Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Bad elements from ebay again

Bad elements from ebay again

diddi - 18-4-2018 at 21:03

i found another ebay seller like yaolihong2013 that sells fakes and rubbish elements. so avoid as with yaolihong. he has the same bullshit excuses and refuses to refund even when clearly in the wrong. might even be the same people in both stores. i bought some Zn crystalline lumps and they were shitty oxidised little melted pellets. no vacuum packaging. no crystalline.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/100-grams-High-Purity-99-999-Zinc-Z...

ebay had to intervene to get my refund.

happy collecting !

j_sum1 - 18-4-2018 at 22:45

Well the pic sure is pretty. And it is nothing like what you received.
Hope you gave negative feedback and minimum stars.

Loptr - 19-4-2018 at 05:19

Wow, that looks nothing like what is shown in the picture. I would be pissed if I were buying to because of how it looked. I have a quite a bit of zinc and other metals that I don't care how they look, as long as they are of a certain purity. I can deal with a bit of oxidation.

diddi - 19-4-2018 at 17:28

its a case of ones purpose, as you say. i wanted for element display so i was prepared to pay a premium price (USD80 per kg) compared to rotometals price for an ingot of 2.5 kg for chicken feed (which i already have). what irks me is that i actually messaged before i bought to see if i could get a single 100gram lump, which of course i was assured was no problem. pffft

i know others who have been dudded by yaolihong2013 who has the same pics and replacement or fake items, including W powder sold as Ir, and believe it or not i was sold Te as Li ffs. the seller told me that it was special Li that did not require oil or argon packaging.

it is hard to find nice elements at good prices, unfortunately, but i guess the fussier one is, the more one pays.

DavidJR - 19-4-2018 at 17:54

Quote: Originally posted by diddi

... believe it or not i was sold Te as Li ffs. the seller told me that it was special Li that did not require oil or argon packaging.

Hilarious response. That's made my day.

Melgar - 19-4-2018 at 19:13

I'll trade you! No Te, but quite a bit of Li. It's been exposed to the air a bit though, so I recommend melting it under inert gas first.

diddi - 28-4-2018 at 23:31

not happy about 1 star it seems. LOL

VSEPR_VOID - 28-4-2018 at 23:38

His English is rather poor

j_sum1 - 29-4-2018 at 02:02

Quote: Originally posted by diddi

not happy about 1 star it seems. LOL

So what did you do?

Thanks for the cash and free product.
or
Enjoy 1 star. Get it right first time!

diddi - 29-4-2018 at 18:10

well ebay have already refunded me. so do i scam something from him and end up with more crappy stuff? i dont think ebay feedback can be altered though?

LearnedAmateur - 29-4-2018 at 21:54

I’ve got plenty of refunds from crappy/broken/undelivered items on eBay, if they’re willing to give you a full refund AND resend the item then they’re not at risk of losing a significant percentage of money so it can hardly be considered a scam by any party involved.

Yes, the seller will send you a request for new feedback which will replace the old one but you cannot change it yourself. Not quite sure why you can’t but I’ve been through the same thing before.

Deathunter88 - 29-4-2018 at 22:48

Quote: Originally posted by diddi

well ebay have already refunded me. so do i scam something from him and end up with more crappy stuff? i dont think ebay feedback can be altered though?

I mean the zinc he did send you is still electrochemically pure, just not crystalline. That means it's still useful for say the generation of hydrogen gas or making zinc compounds.

DavidJR - 28-5-2018 at 15:20

I bought some selenium powder a while ago (from pickbestforyou on eBay) and have only just got round to trying to do anything with it. Pretty sure what I have is not selenium though, as it's not doing any of the things selenium is supposed to. It doesn't even look like the mound of black powder on the eBay listing - it's more of a pearlescent grey. I don't think it's the grey allotrope either since selenium is supposed to melt at 220C and even hitting it with a blowtorch and melting the glass capillary tube it was in didn't melt the powder. I tried putting some in a stainless steel spoon and heating with the blowtorch, first from below to see if I could melt it (nope) and then directly torching the powder to see if I could burn it (nope).

Whatever it is, it's remarkably inert. I can't get it to react with or dissolve in anything.

edit:

Just thought to try mixing some of the powder with sodium hydroxide and heating with the torch again. Of course, the hydroxide melts readily and the mixture bubbled. At first the bubbles were probably just water, but after that was gone it continued to bubble and as soon as the bubbles burst (and hence the gas contacted the air) the gas burnt rapidly.

