Isn't such counterfeiting as you suggest happens illegal? Hasn't the buyer got some recourse, at least by going to the authorities (not that it will get him his money back)?

I'm a little confused about what you say about the "obsolete" parts. Dealers like DigiKey and Mouser often have these in stock for some time, as do mainstream distributors such as Future Electronics or even Avnet and Arrow. These often appear on their websites and can be ordered. As they become scarce, they become costly, however.


That's why I asked. It seems he could still have saved $20 and been assured of getting "real" parts without the risk of ending up with counterfeits.

Do you believe that Mouser and DigiKey charge you more than they charge us here in the U.S? I do, however, believe that the postage from U.S. to India is burdensome.



Thank you, Jerson, for the detailed explanation.

The grey-market with which I became familiar in the late '70's and early '80's was one in which some "surplus" dealers (meaning, in general, purchasers and resellers of "distress" merchandise which was over-purchased, or inventory of enterprises going out of business. Unfortunately, there was a small but well-known market for mismarked parts, usually commercial-grade parts relabeled (illegally) as military or space-qualified parts. On rare occasions these were actually dispatched into the military procurement stream, and, when discovered, caused quite a stir, and sending some individuals to prison.

More commonly, these same dealers would acquire rejected parts, a practice for which Radio Shack was famous, and resell them as "good" parts.

Back in '79 one of my clients bought about 1000 diodes, of which not a one was good, from Radio Shack, which was not know to sell parts in quantity, but which did so. The same client, in the same order, had bought 2000 voltage regulators from them and found, on incoming inspection, that not a one of them regulated within the 5% margin of specified voltage that was specified in the datasheet. Fortunately, they all regulated within 1% of one another, so we were able to "fix" the problem, as the regulators were in short supply at the time.

I was aware that there was a widespread trend in the current Asian market toward counterfeiting relatively scarce parts, but I wasn't aware that common parts costing just a few dollars were subject to this practice. One fellow came to me some years back to have me build him a machine with which he could verify that a given IC was, in fact, what it said on the package, as his business was based on replacement parts for '70's-, '80's-, and early '90's-vintage equipment.

Surely there's a way to deal with this in a way that will make it easier for small developers in India to obtain quality parts without enduring such risks.

Perhaps there's a business opportunity there. It would, of course, involve some capital investment. However, if difficult-to-find parts were ordered in modest quantity, though not just a handful, perhaps by a multiplicity of small developers, some savings could be had, couldn't they? After all a package with 6 parts probably costs about as much as one with 60, since they're usually the same size and don't weigh much more.

RE