Buying Bulk New/Used Micro SD Cards

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more. Looking at
prices, RS and e14 sell them but don't actually have any quantity
dicounts and are more expensive than Officeworks ($8), I was hoping
for at least under $5.

I'm not interested in irreputable suppliers likely to be selling
Chinese fakes. It doesn't matter how cheap they are if they'll
probably all turn out to be duds.

Used cards may be an option, and I've watched a few sellers come and
go on Ebay offering mixed lots of cards presumably pulled from old
mobile phones. I'm curious whether these people work in phone stores
handling trade-ins, or with one of the electronics recycling mobs. I
tried to investigate the latter with the hope of being able to do
some sort of back-door deal, but they don't seem to give addresses
for their sorting centres (actually they seem a bit dodgy, probably
unsurprising given the recent scandals in the recycling industry).

Buying off Ebay is still an option of course, I just feel like it
might be better getting them from the source. I'll try in some
small independent phone shops when I next have spare time in a city
large enough to have them, though I'm not really sure how to find
them.

So any tips for cheap Micro SD cards new/used of any capacity would
be appreciated.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2020-02-08, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more. Looking at
prices, RS and e14 sell them but don't actually have any quantity
dicounts and are more expensive than Officeworks ($8), I was hoping
for at least under $5.

I'm not interested in irreputable suppliers likely to be selling
Chinese fakes. It doesn't matter how cheap they are if they'll
probably all turn out to be duds.

Used cards may be an option, and I've watched a few sellers come and
go on Ebay offering mixed lots of cards presumably pulled from old
mobile phones. I'm curious whether these people work in phone stores
handling trade-ins, or with one of the electronics recycling mobs. I
tried to investigate the latter with the hope of being able to do
some sort of back-door deal, but they don't seem to give addresses
for their sorting centres (actually they seem a bit dodgy, probably
unsurprising given the recent scandals in the recycling industry).

I thought you weren't interested in "irreputable suppliers."

Buying off Ebay is still an option of course, I just feel like it
might be better getting them from the source. I'll try in some
small independent phone shops when I next have spare time in a city
large enough to have them, though I'm not really sure how to find
them.

$13 for ten on aliexpress all look the same, so probably not recycled

--
Jasen.

 

[Lucifer]

On Sat, 8 Feb 2020 01:24:02 +0000 (UTC), not@telling.you.invalid
(Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:

Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more.

I doubt you could buy them that small.
If you could they would be rare and expensive.

I have a 64 MB CF card.

 

[Clocky]

On 8/02/2020 7:29 pm, Lucifer wrote:

On Sat, 8 Feb 2020 01:24:02 +0000 (UTC), not@telling.you.invalid
(Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:

Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more.

I doubt you could buy them that small.
If you could they would be rare and expensive.

I have a 64 MB CF card.

I think I still have a 64mb SD-card somewhere.

--

 

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> wrote:

On 2020-02-08, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more. Looking at
prices, RS and e14 sell them but don't actually have any quantity
dicounts and are more expensive than Officeworks ($8), I was hoping
for at least under $5.

I'm not interested in irreputable suppliers likely to be selling
Chinese fakes. It doesn't matter how cheap they are if they'll
probably all turn out to be duds.

Used cards may be an option, and I've watched a few sellers come and
go on Ebay offering mixed lots of cards presumably pulled from old
mobile phones. I'm curious whether these people work in phone stores
handling trade-ins, or with one of the electronics recycling mobs. I
tried to investigate the latter with the hope of being able to do
some sort of back-door deal, but they don't seem to give addresses
for their sorting centres (actually they seem a bit dodgy, probably
unsurprising given the recent scandals in the recycling industry).

I thought you weren't interested in "irreputable suppliers."

They're likely to be selling genuine used cards, and so they'll work
for the rare and small write operations performed on them in my
application. As opposed to fakes where many are likely never to work
at any point in their life.

Buying off Ebay is still an option of course, I just feel like it
might be better getting them from the source. I'll try in some
small independent phone shops when I next have spare time in a city
large enough to have them, though I'm not really sure how to find
them.

$13 for ten on aliexpress all look the same, so probably not recycled

As stated, it's fakes that I'm wary of. There's documented evidence
of this being widespread with Micro SD cards in China. Just to see, I
bought a USB memory stick from Aliexpress once. After the first
(attempted) write I could never read anything off it again, point
proven.