I'm thinking it might be silicon

[Edited on 28-5-2018 by DavidJR]

Melgar - 1-6-2018 at 18:12

Yeah, I got some elemental selenium, both the round lumps, and the black glassy shards. I accidentally ordered twice, (quite a while ago) and have extra. Anyone need any?

It burns, sort of like sulfur, but with white smoke that's really toxic to breathe. So definitely be careful.

wg48 - 13-6-2018 at 13:28

Received my order of 30g of Mo powder (300-500 mesh) from pickbestforyouon on ebay.

The powder is a grey colour with several mm sized pieces one of which is pill shaped. It feels light (low density). It does not dissolve 12% H2O2. It does immediately and vigorously dissolve in 23% HCl to a colorless solution. On adding NaOH a white gelatinous precipitate forms which dissolves in excess NaOH. I conclude it is not Mo, could be zinc powder.

I have waited almost 6 weeks for it to arrive from China. I guess they get away with fake elements because most buyers don’t test the items. At least I will get my money back.

diddi - 13-6-2018 at 15:03

i bought some cheap clamps from pickbestforyou. they were ok for what i paid, but it is hard to fake a clamp. i only use reputable sellers for elements as a rule, but as i said in OP, it did look very attractive.

as an update, the guy has pestered me for 3 months to change my feedback. he finally said he had made the refund and to check my paypal. pffft as if he would suddenly not lie. sure enough - no refund.

selenium is quite pretty. i managed to get a custom cast 2kg ingot cracked into random sized shards of optical grade 5N Se a while back. it is incredibly reflective and glossy black. very attractive as a display piece

Cryolite. - 13-6-2018 at 15:57

Speaking of ebay sellers, has anyone had any experiences with huanshop2015 on ebay? I bought some molybdenum and niobium from him recently (it hasn't arrived yet), and I'm wondering if I should worry about it being fake.

fusso - 13-6-2018 at 16:01

What's the probability of getting fake chemicals/elements from chinese ebay sellers? I'm afraid to be ripped off by them):

wg48 - 13-6-2018 at 16:13

I bought some of these

They were very weak, the fingers snap off at the base. I only use pressed sheet steel ones now, they don't grip very well but they are strong and cheap.

weilawei - 13-6-2018 at 17:08

I like the old Fisher brand Castaloy ones, and they're not all that much more. Pretty sure they'll outlive me.

XeonTheMGPony - 14-6-2018 at 03:34

Quote: Originally posted by wg48

Received my order of 30g of Mo powder (300-500 mesh) from pickbestforyouon on ebay.

The powder is a grey colour with several mm sized pieces one of which is pill shaped. It feels light (low density). It does not dissolve 12% H2O2. It does immediately and vigorously dissolve in 23% HCl to a colorless solution. On adding NaOH a white gelatinous precipitate forms which dissolves in excess NaOH. I conclude it is not Mo, could be zinc powder.

I have waited almost 6 weeks for it to arrive from China. I guess they get away with fake elements because most buyers don’t test the items. At least I will get my money back.

I like to ask about purity and tell them it is because I am running extensive tests on it for school. Seems they usually send real things when they know it'll be run through some thing that will prove it is fake in an instant, even when I'm not!

So far it seems to have worked.

NeonPulse - 14-6-2018 at 17:24

Quote: Originally posted by wg48

Maybe they ran out of Mo powder and switched it up. Late last year I bought the exact same thing from this selller and it checked out to be Molybdenum. The powder was a dark grey nearly black and slowly dissolved into 31% HCl leaving a dark yellow greenish solution. Adding NaOH to that gave a black precipitation. Pretty sure I got the real deal. I had also bought Co, Cu, Ti and B powders from them with no problems. I probably won’t try my luck at eBay Ir powder though. Seems like others here have been ripped off with that. I guess it’s a roulette game.

fusso - 14-6-2018 at 18:45

Quote: Originally posted by NeonPulse

Late last year I bought the exact same thing from this selller and it checked out to be Molybdenum. The powder was a dark grey nearly black and slowly dissolved into 31% HCl leaving a dark yellow greenish solution. Adding NaOH to that gave a black precipitation. Pretty sure I got the real deal.

How does Mo react with HCl?! Wiki didn't state that!?

