[IGNORE] $350.00 Gamble on WD Red WD40EFRX 4TB Drives

[Mirfster]

Okay, so here I am perusing eBay in search of some HGST 4TB Drives and mulling over if I want SAS or SATA when I get an e-mail from Amazon about yet another sale on Hard Drives...

In their listing are some "WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EFRX" for $150.00/Each. Out of curiosity I stick the model number into an eBay search; as the results appear I see a listing that has these NEW from Austria for $27.00/Each (with Free Shipping)... *** Not going to list the eBay link, since I don't want to propagate this risk personally...

Okay, BS Meter is going off like crazy and I am telling myself this is nothing but a scam... A few minutes go by and I am drinking my coffee when I have a PT Barnum moment...

Figuring that I have three layers of protection (eBay, PayPal and AMEX) I decided to toss the dice... 13 drives ordered for $350.87 with a delivery date no later than July 6th, 2016...

Seller has sold over 150 of these items so if it turns out to be a scam (which is like 99.9% possible) I won't be the only one looking for a refund.

So, until things arrive and I can test these suckers out all I can do is try to stay positive

P.S. Noticed the Seller listed them as 7200 RPM drives, thought that these drives only came in 5400 RPM?

 

[Mirfster]

Haha... Just got a message from eBay:

You were recently involved in a transaction for the following item:
[Redacted] - WD Red WD40EFRX 4TB SATA 6Gbps Buffer 64MB IntelliPower HDD for NAS

We’re writing to let you know that an unauthorized third party may have accessed the seller’s account to list this item. The item has been removed from the site, and the transaction was cancelled.

Oh well, that was a short lived dream...

P.S. If any mods want to delete this thread feel free or you can link it to the "How to fail" thread if you really want ;)

 

[anodos]

It's probably just the PCB for the hard drives. Like listed here - http://www.ebay.com/itm/WD20EZRX-WD...005712?hash=item210c2a16d0:g:ww8AAOSwuAVWyqrA

I was personally hoping you would order them and get $350 worth of counterfeit WD PCBs.

 

[Mirfster]

Nah, I would have at least caught that. They were listed as complete drives (screenshot of what used to be listed below):

Thanks for hoping I would get all counterfeit PCBs though... :P

 

[Dice]

The Scam-o-meter is hitting max :P
However, I've done the same thing on completely different things (LED bars..) which rendered a neat little refund and a deleted seller..

 

[anodos]

Nah, I would have at least caught that. They were listed as complete drives (screenshot of what used to be listed below):
View attachment 12277

Thanks for hoping I would get all counterfeit PCBs though... :p

You obviously haven't had enough experience buying things through dodgy channels. There's a certain art to figuring out what exactly is being sold. Anyway, my guiding principle on using ebay is "if it seems too good to be true, then it is".

 

[Mirfster]

Anyway, my guiding principle on using ebay is "if it seems too good to be true, then it is"

Agree 100% (okay was more like 99.999% in this case...) for some reason I was just feeling way too "froggy" this morning and jumped. Meh, money is refunded so I chalk it up to a waking dream that is now over.

 

[anodos]

Agree 100% (okay was more like 99.999% in this case...) for some reason I was just feeling way too "froggy" this morning and jumped. Meh, money is refunded so I chalk it up to a waking dream that is now over.

One other observation is that doing things wrong is often faster and cheaper (in the short term), and a depressingly large number of 'decision-makers' only look at the short term.

I also have observed that I feel tempted to drink if I think too much about these things.

 

[jgreco]

P.S. If any mods want to delete this thread feel free or you can link it to the "How to fail" thread if you really want ;)

Actually I think this is useful as a cautionary tale. I seem to recall that it's some sort of scam intended to rip off eBay/PayPal, due to their guarantee and the fact that money can be made to vanish quickly.

Anyway, my guiding principle on using ebay is "if it seems too good to be true, then it is".

Definitely not true. Lots of times people have no frickin' clue what it is they're selling. A buyer who's familiar with technology products can sometimes score a 75% discount. My personal favorite is buying something with make an offer for something that's particularly obscure, and getting even more off.

 

[diedrichg]

I have a price alert set for $139.99 at PCPartPicker for the WD40EFRX. Most hardware I don't need right away and PCPartPicker is a godsend!

 

[Mirfster]

Actually I think this is useful as a cautionary tale.

Sure I am fine if you want to leave it up as a cautionary example. I got my cash back, but maybe others would not be so lucky.

 

[anodos]

Actually I think this is useful as a cautionary tale. I seem to recall that it's some sort of scam intended to rip off eBay/PayPal, due to their guarantee and the fact that money can be made to vanish quickly.



Definitely not true. Lots of times people have no frickin' clue what it is they're selling. A buyer who's familiar with technology products can sometimes score a 75% discount. My personal favorite is buying something with make an offer for something that's particularly obscure, and getting even more off.

Yeah I guess that's true. I scored a couple of obscure proprietary PSUs for a digital phone system from 2003 for $100 right after a vendor quoted me about $1000 for a single refurb. They even arrived in their original packaging.