Cheap bearings from Hong Kong?

[markbt73 5315]

I just ordered bearings for my Kyosho Progress restoration project, but before I did, I looked around my workshop and started thinking about all the Tamiya cars I have that still don't have full bearings. I have, more than once in the past, robbed a 2WD buggy or truck of its front wheel bearings to use them somehwere else, which means I have half a dozen cars with plastic bushings in the front hubs but bearings in the drivetrain. I also have a pair of TLT axles I want to use for a monster truck build, that have never had bearings in them, just the bronze bushings. All in all I need about 40 5x11 bearings to replace all the bushings I still have.

Fast Eddy, my normal go-to bearing supplier, sells them for 99 cents each. But a quick look at eBay shows sellers in Hong Kong selling lots of 50 or 60 bearings for like $20 plus shipping. And oddly, they use the exact same part number for them that Fast Eddy uses. Does this mean they're the same thing, from the same supplier? Have I been paying a 120-150% markup per bearing, just for the bags with the creepy cartoon guy on them? Or are the HK bearings just the factory rejects and junk?

Keep in mind I don't run anything more powerful than a silver-can 540 any more, so I'm not looking for super quality. I just want to know if they'll fall apart as I'm tightening up the wheel nuts. I know bearigs are graded for quality and such, but all I'm after is "better than plastic bushings."

Anybody have any experience buying big bulk lots of bearings like this? Good value or waste of money?

[Hobgoblin 1059]

I tend to buy sizes I know I'm going to use a lot, like 1150 in bulk. I bought 100 last year and have been happily using since. I do not race, for context. 

Yes, they are likely to be the same thing from the same/similar factories but you pay for someone's QC and to have a reputable source to deal with. The convenience of not getting a dud every so often is part of the service that you pay the extra for.  Any problems with an order or a product you can pick up the phone or send an email to Fast Eddy and they will likely sort you out. No such frills as seller coms or customer service with buying from a chinese distributor in my experience. 

If it were me, I'd go bulk.

[Saito2 6686]

27 minutes ago, markbt73 said:

I have, more than once in the past, robbed a 2WD buggy or truck of its front wheel bearings to use them somehwere else, which means I have half a dozen cars with plastic bushings in the front hubs but bearings in the drivetrain.

I do the exact same thing. Nice to know I'm not the only bearing thief.

28 minutes ago, markbt73 said:

Have I been paying a 120-150% markup per bearing, just for the bags with the creepy cartoon guy on them?

...and now I'm wondering the same thing (and I find the cartoon guy creepy as well).

I've purchased HK bearings in the past with no ill-effects yet but never in bulk. I've used Fast Eddy for past few years because, well, I get them fast. HK bearings can take awhile to get and I'm impatient when I have a new kit in front of me. Maybe shipping is better now (pre covid of course) but I used to get a kit from Tower in less than a week and the bearings would take a full 2 weeks to show up. I'm a big kid who wants to dig into his new toy asap, lol.

[Jonathon Gillham 4605]

I buy Yeah Racing bearings from RCMart which are about USD3 - USD4.50 for 10 and they come in metal or rubber shielded. I must've been through a few hundred now and haven't had a dud. They come in all the main sizes and usually have them all in stock. Shipping isn't an issue as I order before I run out, and again if I'm planning to rebuild a car (race cars in dirt can go through a few).

People say that X brand are better but I haven't noticed any difference. The only ones I buy that are 'better' are clutch bearings for my nitro motor. I figure even overpaying by 200% isn't as bad as the engine siezing because of bad bearings.

[markbt73 5315]

Thanks guys. I think I'll go ahead and give it a try; I'm not in any hurry to get these, so the long shipping times don't matter. I just wanted to make sure every third one wasn't useless or something like that.

It's crazy to think about, for those of us who have been in the hobby for ages: 50 bearings for $24 shipped? I think I paid $24 for a set of bearings for my first Blackfoot back in 1987...