[Edited on 15/06/18 by fusso]

diddi - 14-6-2018 at 21:44

ebay Ir is actually W
there was a guy selling cut up bullion of various PGMs so he may have Ir perhaps.

wg48 - 14-6-2018 at 23:04

Quote: Originally posted by fusso

Quote: Originally posted by NeonPulse

How does Mo react with HCl?! Wiki didn't state that!?

[Edited on 15/06/18 by fusso]

"Molybdenum is soluble in nitric acid, concentrated sulfuric acid and aqua regia but not in hydrochloric acid, dilute sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric acid or potassium hydroxide solution"

From:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/3527600418.mb743998e0018

Edit:
Note: the above does not necessary contradict Neon’s observation as it may be referring to large (relative to a powder) pieces of Mo that may dissolve so slowly that it is considered insoluble.

[Edited on 15-6-2018 by wg48]

woelen - 19-6-2018 at 07:11

I found another bad one:

https://www.ebay.nl/itm/100-grams-High-Purity-99-99-Antimony...

Attached you find the image, associated with this offer:

The description is: "100 grams High Purity 99.99% Antimony Sb Metal Lumps"

I ordered one of these, and as a remark with the order I wrote that if my analysis of the sample reveals that the purity really is 99.999%, that he could expect a larger offer from me in the future.

The sample was shipped to me the next day, and one day later I received a message where he told me that he had made a mistake and that the offer was wrong. He admitted that the real purity of the material is a little better than 99.9%, so it's just 3N instead of 5N. For most practical purposes this is pure enough, but it is good to know that you don't get the ultra high purity mentioned by the seller. In the object description he talks about 99.99% purity, but even that is not reached.
I strongly urged him to change the picture with the offer and to change the description to 99.9% instead of 99.99%. I'll let the order go on (it only is a small amount of money), but I will not give 5 stars feedback. These chinese sellers find their feedback very important and by providing less than 5 stars you can really punish them, even more so than having them refund the few dollars for the order.

[Edited on 19-6-18 by woelen]

diddi - 19-6-2018 at 15:07

yes. when i challenged my seller about the Zn not being pure because it was covered in oxides, he dropped the purity to 4N, then in another reply, it was down to 3N. they are lying pricks and not worth supporting. "If it looks too good to be true..." as they say
I have found true 4N+ elements are very expensive. you just dont get the ultra high quality material from shitty processing facilities, so if you want a product from a multimillion dollar refinery, then you have to pay.

maybe one day there will be proper laws governing what people describe a product as, so that there is recourse and some form of sanction against sellers who peddle crap. and i dont just mean ebay. look at all the shonky businesses trying to extract cash from our pockets, from underdelivering telcos to wonder anti aging cosmetics that prey on peoples vanity. pfffft i hate it all.... (rant rant rant.......)

[Edited on 19-6-2018 by diddi]

woelen - 19-6-2018 at 23:49

Yes, I know the huge price difference. I purchased red phosphorus, which was sold to me as 98.8% material (the balance being mainly white P). I had to pay EUR 55 for 1 kg of the material. It has quite a strong typical phosphorus smell.
At the same seller, later, I wanted a good sample for my element collection. He had 4N red P. I purchased 10 grams, and had to pay EUR 20 for this little amount! The material is odorless and that is quite special for red phosphorus.

Sometimes, however, you can be lucky with some unknown/shady seller and you can get really good stuff for just a few bucks. Especially if they sell old/unused materials from a decommisioned lab or something like that. In that way, I obtained 5N antimony, 30 grams for EUR 5 and I obtained 25 grams of 3N crystalline boron for just 7 euros.

BaFuxa - 20-6-2018 at 02:48

I tested 2 items that I bought from seller pickbestforyou, both did not match the description.

He tries to fight the obvious with obfuscation. He asked me twice to "check" on my order, took 5 days to get him to concede now he offers a partial refund which I refused.

Edit : I got a full refund from him without ebay intervening.

[Edited on 21-6-2018 by BaFuxa]

wg48 - 20-6-2018 at 03:20

NeonPulse:

Quote: Originally posted by NeonPulse

As a check, for both of us you could try dissolving excess Mo in H2O2 to see if it eventually turns blue. If the reaction is very vigorous with powder you may have to cool the reaction tube to avoid thermal decomposition the H2O2.

NeonPulse - 21-6-2018 at 16:40

Quote: Originally posted by wg48

NeonPulse:

Quote: Originally posted by NeonPulse

I’ll try this this afternoon and post the results. I have some 35% H2O2 I recently acquired that will work fine. As for the HCl dissolving I did, only a very small amount of the powder I put in there dissolved and it took quite some time to do it. Here’s a picture I took at the time.

