Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

Mouser
Newark
DigiKey
Fair Radio
Surplus Shed (for some things)
Mark Oppat

At at least half-a-dozen others.

You also need to get to Kutztown in the spring, where all sorts of vendors of all sorts of things are all gathered in one place at one time.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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

I'll add Allied Electronics to the list
www.alliedelec.com

Also for odd parts and such try Electronic Gold Mine

www.goldmine-elec-products.com


Avnet was a good place to order from but they have really messed up their
web site now, but they did have $9 fedex ground shipping.

I think Mouser still has $8 USPS shipping for small orders.

SparkFun has been mentioned in another post. Lots of great
experminter boards and break out boards.

I would start with Digi-Key. IMHO they have the best search
engine. Once I find the part(s) I plug them into other web sites
to check availability, price and shipping cost. It also depends on
where you live. I'm 4 hours driving distance from Mouser so normal
UPS ground is "next day" for me.


--
Chisolm
Republic of Texas

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 22/02/17 07:46, 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 dont buy anything from China. (or any place outside of North America).
It takes too long to get the items, if the stuff is defective, I'm stuck
with it, and I do not trust giving out my credit card info.

I agree with you regarding EBay sellers, but...

You're wrong to discount Aliexpress. You get access to thousands of
vendors (same as EBay) but none of them see your credit card, and
until you approve of the product *as delivered*, they don't get your
money either. If you receive nothing, or they ship the wrong thing,
or even if it's demonstrably faulty, Ali mediates a resolution.
The most common resolution is that you bin the item and get your
money back.

For China Post shipping of small items (3 cigarette packet size)
you get free shipping... my orders are often under $20... no Western
supplier will do this for you.

The one and only time I bought an ebay item from outside the US, I
bought something from the UK. The order got all screwed up, and it
turned into a huge hassle. I lost money, got an item I did not really
want, and the seller lost too.

This does not happen with Aliexpress.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 22/02/17 09:33, root wrote:
Clifford Heath wrote:

You're wrong to discount Aliexpress. You get access to thousands of
vendors (same as EBay) but none of them see your credit card, and
until you approve of the product *as delivered*, they don't get your
money either. If you receive nothing, or they ship the wrong thing,
or even if it's demonstrably faulty, Ali mediates a resolution.
The most common resolution is that you bin the item and get your
money back.

For China Post shipping of small items (3 cigarette packet size)
you get free shipping... my orders are often under $20... no Western
supplier will do this for you.

The one and only time I bought an ebay item from outside the US, I
bought something from the UK. The order got all screwed up, and it
turned into a huge hassle. I lost money, got an item I did not really
want, and the seller lost too.

This does not happen with Aliexpress.

I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48.

Ouch. I haven't had a problem with a $100 order, only small ones.

For example, one vendor shipped a dangerous illegal "power saving"
device (small capacitor and an LED) with a European socket, when
I had ordered a 12V 3A power brick. Duh. It wasn't hard to convince
Ali that it belonged in the bin, and I got my money back.
A battery pack for a hand-held transceiver never arrived, though
tracking said it was in a warehouse somewhere... after six weeks
I got my money back. Another order for five magnets shipped one,
so I got an 80% refund. Three problems in perhaps 60 orders...

So yeah, you can have problems... but none so far has cost me anything.

My experience with Amazon is the exact opposite.

Yep, Amazon is good. They just don't have many of the things I want.

Clifford Heath.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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 dont buy anything from China. (or any place outside of North America).
It takes too long to get the items, if the stuff is defective, I'm stuck
with it, and I do not trust giving out my credit card info. I only buy
from the US and Canada. When I am on ebay, the first thing I do is set
their filter to US Only. Otherwise my page is flooded with China items.
Sure, I could often save a dollar or two buying from China, but it's not
worth the hassle.

