I purchased a DJI Phantom 3 Professional off of eBay the other day. Upon receiving it, I noticed the arm color bands were severely wrinkled from being removed and then super glued back on. Every single one of the serial identification stickers has been removed including the front emblem. Is there anything physically different between the P3 Pro and the P3 4K? Perhaps on the controller or even from a component level on the control board? I need evidence that this is indeed a fake or Frankensteined unit. Is there a way to get the model number from the micro USB through a serial port or anything?

The most likely explanation is that the aircraft has been crashed and required the shell to be replaced. That is something the owner could do, and he/she has simply transferred the stickers from the old shell to the new shell.

I'd probably tend to believe the nameplate near the "blackbox" usb port at the front of the body.

You could upload a flight record to http://healthydrones.com and it will tell you the type of aircraft and firmware version recorded in the logs.

Sorry for your issue, joel. This unit looks not new.Also, according to the serial number on the drone, the shipping time of this item was Dec, 2015. If you intend to buy a new item at the very beginning, I'd suggest you to get in touch with your eBay dealer.

Would one be able to tell by the Go App, such as looking at the available resolutions?  I only have the Pro, but I would think it'd be able to identify the craft and not show irrelevant features, or is that not the case?

If it does work that way, then if it doesn't have 4K, then it can't be the Pro or 4k.  If it's got 4k and has the VPS at the bottom, then it would be the Pro.  The Standard and 4k run by wifi and have a controller with one antenna.  Advanced and Pro have 2.  I would think it's impossible to connect a Standard/4k controller with an Advanced/Pro and vice versa.

If they went through the trouble of putting Standard RC innards into a Pro controller, attach a dummy VPS system, change badges, print 4k on the camera gimbal, etc., that's a lot of work and cost going into a fake.  I guess if you have the parts to do it once you could, but it's a little complex for one sale.

The Pro would be able to do the latest firmware update as well, but a Standard/4k would not.

HotQuad Posted at 2016-6-29 13:56
Would one be able to tell by the Go App, such as looking at the available resolutions?  I only have  ...

The biggest issue is that it is completely water damaged on the inside. My guess is that the seller dropped the unit in water and then bought himself a Phantom 3 Professional to replace the water damaged Phantom 3 4K. He ripped off all of the serial identification stickers from the unit. Since the craft is not even functional, I can't actually use the app to verify the model numbers.

Sounds like you should be making a claim with ebay right away.