Calipers

[Brian Holcombe]

I’ve had the same experience as Greg, once you start measuring tenths with any kind of reliable accuracy the gauges can be a touch more expensive and they work differently. Outside of a controlled environment the information may not be useful.

The mitutoyo gauges we use at Kezurou-kai for measuring microns are special made for it. It’s easy to disturb such a minute thing so the gauges drop onto the surface rather than turning down to it like a normal mic. This eliminates operator influence.

[Greg R Bradley]

If you do a google search of "counterfeit mitutoyo calipers" there's a lot of discussion about it. I haven't heard of amazon itself as a vendor selling fakes, but I suppose it could happen. It's good to be able to check.

What seems to happen with Amazon is they assign a specific item number to something that is sold by Amazon. Amazon stocks their own stuff of course. They also stock the supposedly same item from other sellers and those all go in the same bin. So when Amazon sells item xyz, it comes out of bin xyz. When another Amazon seller has them stock and ship xyz it goes in the same bin. When either sells it, it comes out of that bin.
I would hope Amazon eventually figures out that if they are an authorized dealer for Mitutoyo, they will have to clean up their act. I've even got serial numbers for each batch of incoming parts in an auto parts store. We were eventually figuring out that if we bought 5 of something from a vendor, they each get the same serial number. If one of them is incorrect, you might suspect the whole batch. Solution was to inspect each item coming in as the other way is when you receive 5 they would each get a unique serial number.
One common valve tappet is running 80%+ incorrect. Spec is 1.374 +-0.0002. Most of the incorrect parts are 1.373 meaning they are smaller than a typical totally worn out part.

[Doug Dawson]

What seems to happen with Amazon is they assign a specific item number to something that is sold by Amazon. Amazon stocks their own stuff of course. They also stock the supposedly same item from other sellers and those all go in the same bin. So when Amazon sells item xyz, it comes out of bin xyz. When another Amazon seller has them stock and ship xyz it goes in the same bin. When either sells it, it comes out of that bin.

Do you have sources for that?

[Greg R Bradley]

Do you have sources for that?

Relating personal experience, not what someone else posted on the internet.

Selling items on Amazon and had customer complaints. Items they received are not the item we had Amazon warehouse. Remember our items have our label and a serial/batch number. Other sellers providing an item that is cheap junk pretending to be the real thing. We sold them and they shipped the other to the customer. All in the same bin, right?

In business and personally, I have received around 40 items bought on Amazon that are counterfeit. Probably getting to ten Mitutoyo counterfeit items. One is outgoing UPS right now.

Now hearing of sellers not having Amazon warehouse items because of the same problem but that isn't personal experience.

SO, if you know what isn't real, you can always return it to Amazon. SO, you are protected. You do need to know the difference. Last one was a lot closer than this obvious fake, which someone buying their first might not spot:
Mit-Counterfeit.JPG

[Doug Dawson]

Relating personal experience, not what someone else posted on the internet.

Selling items on Amazon and had customer complaints. Items they received are not the item we had Amazon warehouse. Remember our items have our label and a serial/batch number. Other sellers providing an item that is cheap junk pretending to be the real thing. We sold them and they shipped the other to the customer. All in the same bin, right?

In business and personally, I have received around 40 items bought on Amazon that are counterfeit. Probably getting to ten Mitutoyo counterfeit items. One is outgoing UPS right now.

Now hearing of sellers not having Amazon warehouse items because of the same problem but that isn't personal experience.

Here was an interesting article on amazon's vendor practices, from a few months ago:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/...-reinstatement

Is there no end to the venality.

I was hoping for something similar (in the press, etc.) Amazon might respond to that if it made it out to the public.

[John Gulick]

Only dial for me, a Starrett in my desk and cheapie from Amazon for $17.93 for the guys in the shop. Cheapie works just fine.

[lawrence munninghoff]

Taylor toolworks is selling the iGaging Fractional Dial Caliper for $24 on Ebay. Free shipping also.