So I recently started shooting in Raw... so of course they take up more room... I have two 2GB cards and a couple of small 512 cards...

So I was browsing on ebay and saw one for $61... but I when I got it... looked like this: Click to view attachment

I was mortified... Now I buying on ebay is a risk, but I couldn't really afford much more than what I paid for... I was blessed to still have some money still in my paypal account from when I sold stuff on ebay this month to pay bills... but now I am out of that money...

My mother says pray over the card and use it anyway. What would you do?! I am runnin out of things to sell on ebay and I can't donate blood (blasted anemia)...

August will be the first month I don't have to pay a hospital bill, and I don't have a wedding till then... should I wait to buy another card and chalk this up to (bad) experience?!

By the way, the user is NO longer on ebay... lucky me right?! Somebody buy me some ice cream...

Awww man, that sticks. I am by no means a memory card expert, but if you are going to use it for weddings, I would ask myself, "Can I guarantee the photos will be on this at the end of the day?" If you do not feel confident then I would not risk losing folks images and leaving it to chance.

My gut says it is not worth the risk. If you absolutely did not have enough memory to shoot RAW, I would go back to JPEG until I could afford a more legit memory card. But there may be some more sage wisdom from more veteran photographers then myself.

Wow....I would not use it for a wedding or something of value. Very interesting.


-Christobal

Can I buy you a 4 gig card instead? PM me your name and address and I'll spot you one from B&H. I've been feeling really anxious lately and I need to do something random and nice for a total stranger to make me feel better.

As far as the wedding goes, I would switch back to jpg (or only use raw for a few parts of the day) until you had time to work that out. However - if you paid with paypal, you can dispute this and have the payment stopped ( I can't rememberr the exact time span you have for that, but it's pretty long). They can take that money right back out of their account. I got ripped off for a 2500 camera and managed to get the money back, so I would think it's possible in this case.
Karen

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you Miss Jé. People like this are such a waste of space. I would not use the card, at all. It's not the product you paid for and is blatant fraud. The seller knows it, you know it, we all know it. I found some links you may find useful:

At least you're not the only one:
SanDisk Frauds on Ebay

And it sounds like you used PayPal, so I would try to dispute this fraud (the span is 45 days from purchase):
Reporting Fraud to PayPal

You may still be able to get a full refund, even though the seller cancelled his Ebay account. Good luck.

Don't risk it. If you are limited on funds, buy a smaller CF card, Extreme III or even Ultra II since they are cheaper. There are rebates on these cards right now.

Or is there a way you can dump the images, like on a laptop, during the day? Or anyone in your area that might let you borrow a few 4GB cards for the day? Whatever you do, don't use that card.

I almost started crying when I read this. Thank you so much.

I know using the compact flash card would not be wise... and I would be more hurt if I lost someone's precious memories than I am right now about my money... I cannot believe that there are people who scam folks like this continuosly and get away with.

Well I filed with Paypal's resolution center, but when I tried to file with ebay, it says I would have to wait 10 days after the item was purchased... which is... tomorrow.

I need a laptop, but I am gonna have to wait on that too. I am just ready to start working again so I can buy the things I need to build up my business. I had an interview last week, and one this week, so hopefully I can get something soon.

Thanks everybody for your advice. Hopefully it will work out and I will get my money back.

Hmm, I looked at the pic wondering what the problem was - then I saw it! If you really need a card I will send you a 4 gig.

I know that building a business can be hard, let me know if you need anything else.

Hugh

Thank you SO much... I really am going to start crying. This would help me out tremendously until I start working.

ok, PM me your address, I will mail it out tomorrow,

Hugh

I respect generosity in people, and I respect it in companies too, I don’t look at it as philanthropy; I see it as an investment in the community. -Paul Newman

you guys are awesome!

Yikes! This happened to me buying a disk off eBay over a year ago (the links Chris mentioned are what I would've pointed you to also). It was a corrupt disk -- DON'T USE YOURS if you're shooting anything of value. I'm surprised they still allow them to sell the cards, since over, what, 80% of them are fakes.

Going through the process ended up being more hassle than it was worth, for me. Had to mail it back to the sender, but that address didn't exist so I had paid the shipping and it got returned back to me. They didn't reimburse me for the original shipping or the returned shipping so my cash back wasn't much.

I hope people read this thread and realize they should ONLY buy memory cards from proven sellers (like B&H, KEH, Adorama, Costco, local camera shops) because the counterfeit market for these is incredible.

So sorry this happened to you (I know how you feel).

it's a well known fact that these cards are out there and to NOT BUY ANYTHING LIKE THIS FROM EBAY!!!!

don't use the card. throw it away. better yet, burn it. report those a$$hole scammers to ebay AND paypal, and dispute the paypal transaction.

in the future, ONLY BUY EQUIPMENT (yes, ALL equipment) from B&H, Beach Camera, Calumet or a local PROFESSIONAL camera store.

Yes they are!

Nice.