The one and only time I bought an ebay item from outside the US, I
bought something from the UK. The order got all screwed up, and it
turned into a huge hassle. I lost money, got an item I did not really
want, and the seller lost too. I made a point to never buy from outside
North America again.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 2/21/2017 3:46 PM, 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 dont buy anything from China. (or any place outside of North America).
It takes too long to get the items, if the stuff is defective, I'm stuck
with it, and I do not trust giving out my credit card info. I only buy
from the US and Canada. When I am on ebay, the first thing I do is set
their filter to US Only. Otherwise my page is flooded with China items.
Sure, I could often save a dollar or two buying from China, but it's not
worth the hassle.

The only times I've had trouble with eBay orders is when I didn't follow
up on keeping track of them. I find ebay sellers to be very responsive
because they live and die by their rating. If all else fails (which it
has sometimes) I dispute the charge on my credit card and have never
failed to get the refund.


The one and only time I bought an ebay item from outside the US, I
bought something from the UK. The order got all screwed up, and it
turned into a huge hassle. I lost money, got an item I did not really
want, and the seller lost too. I made a point to never buy from outside
North America again.

It's just not that big a deal normally. Having to wait over a month
before filing for an "item not received" refund is a bit of a pain, but
I only use this for things I don't need any time soon.

--

Rick C

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

Clifford Heath wrote:

You're wrong to discount Aliexpress. You get access to thousands of
vendors (same as EBay) but none of them see your credit card, and
until you approve of the product *as delivered*, they don't get your
money either. If you receive nothing, or they ship the wrong thing,
or even if it's demonstrably faulty, Ali mediates a resolution.
The most common resolution is that you bin the item and get your
money back.

For China Post shipping of small items (3 cigarette packet size)
you get free shipping... my orders are often under $20... no Western
supplier will do this for you.

The one and only time I bought an ebay item from outside the US, I
bought something from the UK. The order got all screwed up, and it
turned into a huge hassle. I lost money, got an item I did not really
want, and the seller lost too.

This does not happen with Aliexpress.



I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48. It took weeks of
email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing
to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact
opposite.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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!

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 05:32:13 -0600, wrote:
What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

A really funky web site is http://www.danssmallpartsandkits.net/

I've ordered parts from "Dan" and never had "issues".
Lots of old descrete parts.
It can take a bit to dig through all he has listed.
(He definitely does NOT pay anyone to maintain that web site. :-)

Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | W3DHJ | W3DHJ | https://W3DHJ.net/
Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | __
38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | 73 SK

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root
wrote:


I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48. It took weeks of
email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing
to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact
opposite.


Amazon seems to police their vendors, almost to a fault. It would be
interesting to know from the vendor side how it feels to deal with a
bad buyer (eg. broke the product, tells lies, etc.)

Ali- rather less so and as you say the shipping cost back works in
favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not
cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back
without sending it back. 8-(

--sp


--
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 2/22/2017 1:21 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root
wrote:


I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48. It took weeks of
email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing
to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact
opposite.


Amazon seems to police their vendors, almost to a fault. It would be
interesting to know from the vendor side how it feels to deal with a
bad buyer (eg. broke the product, tells lies, etc.)

Ali- rather less so and as you say the shipping cost back works in
favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not
cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back
without sending it back. 8-(

Does Amazon have a way to ask vendors questions about the product? I
know I have looked many, many times and not found a link. I know where
the eBay link is. With Aliexpress communications is often not very
useful as I don't get answers that show an understanding of my question.
I've just never gotten a warm fuzzy feeling from Amazon.

--

Rick C

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 22/02/17 04:17, rickman wrote:
I've had eBay/Palpal refuse to give me a refund when the item was never
delivered and returned to the seller instead.

I had something not delivered, and the tracking info was
inconclusive/contradictory. I waited an extra week, asked
Ebay for my money back, and got it. I can't remember
whether it was the seller or ebay that refunded it.

A week later the seller contacted me to say the item had
been returned to them, and did I still want it? No, I didn't.

I wondered about the tracking info, and whether the seller
had even had it in stock in the first place.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 22/02/17 10:23, wrote:
I wiped the hard drive and installed XP myself, using an xp CD
I alreeady had. I have been using that computer ever since and it works
fine.

Lucky you.

A laptop's disk failed and I tried that with a new disk
and the product code on the bottom of the laptop.

The code was accepted, it installed, and on first reboot
a Microsoft Dos screen appeared telling me the code was
invalid.

