On Sat, 08 Jun 2013 11:26:39 -0400, Robert Green wrote:

So if it's a bearing whose failure could cause serious
collateral damage, I'd go somewhere other than Ebay and
choose a vendor with a reputation for quality and good
customer service.

Thanks for those stories of experience. They were helpful, especially
as I have *never* bought from Ebay and have only bought kid's toys and
books from Amazon which were out of stock (and style) so they weren't
in the brick & mortar stores or web sites.

I do believe you *never* get what you pay for and I hate hearing
that statement because it ignores reality. Clearly Sears is selling
that same pump seal (marketed by the Sta-Rite/Pentair part number)
for about $75 when it just as clearly sells for about $10 online
and both are from US Seal, a brand name.

Similarly, you can easily buy a Pentair U9-228A seal plate housing
o-ring at the deeply discounted sales price of $15.85
http://www.spaandpoolsource.com/u9-2...mphousing.aspx
Or, you can buy that very same o-ring for $1 at the recommended
O-rings USA web site:
http://www.oringsusa.com/catalog/pro...size %20O-240

Is the $15.85 discounted o-ring (regular price is $24.85) *really*
better simply because you paid so very much more for it?
http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/.../13272550.jpeg

Likewise, the $19 bearing at the pool supply house, marketing as
being from "AO Smith" (whom, I've called, and they told me they
buy *all* their bearings from NSK), is the same bearing you can
buy easily for half to 1/3 of that anywhere online.

So, you never get what you pay for. You simply get what others
pay for, as you alone cannot influence such pricing decisions.

Yet, as your stories show, the $2 bearings are the ones that, while
intriguing, are almost too cheap to be believed. I don't know how
much it costs to build a bearing, but whatever it is must be close
to that price range, so to get that price without quantity caused
immediate FUD in my mind (hence why I asked here).

As DDBK said, the risk might be too great for critical applications.
I'm going to stick with the NSK bearings (or other reliable brand)
from a reliable supplier, which means I'll be paying about $5 to $10
per bearing.