Super Cheap 8gb Sd Card ($15). Legit?


Been through this question a lot about SD cards for the GP2X. My suggestion is not to buy it unless you know the make and could probably find it in a store here... There's no guarantee with eBay, right?
 
Yeah, ebay is the worst place to buy flash memory. Too many pirate/fake cards there. They may seem real and work to some degree, but they'll have problems like being very slow or losing data etc.

Go to a good online shop like Newegg. Good prices and you'll get what you expect to get.
 
Agreed - definitely go with a name brand, you really do get what you pay for - I have taken the plunge a couple of times on cheap Chinese cards via ebay - they worked to some degree, but I had probs with PC's/devices not accurately recognising the size of the card as well as data loss/corruption issues.

Cheers and beers
 
Not to mention that they're very often low capacity cards, altered so as to show themselves as larger than they are. User buys card, user receives card, user copies a couple of files to make sure card works, user leaves positive feedback for the seller. Several weeks or months down the line, user finds that the card only reliably holds a certain amount of data, and anything past that causes corruption of the card's contents. It's bad for that buyer, and it's bad for other buyers because the seller's feedback ends up being misleading.

The bottom line of that ramble? I'd never buy flash memory on eBay. :p
 
Thanks for the answers. I was planning on buying a Transcend or Kingston card on Newegg, I have gotten flash memory from them in the past and they have always been reliable. I have a 512mb SD card from a few years ago that was from a china ebay seller. No problems yet, but all I use it for is my super cheap mp3 player in an NES controller, so if it dies, not a big problem. FF7 saves are a fair bit harder to replace! :lol:
 
palmertech said:
So I was on Ebay, and there were a TON of 8gb SD cards for under $20 with free shipping. Like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/8GB-SD-Card-Flash-Memo...1QQcmdZViewItem
How con they be so cheap? Is there something wrong with them? I hear that a lot of Chinese made items are prone to failure, is this true? It seems too good to be true...



Do NOT buy them.

# Capacity: 8GB,Can be used in standard SD Card slots
# Regular sd card ,not SDHC.

Those two lines contradict one another... normal SD cards MAX at 4 gigs... see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card
So one of those two lines is a lie.
 
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Trust me, never buy memory from China or any of the countries around there, it will take too long to get AND it's most likely hacked memory that really isn't 8GB. You should buy brand name SD cards from the US. Make sure you buy it from a seller with lots of feedback.

-an experienced eBayer
 
palmertech said:
So I was on Ebay, and there were a TON of 8gb SD cards for under $20 with free shipping. Like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/8GB-SD-Card-Flash-Memo...1QQcmdZViewItem
How con they be so cheap? Is there something wrong with them? I hear that a lot of Chinese made items are prone to failure, is this true? It seems too good to be true...



As mentioned in your initial question.

Trooper
 
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Qatz said:
palmertech said:
So I was on Ebay, and there were a TON of 8gb SD cards for under $20 with free shipping. Like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/8GB-SD-Card-Flash-Memo...1QQcmdZViewItem
How con they be so cheap? Is there something wrong with them? I hear that a lot of Chinese made items are prone to failure, is this true? It seems too good to be true...



Do NOT buy them.

# Capacity: 8GB,Can be used in standard SD Card slots
# Regular sd card ,not SDHC.

Those two lines contradict one another... normal SD cards MAX at 4 gigs... see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card
So one of those two lines is a lie.

Not always. Those are the official specs, but many chinese factories go overspec. I know that before there was SDHC support on the gp2x, people used these cards. And normal SD cards max at 2 gigs, not 1.

trooper said:
palmertech said:
So I was on Ebay, and there were a TON of 8gb SD cards for under $20 with free shipping. Like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/8GB-SD-Card-Flash-Memo...1QQcmdZViewItem
How con they be so cheap? Is there something wrong with them? I hear that a lot of Chinese made items are prone to failure, is this true? It seems too good to be true...



As mentioned in your initial question.

Trooper

Lol, did not even notice. I would edit it, but why remove something funny, eh. :lol:
 
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Not always. Those are the official specs, but many chinese factories go overspec. I know that before there was SDHC support on the gp2x, people used these cards. And normal SD cards max at 2 gigs, not 1.

Not following a spec for the standard technically makes the card not an SD card, but only a "SD compatible" card. Of course many of these simply aren't "compatible". And I didn't say 1 gig.... I said 4 gigs. SD v1.01 standard supports up to 4 gigs, and the 2 gig limit only happens in hardware that only supports SD v1.00 and below.
 
Most cards like that are just SD cards of low capacity that say that they're 8GB in the controller and on the label. You can try it, but write your datawill first.
 
Prophet said:
Yeah, ebay is the worst place to buy flash memory. Too many pirate/fake cards there. They may seem real and work to some degree, but they'll have problems like being very slow or losing data etc.

Go to a good online shop like Newegg. Good prices and you'll get what you expect to get.
I second Prophet's recommendation of buying from Newegg.com. Even though their website DOES state that you can only only return an item for refund for 30 days (as do most), they will replace anything bought from them within I calendar year from purchase :) .

I had bought a 16 gb card from them back in December with a large chunk of Christmas cash. I fried the card in April when power was cut during a read/write function accidentally. I was totally distraught :blink:, as I couldnt afford a new one. After reading about this on their site, I shipped it back the next day, and in 5 days had a brand new 16 gb card in my mailbox ready for my backup file. :D

TIP. B)

Disclaimer:I have no affiliation with Newegg other than as a happy and extremely relieved customer. :p
 
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palmertech said:
So I was on Ebay, and there were a TON of 8gb SD cards for under $20 with free shipping. Like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/8GB-SD-Card-Flash-Memo...1QQcmdZViewItem
How con they be so cheap? Is there something wrong with them? I hear that a lot of Chinese made items are prone to failure, is this true? It seems too good to be true...


I bought a 4gb version of this with a reader for $15. I had no problems.
 
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Well, I tend to buy smaller cards because it's usually cheaper to get 4x2Gb cards than it is to buy a single 8Gb.

But even then, you really need to shop around. If you pop into Dixons or something, you'll be lucky to get a 2Gb for under £10. However, nearly a year ago I bought 2Gb Transcend cards on Amazon.co.uk for under £3 each. They work fantastic and I instantly filled them up and having been writing to them every day since. We also used them with my wife's little CD-player that takes SD, her Palm, etc. and we've never had a problem despite the fact that they are often bashed about (in their cases, admittedly), swapped between devices every day for a year, left in devices for months on end, etc.

I doubt the China auction is authentic... I automatically exclude China from any electronics purchase I do on Ebay... some are genuine, some sell cheap rubbish and some you'll never hear from again. Look around and see what you can get. I never expected Amazon to be able to beat all the PC suppliers that I use as part of my work everyday and get bulk/educational/VAT discount for, but they did.
 
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