PHONY SIGNAL MIRRORS RETURN AGAIN.

I wanted to "Bounce this off" of you if you will. I quite surprised to find the exact same mirrors that Doug warned about in this post:

http://www.equipped.org/phony_signal_mirrors.htm

The exact same mirrors, are currently being sold by MidwayUSA. I had been looking for the now almost rare 3X5 verson and was delighted to discover that MidwayUSA had them at a decent price. I would add that Midway has always been an upstanding company. . .Until now.

They arrived 3 days ago. In looking at them, I noticed the aiming function did not work at all. Did a little research and found Doug's posting. Sure enough, same mirror exactly.

-Foam case
-Gold "made in Taiwan" label
-Exact same language on back, "REFECTION, EMERGENCY, SIGNAL, MARK, LIGHT SOURCE"
-Exact same rivet
-Exact same cord. Most importantly, they DON't WORK!

MIDWAYUSA's REACTION HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTING TO SAY THE LEAST.

As soon as I realize what occurred, I sent an email advising them of the fake mirrors. I also reminded them that the mirrors were being sold as survival signaling mirrors, and if anyone else had purchased them, they would not function as intended and could potentially endanger anyone who tried to use them.

I have received two messages back, both kindly telling me I could return them. Neither made mention of the risk, or withdrawing the mirrors.

I could understand their sales of the mirrors and not knowing them to be fake. However, they seem totally cavalier of the danger of their product.

Most disappointed to say the least.

Wesley Horton

Sounds like a description of "low quality, does not work well" applies here. But that same description applies to a LOT of stuff coming out of China. I agree with calling it "low quality", but not necessarily "phony" for "fake". By your definition, just about everything sold at WalMart is phony. And don't get me started on Harbor Freight.

Did they advertise the mirror as some official mil-spec government item? No, they didn't. Here's the description from their website:

"The 5ive Star Gear Signal Mirror is made from tough .25" laminated glass with a center sighting hole to accurately direct flash in a survival situation."

I think Midway did right by allowing you to return the product. You seem to think that Midway should immediately remove the mirror from their inventory because you didn't like it. What did you expect for $10? Especially when the company name is "5ive Star Gear"? Would you also try to stop Midway from selling bulk .22LR ammo in those 500 round bricks because much better (and more expensive) match grade ammo exists?

I would not have bought one of these mirrors. All's I had to do was look at the description, the company name, and the price to come to that conclusion.

If you want a strong, highly reflective item to use as a signal mirror, for zero cost, take apart one of your dead computer hard drives. The disk platters are highly polished and ridiculously reflective. And the physical disks themselves are very tough. You won't have an aiming aid, but the two-handed method works just fine. The first time I aimed one of these disks at my house, I though I was going to ignite the siding, it was so bright and cleanly focused.

While you're at it inside your dead hard drive, pull out the magnets too. Those are super strong rare earth magnets. Useful for many things.

We did just this this past weekend, as part of our almost 13 year old's never-ending quest to figure out how stuff works. A neighbour's kicked to the curb CPUs, yielded us three new signal mirrors and some wickedly strong magnets too! (I have no idea what the rest of the stuff is going to be used for but apparently we have to keep it all. LOL!)

Granted that this mirror is rather cheap and not top of the line mil-spec. It is still a bright, shiny surface[s][/s] which can be used effectively (two-handed) to signal when in distress. Not the best, but way better than nothing.

Like most equipment, it is often better to spend a bit more for quality and to do some careful evaluation before hand.

The item comes from Taiwan, not China. That's a little puzzling since Taiwan has moved towards the high tech industry, unable to compete with China in manufacturing cheap goods. But I guess scammers are everywhere.

This item is not the only poor quality merchandise Midway carries. Some of the garbage they sell is made right here in the US of A. I think all you can do is leave a feedback alerting future buyers.

There seems to be an unspoken (or unwritten) assumption that "Made in the USA' is synonymous with high, or at least good, quality. Geezers who are old like me can remember that the good ol' USA made lots of junk back in the day....(along with many goods that ranged much higher in the quality spectrum).

Taiwan is known as "ROC" ("Republic of China") while mainland China is known as "PRC" ("Peoples Republic of China"). So just using "China" in casual conversation is what I typically do, otherwise every mention of the islands requires a political discourse when discussing "Made in ..."

These two countries are pretty different. Treating them as the same country, as you do, is sort of like confusing North Korea with South Korea (e.g., "Korea is a rogue state, and that's why we need to station more troops across the border in Korea so we can fight the Koreans when they invade Korea!!"). You need not get into some sort of big historical discourse, and you can just follow what the US government and the media do. In fact, it seems that calling both countries "China" is what led you to make the erroneous statement about the item in question. China has an economy that can produce vast amounts of cheap goods that are sold globally. Taiwan just doesn't.

OK. I stand corrected. Taiwan makes good quality stuff (except for this signal mirror?)