Team,

I was hunting for few spares for HK t500 and did some research on ebay, I was amazed with the kind of deals that are available there. I'd suggest that don't go only the HK way for your needs. Please consider all the options and you will save lot of money.

Few pointers for safe shopping on eBay:

1. Check the seller ratings
2. Read their Terms & Conditions and the shipping policies very carefully.
3. Make sure the item is new and in working condition, ask questions to sellers.
4. Open a Pay Pal account.
5. Open a eBay US account and not a eBay India account, you have an option to shop from eBay US from India account but it will give you very limited options only.
6. Make sure your PayPal Billing / registered address is your shipping India address, link your paypal account with your ebay account.
7. Try not to make any huge transactions keep it below $100 if possible, or order in parts.

I have ordered some tit-bit Align parts from a Hong-Kong based seller, I'll update my experience as the order advances. 

I usually get my spare parts from ebay sellers namely "fmtmodel", there are many similar ones. But they have their on problems.

For example I got an 450 V2 head and tail. The tail was damn good, absolutely no vibration, better than Align in my opinion. Now the head was not that good, had slop, when I removes some of the screws for loctiting, they were very short. I had to literally replace some screws.

Also they had loctited with permanent loctite those screws which they should not  rendering the stuff unrepairable.

Another example, I ordered 2 bearing blocks. Usually a bearing block had a small depression on one side so that the pitch can go to its maximum. One of the blocks I got had this and another did not.

There are many good and bads, so what you pay is what u get.

http://stores.ebay.com/fmtmodel

Quote from: chokxxi90210 on October 14, 2010, 12:21:37 AM

5. Open a eBay US account and not a eBay India account, you have an option to shop from eBay US from India account but it will give you very limited options only.

I hope u r from India and not US. Kindly elaborate on how to open an Ebay US account without US address? Because when i try to open an account on ebay US it asks for a USA address or if i chose India from drop down menu it redirects to ebay India. It will be very helpful for newcomers like me. Thx

crazypilot, go to ebay.com punch in your username and password, search for the product and start buying, you do not need to be situated in US to buy the products,.....

Well Crazypilot, it is easy if you got a Citibank Credit card, they have an affiliation with a service called Borderlinx, this is mainly to facilitate the indian customers to buy directly from eBay USA. They give you a DHL warehouse address and a phone number on request.

So you register with that address, once done with the registration, you can link your PayPal account with ebay and make sure your billing address in PP is India address, eBay will automatically update your primary shipping address as India Address....

Quote from: divay99 on October 14, 2010, 10:13:44 AM
crazypilot, go to ebay.com punch in your username and password, search for the product and start buying, you do not need to be situated in US to buy the products,.....

Dear Divay Sir, sorry for replying so late. was caught up somewhere else. now i would like to clarify i have been a member of eBay India even before it existed. i mean even when it had not taken over bazee.com. second thing is i know that i can buy from eBay.com or any of the eBay site and i have been buying from eBay USA since they granted access (before that i used to buy from amazon) but still u can not access whole eBay USA site being a member of eBay India. there are certain restrictions for outsiders (like users on ebay india). so i asked choxxi bhai to clarify it. thx

Quote from: chokxxi90210 on October 14, 2010, 06:59:58 PM
Well Crazypilot, it is easy if you got a Citibank Credit card, they have an affiliation with a service called Borderlinx, this is mainly to facilitate the indian customers to buy directly from eBay USA. They give you a DHL warehouse address and a phone number on request.

So you register with that address, once done with the registration, you can link your PayPal account with ebay and make sure your billing address in PP is India address, eBay will automatically update your primary shipping address as India Address....

Choxxi Bhai,  thx for the info. i already have borderlinx account but never used it cuz of expensive shipping. first i need to buy many things and collect them in usa address of borderlinx before it can be shipped here. anyways i will try it soon and post my experience.

Quote from: chokxxi90210 on October 14, 2010, 06:59:58 PM
Well Crazypilot, it is easy if you got a Citibank Credit card, they have an affiliation with a service called Borderlinx, this is mainly to facilitate the indian customers to buy directly from eBay USA. They give you a DHL warehouse address and a phone number on request.

So you register with that address, once done with the registration, you can link your PayPal account with ebay and make sure your billing address in PP is India address, eBay will automatically update your primary shipping address as India Address....

one more thing. Isnt it against Ebay policy to have more than one account. I mean if i register on ebay usa with borderlinx address, is that legal? have u used the same? Thx

There is nothing illegal, the borderlinx stuff is legal as its a service provided by Citibank to its indian customers. Its not just for eBay but its also true for Amazon, newegg and lots of other online US sites. But don't order any Radio, its a prohibited item for import per Borderlinx policy and they will not take any liability for that. Refer to the list of prohibited items on the user terms & conditions document.

Just make sure you provide all correct details, even you become a faulter once on ebay or paypal or paisa pay, they'll block your shipping address and name forever.

Call me at +919879109480 if you need any further help....

Quotebut still u can not access whole eBay USA site being a member of eBay India. there are certain restrictions for outsiders (like users on ebay india).

@CrazyPilot
I'm registered in ebay India only, but in the US awhile. I have not faced any restrictions so far in buying here. Just that I needed to have a valid phone or credit card in India validated by ebay while selling stuff. Am I yet to realise that I'm missing something  

The only restriction is some US ebay sellers sell to paypal verified address, that would be india for us. And they are not willing to ship international! So you cant ship to someone staying in US.

Some directly say NO INTERNATIONAL BIDDERS!

My bad. Keep forgetting that tagline "No international bidders"   
Somehow it hit my head that he meant the accessibility part alone.