Sram bits on eBay from Taiwan

kwmlodozeniec

Hi,

Looking to replace my ultegra 10 speed setup with Sram as I prefer their levers. Anyways, anything from the usual places seems expensive, works out around £150 for rival shifters. I found a brand new pair on eBay but located in Taiwan. Does anyone have any experience with that in terms of counterfeits? How likely is it that they will be fakes? Current price around £115 so a bit cheaper but described as brand new without retail packaging. Is there a way of verifying of items are genuine by requesting serial numbers?

cougie

Has the seller got good feedback ? For the sake of 35 quid I'd buy nearer to home.

kwmlodozeniec

Yeah, seller has the usual solid feedback with over 4k sales, with a slight sprinkle of negative comments but it still 99.9%.

StillGoing

Although SRAM is American, the parts are manufactured in Taiwan just like Timberland, Specialized etc. Any SRAM parts I've bought off eBay have been from Taiwan. Buy with confidence.

timothyw

Is there not a risk of import duty/vat that might negate these rather meagre savings?

Combined with long wait for delivery and warranty complications personally I wouldn't.

trailflow

I bought some SRAM RED 22 shifters and mechs from an ebay Taiwan seller. They were legit but they did not come with any retail packaging or manuals but did include all the SRAM branded cables,outers and ferrules etc. They were just wrapped in plastic. So likely OEM stuff that's why the prices are so low. I didn't get hit with any import duty fee's. They arrived in a big padded envelope if i recall.

I've never seen or heard of fake Sram or Shimano STI shifters.
Road shifters are complicated to manufacture generally it's not something the counterfeiters would try to replicate.
Taiwan is where most of the best stuff is made. I dont believe it's known for fakes in the same way China is.

StillGoing

TimothyW wrote:

Is there not a risk of import duty/vat that might negate these rather meagre savings?

Combined with long wait for delivery and warranty complications personally I wouldn't.

Never been hit with import duties despite buying plenty of SRAM stuff from Taiwan.

kwmlodozeniec

Nice one guys, thanks for your inputs.