18FF6AE4-103B-4388-AA3B-64C6E22F9486.jpeg - 81kB

NeonPulse - 22-6-2018 at 19:59

Here’s the test I did on the supposed Mo powder. I added a small amount of 35% H2O2 to a test tube and added some of the metal to it. Immediately there was a very exothermic reaction which turned the solution a dirty green first then into yellow. Slowly I added more metal and after a short while the colour did turn to a brilliant blue much like Prussian blue.

6ACB5CDB-D932-4451-8774-BC1D79E04D4C.jpeg - 2MB

A9667DC7-56F9-4C41-99ED-CEB72CC95FC7.jpeg - 1.8MB

F7336368-092F-4845-A4B4-C6FCBAC9B6A6.jpeg - 2.9MB

wg48 - 22-6-2018 at 22:12

Thanks NeonPulse. That test confirms my observations about the reaction between H2O2 and Mo to produce the yellow MoO3 which can then be partially reduced by excess Mo to the intensely blue coloured mixed valencE oxide called blue Mo.

Is your blue Mo reoxidised back to MoO3 by air or H2O2?

I don’t have any W powder to check if W reacts so readily as Mo and produces the equivalent blue W. If that is the case we need a simple method to discriminate between Mo and W. Perhaps say Cu metal or an organic compound can reduce one of the trioxides to a blue but not the other.

Thinking about it I have some small filament bulbs I could extract the W filament from one to try to make blue W. I also wonder if a mixed Mo/W blue can be synthesised and if it has any novel properties.

diddi - 23-6-2018 at 17:36

W is very slow to react with H2O2. i digest thoriated W electrodes in H2O2 and it takes ages. you get a pale yellow solution

woelen - 24-6-2018 at 23:17

MoO3 is not yellow. Pure MoO3 is white (or very pale grey). The yellow color of hexavalent molybdenum in solution usually is due to some complex (e.g. with phosphate).

W slowly dissolves in aqueous H2O2. No acid needed, nor any other compounds, just H2O2 in water. The solution is nearly colorless.

wg48 - 19-7-2018 at 07:51

I ordered 2.5kg of sodium bisulphate from ebay UK £13 including postage, a good price (and just £17 for 5kg tub). But it arrived today as 2.5kg of iron sulphate or that’s what it says on the tub. Perhaps just a simple error. But I have had a run of incorrect or fake items of late. Hopefully I will get the correct item or a refund eventually.

DavidJR - 19-7-2018 at 12:33

Quote: Originally posted by woelen

I found another bad one:

https://www.ebay.nl/itm/100-grams-High-Purity-99-99-Antimony...

Attached you find the image, associated with this offer:

The description is: "100 grams High Purity 99.99% Antimony Sb Metal Lumps"

I ordered one of these, and as a remark with the order I wrote that if my analysis of the sample reveals that the purity really is 99.999%, that he could expect a larger offer from me in the future.

The sample was shipped to me the next day, and one day later I received a message where he told me that he had made a mistake and that the offer was wrong. He admitted that the real purity of the material is a little better than 99.9%, so it's just 3N instead of 5N. For most practical purposes this is pure enough, but it is good to know that you don't get the ultra high purity mentioned by the seller. In the object description he talks about 99.99% purity, but even that is not reached.
I strongly urged him to change the picture with the offer and to change the description to 99.9% instead of 99.99%. I'll let the order go on (it only is a small amount of money), but I will not give 5 stars feedback. These chinese sellers find their feedback very important and by providing less than 5 stars you can really punish them, even more so than having them refund the few dollars for the order.

[Edited on 19-6-18 by woelen]

Just checked that link and it appears that the seller has changed the product description to 99.9% now

diddi - 20-7-2018 at 16:13

@wg48
Name and Shame for the rest of us. There may be a pattern of deliberate cheap junk dumping.

Too good to be true

wg48temp9 - 30-5-2019 at 14:36

I purchased a vacuum pump on ebay. A new Yellow Jacket brand two stage, very nice and very cheap at £13 including postage.

It did not arrive and when I checked the status the seller had given me a fake tracking number and was no longer on ebay and an other buyer had left negative feedback with the sane problem and purchase.

Yes it was too good to be true. Fortunately ebay gave me a full refund.

Yellow Jacket 93600 7 CFM t Vacuum Pump.jpg - 112kB