I am addicted to getting packages in the mail containing electronics parts, i find it exciting to unbox something and get that smell that seems to come with every delivery which i duly sniff, then empty out the packets from the box onto my table, components that i have no immediate use for but may need in the future, I used to buy from Amazon but i just went to order some resistors and read some of the reviews on said components which said the leads were very thin and unsuitable for breadboard construction so i looked elsewhere and ended up ordering from Digikey, i received my order and am delighted with the quality.

Now.....I am straddling the fence as to do i buy from Amazon with their speedy delivery sometimes within 12hrs or less and their free delivery along with bargain prices for buying parts in bulk for which i have no choice, you cannot buy just 1 capacitor for instance, you have to buy a kit, or to go with Digikey and their 4 day at least delivery time and extortionate shipping cost...the components from Digikey do seem to be of higher quality from what i have seen though.

Amazon = cheaper components, speedy delivery, bulk buying only

Digikey = Slightly more expensive components, longer delivery times, expensive shipping costs

Ummmmm..........

What do you guys do?

 

Amazon - quality unknown, authenticity unknown

DigiKey - only quality authentic merchandise

I buy from Amazon to get things like resistor kits. I use Mouser or DigiKey for critical components.

 

I used to buy from Amazon but i just went to order some resistors and read some of the reviews on said components which said the leads were very thin

They also sometimes/usually use a ferrous metal instead of copper for the lead core.

What do you guys do?

When authenticity/reliability is required, I buy from reputable suppliers (Newark, Mouser, Tayda). I used to recommend Jameco but have found that they sell some counterfeit parts. I'll still buy commonly available parts from them.

I generally don't buy from Digikey because I've found their large selection to result in higher prices.

Since counterfeiting became such a problem, I don't buy components from Amazon and rarely from Ebay (especially if it ships from China - they'll eventually start shipping from other countries). If I'm going to buy components of questionable authenticity/reliability, I'll cut out most of the middlemen and buy from AliExpress.

 

I am addicted to getting packages in the mail containing electronics parts, i find it exciting to unbox something and get that smell that seems to come with every delivery which i duly sniff, then empty out the packets from the box onto my table, components that i have no immediate use for but may need in the future, I used to buy from Amazon but i just went to order some resistors and read some of the reviews on said components which said the leads were very thin and unsuitable for breadboard construction so i looked elsewhere and ended up ordering from Digikey, i received my order and am delighted with the quality.

Now.....I am straddling the fence as to do i buy from Amazon with their speedy delivery sometimes within 12hrs or less and their free delivery along with bargain prices for buying parts in bulk for which i have no choice, you cannot buy just 1 capacitor for instance, you have to buy a kit, or to go with Digikey and their 4 day at least delivery time and extortionate shipping cost...the components from Digikey do seem to be of higher quality from what i have seen though.

Amazon = cheaper components, speedy delivery, bulk buying only

Digikey = Slightly more expensive components, longer delivery times, expensive shipping costs

Ummmmm..........

What do you guys do?

When I was a broke college student (back long before Amazon and its ilk were around), my bread and butter were the electronic surplus stores (there were quite a few of them back then, virtually none exist today) and scavenging parts from discarded equipment. I used the Digi-Key catalog to research what was available and then spent hours trying to find someplace where I could get it at an affordable price. If I couldn't find something at a surplus store, I discovered that places like Allied often had much better prices, but almost always had minimum order sizes (per part, not per order) that I couldn't afford. My approach and decisions were driven by my finances -- I didn't have the money, I did have the time. After I started working as a full-time engineer, I carried over this same approach, since it was the only one I knew, but after a couple of months I sat back and looked at it from the perspective of someone who's time no had value and I ran the numbers. I immediately realized that the time spent trying to beat Digi-Key's prices quickly cost more than the savings from doing so, unless I was in a position to buy the minimum order size that the other houses required. I realized that Digi-Key and Mouser were actually reasonably prices for the service they provided -- I could look up in their catalog nearly everything I needed, order it all at one time (I usually phoned the order in, and found working with their representatives to be most pleasant), and I could get almost everything in single quantities. If I need a single potentiometer for a project, I could order just one. Shipping and handling cost $5 for orders under $25 and was free for orders above that provided you paid at the time you ordered. As a working professional, this was actually quite valuable and more than offset the higher prices -- on balance, it was actually a cost savings when I factored in what an hour of my time cost the company, especially after all of the benefits were taken into account. As a sole-proprietor, my situation was a hybrid of the two, so my purchasing habits became a hybrid. I ordered quite a bit from Digi-Key, but also spent quite a bit of time at the surplus stores. I developed a decent feel for which resource to use for what under different scenarios.

As a retired engineer doing very limited hardware work these days (my focus is elsewhere right now), I'm arguably back to the "broke college student with a lot of free time" model. I wouldn't have much qualms about buying most passives from Amazon and such, but fortunately I have a pretty good bench stock of that kind of stuff. For ICs and the like, if I need something I'm probably turning to Digi-Key. I'll pay the higher price in exchange for knowing that I am getting the real thing -- that has value to me.

One thing that I definitely miss are the manufacturer's samples. As a student (especially) or a prototyping engineer, you could call up TI or National or any of the others and request engineering samples of a large fraction of their offerings and they would send them in the mail to you for free. I got quite a few rather expensive ICs that way -- and it resulted in modest orders for those parts down the road in some cases.