Samsung claimed it was MS fault. MS claimed it was
Samsung's fault, despite it being an MS "shan't" message.

Resolution was to buy a third disk with XP preinstalled,
for the price of the OS, or to install a linux. Guess
which happened.

Later MS refused to sell me Win7, so clearly they don't
want my custom.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

In article ,
says...

On 22/02/17 04:17, rickman wrote:
I've had eBay/Palpal refuse to give me a refund when the item was never
delivered and returned to the seller instead.

I had something not delivered, and the tracking info was
inconclusive/contradictory. I waited an extra week, asked
Ebay for my money back, and got it. I can't remember
whether it was the seller or ebay that refunded it.

A week later the seller contacted me to say the item had
been returned to them, and did I still want it? No, I didn't.

I wondered about the tracking info, and whether the seller
had even had it in stock in the first place.

Friend of mine has a problem with the delivery people.

He lives at 123 abc Circle. That is off ABC Road and there is a house
number 123. Seems the delivery people get on the Road and do not
understant the Circle is near the end of that road.

With tracking being fairly good if he orders something, he tracks it and
if it is marked delivered and he does not see it, he goes to the 123 abc
Road house to get his package.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 22/02/17 15:14, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

On 22/02/17 04:17, rickman wrote:
I've had eBay/Palpal refuse to give me a refund when the item was never
delivered and returned to the seller instead.

I had something not delivered, and the tracking info was
inconclusive/contradictory. I waited an extra week, asked
Ebay for my money back, and got it. I can't remember
whether it was the seller or ebay that refunded it.

A week later the seller contacted me to say the item had
been returned to them, and did I still want it? No, I didn't.

I wondered about the tracking info, and whether the seller
had even had it in stock in the first place.

Friend of mine has a problem with the delivery people.

He lives at 123 abc Circle. That is off ABC Road and there is a house
number 123. Seems the delivery people get on the Road and do not
understant the Circle is near the end of that road.

With tracking being fairly good if he orders something, he tracks it and
if it is marked delivered and he does not see it, he goes to the 123 abc
Road house to get his package.

I have the inverse problem. I live at 3 X Rd, and keep
having deliveries for 3 X Close. The worst case was a
"delivery" of roof height scaffolding; that company
wasn't amused by their incompetence.

Despite it having been there since 1930, it
- isn't on most satnavs; they mutate the postcode
YYY 9HL to YYY9EA
- isn't on google maps; ditto
- it is on bing maps, but isn't searchable
- it is on openstreet map, since I put it there

I've trapped out all but the most incompetent fools
by:
- having the other occupant replace the first line
of their address with "opposite the supermarket"
- 3D printing a brass sign "Not X Close", and fixing
it adjacent to the bell

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

In article ,
says...


Friend of mine has a problem with the delivery people.

He lives at 123 abc Circle. That is off ABC Road and there is a house
number 123. Seems the delivery people get on the Road and do not
understant the Circle is near the end of that road.

With tracking being fairly good if he orders something, he tracks it and
if it is marked delivered and he does not see it, he goes to the 123 abc
Road house to get his package.

I have the inverse problem. I live at 3 X Rd, and keep
having deliveries for 3 X Close. The worst case was a
"delivery" of roof height scaffolding; that company
wasn't amused by their incompetence.


My dad lived at 123 White Farm Road and there was a Church at 123 White
Road. He would get a letter of theirs about once a month. The roads
were about 10 miles apart. If they ever got a letter of his, they did
not report it.

Once my natural gas bill got messed up. Didn't get one for about 2
months and one finally came. Weent to the gas company and somehow after
living there for 5 years they han me "moved" to the town next to the one
I lived in. Actually I lived about halfway between the two towns out in
the country. It stayed messsed up for about 3 or 4 billing cycles.Eahc
time I would go to them and they would change something, but somehow
they seemed to not makc the correct change.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:12 -0500, rickman wrote:

On 2/22/2017 1:21 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root
wrote:


I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48. It took weeks of
email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing
to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact
opposite.


