitting him in the face and stealing his wallet.

Now, if he’s got it coming, then dish it up in droves, and I’ll be right there swinging too… but it’s not something you should just throw out there in a flippant post like it’s nothing, and I’m yet to see anyone take it as seriously as they would if they were saying this shit to the guy’s face.

Whether the problem is HKSS themselves or their suppliers. I don’t know.

It’s clearly his suppliers, I mean why would he stock 99% genuine stock and then fake the cheap stuff? … but he doesn’t seem to do much about it either. Once he is shown that he’s stocking fakes, he keeps listing them, and that sucks. His inaction is about as bad as committing the crime itself IMO.

chipforbrains is a more serious synth rebuilt supplier, who has has specialist rare panels and pots made, and to quite good quality, (I know, because I have used them in repairs), as well as supplying NOS, (New Old Stock), parts. I think the enmity comes from HKSS muscling in on his market, and allegedly trying to sabotage his auctions.

Yeh chipforbrains is way more serious for sure. And IMO HKSS’s business ethics are nonexistent, it’s pretty shocking. The worst thing is that he continues to list stock that has been proven fake (like the transistors) but then again, if you buy a transistor from him and his feedback says they’re fake, you’re pretty much asking for it… And if you’ve got a problem with dodgy business ethics there are certainly better targets and places for discussing them.

There are current reports of phony SN76477’s… CA3280’s … One trick is to label the blank chips …fake USB memory sticks

Is this HKSS or what?

We are not alone in this.

Totally ,it’s rampant. Sign up for parts supplier email lists and its just counterfeit this, counterfeit that, counterfeit the other. 

Playbo$$'s caps were one of the rawest ripoff’s I’ve seen for a while.

Let’s be careful out there folks.

Totally…Man you got ripped, that sucks

[Ashiman]

lol If I would buy caps of that size, they would be called Panasonic Purism or Pureism, pure water caps and thats the way they are built no ripoff, pure water is kinda  expensive  ;D ;D ;D

now here is the new :

<%bobo1on1> lol

<%bobo1on1> someone bought a lot of metal film resistors from china

<%bobo1on1> and they turned out to be carbon resistors

<%bobo1on1> he thought it was strange that the resistance went down as he measured longer

[Peake]

lol If I would buy caps of that size, they would be called Panasonic Purism or Pureism, pure water caps and thats the way they are built no ripoff, pure water is kinda  expensive  ;D ;D ;D

now here is the new :

<%bobo1on1> lol

<%bobo1on1> someone bought a lot of metal film resistors from china

<%bobo1on1> and they turned out to be carbon resistors

<%bobo1on1> he thought it was strange that the resistance went down as he measured longer

Odd- numbers 2 and 3 happened to me. I was given a quick partial refund (no shipping). They’re still useful  ;D

[seekwhensir]

ARgh! Again!

Why?

What’s wrong with that seller?

Lots of HK guys do that. It’s not like they’re secretive about it.

Probably because your first language is Serbian and his first language is Chinese, and you’re both talking English, in emails only. It’s not exactly an efficient method of communication

I want to put a very sudden stop to this. If this seller has done something wrong, and it can be proven, then please by all means provide the proof, and protect our beloved midiboxers from being ripped off… But so far, I’ve seen a lot of people badmouthing him, all because one guy accused him of selling counterfeit goods, and a bunch of people jumped on the bandwagon. It should be noted that the person who accused him of this practice, chipforbrains, is another seller from HK, and is likely his direct competition, or maybe even himself, directing buyers towards the chipforbrains store where prices are higher. Whatever the reason, there is as yet NO PROOF, not even a convincing argument, that hongkongsuperseller has done anything wrong.

I won’t stand for unfounded accusations against anyone here.

Just to add my 2bits, I purchased a replacement blue light bend wheel for the Juno 106. It took 2 months to arrive after the ebay auction was over, and he’s based somewhere in Oklahoma. When the part finally arrived ( from HK ), it was mint, clean in full ESD bags and was fully operational. I even inspected the pcb, was impressed by the clone, and it was evident that he was very much more of an asset then a culprit. The original knob cap no longer fit, but I’m not that vain for a 24 year retro fit that still works to this day.

Also, if this helps:  http://www.the-gas-station.com/messages.cfm?type=normal&thread_id=62105&lastdays=2000&