Looking at this online retailer (specifically for a Bluetooth module): TxHang Electronic | eBay Stores
Everything seems so cheap, though! It even includes free shipping (which is a rarity since I live in South Africa).
Is this store (or more generally ebay "stores" originating from Asia) too good to be true? Has anyone had any experience with them?
Thanks,
Nic. 
If you are buying a board like the Arduino UNO etc. why not get one that is not a counterfeit?
You will help support the company that started the product line and this community.
There are obviously cheap things there, just remember you probably won't get much satisfaction from the seller if things don't work. You may get substitutions in your order.
Fully agree - original Arduino boards for the win.
However, I'm referring to the components, such as this:
You're not likely to get burned; I've never had a bad sale myself. The particular seller you linked also has 99.5% feedback positive over 52,000 sales. What more assurance do you want?
The biggest bummer is the long shipping times; 3-4 weeks to the US.
nicshackle:
Looking at this online retailer (specifically for a Bluetooth module): http://stores.ebay.com/txhangelectronic
Everything seems so cheap, though! It even includes free shipping
Nothing too good about it at all. Everything is completely normal, including the "free" shipping. I have actually used txhang, He is cheap, reliable and incredibly prompt. What else do you need? The parcels actually do come with stamps on them. You sometimes see the stuff cheaper with extra for shipping but the total is about the same. You will notice that the people who complain about long shipping delays are always American. You can draw your own conclusions about that.
Txhang is also typical of hundreds of other eBay sellers. I think it is called capitalism at work.
normaly in usa the stores buy from china and sell to you, this is good when you live there coz you get it inmediatly... i live in America (in Venezuela) and how here it's hard to find some components, i prefer to buy it in china, they took a loot of time (here like 40 days) but is the same components, the same quality, in prices between 1/2 part to 1/6th of the usa price
If you do buy from China, for your own peace of mind get yourself some form of delivery assurance. Do not use ordinary post. I ordered a Cubie board from China that never arrived, 3 months now. So I asked the seller for a courier service and bought another. No problems there.
yeah! if you buy in ebay as for "standard shipping" to get an tracking number (in my country the packets without it are rejected) or ask to the seller to sendyou a tracking... if the package don't arrive they usually tryit againt without problem 
(the lost one can return to they or just the assurance covert it form them)
greywolf271:
If you do buy from China, for your own peace of mind get yourself some form of delivery assurance. Do not use ordinary post. I ordered a Cubie board from China that never arrived, 3 months now. So I asked the seller for a courier service and bought another. No problems there.
This really depends on what you are buying - if it's a $3 bag of resistors then it is hardly worthwhile paying extra postage costs. Paypal is also a good form of insurance - I had a $100 package fail to arrive - lodged an initial claim with Paypal within the 45 day time frame and the funds where back in my account within 4 days.
You could check around for local sellers too. In the US there are a lot of people that buy items in bulk from these Chinese sellers, then resell them on eBay for a few extra dollars. You might be able to find a few sellers doing that where you live.
Ebay is great! I have bought a lot of stuff and never had any problems except for long delivery time.
To Sweden it takes 1-4 weeks for a order to arrive.
The prices for capacitors, resistors, led etc. are great. I often buy 100pcs instead of 10 because the prices are so incredible low.
Sometimes the prices are lower on stores like futurlec (stuff like ATMEGA328) and electrodragon (LCD, GSM modules).
Buying stuff from the US is reliable, but when you only want a $4 item and the shipping charges to the UK are over $12, it becomes ridiculous. I've, today, bought a similar item from China, on Ebay, at $1.98 with a shipping charge of 99c. I don't mind waiting 3 - 4 weeks for it at that price. I'd still have to wait a week to get it from the US.
Thanks for all the replies!
I decided to place an order from one of the Chinese ebay stores ("alice..." something). As a typical student I opted for no tracking number in order to save $3 and went for the free shipping instead.
I ordered on the 14th Sep and received the parcel in my post box today, making shipping time around 5 weeks (from China to South Africa). Usually the parcels arrive at the post office, at which I have to pay customs fees, however, this arrived in the post box and I didn't have to pay anything (a nice change from using customs heavy sparkfun products).
The quality of the goods is okay. A few slightly messy solders and some roughly cut PCB (but let's not forget how cheap the stuff was...). I have yet to test the items (I'm busy with exams).
So if you're a student or don't like spending cash (that makes most of us, right?) and don't mind waiting around, Chinese ebay stores are worth looking at (in my experience, at least).
Happy hacking!
nicshackle:
I decided to place an order from one of the Chinese ebay stores ("alice..." something).
making shipping time around 5 weeks (from China to South Africa).
We get usually eBay stuff from China in two weeks max, often one. You might find yourself waiting three weeks for a parcel from Mozambique. Actually, I had a really long wait from an "Alice" in Singapore and I thought it wasn't going to arrive at all. Maybe there is something about those alices.........
If one has doubts about the ebay sellers, one can look at the feedback and see if there have been issues with the particular product or the shipping times. The Chinese have developed good shipping methods for small parts to the US. Usually 2 weeks for the small stuff and maybe 30 days for things that weigh several pounds.
zoomkat:
The Chinese have developed good shipping methods for small parts
Yes. I have wondered if they might work by the hundreds in a specially designed skyscraper adjacent to an airport, with a drop chute next to the lift well, and a post office branch on the ground floor.
Remember where you heard it first............
The freight/traffic volume is so high from china to the us that the small electronic parts are probably easily used as revenue generating "filler" on the large aircraft to ensure they are flying fully loaded. It would be interesting to know how many jumbo jets leave china for the us every hour.
TxHang has consistently batted 1000 with me... Over $800 In 18 months, never an issue.
But, your results may differ. U.S. Customs has previously messed up some Chinese orders for me with delays. USPS generally have no problems IF the mailer package fits into a residential mailbox... They really, really do not like to get out of their carts:
Arduinos are open source, so there isn't really such a thing as "counterfeit" Arduino. Only if they try to label it as if it were made by the originators of the Arduino and pass it off as if it were from Massimo. Otherwise, you can copy the Uno or Mega or whatever all day long and not be making counterfeit parts.
I has buy from they, some wires for protoboard and a ds18b20 and they arrives, the problem is that they arrives when you forgot why you need them for.