If you ask for a sample then odds are that they'll send you a real
card first, then when you order the 50 you'll get the fakes. I can
do without all that.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

 

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Lucifer <LuciferMorningstar@bigpond.com> wrote:

On Sat, 8 Feb 2020 01:24:02 +0000 (UTC), not@telling.you.invalid
(Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:

Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more.

I doubt you could buy them that small.
If you could they would be rare and expensive.

"128MB or more". SDHC, SDXC, are fine so if you know where to get
1TB cards for a couple of bucks each then I'm all ears. In terms
of SD cards in current production, I'm looking for the cheapest
cards in any capacity available.

> I have a 64 MB CF card.

I've got a 64MB Micro SD card, and they are offered by used card
sellers on Ebay still. Hence why I specified greater than 128MB,
which is the next common size and big enough for my application.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

 

[~misfit~]

On 9/02/2020 11:02 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> wrote:
On 2020-02-08, Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more. Looking at
prices, RS and e14 sell them but don't actually have any quantity
dicounts and are more expensive than Officeworks ($8), I was hoping
for at least under $5.

I'm not interested in irreputable suppliers likely to be selling
Chinese fakes. It doesn't matter how cheap they are if they'll
probably all turn out to be duds.

Used cards may be an option, and I've watched a few sellers come and
go on Ebay offering mixed lots of cards presumably pulled from old
mobile phones. I'm curious whether these people work in phone stores
handling trade-ins, or with one of the electronics recycling mobs. I
tried to investigate the latter with the hope of being able to do
some sort of back-door deal, but they don't seem to give addresses
for their sorting centres (actually they seem a bit dodgy, probably
unsurprising given the recent scandals in the recycling industry).

I thought you weren't interested in "irreputable suppliers."

They're likely to be selling genuine used cards, and so they'll work
for the rare and small write operations performed on them in my
application. As opposed to fakes where many are likely never to work
at any point in their life.

Buying off Ebay is still an option of course, I just feel like it
might be better getting them from the source. I'll try in some
small independent phone shops when I next have spare time in a city
large enough to have them, though I'm not really sure how to find
them.

$13 for ten on aliexpress all look the same, so probably not recycled

As stated, it's fakes that I'm wary of. There's documented evidence
of this being widespread with Micro SD cards in China. Just to see, I
bought a USB memory stick from Aliexpress once. After the first
(attempted) write I could never read anything off it again, point
proven.

A sample set of one proves nothing.

If you ask for a sample then odds are that they'll send you a real
card first, then when you order the 50 you'll get the fakes. I can
do without all that.

I buy USB flash drives and SD Cards regularly from Aliexpress and alwasy get what I pay for. Then
again I buy from stores with good feedback and if it's mission-critical I buy from the genuine
Samsung store. They aren't the cheapest but are still ~60% of the domestic price.

I've also bought (for instance) mSATA drives from companies such as 'Kingspec' from Aliexpress and
they're about half the price of Samsung and have held up well for over 2 years now.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.

 

[~misfit~]

On 10/02/2020 12:18 am, ~misfit~ wrote:

On 9/02/2020 11:02 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> wrote:
$13 for ten on aliexpress all look the same, so probably not recycled

As stated, it's fakes that I'm wary of. There's documented evidence
of this being widespread with Micro SD cards in China. Just to see, I
bought a USB memory stick from Aliexpress once. After the first
(attempted) write I could never read anything off it again, point
proven.

A sample set of one proves nothing.

If you ask for a sample then odds are that they'll send you a real
card first, then when you order the 50 you'll get the fakes. I can
do without all that.

I buy USB flash drives and SD Cards regularly from Aliexpress and always get what I pay for. Then
again I buy from stores with good feedback and if it's mission-critical I buy from the genuine
Samsung store. They aren't the cheapest but are still ~60% of the domestic price.

I've also bought (for instance) mSATA drives from companies such as 'Kingspec' from Aliexpress and
they're about half the price of Samsung and have held up well for over 2 years now.

US$2.64 each (inc. delivery) for 16GB Sandisk SD cards;
<https://tinyurl.com/sllpyxe>
You can buy domestic Chinese brands for a lot less than that from Aliexpress.

