On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 05:32:13 -0600, oldschool wrote:

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 been out of this hobby for around 40 years and am getting back
in, but only working on old tube stuff. I remember this stuff like it
was yesterday, but back then, I lived in a city, and there were many
"brick" electronics stores nearby. Now, I live in a rural area, and
aside from the very limited parts at a Radio Shack, (25 miles away)
there are no longer any "brick" stores. Not to mention that much of not
most places seem to cater to solid state devices now. [Times have
changed a lot].

What (if any) online stores will fit my needs?
Maybe its none of these huge stores, but something smaller...

Thanks

DigiKey and (I think) Mouser got rid of their minimum order prices years
ago.

But they kind of make up for it by charging more per piece as you order
fewer pieces -- as an example, 0604 resistors are $0.10 in onsies, and
about $0.12 for ten.

You might want to check Antique Radio Supply for the tube-specific stuff
-- www.tubesandmore.com. They'll have the tubes and sockets and
transformers that DigiKey just doesn't carry. They may even have better
deals on small quantities of the sorts of resistors and caps that show up
in toob amplifiers than does DigiKey.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

I'm looking for work -- see my website!