So I got a follow up email from WD. I guess this one was after they tried to extend the warranty on them, which probably throw some sort of alert:
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Dear Peter Clausen,
Thank you for contacting Western Digital. Unfortunately, your products do not qualify for warranty update from Western Digital. These drives were sold as zero warranty drives.
Western Digital products purchased from an individual/private party or a non-authorized re seller the warranty date remains and continues to be the current warranty period if there is any, on the drive. We're sorry for the inconvenience, as this is one of the unfortunate risks of buying products online from third-party sellers.
When looking to purchase Western Digital products, we recommend you visit our website for information on where to buy from authorized retailers:
http://www.wdc.com/en/buy/
We recommend to contact the place of purchase for further questions.
Sincerely,
Western Digital Service and Support
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So I forwarded the above message to the eBay seller and suggested that he either accept that I return the drives or offer me a credit given that the drives have no warranty. He immediately issued a nice credit back on my PayPal account. So I'm going to roll the dice on these drives. Badblocks is close to completing, still with 0/0/0 errors on both drives. The NewEgg deal has expired, and the drives from them is now back up to $249 again.