16GB seems to be the smallest commonly made size these days, Samsung don't make a card smaller than
32GB from what I can tell and they're about US$7 each currently. (I bought 5 of them at the end of
last year for $4.99 each and some 128GB Samsung cards for >US$18 each delivered.)
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.

 

[Computer Nerd Kev]

~misfit~ <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> wrote:

On 10/02/2020 12:18 am, ~misfit~ wrote:
On 9/02/2020 11:02 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> wrote:
$13 for ten on aliexpress all look the same, so probably not recycled

As stated, it's fakes that I'm wary of. There's documented evidence
of this being widespread with Micro SD cards in China. Just to see, I
bought a USB memory stick from Aliexpress once. After the first
(attempted) write I could never read anything off it again, point
proven.

A sample set of one proves nothing.

If you ask for a sample then odds are that they'll send you a real
card first, then when you order the 50 you'll get the fakes. I can
do without all that.

I buy USB flash drives and SD Cards regularly from Aliexpress and
always get what I pay for. Then again I buy from stores with good
feedback and if it's mission-critical I buy from the genuine Samsung
store. They aren't the cheapest but are still ~60% of the domestic
price.

I've also bought (for instance) mSATA drives from companies such as
'Kingspec' from Aliexpress and they're about half the price of Samsung
and have held up well for over 2 years now.

US$2.64 each (inc. delivery) for 16GB Sandisk SD cards;
https://tinyurl.com/sllpyxe
You can buy domestic Chinese brands for a lot less than that from Aliexpress.

16GB seems to be the smallest commonly made size these days, Samsung don't
make a card smaller than 32GB from what I can tell and they're about US$7
each currently. (I bought 5 of them at the end of last year for $4.99 each
and some 128GB Samsung cards for >US$18 each delivered.)

I'd just rather not give the Chinese another chance to try and rip me off
again. Maybe as a last resort, but I can just see myself getting half of
the chips DOA and having to choose between buying from a good supplier
anyway, or waiting another month for SD cards from another cheap supplier
to come from China.

Hard to tell how genuine a "genuine" store on Aliexpress is as well.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

 

[~misfit~]

On 11/02/2020 9:00 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

~misfit~ <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/02/2020 12:18 am, ~misfit~ wrote:
On 9/02/2020 11:02 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> wrote:
$13 for ten on aliexpress all look the same, so probably not recycled

As stated, it's fakes that I'm wary of. There's documented evidence
of this being widespread with Micro SD cards in China. Just to see, I
bought a USB memory stick from Aliexpress once. After the first
(attempted) write I could never read anything off it again, point
proven.

A sample set of one proves nothing.

If you ask for a sample then odds are that they'll send you a real
card first, then when you order the 50 you'll get the fakes. I can
do without all that.

I buy USB flash drives and SD Cards regularly from Aliexpress and
always get what I pay for. Then again I buy from stores with good
feedback and if it's mission-critical I buy from the genuine Samsung
store. They aren't the cheapest but are still ~60% of the domestic
price.

I've also bought (for instance) mSATA drives from companies such as
'Kingspec' from Aliexpress and they're about half the price of Samsung
and have held up well for over 2 years now.

US$2.64 each (inc. delivery) for 16GB Sandisk SD cards;
https://tinyurl.com/sllpyxe
You can buy domestic Chinese brands for a lot less than that from Aliexpress.

16GB seems to be the smallest commonly made size these days, Samsung don't
make a card smaller than 32GB from what I can tell and they're about US$7
each currently. (I bought 5 of them at the end of last year for $4.99 each
and some 128GB Samsung cards for >US$18 each delivered.)

I'd just rather not give the Chinese another chance to try and rip me off
again. Maybe as a last resort, but I can just see myself getting half of
the chips DOA and having to choose between buying from a good supplier
anyway, or waiting another month for SD cards from another cheap supplier
to come from China.

I guess we all have our prejudices. I've found AE to be very reliable but ebay not so much for
these sort of things.

I've bought a dozen+ SD cards from AE in the last year ranging from 32 GB to 128 GB as well as a
handfull of USB flash drives of 64 and 128 GB and they've all tested as perfectly fine and are in
daily use. I've also bought four or five SSDs (120 and 250 GB) and they too are great.

