Ebay sourced memory cards

[Famous Graham]

Does anyone have any recommended suppliers for cheap memory cards? A friend of mine needs to get hold of some very quickly but also needs to watch the pursestrings. Ebay would seem to be the best bet, but there are so many fakes, I suggested I could ask around for known-good suppliers.

[beano500]

Try checking out prices on play.com and 7dayshop - sometimes some great prices come up. Got a handful of Sandisks at good prices between the two of them earlier this year - like 2G cards at £17 each...

[530dTPhil]

I have used picstop.co.uk and eBuyer.co.uk in the past for cards. No problems with either.

[F308 MAN]

530dTPhil said:

I have used picstop.co.uk ...

me too .... reliable and honest, just like all things from the isle of man !

d

[pbsaxman]

beano500 said:

Try checking out prices on play.com and 7dayshop - sometimes some great prices come up. Got a handful of Sandisks at good prices between the two of them earlier this year - like 2G cards at £17 each...

Yeh, 7dayshop are doing Sandisc Extreme 3 2gig cards at the mo for £16-99. As it's under £18 and comes from Channel Islands no VAT to pay!!!

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

beano500 said:

Try checking out prices on play.com and 7dayshop - sometimes some great prices come up. Got a handful of Sandisks at good prices between the two of them earlier this year - like 2G cards at £17 each...

£8.99 now. Prices of flash seem to be in free fall still.

[Famous Graham]

Cheers

[pdV6]

pbsaxman said:

beano500 said:

Try checking out prices on play.com and 7dayshop - sometimes some great prices come up. Got a handful of Sandisks at good prices between the two of them earlier this year - like 2G cards at £17 each...

Yeh, 7dayshop are doing Sandisc Extreme 3 2gig cards at the mo for £16-99. As it's under £18 and comes from Channel Islands no VAT to pay!!!

Play.com currently doing the 2GB Sandisk ExIII SD cards for £14.99 delivered!

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/111...

I've had a couple of these from them recently at £17.99 and £16.99, so yes - flash memory seems to be dropping like a stone at the moment.
The advantage of the Extreme III cards is that they are very fast.

[pbsaxman]

pdV6 said:

pbsaxman said:

beano500 said:

Try checking out prices on play.com and 7dayshop - sometimes some great prices come up. Got a handful of Sandisks at good prices between the two of them earlier this year - like 2G cards at £17 each...

Yeh, 7dayshop are doing Sandisc Extreme 3 2gig cards at the mo for £16-99. As it's under £18 and comes from Channel Islands no VAT to pay!!!

Play.com currently doing the 2GB Sandisk ExIII SD cards for £14.99 delivered!

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/111...

I've had a couple of these from them recently at £17.99 and £16.99, so yes - flash memory seems to be dropping like a stone at the moment.
The advantage of the Extreme III cards is that they are very fast.

Even better for the cards I use!!!!!!! Order in soon!!

[Podie]

thread title said:

Ebay sourced memory cards

Avoid at all costs, the risk of fake cards is just too high…

www.7dayshop.com
www.picstop.co.uk
www.mymemory.com

… but I think you’ve been pointed in the right direction anyway..

[Famous Graham]

Podie said:

thread title said:

Ebay sourced memory cards

Avoid at all costs, the risk of fake cards is just too high…

www.7dayshop.com
www.picstop.co.uk
www.mymemory.com

… but I think you’ve been pointed in the right direction anyway..

Actually I cocked up - I forgot to mention that she's flying out to the states first thing Friday so UK based stuff is a bit of a non-starter (she's on her way to Ecuador but is stopping in Albany for a day with her dad). Hence thinking Ebay and I assumed any decently priced, reputable seller would probably be US based given the dollar.

Got a few US sources now, but this thread might as well stay as it is as a pointer to folks wanting stuff from the UK.

[Podie]

Buy in the UK today and pay for next day delivery... or just buy out there.

[GregE240]

I second Pods comments about fake memory cards. Been there, did that. Approached seller after it was pointed out to me (and Pod saw my fake and real 2GB Sandisk card - it was a very VERY good fake), seller just didn't want to know, goods bought in good faith / piss off etc.

I'd sooner pay a tenner more and know I bought genuine and had some sort of recourse.

[Podie]

GregE240 said:

I second Pods comments about fake memory cards. Been there, did that. Approached seller after it was pointed out to me (and Pod saw my fake and real 2GB Sandisk card - it was a very VERY good fake), seller just didn't want to know, goods bought in good faith / piss off etc.

I'd sooner pay a tenner more and know I bought genuine and had some sort of recourse.

Seen a few fake cards in my time, but that was a GOOD one - hard pushed to tell without checking the serial number...

Consider yourself warned!

[JD]

Podie said:

GregE240 said:

I second Pods comments about fake memory cards. Been there, did that. Approached seller after it was pointed out to me (and Pod saw my fake and real 2GB Sandisk card - it was a very VERY good fake), seller just didn't want to know, goods bought in good faith / piss off etc.

I'd sooner pay a tenner more and know I bought genuine and had some sort of recourse.

Seen a few fake cards in my time, but that was a GOOD one - hard pushed to tell without checking the serial number...

Consider yourself warned!

Ok... Amateur Question..

whats the problem with these "fake" cards

is it just they write/read at a slower rate?

whats the limiting factor in shooting lots of photos in succession? is the writing to the card? or the camera being able to process them,

would I be able to do quicker bursts with a faster card? as I currently jsut use cheap ones

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Quite a few of the fake cards report they have more memory than they really have. You find cards that report they are 2GB, but error when you try to write more than 512mb on them....and yes others are just slower than the real cards.

[MonkeyHanger]

I've chucked a fair bit of cash at Play.com for Extreme 3's lately. I've stopped using the portable hard drive as it's too slow dumping cards onto it.

I just change cards now. I have several "pairs" of 4Gb CF and 2Gb SD cards for the 1DMK2N.

[Ordinary Bloke]

I've seen a dodgy SanDisk look-a-like from eBay, very unreliable.

7dayshop have always been good.

In the US, your friend should just buy a real SanDisk or known brand card in a reputable store. It will be cheap as chips...

[Podie]

JD said:

Ok... Amateur Question..

whats the problem with these "fake" cards

is it just they write/read at a slower rate?

whats the limiting factor in shooting lots of photos in succession? is the writing to the card? or the camera being able to process them,

would I be able to do quicker bursts with a faster card? as I currently jsut use cheap ones

1) They are being sold as something they are not. People are trading on Sandisk's name to get sales and more money for cheaper cards.

2) Yes, they write/read/access at slower times. In the case of an Extreme III card it's aobut 133x from Sandisk... they cheaper cards can be around 2/10ths of that.

3) Limiting factors - reliability, ability to take more photos in quicker succession, quicker download speeds to the PC.

4) yes. Get a decent card like a Sandisk Extreme III and you will notice a difference.

[Famous Graham]

MonkeyHanger said:

I've chucked a fair bit of cash at Play.com for Extreme 3's lately. I've stopped using the portable hard drive as it's too slow dumping cards onto it.

I just change cards now. I have several "pairs" of 4Gb CF and 2Gb SD cards for the 1DMK2N.

Don't bother - Canon's write speed is WAY behind everyone else's. You're only getting any benefit from a card reader onto PC.

The Extreme IIs exceeded the write speed before the IIIs came along.

(I have a MkIIN as well by the way)