Buying components from eBay?

[Funky Diver]

I've bought stuff (in general) from China for years.  Never have I had a problem.  Recently, bought LEDs, LED matrix boards, and a few other odds n sods... the shipping on it was quicker than a guy that lives about 30 miles away from me on a first class post item (large letter size)

[pluggy]

I even bought an arduino board off ebay.

I personally guarantee its a fake. Unless its sold as 'compatible' which is a slightly different matter  

But there are fakes and fakes, some are as good a quality as a real one, some are utter crap.......

I buy stuff from China from Ebay all the time. Usually takes 2 or 3 weeks to arrive, but never had a problem

[wellswang]

I'm so lucky that I live in China and I can buy cheap parts easily from internet.  

[wortelsoft]

I've bought lots of stuff from ebay HK sellers but also UK and Canadian sellers.

Haven't had any problems so far.

[smspencer]

My 2c worth on Earthshine is that the stuff I've bought from them is absolutely fine, and they're nice people to deal with. I believe the boards are DFRobotics ones, so not your usual knocked-off dodgy ones; certainly the DFRMega I have here is fine.

And Mike's starter guide is, as has been previously posted, an excellent one.

[copiertalk]

If I was trying to build the space shuttle I would probably not go with components off ebay.

If I am getting parts  for me just to make some LED's blink the ease of them comming to my door at an inexpesive cost is actually pretty cool even if it takes a couple of weeks. 8-)

[UltraMagnus]

I have bought loads of parts on ebay, from sellers in China, Hong Kong, Lithuania, France, Russia and even the USA and all have been fine.

Be careful with LEDs, the brightness is often over rated, or the seller will advertise the brightness you get for a few ms before the LED explodes  

[reiser4]

I buy lot of stuff from china. I never had a problem, the only requirement is patience. Here in Italy chinese packs usually take 2 to 3 weeks to come.
My last buy is a 130W TEC for a desk beer cooler, arduino controlled of course