> Hard to tell how genuine a "genuine" store on Aliexpress is as well.

I've always let the feedback be my guide and it's worked well.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.

 

[Clocky]

On 11/02/2020 4:00 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

~misfit~ <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/02/2020 12:18 am, ~misfit~ wrote:
On 9/02/2020 11:02 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> wrote:
$13 for ten on aliexpress all look the same, so probably not recycled

As stated, it's fakes that I'm wary of. There's documented evidence
of this being widespread with Micro SD cards in China. Just to see, I
bought a USB memory stick from Aliexpress once. After the first
(attempted) write I could never read anything off it again, point
proven.

A sample set of one proves nothing.

If you ask for a sample then odds are that they'll send you a real
card first, then when you order the 50 you'll get the fakes. I can
do without all that.

I buy USB flash drives and SD Cards regularly from Aliexpress and
always get what I pay for. Then again I buy from stores with good
feedback and if it's mission-critical I buy from the genuine Samsung
store. They aren't the cheapest but are still ~60% of the domestic
price.

I've also bought (for instance) mSATA drives from companies such as
'Kingspec' from Aliexpress and they're about half the price of Samsung
and have held up well for over 2 years now.

US$2.64 each (inc. delivery) for 16GB Sandisk SD cards;
https://tinyurl.com/sllpyxe
You can buy domestic Chinese brands for a lot less than that from Aliexpress.

16GB seems to be the smallest commonly made size these days, Samsung don't
make a card smaller than 32GB from what I can tell and they're about US$7
each currently. (I bought 5 of them at the end of last year for $4.99 each
and some 128GB Samsung cards for >US$18 each delivered.)

I'd just rather not give the Chinese another chance to try and rip me off
again. Maybe as a last resort, but I can just see myself getting half of
the chips DOA and having to choose between buying from a good supplier
anyway, or waiting another month for SD cards from another cheap supplier
to come from China.

Sounds like you have been burnt a few times as I have.
I'm a bit over getting fake, misrepresented and/or defective stuff from
China when it takes weeks to arrive.

Hard to tell how genuine a "genuine" store on Aliexpress is as well.

 

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Clocky <nevergon@happen.com> wrote:

On 11/02/2020 4:00 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
~misfit~ <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> wrote:

16GB seems to be the smallest commonly made size these days, Samsung don't
make a card smaller than 32GB from what I can tell and they're about US$7
each currently. (I bought 5 of them at the end of last year for $4.99 each
and some 128GB Samsung cards for >US$18 each delivered.)

I'd just rather not give the Chinese another chance to try and rip me off
again. Maybe as a last resort, but I can just see myself getting half of
the chips DOA and having to choose between buying from a good supplier
anyway, or waiting another month for SD cards from another cheap supplier
to come from China.

Sounds like you have been burnt a few times as I have.
I'm a bit over getting fake, misrepresented and/or defective stuff from
China when it takes weeks to arrive.

Yeah, as much as possible I try to at least stick to things that are
fairly mechanical so that you can judge from the images and the look
of the items you get whether or not they'll do the job.

In this case there's also some risk that the cards might just be
unreliable (poor bond wire connection or something), or not work in
certain edge cases. So they might seem OK on first test but
everything starts going wrong later on.

Some years ago I read an article that I can't find now where someone
had decapped a variety of fake (but some very genuine looking)
micro SD cards and confirmed their origins by looking at the text
printed on the die and comparing to real cards from the manufacturer.
As I remember it, the author had been buying cards to go into
electronic devices that they were manufacturing there, and found a
batch where the fakes (which they'd bought unknowingly) wouldn't work
in their devices like the real ones.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

 

[keithr0]

On 2/14/2020 8:25 AM, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

Clocky <nevergon@happen.com> wrote:
On 11/02/2020 4:00 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
~misfit~ <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> wrote:

16GB seems to be the smallest commonly made size these days, Samsung don't
make a card smaller than 32GB from what I can tell and they're about US$7
each currently. (I bought 5 of them at the end of last year for $4.99 each
and some 128GB Samsung cards for >US$18 each delivered.)

