Faucets on E-bay?

I have been looking for the perfect modern faucet that has higher quality than Ikea, but cheaper than $200. I seem to remember that Lavardera had mentioned ebay, so I gave it a shot. There I found a range of products from Ikea to Hansgrohe, but also a bunch of "brands" I have never heard of, like AF or Bestec. Here is an example of a great looking faucet for $80. Anyone have a sense as to whether this is a great find or a great rip-off?

Bestec faucet

I know there is someone out there that has ordered one of these faucets, they just haven’t read this forum yet. I did a search, looks like the company may be in Thailand. If it were me, I would order one to feel and see the quality. For less that $100.00 you can buy five or six before you hit the price of a Hansgrohe Axor (Starck) faucet. Worst case scenario, if you don’t like it, sell it in a garage sale for $40.00 and cut your losses.

Jeff - I think you just have to take the plunge and get one, look at it with your plumber and then decide if they are ok or not. We ordered one of these unknown brands and got what looks like a nice piece, an italian brand we never heard of. Unfortunately unless it is a pain to install you might not know if its a piece of junk for a few years.

You are probably right. With the crowd that frequents this board, I wouldn't have been surprised if someone posted a we got one of those and it fell apart in one week message. This thing may be worth $80, and that would be find, but this seems like just the sort of thing that would be worth $10 (rough exterior, bad chrome job, leaky from the start).

If we get one, I'll be sure to post my findings.

This faucet is sold by Lowes:
Sottini Alchemy for $178.00

http://www.sottini-us.com/col_midCen.asp

Lowes had one on display. I don't know about the guts, but the finish and the web site look pretty nice.

Nice find. I just may stop by Lowes today.

we were pretty disappointed with the faucets at ikea as well. we bought one of their bathroom sinks that only has one hole for the faucet without realizing how hard it is to find single hole faucets. we ended up turning to ebay and found these on there, i don't think there's a name brand....nothing on the box or anything. but they seem super sturdy and high quality and they came in these nice little protective bags like jewelry or something. $50 each!
since there isn't a thing to close the drain on the faucet we had to get these drain closures that you push down on to close that are really neat, and they were only like $20 each.

The image I originally linked above is now gone since the item is no longer for bid. However, the picture in the post above looks a lot like one of the Bestec models for sale.

I just ordered 3 modern faucets from an Ebay store called Bathroom Hardware. The faucet boxes say Urban Ware. The faucets are a good copy of the Hansgrohe AXOR Starck classic lav faucet. Purchased for $90.00 each. Great quality, solid brass with chrome finish. Extension sleeve to use with above counter vessel. Sink drain stopper included.

Thought you guys might like to know...

i just talked to an owner-builder the other day, and he went on and on about how much money he saved getting all kinds of things from ebay, like faucets. he has been in his house for a year, and didn't have any complaints. no specifics, just a person happy with finding house stuff on ebay.

also, we've been using a 1-hole ikea sink and faucet for about a year now, and they've been great to us. i don't know the name or anything, since i didn't buy them, but there have been no complaints so far.

Greg Beere's find:

[url href="http://stores.ebay.com/Bathroom-Hardware"]http://stores.ebay.com/Bathroom-Hardware[/url]

Check out overstock.com also... sometimes they have great vessel sinks and faucets. The shipping is only $2.95 which is great, but they're terrible about returns, (sometimes return shipping and restocking fee is almost as much as the cost of the item) so be pretty darn sure you want it!

Robin

I buy so much stuff from ebay, my girlfriend jokes I would be finished sooner if I never had to wait for shipping. I buy lots of faucets and sinks from ebay as long as it's a top seller you should have no problem

I bought a very nice wall mounted faucet on ebay that was made in china. There are tons of made-in-china dealers on ebay. paid about $80 for it. A similar kohler one runs $300! After one year, no complaints! It is a little noisy (in the walls) but I think we need more insulation.

You have the solution between the chinese one and the kohler  for sinks and everything for your bathroom at bathroom area.

http://www.bathroomarea.com/faucet-sink/bathroom-sink.html

For sure, it's not the same price as Ebay, but when you receive it, you know why