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Can I trust these listings for NEC V20’s?

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abruno17

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I see these listing for NEC V20’s and they are from China and they are a lot more affordable, but there are still alarm bells going off in my head. Should I trust these listings? Or should I get V20’s elsewhere?
www.ebay.com

NEC D70108C-8 CPU V20 8088 8MHz DIP40 Processor x86 Microprocessor P8088 | eBay

Socket Type: DIP40. Socket: DIP40. Type: CPU / Microprocessor. Family: NEC 70108. [New] Antistatic CPU Storage Box. YOU MAY ALSO LIKE. [NEW] AMD AM386SX-40. Used, tested and working.
www.ebay.com
www.ebay.com

1pcs D70108HCZ-16 D70108HCZ NEC Encapsulation DIP / V20 16/8 16-BIT | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1pcs D70108HCZ-16 D70108HCZ NEC Encapsulation DIP / V20 16/8 16-BIT at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Just some examples.
 
I bought a couple from listings claiming they were "-16" (16mhz) parts very similar to the second listing you posted a couple years ago and they worked fine in my Tandy 1000 EX and HX. Granted those machines only run them at 7.16mhz so I won't vouch for them actually being 16mhz parts, they definitely looked... "refurbished", but I can say they're actual V20's, or at least they were.

(When I took the chance they were priced at only around $4 each instead of $8, so I figured I didn't have much to lose.)
 
I've got a few tested ones in Chattanooga that I'm not using, tested in my Tandy 1000sx.
I don't know if I could match that price with shipping..
 
I actually bought a tube of them after getting the two that worked, just in case I wanted them for some future project or I were to lay hands on another XT class machine, but I haven't tested any of them yet. So maybe I have a tube of sadness awaiting me after getting suckered into those first two. Guess I'll find out eventually.
 
For the two examples you provided the vendors have already sold several of this same part and they have 100% positive feedback - making it more likely than not these parts are legitimate.
 
It is safe to assume that most V20 / V20H would be refurbished at this point.
In the first listing, maybe the parts with the "white print" are not relabeled. Anything with "laser print" is almost definitely relabeled... laser print was not used that much in late 80's or early 90's.
With that being said, it is eBay... if you get defective part, you can normally get a refund or a replacement
 
I bought five from Aliexpress. No problem so far. The very few times I had trouble, I was refunded at once. But be aware, there are scammers everywhere.

One funny story: I ordered five 8087 10 MHz, received five 8 MHz ones I could not use so I complained. The seller promised me to send the good ones. I then received a mix of 5 and 8 MHz. Complained again and got my money back. I was at least able to please several friends with them.
 
Most ICs sourced from China are not "fake" in the sense of being counterfeit. Rather, they are genuine used parts that have been cleaned up and re-marked. 95% of the time they will be the part they claim to be, but will be used rather than new. However one annoying thing they do when re-marking the chips is they tend to mark them as whatever the highest-spec version of the chip was instead of just refreshing the original markings - e.g a 6502 CPU will nearly always claim to be the rarer 3mhz or 4mhz variant and not the much more common 1mhz or 2mhz part it probably was originally.

If you're OK with used parts, and aren't trying to run high-spec parts at their limits then it's generally not a problem, and if there are any issues then most sellers will give a refund if you complain. And if not then ebay definitely will.
 
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