I'd just rather not give the Chinese another chance to try and rip me off
again. Maybe as a last resort, but I can just see myself getting half of
the chips DOA and having to choose between buying from a good supplier
anyway, or waiting another month for SD cards from another cheap supplier
to come from China.

Sounds like you have been burnt a few times as I have.
I'm a bit over getting fake, misrepresented and/or defective stuff from
China when it takes weeks to arrive.

Yeah, as much as possible I try to at least stick to things that are
fairly mechanical so that you can judge from the images and the look
of the items you get whether or not they'll do the job.

In this case there's also some risk that the cards might just be
unreliable (poor bond wire connection or something), or not work in
certain edge cases. So they might seem OK on first test but
everything starts going wrong later on.

Some years ago I read an article that I can't find now where someone
had decapped a variety of fake (but some very genuine looking)
micro SD cards and confirmed their origins by looking at the text
printed on the die and comparing to real cards from the manufacturer.
As I remember it, the author had been buying cards to go into
electronic devices that they were manufacturing there, and found a
batch where the fakes (which they'd bought unknowingly) wouldn't work
in their devices like the real ones.

Not sure where you guys are buying your stuff, I've bought a shitload of
things from Ali, Gearbest, Banggood and DFrobot and the only duds have
been one SD card purporting to be a 512Gb, and one batch of 18650
batteries whos capacity was much less than advertised.

 

[~misfit~]

On 15/02/2020 6:42 pm, keithr0 wrote:

On 2/14/2020 8:25 AM, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
Clocky <nevergon@happen.com> wrote:
On 11/02/2020 4:00 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
~misfit~ <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> wrote:

16GB seems to be the smallest commonly made size these days, Samsung don't
make a card smaller than 32GB from what I can tell and they're about US$7
each currently. (I bought 5 of them at the end of last year for $4.99 each
and some 128GB Samsung cards for >US$18 each delivered.)

I'd just rather not give the Chinese another chance to try and rip me off
again. Maybe as a last resort, but I can just see myself getting half of
the chips DOA and having to choose between buying from a good supplier
anyway, or waiting another month for SD cards from another cheap supplier
to come from China.

Sounds like you have been burnt a few times as I have.
I'm a bit over getting fake, misrepresented and/or defective stuff from
China when it takes weeks to arrive.

Yeah, as much as possible I try to at least stick to things that are
fairly mechanical so that you can judge from the images and the look
of the items you get whether or not they'll do the job.

In this case there's also some risk that the cards might just be
unreliable (poor bond wire connection or something), or not work in
certain edge cases. So they might seem OK on first test but
everything starts going wrong later on.

Some years ago I read an article that I can't find now where someone
had decapped a variety of fake (but some very genuine looking)
micro SD cards and confirmed their origins by looking at the text
printed on the die and comparing to real cards from the manufacturer.
As I remember it, the author had been buying cards to go into
electronic devices that they were manufacturing there, and found a
batch where the fakes (which they'd bought unknowingly) wouldn't work
in their devices like the real ones.

Not sure where you guys are buying your stuff, I've bought a shitload of things from Ali, Gearbest,
Banggood and DFrobot and the only duds have been one SD card purporting to be a 512Gb, and one
batch of 18650 batteries whos capacity was much less than advertised.

I also have a history of having got great deals and generally reliable stuff from China lately.
There was a clue to what's being said in the last paragraph you quoted. It starts with "Some years
ago..." then continues with "I read...." and "as I remember it".

I'm old enough to remember when "Made in Japan" meant unreliable shite and people used terms like
"Jap Crap".

Times change - some people's opinions just don't change with them.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.

 

[Lucifer]

On Sat, 8 Feb 2020 21:30:41 +0800, Clocky <nevergonn@happen.com>
wrote:

On 8/02/2020 7:29 pm, Lucifer wrote:
On Sat, 8 Feb 2020 01:24:02 +0000 (UTC), not@telling.you.invalid
(Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:

Later this year I'm likely to be looking to buy 50 or more Micro SD
cards with capacity of 128MB (yes, MB not GB) or more.

I doubt you could buy them that small.
If you could they would be rare and expensive.

I have a 64 MB CF card.



I think I still have a 64mb SD-card somewhere.

My 64 MB CF card is in my Nikon D70s.
It gives me 18 shots at the highest jpeg setting.