When I window shop chinese ebay shops I can hardly humble myself. Must feel like Dr. Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Arc. Arduino Pro Minis for 2€ + 1€ shipping. Arduino MEGA 2560s for 14€ including shipping and INCLUDING a 20×2 LCD shield. Nema 17 Stepper Motors for 5 €…Insane. Oh well but wait! Lingerie for 2.50€ ….wait what ?
Lingerie ? Oh and see this ?! Artificial fingernails, shirts and other stuff you would not expect to pop up next to microcontrollers and RC motors. But well…okay I CAN LIVE WITH THAT. Guess that is what Globalization is all about. But this time at its best 🙂 This stuff comes from China anyways. Way pay 5x amount if you get it from a local retailer way cheaper.
But the other side is not to conceal. The (underground) 2nd hand microcontroller market is on the rise. More companies have to deal with relabled chips which are often just old chips ripped from electronics in the backyard of some asian slums.
Anyways because I start loosing track of all the China toys in my mail (“21th Century Digital Boy” comes to my mind) I’ll start posting stuff I hunted down in my Ebay-China-Rampage-Shopping-Run.