Audiotek on ebay...

[bleachershane]

I would just like to share my worry about the ebay sellers going under various names starting with Audiotek (audiotek168, audiotek968)

I am looking for a good supplier of Nichicon Muse caps for my projects and they are damn hard to find in the UK so I turned to ebay.

Audiotek turned up through ebay selling various Nichicons amongst alot of other goodies... free postage from Taiwan, starting bids of $1.99 on some items (about £1.36 GBP) and so I put a few bids on Muse ES 220uF caps. I placed the basic bid and entered a higher one)

Within an hour I had been outbid past my maximum bid.

There were more than one Audiotek seller selling the same item and when I placed another bid (and higher maximum bid)... again, within an hour I was outbid.

Curious and a bit suspicious I had a quick look at the list of bidders and noticed that just about all of their bidding activity was with Audiotek(168, 968, etc)

It seems that they have people pushing their prices artificially high and I have decided not to have any further dealings with Audiotek despite them being one of the few sellers with items I want.

Has anyone else noticed this trend of bidding up with this seller?

Are there any trustworthy ebayers selling Nichicon Muse, Elna Silmic, etc etc?

[Geek]

I know a few versions of that username were in my blocked bidder list when I used to sell there for bidding outrageous amounts and then not paying

[jotom750]

Hi.
I have used an E'Bay supplier called
audjade_chn
They have been a good supplier for a few items, their items seem to be mostly buy it now. Their prices do seem to have gone up a bit over the last few months though, and be a bit careful as their site is in chinese!!
PS. Ask them to combine shipping costs and watch for short lead lengths.

[sletol]

bleachershane:
Personally I believe that the audiotek sellers are honest people.
Why? If you have a closer look at their 'completed auctions' listing, you will notice that from time to time people manage to make a bargain. Because of the free shipping thing, and because of the daily repeated listing of the same items, it easily can become something of an attraction to keep bidding on the item again and again. For a periode of several weeks I myself did this (winning only a rarely). Thus it is not difficult to explain what you found about bidders activity.
I will also praise them for beeing polite when they once made a mistake, and they were very quick to correct it.
Cheers, Olaf

[Dr.EM]

I cautiously purchased some PGA2310 chips from the original AudioTek shop. After a couple of months still nothing so I emailed. They said they had been lost in the post and have re-sent. A few days later that actually did arrive! They look fine but I have not tested yet (might be fakes).

Noticed the secondary shops, bit dodgy looking tbh.

[Dr.EM]

I should update you that having tried 1 of my 4 chips it has responded well. Just on breadoard but I can mute and un-mute it and it is passing a clean signal . So it seems the parts arrived as expected in my case, just with a large delay.

[glt]

I've purchased many parts, even kits and have received them after about 7 days. Very consistent shipping times to the US. Often you are outbid in the last few seconds if you are cheap :-). Early I noticed that the shipping would exceed the cost of the parts, so I emailed them to see if I could pay after I was done bidding on several parts.

[Cobra2]

AUDIOTEK 168 on ebay

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...49#post1689049

Arne K

[gtoomey]

I posted here that they seemed too good to be true. I was right!

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...81#post1700381

[Donovad]

FWIW, I've just completed 3 small transactions with AudioTek and thought it worth posting that there were no hitches. All three items arrived via airmail (shipping was free) in approx 7 business days. I would say that the "buy it now" auctions are overpriced but the regular auctions can be won on 1 or 2 bids for very low prices. Keep in mind that the most expensive item I purchased was a pair of ic's for 30 bucks.

Regards, Daniel.