Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand why they call them 'counterfeit cards', they were real enough to do crypto mining with so at best you can call them 'used' or maybe even 'refurbished' (for instance, if the fans got replaced).

Is there more to this than just selling used stuff as new? Or is the counterfeit a slip of the pen?

View on HN

They washed and repainted them to make them appear as new. While it's far from being the same thing as selling fake stuff, it's quite unfair and should be punished. It's not like there's no demand for used cards, they would have made quite a profit remaining honest too, but they didn't care at all.

Counterfeit doesn’t mean it’s unable to fulfill the basic functions of the product. A counterfeit Music CD could be functionally identical to the real version similarly a counterfeit purse might be indistinguishable from the real thing.

Now these cards were manufactured by the same company, but even after adding fake packaging the purchaser isn’t getting the manufacturer’s warranty etc. Crypto cards also have damage due to electron migration which again makes them a worse product than a new card would be. It’s a counterfeit product even if the card words.

Linus tech tips did an interesting video on this a while back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqVvXTanzI

basically, its mostly bull.

They link to the Linus Tech tips video in the article. Basically, the fact that a second hand GPU might be a good deal if honestly sold as such doesn't change the fact people creating fake OEM boxes and warranty docs to sell them as brand new are scamming people.

> the fact that a second hand GPU might be a good deal if honestly sold

which is why they are doing the scam in the first place - a card that is a good deal (for the buyer) is by definition a bad deal for the seller.

> a card that is a good deal (for the buyer) is by definition a bad deal for the seller.

That would invalidate all of commerce if true. The seller may simply have a surplus of something and wants to liquidate so they can use the money for something else, the buyer may not have enough funds to buy a premium product at list. But if it is used then it should be advertised as such.

> That would invalidate all of commerce if true.

no it wouldn't.

It the deal was fair - aka, fair value - then both the buyer and seller feel they got a good exchange.

A good deal implies that the buyer got more value out of the exchange. This sometimes can happen, because the seller is valuing the sale for more than just purely cash in exchange (for example, wanting to free up inventory space).

> a card that is a good deal (for the buyer) is by definition a bad deal for the seller

No. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_thinking

If you have a card but you want to have 5 widgets instead, and I have 5 widgets but want to have a card, exchanging your card for my 5 widgets is a good deal for you and me.

> exchanging your card for my 5 widgets is a good deal for you and me.

that's not what a good deal is - that's a fair deal.

It's only about how much you want the widgets and how much I want the card. If both answers are "hella lots" then the deal is not just good but great for both

(but I see you use "good deal" in some narrow one-sided sense I never seen it used before so whatever)

This more recent one from a few days ago is relevant as well.

"I Bought 10 Off-Brand GPUs… How Bad Are They??" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdbvrqC6lOY

> basically, its mostly bull.

I don't think your link says what you think it says.

Linus Tech Tips: used crypto graphics cards can be a good deal.

You: Linus said it's mostly bulk that these cards are counterfeit.

Counterfeit: made in exact imitation of something valuable with the intention to deceive or defraud.

These guys were repainting graphics chips to hide the fact the cards were used hard by crypto miners, and produced copies of the card's original boxes to ship them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com