WTF is the price?!

[EEVblog]

Ok, so I've discovered a bit of test gear that is insanely cheap.
Too good to be true cheap, but it's true, I have one in my hand. Looks to be in spec, teardown looks ok.
It's literally "no name", and now I look it's available in quite a lot of places with stock, yet I'm not sure if it's some sort of one-off buy.
The same meter that's not "no name" sells for 20 times the price on ebay.

I'm kinda perplexed what to do here, I thought about bulk buying them all and flipping for a profit, but once you buy more than two the postage skyrockets from free to more than the cost of the meter. And, well, it's "no name" so I'm not sure what the deal is. So I figured it's better just to let people nab the bargain.
Should I release a "review" video on this no-name thing?

In any case, I think I'll let Patrons and supporters know about it first so they can nab one, because I'm sure if I released a video thousands would be gone within the hour.

Guesses on the back of a postcard...

[umbro]

Just PM me

[Noy]

First PM all the guys here in (Forum) and after some days do the Video...


Maybe Not everybody wants one (Tax (eu) , a lot of others / better gear, or just not needed)

Is it a hand meter or a lab table thing?

I think it is a Multimeter or?

[maginnovision]

Definitely intriguing. I have to wonder if I have one already though.

[001]

Is it about Flir? 

[Mr. Scram]

I'm intrigued.

[daqq]

...keep talking... pls

[maginnovision]

Does it fit, literally, in your hand?

[Nusa]

Thousands being gone in an hour is going to happen anyway with your current plan as well. Assuming the stock levels and price are real and not cross-listings of some drop-shipped supply available to multiple vendors. Unless, of course, even the cheap price is enough to deter those who have little use for the item.

[Kjelt]

Dave, you tease ............. tsssssssssss 

[Noy]

Price Region of the Brand or the OEM one please..

Maybe it is to expensive for some of us

[Noy]

 Or dave needs money and tries to rise his patreon / supporter quantity

 

[SparkyFX]

Too good to be true cheap, but it's true, I have one in my hand. Looks to be in spec, teardown looks ok.
[...]The same meter that's not "no name" sells for 20 times the price on ebay.

Hen or egg problem: is the high price justified by spec and market or the result of warranty costs. Wouldn´t be the first manufacturer that instead of fixing issues rather tries selling cheaper by the dozen (... without marking, so no established brand name's reputation in danger).

Otoh, in the wake of import bans/tariffs and such, this might just be the result of global politics, who knows. You could try to contact the manufacturer and ask.

I'm kinda perplexed what to do here

I know you got the experience in this regard, but nevertheless don´t forget importing and reselling in commercial volume bears risks. Market situation or specs aren´t everything, there is also product safety, support and longevity.

Should I release a "review" video on this no-name thing?

Why not, brand names are better keyword-wise, might be hard to build a reference people would search for in the future, so the more details the better.

[RoGeorge]

1. Buy them all then resell everything at a higher price!
2.  for life.

 

[EEVblog]

Thousands being gone in an hour is going to happen anyway with your current plan as well. Assuming the stock levels and price are real and not cross-listings of some drop-shipped supply available to multiple vendors.

They all seem to have different stock levels.

[SparkyFX]

If it is an actual knock-off, there might be legal issues regarding patents (including design~, software~) as well. Not a fan of those, but they do exist and once stuff crosses borders the importer is legally compromisable. To me it´s more a legal question, i guess, therefore an attorney might be the conversational partner of choice?

[OwO]

Do all sellers of the item have the same nonlinear shipping cost? Is this on one platform only or is it present on all of (ebay, aliexpress, taobao)? It's possible that they are selling at a loss to rack up seller reputation if this is a very low cost item (< $10 BOM cost), but otherwise it's also possible that this is the true price of the meter and they avoid large quantity buys to (1) stay under the radar (2) avoid compromising the profit of the name brand by people rebranding and reselling these (3) give the appearance of being a bargain. If you want you can PM me some links and I can investigate further.

[BravoV]

Contest time, with stricter rules ...

[EEVblog]

Too good to be true cheap, but it's true, I have one in my hand. Looks to be in spec, teardown looks ok.
[...]The same meter that's not "no name" sells for 20 times the price on ebay.

Hen or egg problem: is the high price justified by spec and market or the result of warranty costs. Wouldn´t be the first manufacturer that instead of fixing issues rather tries selling cheaper by the dozen (... without marking, so no established brand name's reputation in danger).

That was my feeling, as the name and model number looks like it's been scraped off.

[EEVblog]

Does it fit, literally, in your hand?

Yep, hand held, and so cheap you'd just buy two for comparison.

[Noy]

Multi or LCR Meter or Thermal Imagjng?

Some hint please...

[sleemanj]

So I'm gonna guess that it's a mid-high spec multimeter, like, Fluke 87V or something, normally in the $4-500 range being flogged off in the $20-40

[TurboTom]

Could be the AIMOmeter AMPX1 combined multimeter / calibrator, usually going around 200...250USD, but a knock-off can apparently be found for <10USD.

I may be completely wrong, though  . Also on some of the photos of the knock-off, the screen contens appears rather dodgy.

Cheers,
Thomas

Edit: Changed first link since the original one was removed by the seller -- "Cheap" option appears to be sold out already, what was to be expected after Dave confirmed that my assumption was correct. This Seller appears to have some stock still -- at least at the time of this writing.

[sleemanj]

I may be completely wrong, though  . Also on some of the photos of the knock-off, the screen contens appears rather dodgy.

I doubt it's that if Dave was thinking about selling it, sounds like it's... not good

[B0B45]

Or could it be that Dave is just fooling us? Like sellers who try to trick people to buy junk with the same method Dave uses in his first post?