Electronic powder scale for $6 on eBay. Trick or treat?

Electronic powder scale for $6 on eBay. Trick or treat?

Hey look at this item 180689705415 on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/500-x-0-1-Gram-Digital-Pocket-Scale-Gun-Powder-Reload-/180689705415

It costs $6. It looks like the same item 175512 from Midway that costs $37 plus S+H.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=175512

How can that be? Is it a trick?

And item 270786878103 is the same thing from a different seller:
http://cgi.ebay.com/500-x-0-1-Gram-Digital-Pocket-Scale-Gun-Powder-Reload-/270786878103

I got one of these from MidWay several months ago mainly for weighing bullets and checking my Lee scale. It is very accurate as far as I can tell and it ( mine at least) does not shut off every 60 seconds like some of the el-cheapo's do. If you can get one for six bucks, I don't think you would be disappointed as long as you're not expecting the performance of a rcbs scale. I've been very satisfied with mine. Just my .02---

I use the Frankford one when i was swaging. used it to weigh the cases as well as cores. I did check it for powder once. Checked it against my RCBS 5.0.5, it wasn't dead on with it, however, it wasn't way off. I would not use it if loading near max weights...

Mine does turn off every 60 seconds, I am gonna steal Eagle's!!!!! LOL....

They are nice and great for quick weighing of bullets and things....

LOL Daywalker, mine may have a factory defect by not shutting off in 60 sec but I don't think I'm gonna complain about it ! I don't use mine for any heavy powder charges, but will weigh bullets and cases and use it and the lee scale to set up the powder measure.

Usually cheap prices and shipped from China = extremely high shipping costs....not the case here, might be worth a shot and good for things not needing precision measurements.

SOLVED! Ok, it was a trick, not a treat. Notice in the picture on eBay here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150640952613

It shows the scale will display three decimals for oz. Like 0.365. But it does not. It displays two digits, like 0.36.

So the picture was a bit misleading but the specs given on eBay were correct and I should have looked closer. The specs say:

Accuracy: 0.1 g

And for reloading you need

Accuracy: 0.01 g / 0.1 gr

Ok, my fault, I should have looked closer. But I do not like that the title of the item on eBay has these words: "Gun Powder Reload". Buyer beware.

So, it will not weigh to a tenth of a grain. When you select grains it will display whole numbers and not tenths. See my picture here comparing the $6 one to the Frankford Arsenal one. See the display of the cheaper one display one less decimal place for grains.


Also the Frankford Arsenal one comes with a calibration weight and a powder tray. The cheaper comes with neither.

And I could not figure out how to calibrate the cheap scale. The instructions say to hold down the Units key for three seconds and "CAL" will display to start the calibration process. I tried that and "CAL" never displayed. However I found that if the cheap scale is turned off and then you hold the Units key while pressing the ON/OFF key you can get "CAL" to display. I then tried several things but never did figure out what to do next to get calibration to happen.

There isn't a button to change from Grams, Grains, and so forth?

Daywalker wrote:There isn't a button to change from Grams, Grains, and so forth?

Yes, that is the UNITS button. It does

oz
gn
tl
dwt
g
ct

But the cheap one displays one decimal place less than the Frankford Arsenal scale.

For oz, the Frankford Arsenal scale shows 0.000 and the cheapy shows. 0.00.
For gn, the Frankford Arsenal scale shows 0.0 and the cheapy shows. 0.
For g, the Frankford Arsenal scale shows 0.00 and the cheapy shows. 0.0.

Ah ok

I order the Frankford Arsenal scale one last week from midway for 24.99 should be here tommor