It's better with the pictures.
I know this side plate shape, but can't remember which REAL brand it is.
What I can say is :
- it is NOT Cuban at all,it's just an Asian generic brand like the others (the "Cuba Percussion" label is just a marketing thing to "bait" the customers) ;
- I believe these side plates have been used by several brands (or the same one with different names) ;
- you don't see any picture of the skins, only of the body of the drums (does the seller want to hide the skins?) - maybe you'll have to change them, which is not a problem ;
- the wood is hevea/rubberwood like most other congas and bongó, a.k.a. pompously renamed "Siam oak" (again to "bait" the customer) - this beeing said, hevea is not a bad wood species at all. They build nice pieces of furniture out of hevea. It's just that it's not so "glamourous" as mahogany or walnut, so the collectors despise it. Hevea trees have to be recycled every 15 or 20 years, like vine. And since most of the factories are now in Thailand, they can easily get cheap timber. Same with the skins : they use water buffalo skins (they live nearby
). And if you add the low wages...
This was social critical paragraph. You just need to remember hevea is not so bad as the purists claim... A friend of mine bought a trio of cheap Chinese congas, which sound terribly good with the right skins. So no worries.
- the crowns of these look cheap. You'll certainly have to change them (in my eyes) but it's not a problem.
- there seems to be some leather or rubber gaskets between the side plates and the shells, which is a good thing to protect the shell wood (I did that on several of my congas too) ;
So, in conclusion, it's not a bad deal at all. Once you buy them, you can check if they have not got out of round. Which can also be fixed.
Sorry for having been long.