Amazon seems to police their vendors, almost to a fault. It would be
interesting to know from the vendor side how it feels to deal with a
bad buyer (eg. broke the product, tells lies, etc.)

Ali- rather less so and as you say the shipping cost back works in
favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not
cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back
without sending it back. 8-(

Does Amazon have a way to ask vendors questions about the product? I
know I have looked many, many times and not found a link. I know where
the eBay link is. With Aliexpress communications is often not very
useful as I don't get answers that show an understanding of my question.
I've just never gotten a warm fuzzy feeling from Amazon.

Amazon has a place to ask quesitons. Usually they're answered by
other purchasers but some sellers (and even manufacturers) use it as a
suport channel. I make two or three Amazon orders a month but haven't
bought from eBay for five or six years (and never AliEx).
n

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On Tue, 22 Feb 2017, Allodoxaphobia wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 05:32:13 -0600, wrote:
What is the best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of electronic
parts?

A really funky web site is http://www.danssmallpartsandkits.net/

I've ordered parts from "Dan" and never had "issues".
Lots of old descrete parts.
It can take a bit to dig through all he has listed.
(He definitely does NOT pay anyone to maintain that web site. :-)

The caveat is that it seems to be surplus, and mostly oriented towards
radio type hobbying. So it's good for what he carries, but it's a limited
selection. On the other hand, if you need RF parts, you may be more
likely to fill out your needs from this one source.

It's worth looking, but it may not work for everyone.

I ordered a time or two, but he no longer wants to send to Canada (or any
non-US location I think), which is a shame because it was very convenient
to be able to get those RF parts in one place.

Michael

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:07 +1100, Clifford Heath
wrote:

You're wrong to discount Aliexpress. You get access to thousands of
vendors (same as EBay) but none of them see your credit card, and
until you approve of the product *as delivered*, they don't get your

Is this Aliexpress a company in China, or do they just sell China goods?

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

www.allelectronics.com/

Allied

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

wrote in message ...

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:12 -0500, rickman wrote:

On 2/22/2017 1:21 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root
wrote:


I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48. It took weeks of
email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing
to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact
opposite.


Amazon seems to police their vendors, almost to a fault. It would be
interesting to know from the vendor side how it feels to deal with a
bad buyer (eg. broke the product, tells lies, etc.)

Ali- rather less so and as you say the shipping cost back works in
favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not
cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back
without sending it back. 8-(

Does Amazon have a way to ask vendors questions about the product? I
know I have looked many, many times and not found a link. I know where
the eBay link is. With Aliexpress communications is often not very
useful as I don't get answers that show an understanding of my question.
I've just never gotten a warm fuzzy feeling from Amazon.

Amazon has a place to ask quesitons. Usually they're answered by
other purchasers but some sellers (and even manufacturers) use it as a
suport channel. I make two or three Amazon orders a month but haven't
bought from eBay for five or six years (and never AliEx).
n
================================================== =====================

On Amazon once an item has been ordered and shipped, but not yet delivered,
hit the orders button to view your orders, then the "get help with order"
button. In at least one of the choices in there you can contact the seller
directly, but you will have to drill down a bit. Before shipment and after
delivery the get help button isn't there, but I think you can use the
request return button to contact the seller. I asked the seller of a little
power supply I bought for a schematic, and they sent me a hand drawn sketch
of the connections which just duplicated what was printed on the pcb anyway,
sigh. But I at least was able to make contact :-).

-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 23/02/17 00:33, Tom Gardner wrote:
Later MS refused to sell me Win7, so clearly they don't
want my custom.

MS doesn't have customers. They have hostages.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

In article . com,
says...

On 23/02/17 00:33, Tom Gardner wrote:
Later MS refused to sell me Win7, so clearly they don't
want my custom.

MS doesn't have customers. They have hostages.

Hence the phrase "hostage to fortune"!

Mike.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 2/22/2017 4:16 PM, Carl Ijames wrote:
wrote in message ...

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:12 -0500, rickman wrote:

On 2/22/2017 1:21 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root
wrote:


I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48. It took weeks of
email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing
to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact
opposite.


