Ok, so this is what i've found by running HD Test and by metering out the connections on the 44pin IDE as it connects to the IDE to CF adaptor.
I duplicated the tests that exxos has suggested with known good cards that work on the ST and the new ones.
All cards fail the erase / random fill / verify test and I believe this is due to access speed. My PC is trying to write and read at about 144MB/s but the cards typically can't do more than 10 -20MB/s, so It would be interesting to see what the card I sent to exxos does when benchmarked.
Below is my 4GB card compared to the three new cards wen measuring resistance to GND on the Mega.

- Capture.PNG (33.98 KiB) Viewed 3339 times
If it ain't broke, test it to Destruction.