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

[Tom Gardner]

On 22/02/17 10:23, oldschool@tubes.com 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.

 

[root]

oldschool@tubes.com <oldschool@tubes.com> wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:07 +1100, Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net
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 Chinese.
AliExpress is the consumer outlet for AliBaba, the huge Chinese company.

 

www.allelectronics.com/

Allied

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <hlgrA.522530$3L.132209@fx26.am4>, spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk
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.

 

[Tom Gardner]

On 22/02/17 15:14, Ralph Mowery wrote:

In article <hlgrA.522530$3L.132209@fx26.am4>, spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk
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

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <R3irA.290505$6N1.4403@fx09.am4>, spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk
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.

 

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:12 -0500, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:

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

 

[Michael Black]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2017, Allodoxaphobia wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 05:32:13 -0600, oldschool@tubes.com 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

 

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:07 +1100, Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net>
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?

 

[Carl Ijames]

wrote in message news:r6krachkdbvmtinihs9njklrafkaofdcl8@4ax.com...

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:12 -0500, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:

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

 

[Clifford Heath]

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.

 

[MJC]

In article <58ae0515$0$32599$b1db1813$19ace300@news.astraweb.com>,
no.spam@please.net 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.

 

[rickman]

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

wrote in message news:r6krachkdbvmtinihs9njklrafkaofdcl8@4ax.com...

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:12 -0500, rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:

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

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <o8l23h$2u0$1@dont-email.me>, gnuarm@gmail.com 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.

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2017-02-21, oldschool@tubes.com <oldschool@tubes.com> 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

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2017-02-22, Spehro Pefhany <speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat> wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:33:12 +0000 (UTC), the renowned root
NoEMail@home.org> 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

 

On Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 2:37:53 PM UTC-5, olds...@tubes.com wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:20:07 +1100, Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net
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.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On 23 Feb 2017 05:49:24 GMT, the renowned Jasen Betts
<jasen@xnet.co.nz> 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

 

[Hul Tytus]

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 oldschool@tubes.com 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

 

[rickman]

On 2/23/2017 5:50 AM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:

On 23 Feb 2017 05:49:24 GMT, the renowned Jasen Betts
jasen@xnet.co.nz> 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