Portable lasers >5mW banned on ebay.

[Uranium]

Or so it would seem. I can't find any handheld lasers >5mW on ebay...

 

[daguin]

Or so it would seem. I can't find any handheld lasers >5mW on ebay...

It has been this way for quite some time. It is nothing new. People do keep listing them. However, as soon as someone in eBay notices it or someone reports it, they take the listing down.

Peace,
dave

 

[Eudaimonium]

But are the modules, or diodes (not considered lasers but parts, right?) banned?

People from forum usually stay away from ebay lasers but there are a lot of good deads on other stuff, for example user scotcony (or something like that?) that sells some of best diodes, good for 532nm pumps.

 

[Uranium]

No, they still have modules and diodes abound.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Well that's a good think, no need to worry about few crap lasers being banned to sell in ebay, I'm pretty sure all forum members stay away from ebay when selling their lasers anyhow, and nobody buys ebay lasers , well save for few new guys who don't know anything about them...

P.S. "Abound"? That word exists?

 

[Grix]

Yeah this happened half a year or so ago.

 

[electron]

@ Uranium

You can still find them here;

eBid Online Auctions - Buy & Sell in our Fee Free Internet Auctions for United States

 

[Uranium]

Well that's a good thing, no need to worry about few crap lasers being banned to sell in ebay,

P.S. "Abound"? That word exists?

1. It is mostly good, but it sucks for those who want to sell their portable lasers.

2. Indubitably

 

[Gryphon]

Modules and lab modules are considered to be laser components, kind
of like bare laser diodes, thats why you can still get them on Ebay.

 

[Eudaimonium]

1. It is mostly good, but it sucks for those who want to sell their portable lasers.

2. Indubitably

Well I said in that post that folks here , I believe at least, do not sell lasers on ebay, only through the forum, because you never know who this laser might end up with, and on the forum at least somehow you know who are you selling it at.
Next we had that discussion that selling on eBay with Paypal is a royal pain in the a$$, because the customer can screw you over in number of ways, and since it's not exactly cheap toys we are talking about - it's not really worth it, right?

2. You mean "undoubtfully"? I have to consult the Professor Dave regarding those... :thinking:

 

[ixfd64]

I may be wrong, but I think the ban only applies to "pointers," not FDA-approved portables.

 

[Eudaimonium]

I may be wrong, but I think the ban only applies to "pointers," not FDA-approved portables.

Not all portables are FDA approved, not even ones that claim to be I bet.

What's to stop one dude from pointing out "This lazor has all Safety features [like on-off button], perfectly legal in US" , next thing you know you get a notification that your laser was siezed in customs.

I'd stay away from ebay, you can't communicate with seller in decent manner like on this great forum, you need to know who are you buying from. Otherwise, it's a lottery.

 

[qumefox]

The ban is for all complete lasers. Ebay and paypal don't care about FDA approval since most chinese vendors would lie about it anyway, and ebay is certainly not going to start spending money to test lasers.

But non-FDA approved lasers are easy to spot, regardless of what the vendor says.

If it's >5mw, then it's required to have:
1) a key switch
2) a mechanical interlock
3) a mechanical beam shutter
4) a visible emission indicator
5) a beam emission delay, usually 3-5 seconds, between when you push the button, and when you actually get beam output.

The first four of those are pretty easy to spot of they're there or not.

 

[billg519]

Due to the issues in the USA with people aiming cheap green lasers at aircraft and helicopters, the FDA (responsible for lasers) clamped down on ebay, paypal, and dealextreme. For a handheld to be legally sold in the USA it must have the FDA safety features mentioned above, and have a valid FDA type approval number. The wicked lasers artic blue is not appearing because it seems to be non-compliant or does not have a valid FDA type approval number. There was a post about this a while back. You will find on ebay all manner of diodes, modules, optics, and even complete lab lasers. The enforcement focus is on handhelds because of the misuse of cheap green pens. You can build your own laser from components, but be careful about displaying a home-built non-compliant laser in public. Any complaint would likely get the laser seized.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Due to the issues in the USA with people aiming cheap green lasers at aircraft and helicopters, the FDA (responsible for lasers) clamped down on ebay, paypal, and dealextreme. For a handheld to be legally sold in the USA it must have the FDA safety features mentioned above, and have a valid FDA type approval number. The wicked lasers artic blue is not appearing because it seems to be non-compliant or does not have a valid FDA type approval number. There was a post about this a while back. You will find on ebay all manner of diodes, modules, optics, and even complete lab lasers. The enforcement focus is on handhelds because of the misuse of cheap green pens. You can build your own laser from components, but be careful about displaying a home-built non-compliant laser in public. Any complaint would likely get the laser seized.

I fear that it's only a matter of time before any kind of USAGE of IIIb and above is banned and punishable, and sales of all components and parts banned too.

We don't even need to do nothing to trigger this, authoroties will simply find it a threat to security and act accordingly - which is the saddest parts.

 

[qumefox]

I fear that it's only a matter of time before any kind of USAGE of IIIb and above is banned and punishable, and sales of all components and parts banned too.

We don't even need to do nothing to trigger this, authoroties will simply find it a threat to security and act accordingly - which is the saddest parts.

Not really. Banning things usually isn't as easy as just saying something is banned. It's useless without enforcement, and enforcement costs money. It's unlikely they'll outright ban lasers just because they want to. Someone will have to do something exceedingly stupid to force them to.