Probes and other test equipment - China and other thieves

[EE-digger]

I used to enjoy buying equipment, probes, etc. on ebay.  Lately, I've hit my limit on probes and other equipment from China going for 3x what they should be.  One of my favorites is certain Agilent / Keysight accessories listed at something like $1500 from the UK when I can get it delivered to my front door, tomorrow morning, NEW, for $550.  What are these guys smoking?

All sorts of Agilent probes which I bought new (some used) previously on ebay, on multiple occasions, for around $110 each, are now showing only Chinese listings for over $300.  I know, if I check new listings late on a Sunday night, every 6 months a deal may show up.  Didn't have to wait that long in the past.

But life is too short 

[Chris56000]

Hi'

I'm from the U.K. and this is one of my all–time favourite gripes!!!

T & M  gear/accessories have all been knocked off by sellers in the USA, China or Israel with bottomless credit–cards and pure greed – the number of times I've seen gear sold "spares or repair" by unscrupulous U.S. or Chinese sellers who either want prices several times more than new, or what you would expect to be a reasonable b.i.n. price, then add innumerable times that on for postage!

Does it really cost 717.00 USD to ship a bench multimeter sold "S or R" and depicted in fragments from the USA to the UK?!

Israel is another thing that makes me fume because of the outrageous customs charges and the atrocious state that T & M gear seems to end up in over there!

Chris Williams

[Gandalf_Sr]

Yeah, I noticed this too.  Fortunately, right now, I'm in pretty good probe shape though.  But, as you say, listings for used stuff where the price on Keysight for new is half what they are asking?

Try this on eBay; search for "Agilent" and then sort results by highest price first - the first 4 or 5 items are 'buy it now' for $999,999.00, you do get free shipping though! 

That seems like it must be some kind of calculation error - perhaps the Taiwan poster entered a number that got translated badly by eBay?

[bitseeker]

Try this on eBay; search for "Agilent" and then sort results by highest price first - the first 4 or 5 items are 'buy it now' for $999,999.00, you do get free shipping though! 

Maybe it's in VND, instead of USD (currently 22719 VND per 1 USD).