Why not to buy 'audio' caps on ebay

[bricktop]

'For tube amps' - Bought these quite a while ago, but i think they still sell them. The brown thing is about half the radius of the can....:yuck: I'm glad i resolved fairly quickly after to only buy from reputable distributors....:yes:

[sloober]

COOL! I would never buy components on ebay, this just proves my point. Hope noting died because of this,
John

[bricktop]

I find it somewhat shamefully hilarious, but also very dangerous. The one cap, rated at 400V, looks to be a pull out of equipment from its messed up, stubby, soldered-on leads.

[Isotonic]

I have bought some very nice vintage PIO caps on ebay. I have also bought some new Motor Run PIO from a chinese outfit called Obbligato. Very reasonably priced and sound great. Ebay is also a source of very good vintage Russian caps. I found some new PIO small footprint caps for my Eico recently. I also find good deals on recent products like Sonicap every once in a while.

I don't see any reason to buy electrolytics, as they are readily available and reasonably priced from more conveniant sources like digikey.

[gearhound]

I buy NOS Sprague Vitamin Q capacitors, from an LA-based vendor on flea-bay.
In a lot of 20 caps......comes out to $1.25 per cap.
So far.....so good.


Steve

[dividebytube]

I've bought plenty of capacitors from Ebay - mostly old-stock, Obbligatos or Russian stuff - Teflon, oilers, etc. So far so good.

Of course there is a whole 'industry' dedicated to making counterfeit electronic parts - its even hit the solid-state industry with mislabeled power transistors, etc. Wherever there is a profit to be made, the scammers will come out of the woodwork.

[Cut-Throat]

'For tube amps' - Bought these quite a while ago, but i think they still sell them. The brown thing is about half the radius of the can....:yuck: I'm glad i resolved fairly quickly after to only buy from reputable distributors....:yes:

Looks like someone got the polarity wrong to me.

[bowtie427ss]

That discovery might have made me mad enough to chew the ass off a rhino.:yes:

[Twenty20Man]

i think we should gather up all the scammers sentence them to death then give them an option...Work for the state dept or other government agency to straighten out our trade problems, negotiate (scam opec)oil purchases..etc i'll personally supply them with any junk they need.

[bricktop]

I should have been more specific in the title, just electrolytics. I buy oil and rusky caps on ebay too (just bought a 10-pack of CSC 100uF, 370VAC motor run caps). I guess it all boils down to economics...It's hard to imagine where labor is so cheap that it becomes profitable to do all that work, just for the price difference between a 400V and 450V, 22uF capacitor...

[jaymanaa]

I should have been more specific in the title, just electrolytics. I buy oil and rusky caps on ebay too (just bought a 10-pack of CSC 100uF, 370VAC motor run caps). I guess it all boils down to economics...It's hard to imagine where labor is so cheap that it becomes profitable to do all that work, just for the price difference between a 400V and 450V, 22uF capacitor...

Damn Micah, I was just getting ready to make an order on some Rubys, as well as Panasonics. Any chance you could post the sellers name so we can avoid him?:nono:

[bricktop]

Damn Micah, I was just getting ready to make an order on some Rubys, as well as Panasonics. Any chance you could post the sellers name so we can avoid him?:nono:

I might get in trouble for that :D. Usually, the auctions are somewhat shady, like no country of origin, or "FOR TUBE AMP." Best bet for anyone is just to get their 'lytics from Mouser (http://www.mouser.com/) or Digikey (http://www.digikey.com/); they make damn well sure the parts they sell are originals, since they have a reputation to uphold to very important customers (i.e. not hobbyists :D). It may be slightly more expensive, but probably not much more than you think, and the peace of mind is worth it. There has been some big issues in the computer industry recently pertaining to counterfeit capacitors...which I believe Dell and Apple had some trouble with (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague). I love the reason...."In some cases, the root cause of the failing capacitors is industrial espionage gone wrong." As if it wasn't 'wrong' to start with :scratch2:

[toxcrusadr]

Scuse me, but never having opened one of these, how do you know it's counterfeit? Obviously you all think so, but what is it supposed to look like?

[jaymanaa]

Scuse me, but never having opened one of these, how do you know it's counterfeit? Obviously you all think so, but what is it supposed to look like?

The guts didn't fit the can.:thumbsdn:

[bricktop]

I'll open a real cap when I get home if you're interested. It should be a roll of foil and wet electrolyte-soaked paper, similar to the innards of the top capacitor in the picture, but the case is the same size as the roll. That one has a bigger size can to give the illusion of a higher-voltage cap.

edit: jay's got it

[jaymanaa]

I'll open a real cap when I get home if you're interested. It should be a roll of foil and wet electrolyte-soaked paper, similar to the innards of the top capacitor in the picture, but the case is the same size as the roll. That one has a bigger size can to give the illusion of a higher-voltage cap.

edit: jay's got it

Yeh, and I thought pipefitting was hard.:no: