13 replies to this topic

[ironfistx]

To clarify, I mean unopened supplements.  Occasionally there are good deals.  However, I know there are a lot of counterfeits for basically everything on eBay... literally... the most bizarre stuff you'd think no one would counterfeit, it's counterfeitted, and it's on eBay.

[Mind]

No. I buy from the manufacturer's website most of the time.

[Justin BoBustinBananaFanaF]

If I will finish it before the Expiration date I will buy from Ebay.

 

I think this is a great question and I'd love to hear from someone who followed this strategy and was sold fake pills or otherwise bad supplements.

 

I don't think there is enough money to be made for people to risk forgery. I think it is more likely that they might store the supplement poorly, but to be frank I doubt the amazon seller or vitamin shoppe, etc. warehouse is doing a great job there either. At least in someone's home they are likely not to skimp on A/C.

[rodentman]

I'd look for length of time the seller has been on ebay, and delve into their reviews before ordering.

[ironfistx]

No. I buy from the manufacturer's website most of the time.

 

Really?  They are higher cost right?  What about Amazon?  Or stores like swanson?

[Mind]

Maybe on average higher cost, but if you are member of some of the larger manufacturers/sellers (like LEF), then it is not too expensive.

Edited by Mind, 12 January 2020 - 06:31 PM.

[YOLF]

Here's what I've seen in 15+ years of buying supplements:

• 2 instances of fillers rather than active ingredients or filler diluted ingredients, this can happen when batches aren't mixed properly... I've seen this with one major reseller and with one indy product on Amazon. Be sure you know what to expect of the encapsulated powder, it can happen to ANY brand, this was a value brand. Amazon's reviews alerted me to the possibility of getting all filler. In both cases, I was able to get a refund.
• 1 Instance (4 bottles) of the wrong pills in the bottle from a major supplement retailer(another value brand). Refunded, no questions asked. the contents were actually a more expensive extract than what I had bought.
• 2 total rip offs, both around 3 years ago. One from Alibaba, and one from an eBay seller. Alibaba took well over a year to get a refund from, didn't get one from eBay as I didn't realize the counterfeit product soon enough.

I buy much more from value brands, so it's not necessarily that their quality is lower...

 

Most white powder supplements on the other hand have little to no odor and are more difficult to identify by color. For those you'll need something like this spectrophotometer. It's about $300, but it would have paid for itself on the total rip off product I bought on eBay and perhaps others I don't know about, though you need several pieces of equipment to be absolutely sure of what you have, it's a good start. That said, I've gotten some good finds from eBay too that worked great and saved me lots of money.

 

The major retailers are easy to deal with if you've established a good buying history with them, Alibaba took years to get my money back,and I wasn't aware of the eBay rip off in a timely enough manner to make use of the buyer protection. I've returned products to bulk powder suppliers for other reasons without any trouble, I would expect that they would be very helpful if you were to present them with spectrographic data, though I wouldn't in these cases think that you would get ripped off, just that they might occasionally mislabel something. 

 

If you have an old microscope and a microscope camera, you can make a half way decent spectrophotometer out of them with the right software. i think there are some HS/MS science project kits that use webcams pretty effectively as well for like $35 iirc. For these options, you just take a series of pictures of liquid vehicles and vehicles plus what you bought and run them through some software and presto, you've got a good idea of the legitimacy of your products.

 

Other tests you can do easily are solubility tests... All you need is a scale, some graduated vessels, a thermometer, and a coffee cup warmer.  

Edited by YOLF, 20 January 2020 - 03:27 AM.

[Daniel Cooper]

WRT the spectrophotometer mentioned above, at the right price that sounds like a worthwhile experiment.  

 

However ...... (there's always a however), given the composition of most tablets and capsules, I have a suspicion that the signal from the filler (magnesium stearate, rice hulls, etc) is likely going to overwhelm the active ingredient since there's usually so much more filler.  

 

That's just a guess.  I may try it.

 

 

 

 

[Lady4T]

I wouldn't buy supplements sold on ebay by some unknown/individual seller. For the common kind of supplements (vitamins, herbs, etc.) I like iHerb. They carry well-known quality brands, their prices are one of the lowest, and free shipping too. For the kind of supplements often discussed on this site (peptides and other research chemicals), I would never trust something on eBay unless I knew the seller. I would stick to well-known online sites that specialize in these kinds of products.

[YOLF]

There’s an art to it. You may have to isolate the active ingredient by subtracting a sample of rice powder, mg stearate, etc in the software or a graphics editor. Or depending on the active and the excipients , you could heat it to the vapor temp of the excipients to remove them. You can thin stearates with sodium gluconate in warm solutions. A centrifuge could then be used to separate the heavier stearate (a lipid) and the be cooled with ice water. It’s all about how much work you want to put into it. The next piece of equipment after that is a gas chromatographer. Not sure how expensive those are though. Would be nice to see an affordable home model someday. Last year the most inexpensive spectrophotometer was $500.

[shroomsupplementer]

I don't think it's worth investing in a spectrophotometer, you won't save that much buying off eBay unless you consume a lot of different supplements in way overdosed amounts. Under what is regular higher end of consumed supplements in my mind, you would save those $500 in a few years by shopping on eBay. The cheapest brands usually are just shady to my BS detector, so I'm not talking about the cheapest stuff you can possibly find, I'm talking about sellers that seem reputable. But that's just my opinion! Only wandered here because I am buying some supplements on eBay myself, and so far I have had good experiences, so long as I trust my BS detector and look into who the seller is, what they sell, what feedback they have, and what the packaging is, etc. I have bought some things from other suppliers, that is when I cannot find anything trustworthy looking on eBay.

 

TLDR if it looks too good to be true in price-quality ratio, it probably is, so look elsewhere.

[Daniel Cooper]

There’s an art to it. You may have to isolate the active ingredient by subtracting a sample of rice powder, mg stearate, etc in the software or a graphics editor. Or depending on the active and the excipients , you could heat it to the vapor temp of the excipients to remove them. You can thin stearates with sodium gluconate in warm solutions. A centrifuge could then be used to separate the heavier stearate (a lipid) and the be cooled with ice water. It’s all about how much work you want to put into it. The next piece of equipment after that is a gas chromatographer. Not sure how expensive those are though. Would be nice to see an affordable home model someday. Last year the most inexpensive spectrophotometer was $500.

 

 

If you look on AliExpress now you can find units for $300ish.

[shroomsupplementer]

Maybe on average higher cost, but if you are member of some of the larger manufacturers/sellers (like LEF), then it is not too expensive.

Any possibility for a regular Joe to get that kinda deals?

[YOLF]

LEF is open to everyone... I think the membership is $50/yr? You get significant discounts plus free shipping and consultations with their healthcare providers.