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Cheap Interconnects from Hong Kong

I've noticed that interconnects on eBay seem to be listed quite a bit more cheaply than on other sites. I'm specifically looking at the Audioquest King Cobra.

Anyway, since most interconnects on eBay are shipped from Hong Kong, are there problems with these not always being genuine? I know HK sellers can be very competitive with generic stuff like USB cables, but I can't imagine how they'd be able to acquire AQ cables more cheaply than other sellers.

Anyone have experience buying interconnects on eBay?
rrolack
audiolui
294 posts
 
I bought a Monster HDMI cable (top of the line) on eBay and I believe it was fake as I took the whole package to a Best Buy store and compared the eBay one with the one sold in Best Buy side by side. The fake one lacked some logos and description. The cable did look like the genuine one. The seller was in U.S. and I returned it for full refund. I guess there are more abuses in eBay.
mhedges
180 posts
 
I bought some speaker jumpers from a ebay seller in HK. They were homemade, not name brand so they can't be counterfeit, but I thought the quality was pretty good.

Mark
hifitime
715 posts
 
Since it sounds like they are made in China,the factory may run a quantity of the assembly line for themselves. Audioquest might not even no they do it.Or they could be pure counterfeit. Being that its a most likely an easy to copy product,who knows. I sure wouldn't want to get cheated on pure counterfeits.[http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue18/audioquestinterview.htm]
rrolack OP
54 posts
 
It's interesting to note that there are over 50 King Cobra interconnects for sale, but less than 10 Columbias (which would be much more difficult to fake, due to the DBS attachment).

I guess that pretty much sums it up.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
Hifitime has hit the nail on the head. The practice is, to the detriment of designers who believe they continue to 'own' their intellectual property, quite common.
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