Selling ES processor is a risky business.

[Movieman]

I think people here misunderstood what Francois(Dr.Who?) was trying to say.
He was giving a polite warning to the guys here out of courtesy.
Take it in that context only please.
Technically and legally Intel does retain ownership of all ES chips they send out to manufacturers of boards,etc.
Don't flame him for the post, thank him for letting you know before you get yourself into any problems.

Does anybody know what the difference between 'tray' and 'ES' CPUs? lagoom.com has been selling 'tray' CPUs for some time now and these don't come with retail box just the CPU and they have only 30-day warranty from lagoom.com and nothing from Intel. Does that sound fishy? It looks like 'tray' is same as 'ES' because if these were OEM, they would still carry 3-yr Intel warranty.

If someone provides Intel with proof that they bought from lagoom.com, will they sue lagoom.com or honor the (non-existent) warranty and RMA the chip? DrWho, any inputs?

Tray and ES are two totally different things.
Tray are just as it sounds, retail chips in a plastic tray sold to OEM's in bulk.Nothing illegal about buying those.