On Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 11:04:21 AM UTC-5, Chuck wrote:
On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 10:09:14 -0500, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

I am looking for an online source where I can place orders for a handful
of parts at a time, which does not require $50 or more orders, or charge
huge shipping fees. I am also looking mostly for parts for antique tube
equipment. My typical order would likely be $20 or less of caps,
resistors, and maybe some solder or a tool, and so on....

From what I've seen, Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied seem to be the
biggies... But I have to admit that they have so much in their websites
that I almost feel overwhelmed. And I hear they have large minimums and
shipping, but I never got that far on their websites.... (I have to go
to a public WIFI to use those sites, since I only have dialup at home)..

I know ebay is an option too, but ordering each item separately can be a
pain too.



I have placed small (around $ 25) orders from Mouser and Digikey with no
problem. I believe it is Digikey that only charges about $ 4 shipping
for very small orders such as up to 8 oz shipped by the USPS.


If you do go to ebay for the parts, watch out for the China places.
Some are good and some send junk parts.

I just found a reliable source for parts in China. They carry ics
which aren't available outside of China. They are utsource.net. It
takes about 2 weeks to receive the parts. I was charged $4.00
shipping. (to USA) I had four portable PAs (Megamouths) which needed
ics that I could only previously find in 1000 lots. Was going to toss
them but checked again. This company will sell you any quantity and
was able to repair them for a grand total of $18.00 in parts and
shipping.

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I don't think that's an all inclusive statement. I've ordered batches of mosfets for plasma sustain boards and some lots of 50 would show different printing, different cases, different lead stampings, (which tend to support the theory that some might be original and some might be counterfeit) and some were clearly pulls.