After my lovely UPS driver yeeted it at my door, I opened the package to find the controller inside. Right away, I could tell it wasn't brand new—there were small marks, a little dirt, and the thumbsticks looked slightly worn. So yeah, definitely used before.
Obviously, this isn't an official Sony PS3 controller (not that I was expecting one for $11), but based on the reviews, I figured it might still work. Currently, I don't have a working PS3 to test it on, but I did plug it into my PC. That's when things got weird: my computer thought I had connected an Xbox 360 controller. Sure enough, when I booted up a game, all the button prompts were Xbox-style.
So, heads up—it does function, but don't expect PS3 button mapping out of the box on PC.
Overall, for $11, I can't be too mad. You get what you pay for. It's not premium, and it came a little pre-loved, but if it works on my PS3 when I get it up and running, I'll call that a win. I'll update this review once I've had a chance to test it properly on the console.