Amazon seems to police their vendors, almost to a fault. It would be
interesting to know from the vendor side how it feels to deal with a
bad buyer (eg. broke the product, tells lies, etc.)

Ali- rather less so and as you say the shipping cost back works in
favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not
cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back
without sending it back. 8-(

Does Amazon have a way to ask vendors questions about the product? I
know I have looked many, many times and not found a link. I know where
the eBay link is. With Aliexpress communications is often not very
useful as I don't get answers that show an understanding of my question.
I've just never gotten a warm fuzzy feeling from Amazon.

Amazon has a place to ask quesitons. Usually they're answered by
other purchasers but some sellers (and even manufacturers) use it as a
suport channel. I make two or three Amazon orders a month but haven't
bought from eBay for five or six years (and never AliEx).
n
================================================== =====================

On Amazon once an item has been ordered and shipped, but not yet delivered,
hit the orders button to view your orders, then the "get help with order"
button. In at least one of the choices in there you can contact the seller
directly, but you will have to drill down a bit. Before shipment and after
delivery the get help button isn't there, but I think you can use the
request return button to contact the seller. I asked the seller of a little
power supply I bought for a schematic, and they sent me a hand drawn sketch
of the connections which just duplicated what was printed on the pcb anyway,
sigh. But I at least was able to make contact :-).

With eBay you can have the same lame conversation with the seller
*before* the purchase. I don't consider getting questions answered by
other buyers to be the proper way to get help. But then you can
converse with other buyers who may not have all good to say about the item.

I will say I bought an Amazon branded shredder once which was the lowest
price I could find for a unit of that capability with free shipping as
well. The unit works great and I have no complaints which is rare with
me.

I'm just not comfortable with buying from unknown quantities on Amazon.
The few times I did it I wasn't happy and I'm not comfortable with the
overall process. If I can't contact the seller, why should I buy
anything from them?

--

Rick C

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

In article , says...


With eBay you can have the same lame conversation with the seller
*before* the purchase. I don't consider getting questions answered by
other buyers to be the proper way to get help. But then you can
converse with other buyers who may not have all good to say about the item.

I will say I bought an Amazon branded shredder once which was the lowest
price I could find for a unit of that capability with free shipping as
well. The unit works great and I have no complaints which is rare with
me.

I'm just not comfortable with buying from unknown quantities on Amazon.
The few times I did it I wasn't happy and I'm not comfortable with the
overall process. If I can't contact the seller, why should I buy
anything from them?


Most of the new things of any big price I order from any place is
something I already know about. I have orderd from ebay from China many
items less than $ 25 and have been satified.

I have ordered some items off ebay that I look on Youtube to see if
anyone has done a review on them. Good thing about ebay is you can look
at a venders feedback and if they have done lots of business and have a
rating of around 99 or beter then I feel good about them.

The way I see it, Amazon has ratings on the products but not on the
outside venders.I ordered a book from one of the Amazon venders and did
not get in about 3 weeks I tried 2 times to send them an email and did
not get a response. Went to Amazons problem page and got credited in
less than a week by them.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 2017-02-21, 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).

Depending on where you are sometimes they have free shipping.
so far as i know they don't have minimum orders on most common parts,
I think that I heard that digikey has free shipping if you are in USA
and order by mail with cheque enclosed.

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

yeah... quality can be suspect too, but if y're prepare to be vigilant
it can work.

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

you could look at "sparkfun" and "adafriut" and "pimoroni", but I'm
not guaranteeing that they will be a good fit for you.

--
This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 2017-02-22, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root
wrote:


I could not disagree more with your assertions about AliExpress. If you
receive goods which were either defective or not as represented you
can get your money back but only if you ship the items back to
the sender at your expense. On a recent $105 order with AliExpress,
the shipping cost to return the item was $48. It took weeks of
email exchanges with the sender before they were even willing
to take back the item. My experience with Amazon is the exact
opposite.


Amazon seems to police their vendors, almost to a fault. It would be
interesting to know from the vendor side how it feels to deal with a
bad buyer (eg. broke the product, tells lies, etc.)

Yeah, but they lied to me about the price, "Buy now $3 shipping"
specifically mentioning my location. I clicked the button and they
charged me $30 for shipping.