[ChrisRx718 4470]

You're cutting out all the middle men. I've ordered a bunch from China, rubber sealed, metal sealed. Usually ~$5USD per 10! Not had any issues yet.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

I've bought several bulk packs of ball bearings off eBay and they generally work fine for our models.  You may see ball bearing part numbers that are not familiar; there are some standards and company-proprietary methods for creating part numbers.  Worth a glance:  https://www.astbearings.com/radial-ball-bearing-nomenclature-and-numbering-system.html

 

[Champ85 609]

I buy from Irvineman on eBay who is a US-based seller.  They regularly have an auction for 100 5x11x4mm ball bearings for $29.95 +free shipping.  Here is a previous auction:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-100-Ball-Bearings-5x11-mm-Fit-Tamiya-Kyosho-Traxxas-5x11x4-5mmx11mm-5mm-11mm-/363004865546

I've bought many packs of 100 bearings from them over the years via their auction link.  Usually nobody else even bids on it.  And even if they do, I've been offered a "2nd chance" option to buy a pack for $29.95 anyway.   Not sure if they always do that though.  Their Buy It Now prices are a LOT more expensive, like $62.95 for 100 bearings so I usually don't buy those.

Once in a while I get a bearing from the pack that won't fit on the 5mm shaft, so I'm going to guess that they are ABEC-1 rated or maybe even worse (rejects?), but I don't care.  At $0.30 each and the way Tamiya fits bearings into their parts it doesn't matter anyway.  Just wiggle your Tamiya wheels to see what I mean.  Huge slop anyone?  Yeah, don't bother buying expensive bearings.  It's a waste of money.

[Juggular 4964]

5 hours ago, markbt73 said:

I just want to know if they'll fall apart as I'm tightening up the wheel nuts.

Definitely no.  I've been using the cheapest possible rubber shielded bearings.  

I suspect what I got were rejects, because I'd find a dud once in a while.  Sometimes I'd get a batch where some were metal-shielded.  Seller refunded one bag's worth of it which was just $2.  There was no dud here, they were all robust and they fit well.  Just that some were a bit stiff, some were free-rolling.  In other words, inconsistent.  One or two duds out of 50 didn't matter, especially since I paid only $10 for 50.  They were whole lot better than bushings.  

These are gone now.  My guess is that the company who were asking for these, started to notice that these cheap "rejects" were flooding the market. Much less people are not buying their "good" bearings.  About 4-5 years ago, these were 10 cents per bearing.  3 years ago, 20 cents a piece.  2 years ago, 50 cents a piece.  Now, I can't find them.  

 

I wanted to try "quality bearings" and spend about $1 to $1.20 a piece.  

These were the worst bearings I had the pleasure of throwing money at.  It was no better than bushings because they moved like a sloth in snow. 

It took a day to loosen them up in alcohol bath.  I still had to rotate it without any grease to loosen them up.  Re-lubed them.  Still didn't turn freely, soak in alcohol for one more day and repeat...   The lesson in life?  Price has nothing to do with quality.  

This spring, RCMart had rubber shielded Yeah Racing bearings on sale (about 50 cents a piece).  They looked like good quality stuff.  But they are sold out thanks to people at home restoring stuff (that's us).  

I'd say give it a try, most of them will do better than stock Tamiya metal shields.  

 

[Juls1 1661]

I've had the cheap bearings, tend to end up replacing them after a few grubby runs.They are OK inside gearboxes, but don't seem to do well in wheel hubs, IE: outside.

These days I run Yeah racing bearings, they have done me well so far, so every time I do a rcmart order, I just get another 10 or 20 to top up, try and keep a good 50 or so 11/5 in stock and 15-20 of the other common sizes.

They slide in price wise in between the cheaper bearings and the fast eddy's, I think they make a good compromise, although I've never tried fast eddy bearings.

Juls

 

[markbt73 5315]

Well, I ended up chickening out on ordering from Hong Kong... with all that's going on, I was just not comfortable ordering stuff on the slow boat. But I found a US seller offering 50 rubber sealed bearings for $37 shipped, which is still a decent deal. So I ordered those instead. And the seller is in Redding, California, which is only 400 miles from here, so even via pony express, they should be here in less than a week.

[•Axle 145]

Apologies to add to this, would anyone know the specific size of a 5x11x4 bearing ball? and has anyone found a supplier of ptfe bearing cages?