USB drives off ebay; any good??

[Flavcool]

My dad needs a flash drive off ebay, 8-16GB and I've noticed they are a lot cheaper on ebay ($10-$20 for an 8GB vs. $45-$70 here at local stores)

I'm asking if any of the ebay flash drives could be any good, and what should I look out for? Are there any certain specs to check?

Thanks,

Flaviu

 

[bruceb]

Just stick with a name brand one like Sandisk .. and make sure it comes with
some sort of warranty. Usually, if it is not a counterfeit, the manufacturer will
honor the warranty if anything goes wrong. They can always tell the build date
thru the serial numbers.

 

[zeroidea]

You can get 8GB drives for ~$30 shipped from reputable stores like Meritline or Supermediastore ; the too-good-to-be-true deals on ebay often end with someone wondering why their 8GB drive doesn't hold 8GB, or why erything after the first 128MB is corrupt.

 

[Zepper]

Read the notice (was linked right from the eBay home page yesterday) about counterfeit Flash drives on eBay. Mainly SanDisk and Sony may be counterfeited too (re-marked to a larger size). May be safer to buy a less popular brand on eBay... Or go here
. The main thing to remember, "it's hard to cheat an honest man". If you're not looking for one at an unrealistic price, you'll probably be OK.

.bh.

 

[potato28]

If you look around you can find brand name flash drives for prices that low from reputable places like Newegg, NCIX, and B&M stores. I've saved over $70 on flash drives just by looking at the sales and waiting for the rebates.

 

[bruceb]

Zepper .. that is good information. I did not know there was such widespread
counterfeitng of these items.