Am I correct in assuming non genuine Garrett turbos such as http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TURBO-GT28RS-BALL-...=item48408e74d8 are a waste of money

chines copies and there not ball bearing the wet float mate. id stay away from them if you can

There are chinese ball bearing turbo's.

I have one laying around for about 3 years now.
gt2871 copy, if it is any good i dont know, the first series of floating chargers were crap though but depended on the manufacturer. There are some decent ones, but they cant meet the garrett quality.

I ran one on my old LE. 352Bhp from a gt28r .86. Several track days and its still going strong 2 years later.

I would agree with that - but you do not have to go for a Garrett GT series. The hybrids that poweritalia do can flow well over 300bhp, and are far cheaper to buy, as well as fit. Garrett T series will also do the job, and are cheaper to buy as well as re-furbish if you ever need to...

I would never recommend a chinese turbo but a friend bought one and was set on using it. Its a 16VT with a T3/TO4E copy running 1.5 bar. The car produces around 350+ HP and its still going just fine after 2 years.