08Dec Fake Sandisk extreme cards?
I grabbed a few Sandisk Extreme 32GB cards when they went on sale over black Friday. On the right we have a standard Sandisk Extreme card from my collection, on the left we have the card ordered over black Friday. This is the first time I’ve seen a gold colored Sandisk card and it got me thinking, is this a fake?
In the past you could tell a fake card by examining the back. The top part of the card near the electrical contracts is usually slightly transparent, the letter D in Sandisk should be missing the horizontal line and the “Made in China” logo should be stamped at the bottom of the cards. Two out of the three indicators are missing from the card on the left. Instead the Sandisk Extreme 32GB card has stenciled in a small group of numbers and letters (BM1329150121G). This number letter combo is the same on all 4 of the cards I ordered.
Visiting Sandisk’s card registration page I was able to register all 4 cards without an issue. I ran a few quick tests and the cards appear to be as fast as my old Sandisk cards. If they’re fake, they’ve done a pretty good job. I haven’t been able to find anything from Sandisk about the new gold logo.
Everything tests out fine on these new Sandisk Extreme 32GB cards, so I wont be returning them and $23 a card was a pretty decent price. It’s just odd to me that they would abandon the old security measures and release a newly designed logo without changing the name to something like “Extreme ultra MAX” or “Awesome Tastic Extreme”. Anyone else end up with gold Sandisk memory cards?
December 8th, 2013 at 12:46 pm
Deejay,
I didnt order one myself, but a few guys in a Facebook filmmaker group I’m in, did. And yes, they’re gold. In fact, I think one of the guys actually got another strange color.
So yes, either rest easy knowing that Sandisk is doing something odd, or that you weren’t the only one that was duped.
December 8th, 2013 at 2:01 pm
Stopped by Walmart and they had some gold Sandisk cards on the shelf, so i’m guessing they’re legitimate. I sent an e-mail to Sandisk customer support just to be on the safe side.
December 8th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
I used to work at BestBuy, and Sandisk just started packaging them this way. Some of the speeds and nomenclature appear to have slightly changed as well, probably for marketing. They seem to have started naming them by their read speed, not write speed, to make them appear faster. I think they’re ugly, not that that matters.
December 8th, 2013 at 3:02 pm
I agree, they are a little ugly. Kind of reminds me of the old Maxell gold mini DV tapes.
December 8th, 2013 at 6:48 pm
I use nothing but Sandisk and have been buying them for years. My last one was gold and it was from a reputable source. One thing I wish Sandisk would do is standardize their silly names. Over the last five years, Ultra and Extreme have been changed so many times that it’s hard to keep track of them. And it’s not just the advances in speed per card.
December 8th, 2013 at 7:50 pm
For whatever reasons Sandisk likes to use lots of adjectives. Maybe labeling cards in the top speeds “pro” and lower speeds “standard” and slow speeds “snail” would be a better naming system. 😉
December 8th, 2013 at 8:54 pm
I agree. It’s what most other companies do.
December 9th, 2013 at 9:51 pm
I bought a Canon 6D Kit from B&H about three weeks ago and I’ve got the same card. Should be problem. I will but a couple of the new Transcend 32GB SDHC Ultimate 600x Class 10 UHS-I Memory Card for just $29.99 with great reviews and the same speed but half price of the Sandisk Extreme Pro.
December 11th, 2013 at 9:29 am
I got one of the gold 32GB cards just like yours and didn’t think anything of it until I read this. I used it in my Fujifilm X100S as a backup to my 5DmkII for a photo shoot over the weekend, so it didn’t get a hard workout, but performed fine. For $24 was a great deal for a 32GB card.