[TheRealInterMafia]

It's not been that long but someone a friend of a friend knows, "SWIM", has used the alphabay on multiple occasions with no issue and has only seen growth.

If this is a honeypot, it's a very good one.

do they sell similar things to what they had before?
every website discussing illegal activities can be a honeypot or at least contain a mole.

I think it goes without saying that there are going to be LE sniffing around any marketplace/forum/online community, this one included, but as far as it goes for the customer, there's rarely an issue unless you're trying to move large amounts of Jehovah knows what for distro - and even then, you're more likely to get caught in your own dedicated sting than one targeting a marketplace.

That friend of a friend, SWIM tells me that it's still the same old stuff on alphabay, run of the mill, no different than any other market. There's apparently vendors using alphabay that also use more 'reputable' markets so take that as you will. Obviously no weapons/illegal wank banks (nicely enough). But yeah, really your biggest potential threat on something like that is an exit scam.