RennlistTomE

Definitely don't beat yourself up.
Blaming the victim for expecting someone to behave like an actual human being instead of pond scum with constitutional rights -- that probably takes us all in the wrong direction.
What's needed is a feedback button on eBay that ignites a road flare in the shorts of sellers who pull these types of scams.

X51

People tend to use the term OEM liberally and incorrectly in postings for anything that is a knock off of an original as well as an original. I inquired about some Fuchs for a 912 and I asked the guy 4 times if indeed they were real Fuchs and he just kept responding with "Yes, they are OEM". I kept responding with "You didn't answer my question." Needless to say, I went with used wheels which were the real deal. OP - you didn't do anything that any of the rest of us haven't done, so don't beat yourself up.

Edgy01

Fortunately, you were smart enough to suspect something wasn't quite kosher. That much weight difference is incredible. Within days of Porsche showing off a new wheel the foundries in China are making knock offs. The simply take the original wheel, make a mold from it, and start heating up the aluminum, or whatever it is they have their hands on. There is very little investment in casting wheels. Just molds and a foundry for heating up the metal. On the other hand, years ago, nearly every Porsche rode on Fuchs alloy wheels--each was individually forged. Forging a wheel requires such an investment in capital equipment that few people are in that business anymore. Even Porsche pretty much stopped worrying about weight and worried more about profit, and buyers today didn't want to save 11 lbs a wheel with forgings but they did want to save $2-4,000 a car!

Many of the 'lobster claw' wheels were traded in by 997.1 buyers for something else. They are actually the lightest of the OEM designs. I'm surprised that the usual sources didn't have a ton of them sitting around.

Graygoose997

Thanks for all the support, but I have to defend these lobster wheels.
I just like them, for the design, the weight and the style.
Porsche designers thought enough of them to make them the stock wheel on these beautiful cars, so I guess you have to love the design, love the designers, but think they missed it completely on their wheel design.

Now, I'm not saying changing wheels and making the car personal isn't fun, and this shoud be all about fun.

As far as I can figure, it must be the forks at the end the spokes that create the objection.

If the spokes were solid all the way to the wheel,we are looking a a pretty traditional 5 spoke modern variation on some classic older Porsche wheels, which is exactly what the 997 was...a modern version of the older cars.

halik

I was gonna say the same thing, most likely cheap asian knockoff from subpar materials.