Accuchek Aviva meter users who buy on eBay

If you haven't bought strips in a while, please be very diligent when buying on eBay right now. The prices have gone up and many of the strips available at the lower prices have very short expirations (1/31/12 or 2/28/12). Just as recently as the end of December I bought a bunch at around 19.80/50 count box, last night I looked and the cheapest I could get 7/12-9/12 expirations was 23.80, I went back on this morning to buy them and ended up buying at $26/50 for 9/12 expiration.

The company is switching over to the Aviva plus strips and those look to be 150%-200% the cost right now so the remaining stock of the old Aviva strips on the market is dwindling. So just be careful when buying. I bought 2 new Aviva meters at Walmart because those were on clearance too, one of them wouldn't recognize the 1/31/12 strips a valid, read them as an expired strip even though it wasn't. The meters are all supposed to read the old strips and the new strips, but it looks like during the transition we are going to be paying more for our strips :-x

 

I know it's a little more than on Ebay ($30/50 strips), but I've been buying mine on Amazon. This may not be viable for someone who still needs to test a lot, but it was worth the extra few bucks to know that the strips have an late expiration date, and that they will arrive promptly (and you can track the package). The expiration date was especially important to me because I'm not going through them quickly anymore. The expiration dates have always been at least a year from when I bought them.

 

Expirations never used to be a problem on eBay either. While Smokey was in remission, we used 1 or 2 strips a months so I needed only 1 canister a year. I could easily get them out 10-14 months. Other than one shipment smelling like it had been in their ashtray for a year, I haven't ever had a problem ordering form eBay and have typically got them for $20-22 per 50 including shipping. Now finding them out 5 months is costing more so other alternatives like Amazon may be better for the time being.

I have seen open boxes and people selling them marked as uncoded and without chips on eBay too - NO ONE SHOULD BUY THOSE!!!! You have to have the chip with the Aviva and you don't ever want to buy an open box of strips because you just don't know if they will work, its just not worth it. I know the seasoned buyers know this, but I don't want any newmems wasting their money on junk.