is a AEM CAI the same those cheapo 30 buck ones people sell on Ebay?

More or less. A pipe is a pipe right? One of the benefits is the AEM fits good, is secured nicely in the engine bay. Another benefit is the K&N filter. But a lot of the price is the AEM name, but you are also paying for their research and time develping the product.

I have the ebay short ram, that was like $30... It fits, but not perfect, and the filter seems cheap...I am going to order a k&n for it, and try to find a dif. rubbber piece that connects it to the Throttle Body, cause the one it comes with sucks... If I were to get a true cai, it would be AEM... but for short ram, as you can see above...I went w/ the cheap ebay for the time being...

I had a cai from procarparts.com and it was great. Good fit, nice filter ect ect....definite improvement over the rs akimoto i had before. It was like 80 + shipping. Unfortunatly they don't offer it any more. :(

the AEM CAI is one piece and lighter than the cheap ones.

If you are intersted in extracting the absolute most HP and torque from each mod, I would recommend the AEM. They have much R&D behind them to give the intake charge the greatest velocity and smoothest flow possible. Believe it or not, not every pipe of equal size will flow the same, there are certain bends etc... to help this. And that is what I have to say, and Im done now.

shoooo im just gonna get a ebay intake...BUT if I had the extra hundred I would get an AEM or Injen