Ebay and shonky seller advertisements

Currently there are a huge amount of Makita M3700G 240V Laminate Trimmers & Ryobi One+ labelled chargers and batteries being sold on ebay. Either a flood on excess batteries that are actually Ryobi genuine, or they are treading a very fine line regarding counterfeiting. As examples:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2x-18V-6-0Ah-Battery-For-Ryobi-P108-ONE-Plus-P102-P103-P104-P107-P109-Charger/333569871003?hash=item4daa504c9b:g:E3YAAOSwPw5dcR1c

On this next one look carefully at the image to see the Ryobi One+ labelling (image enlarged to show)
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/P117-Dual-Chemistry-IntelliPort-Battery-Charger-12V-18V-For-Ryobi-AU-Plug/123559618965

And for an example of the Makita ones. In this one please note it has a “top mounted cord guard” but is “cordless” and 240V at that. It “meets” all “Certified Australian Standards” (but they weren’t game to use the full Australian Coat of Arms with the shield just a white blank one).

I’m sure there are thousands of similar adverts promoting what I’m pretty sure are knockoffs of many legit products with labels that are copyright and or trademark breaches


So my question is, Isn’t ebay due a shonky for allowing such rampant disregard for copyright law, the illegal use of registered Trade Marks and Copyright material? The products advertised, themselves are well worthy of shonkys in their own rights.

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For the 18V 6.0Ah Battery For Ryobi P108 ONE+ Plus: it says “Battery For Ryobi” not “Ryobi Battery”. Also, the battery look slighty different to the original. In the Item Specifics, Brand; it also says “For Ryobi”.

Semantics and altered looks probably avoids the copyright infringement.

The use of the “One +” though is infringing because “One +” is registered at IP Australia.

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With the batteries it was more the case that many use the One+ trademark on a knockoff, I am not upset at after market stuff that says compatible with some product. I use after market batteries in some of my phones because they are cheap and do the job and I use many other non name brand generics. others can be dangerous or faulty of course but they don’t pretend to be a name brand product.

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Good topic and I totally agree that the batteries’ branding is - at the minimum - misleading. However, I admit that I bought a few of those immitation battieries in the past with different satisfaction outcomes. Why did I buy these? Because the selling strategy with Ryobi and many other powerless tools is the same as with Printers: Buy the tool / printer for next to nothing and then pay lots for THEIR batteries / cartridges. No wonder that people take advantage of other available avenues?

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It is a slightly different topic, but a worthwhile commentary.

Is there a reason to be cautious. Not all batteries and battery packs are the same. For the average user, how do you get any assurance that a knock off or non OEM alternative is up to the same performance standard as the original battery pack?

Buying individual retail 18650 lithium batteries a 2.0-3.5Ah 18V battery set might cost $30 - $50. There are a wide range of specifications for the available retail cells. The maximum rate of discharge is the most critical to application. Some cells are rated at less than 10A, while others can be as high as 35A. The greater the maximum discharge current the more expensive the cell.

Two externally identical 18V battery packs both rated at the same capacity may be comparable. But only if the cells support the same maximum discharge rate. Different qualities of cells may also deliver lesser or greater total number of user cycles.

It is interesting to note that the costs of lithium battery packs for EV’s are speculatively as low as US$100-200 per kWh capacity. This would suggest the OEM factory price of an 18V x 3.5Ah battery pack for a hand tool (0.063kWh capacity) might reasonably be under US$20 plus perhaps a little more for the more complex package. No more to be said, except.

It might be worth a Choice review (Test and tear down) of the more popular power tool battery packs. Plus a couple of non OEM products. It’s likely any selling replacement packs with lower peak discharge rated cells rely on home users casual use vs professional daily use.

I’m also with @grahroll in thinking Ebay should be held accountable for the accuracy and honesty of their advertisers and products. At least where the products are being sold new and from a virtual or real store front. How unlikely or impractical, it’s worth asking.

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How does eBay allow people to advertise obviously fake solar panels on eBay? A quick search for a 300-watt solar panel will show them for around $99 with free delivery. The panels are way too small to be able to produce anywhere near the claimed 300 watts. It is clearly false advertising.

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Any chance you can provide some further details of the advertiser or adverts, to help others identify the dodgy product?

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Here you go.
Listing heading is -
12V 300W Flexible Solar Panel Mono Caravan Camping Home RV Battery Charge

This one is listed as 1080 x 710 mm

300 WattSolar panels usually come in the standard 1.70m x 1.0m dimensions with an output ranging between [250 – 440 watts]

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I’ve combined (moved) your post with another questioning the reliability of the product descriptions on eBay. Not the first time for the reliability of eBay seller’s product descriptions to be questioned.

Certainly dodgy. Solar PV panels are rated based on a standard 1,000 W/m2. The technical details with the advertiser suggest 17% efficiency (which is typical of a mono PERC panel). This suggests the panel is nominally 125W if the size is as stated. The size listed follows a promotion for a folding panel. It’s all a little uncertain. The 12 month warranty seems very short. Perhaps the sellers brand ‘Jingko’ which is one letter removed from the well known ‘Jinko’ brand answers that one.

P.S. I did find an Australian online business BatteryMate selling a portable 300W panel for just under $200. Not a recommendation for that seller either. Just a comparison.

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There are many sham products available for purchase online through platforms like eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, Marketplace, Gumtree etc.

Another sham product is high capacity SD portable storages, flash drives or SD csrds, sold cheaply but only contain a flash drive only a fraction of the ‘advertised’ storage capacity.

If the price is too good to be true, it usually means it is a sham product or scam.

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Photo of specifications on the back conveniently blurry and unreadable!
Also listed from that dodgy seller are “350W” panels of the same small size.

Specifications are nonsense, as they seem to include details for an inverter or charge controller as well.

Their spiel includes “High Cost Performance” which may well be true!

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My son bought some non genuine 6ah batteries for Makita, the ad made no pretense that they were genuine.
From one supplier they have similar capacity to genuine and have lasted for some years with no obvious loss of capacity.
Others from a different supplier seem to really have 3ah capacity only, still in the 6ah sized package and marked 6ah.
Also note that some non genuine lack charge level lights that are in the genuine.

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