Ironically I was buying a book about fraud by big business.

Ali- rather less so and as you say the shipping cost back works in
favor of a bad seller- you *have* to use a method with tracking so not
cheap. Sometimes you can get partial (maybe half) the money back
without sending it back. 8-(

You don't have to agree to pay shipping on "faulty product" or "not as
described". If the vendor can't make an acceptable offer in the time
allotte aliexpress will take interest in the deal.

--
This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 23 Feb 2017 05:49:24 GMT, the renowned Jasen Betts
wrote:


You don't have to agree to pay shipping on "faulty product" or "not as
described". If the vendor can't make an acceptable offer in the time
allotte aliexpress will take interest in the deal.

I still lost $120 US or so, even after they took interest.

Their argument was that it was a relatively large amount of money so I
should lose half. If it was $5 or $10 they probably would have made
the dishonest vendor pay 100%. So, caveat emptor.

--sp


--
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 2:37:53 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:07 +1100, Clifford Heath
wrote:

You're wrong to discount Aliexpress. You get access to thousands of
vendors (same as EBay) but none of them see your credit card, and
until you approve of the product *as delivered*, they don't get your

Is this Aliexpress a company in China, or do they just sell China goods?



Aliexpress is just an umbrella corporation and the goods that come through are sold by many thousands of independent sellers.

Think of Aliexpress as a Chinese "buy it now" only ebay.

I've had excellent luck, just be sure to check ratings and read the descriptions carefully.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On 2/23/2017 5:50 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On 23 Feb 2017 05:49:24 GMT, the renowned Jasen Betts
wrote:


You don't have to agree to pay shipping on "faulty product" or "not as
described". If the vendor can't make an acceptable offer in the time
allotte aliexpress will take interest in the deal.

I still lost $120 US or so, even after they took interest.

Their argument was that it was a relatively large amount of money so I
should lose half. If it was $5 or $10 they probably would have made
the dishonest vendor pay 100%. So, caveat emptor.

That's so BS, but it may be a cultural thing. A friend was in a taxi in
Vietnam and a cyclist was hit. The two drivers started haggling and
bystanders joined in to mediate. In the end it was decided that the
cyclist should get $50. They said my friend should pay.

--

Rick C

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

In article , says...

That's so BS, but it may be a cultural thing. A friend was in a taxi
in
Vietnam and a cyclist was hit. The two drivers started haggling and
bystanders joined in to mediate. In the end it was decided that the
cyclist should get $50. They said my friend should pay.

Sounds like a good scam. Perhaps the same "bystanders" do that every
day...

Mike.

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

Try Jameco. They have a $20 minimum and sell a lot of "pulls" & odd stuff.
Almost all are "through hole" devices, which can be handy.

Hul

In sci.electronics.design 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

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

On Thu, 23 Feb 2017 13:49:23 -0500, the renowned rickman
wrote:

On 2/23/2017 5:50 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On 23 Feb 2017 05:49:24 GMT, the renowned Jasen Betts
wrote:


You don't have to agree to pay shipping on "faulty product" or "not as
described". If the vendor can't make an acceptable offer in the time
allotte aliexpress will take interest in the deal.

I still lost $120 US or so, even after they took interest.

Their argument was that it was a relatively large amount of money so I
should lose half. If it was $5 or $10 they probably would have made
the dishonest vendor pay 100%. So, caveat emptor.

That's so BS, but it may be a cultural thing. A friend was in a taxi in
Vietnam and a cyclist was hit. The two drivers started haggling and
bystanders joined in to mediate. In the end it was decided that the
cyclist should get $50. They said my friend should pay.

Yes, typical Asian logic and I'm all too familiar with it- if the
foreign devil wasn't there the taxi wouldn't have been carrying him,
and thus the cyclist wouldn't have been hit.

You can see a smidgeon of that in some of the anti-immigrant rhetoric
on this side of the pond.

--sp


--
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Best place for a hobbiest to buy small amounts of parts?
 

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

My old list not updated.

http://www.pitt.edu/~szekeres/mail.htm

Greg