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I have recently bought 2 Pi's from a local reseller (Czech Republic). Both were in Raspberry Pi boxes with RS logo and so on. So I guess they were as genuine as one can get. I have had no problem with either of the Pi's.

Now, I plan to buy other one and I have found some financially interesting offers on Ebay. The Pi will be shipped from China. The offer on Ebay is $53 for Raspberry Pi 2.0 Model B + plastic case + 3x heatsinks.

At my local shop the price is $50 for Pi alone and additional $14 for case and heatsink. For $14 I can get charger, SD card and WiFi dongle at Ebay.

So the question is, is the quality of Pi's from Ebay (China) worth to risk? At local reseller I have 2 years warranty, so it's easier to resolve any issues.

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  • I got one. Works fine. Seems legit.
    – user28346
    Mar 25, 2015 at 3:54

6 Answers 6

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I would not buy anything like that from China.

95% of the time electronic devices direct from China:

  • are fakes, made from reverse engineering or stolen plans.
  • items that did not pass quality checks and they just slapped their own QC sticker on it) (1 cent charge) and charge half price.
    • And instead of getting recycled or destroyed, they leave the back door. (Usually these work as normal but then suddenly you figure out why it was that cheap)
  • They do not pay royalties to the designers, use hacked software or microchips, avoid TAX'es and usually come with 1 year "silent" warranty- In other words, you will be lucky if you get a reply when things go bad

If you really support the Raspberry Pi community it is worth buying locally and paying a few dollars more. Not only does it directly support the charity, it supports your local business and global trade, while supporting 3rd party licenses, like h264.

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  • There are currently no fake Raspberry Pi
    – Mike Redrobe
    Nov 13, 2015 at 18:28
  • It to expensive to fake them... hehehehe. Pi's are made in the UK. not China...sooo hwo can you buy them from China????
    – Piotr Kula
    Nov 13, 2015 at 18:28
  • @ppumpkin Pi's are also made in China, please check before you post.
    – jpoppe
    Dec 30, 2016 at 11:00
  • Please post a link how I can buy original Pi from China. Thanks
    – Piotr Kula
    Dec 30, 2016 at 11:06
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I've had two Pi's (2 model B), one store-bought from Finland, and one ordered from China thru eBay.

The difference?

None. Not even in packaging or in documentation. Same box with the same contents. The other was 60 euros, the latter 32 euros.

My friends who acquired a china-Pi have had absolutely no complaints at all, and I haven't seen any signs of "lower" quality on them. The only ones in my peer and friend network who had complaints about china-bought Pi's are the ones who 1) haven't owned or worked with any Pi's at all and the ones who 2) bought their Pi's from Finland for twice the china-Pi's price :)

Pi's aren't made in UK. They might be packaged in UK, but still made in China.

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  • Actually a lot of Pi's are made are made at Sony UK Tek in Wales. These are stamped "Made in the UK", vs. "Made in China" or "Made in PRC".
    – goldilocks ♦
    Nov 30, 2016 at 19:18
  • @goldilocks I still wonder if those are official resellers selling those Pi's that cheap directly in china.
    – Ghanima ♦
    Nov 30, 2016 at 21:07
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Caveat emptor "Let the buyer beware". Does sound too good to be true. But the only way you will find out is to try. Can you afford for them to fail and have to buy new ones?

Personally I have had good experiences ordering things from China through eBay, cheap price work as expected, quick delivery. But they items are often noticeably lower quality than I would expect for the full prices item.

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The majority of electrical goods here in the UK are from China anyway.

I mean, look at the back of that nice flashy iPhone and where was it made? China.

I have bought loads of things off eBay that were from China and Hong Kong and 80% of it has been pretty good, with a couple of things being exceptional quality. you do get the odd bad apple though.

Personally I wouldn't bother buying a pi from China. Though, as they are cheap enough to buy here, why risk it. The Pi is not very powerful as it is, if you got one with cheap components it might affect performance

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  • Yea. But iPhone make sure it passes tests and quality control, Apple pays royalties, employes other people for distribution, helps companies make a bit of money. Where as direct form China, it usually dodgy stuff, because, Why would Apple just let people in the factory over produce and bootleg? They wont, no company will. "The bad Apple" lol :)
    – Piotr Kula
    Mar 28, 2014 at 18:01
  • I have added comment to accepted answer. It would not pay off, due to tax and customs payment. I bought it locally with the added benefit of 2 years waranty.
    – jnovacho
    Mar 28, 2014 at 21:35
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    Interestingly, most RPis have been built in the UK. See this link: http://www.raspberrypi.org/1-75-million-sold-so-far-and-1-million-made-in-the-uk/
    – paul
    Apr 7, 2014 at 5:54
  • Yes, Pi is a UK Charity and they used Sony UK to source and build parts for the first batches of boards. I am not sure if they still use Sony, I read somewhere they were trying to negotiate or move to LG in Poland or something but that's not confirmed.
    – Piotr Kula
    Mar 25, 2015 at 11:54
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I would advise you to buy from a reputed seller locally since you have the option to replace it or obtain warranty later on if something happens to your Pi.

Since you're from Czech Republic I would highly recommend this shop. They sell the RPI2 for about 40 USD. Very professional and enthusiastic. I bought my RPI2 from them. Website is in Czech but you can email Mr. Prenner your queries in English.

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Accurate and clear explanation: http://goughlui.com/2015/02/19/the-raspberry-pi-2-not-all-from-the-uk/

They all seem to be "original". ;)

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  • 1
    Welcome to Raspberry Pi! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.
    – Ghanima ♦
    Jan 11, 2016 at 7:43

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