read carefully and "caveat emptor"

i was looking for a couple (more) SSDs at sneezebay ... going to swap out a couple of drives in my CF collection .
part of my *filter selection* was "sata3" .
this is one of the results in the list :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSUNG-128...142547?hash=item1c68d91953:g:Sf4AAOSw6n5XqNsS

a decent and fair price (right in the low ballpark with many others) , and evidently a good source of them (106 sold) .
sure , the seller only has 594 sales but a positive feedback of 98.3% .

i was ready to push the "add to cart" button ... and then ...
*something* about the picture of the drive caught my eye .

 

What are we looking at?
It's a used OEM drive from a Dell laptop.
I must be missing something.

 

Do not buy 128GB drives. They are very slow in comparison with 240/250GB. Also new (not used) 128GB SSD's price is usually USD 37-40, so it doesn't make sense to buy used. IMHO.

 

I just buy 120gb from newegg

 

My guess it's not a SATA3

 

SAMSUNG 470 Series 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-5PA128/US


SATAII with a 3gb transfer rate ..Typed as SATA3.0 Gbps on the label.
Official page is here.
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-5PA128/US

 

Last picture (Shawn's) is of the retail samsung drive. Ebay auction is for Dell (or another laptop manufacturer) drive. I had this exact model made for Dell. No firmware update, because it's Dell. And it's slow compared to modern SSD's (even 128GB models too).

 

aaaannnddd ...
Shawn and Blair win a cigar or a kewpie doll (if ya don't smoke) .
i have another drive coming ... should be sitting in the mailbox :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/322237179955

i was looking at the prices of the sata2 drives and they are not going for much less than the sata3 drives .
i do not need the speed of the sata3 stuff when upgrading the drive in my TBs (buss speed limits and cooling and crapola) ...
however , if i ever want to yank a ssd , i can use it with a MB that does have sata3 support .

the going price of the samsung drives , used or new , is still higher than most ...
i figure that the samsung drives have a proven track record and this justifies the higher cost over the "cheapo" brands .
lessons learned :
replaced an eimac 4CX15000 in a transmitter with a russian rebuilt tube (at the owners behest) .
he got it for about half of what a rebuilt from eimac would have cost .
it ran for about a week and a half before the emission started to drop off and the grid current went wonky (unstable) .
back to eimac for a rebuilt tube ... and it was still running 2 years later .
pictures of the little feller :
https://encrypted.google.com/search...Rz-HOAhXGox4KHVMqDo8QsAQIHA&biw=1920&bih=1022

 

I agree with you. Thats the only drive brand i us now

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00D...AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=ssd+240gb

29.75$
And it's new, not used.

 

I like there drives. I have one of there external drives here https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005...icon+Power&dpPl=1&dpID=41Gk1u0Na+L&ref=plSrch . I have dropped it a few times and its still going strong.

 

from the linked page:
Price: $37.98 & FREE Shipping on orders over $49. Details
if you click on the "details" link (on the page) , it basically comes down to (one way or another) coughing up for more stuff or paying outright for handling and shipping ...
in this case , it amounts to about 12 dollars (or 25 dollars in books or something else ?)
so , the price of this single "off brand" (read also as "not samsung") is going to be 49 USB (united states bucks) ... or it could be about 63 USB .


if i wanted to buy some other stuff i needed , in order to meet the minimum , it would be ok .
however , all i needed was just the ssd .

is it just me or does it seem that amazon has some/many left-handed ads , rates and wording ?
they must have lawyers writing their stuff .

comparing "apples to apples" ... the amazon results for samsung used drives :
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_3?fst=asff&rh=n:172282,n:!493964,n:541966,n:1292110011,p_89:Samsung,p_n_condition-type:2224373011,n:1292116011&bbn=1292110011&sort=price-asc-rank&ie=UTF8&qid=1472397048&rnid=1292110011
i do not do a lot of looking around amazon (for a few reasons other than the couple i have mentioned) , i could not figure out how to do the "buy it now" function in the search filter(s) .
and , the link does work ... even with that "surprized" smiley in it ... i guess it fits ... look at all the hash .

 

The price was under $30 (super deal) when I've sent that message
So you could take 2 pieces for under $60 (ok, maybe plus taxes) and get a free shipping
I'm sure they will drop price again

 

It's not just you. I have noticed a lot more hidden costs on Amazon in the past year or so.