Don't forget about www.mpja.com and www.mouser.com. They have things like
heatsinks, resistors, etc, that you find difficult to find elsewhere. It's
always fun to browse their inventory.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Shoppa" <classiccmp_at_trailing-edge.com>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 7:08 PM
Subject: Re: Source for components on Internet?
> > Does anyone have a recommended place to order stuff such as Resistors and
> > TTL from on the net? I was at the local large seller of such stuff on
> > Saturday and half the stuff I wanted they were out of.
>
> Over three years ago I posted an article (below) to sci.electronics.
> design detailing my experiences and impressions. Since then, they've
> all improved, but Digikey remains the all-around best. They've done
> an excellent job of expanding their passive component lineup over the
> past couple of years and they still stock both TI and Fairchild TTL.
>
> Tim.
>
> From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com>
> Subject: Buying components on-line - my experiences
> Date: 1999/02/24
> Message-ID: <36D3FE51.32DE1F02_at_trailing-edge.com>
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> Organization: Trailing Edge Technology
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Newsgroups:
sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.components,misc.industry.ele
> ctronics.marketplace
>
>
> Many of the big-name distributors have, in the past few years,
> added on-line ordering via the Internet as an option. Here
> I recount some of my experiences with on-line ordering from
> a few of the big names.
>
> A bit of background: I do rather small-scale electronic parts
> purchasing - electronics hardware is not my main business. But
> I do a small amount of one-off and few-off industrial controllers,
> adapters, and other custom jobs. Availability of the necessary parts
> in a few days is vital. For small things I can hit the local
> electronic shops, but for anything above something that
> I can dash off in an afternoon, I usually use a big-name distributor.
> My typical orders run from a few tens of dollars to around a
> thousand dollars, with a typical outlay in the range of a few
> hundred dollars per month. So I'm not a big-time industrial
> customer. I don't feel any need to establish a personal relationship
> with any particular supplier(s), I just want to know what's
> available now, and painlessly order it if it's available.
>
> I'm posting this "review" in the hope that future web-ordering
> implementations run smoothly for me and others. I'm trying
> to make the criticisms be constructive; in all cases I've sent
> my suggestions/complaints to folks at the respective organizations
> that claim to be responsible.
>
> Now, my reviews:
>
> 1. Digi-Key ( http://www.digikey.com/ ). Overall, Digi-Key has
> the best implemented on-line ordering system. Order entry tells
> you real-time stock status, each order is assigned a number by which
> it can be referenced, and I can electronically check the status
> of each order very conveniently after placing it. For each package
> shipped, I get a "clickable link" that takes me straight to the
> UPS/Fedex tracking page for that package. If I enter my customer
> number, I can easily check all orders that I've placed in the past
> few years (several dozen by now), whether I placed them over the
> web, by phone, or by mail.
>
> Digi-Key prides themselves at overall availability of product, and
> has several advantages over other vendors in this area. They claim
> that all orders entered into their system by 8 PM central will
> ship out same day, and this has been 100% true in my experience whether
> the order is by phone or over the Internet. (Several times I've come
> within a few minutes of the cutoff time and the order still shipped
> the same day.) They do occasionally go out-of-stock on some items,
> but thanks to the web I've noticed this while entering the order
> (if anything is on back order, it's boldly displayed) and found
> substitute items instead.
>
> Digi-Key doesn't stock as wide a variety of stuff as some of
> the other suppliers. In particular, they have a rather odd
> selection of IC's, and are very lacking in the industrial sensor/
> motion control parts I sometimes need. But they've done a wonderful
> job at broadening their discrete component lines over the past few
> years, they're the best supplier I've yet found for PIC microcotrollers,
> and they're perfectly suited for handling many of my requirements.
>
> My only concern with Digi-Key is security related; in order to
> check my order status, all I need is my customer number and zip
> code, which anyone who raids my mail could find. In my case, I
> don't particularly care if anyone else knows what I'm building or
> who I'm building it for, and I'd be surprised if anyone did care.
> Of course, anyone could call Digi-Key up, knowing my name and address,
> and get my customer number without much difficulty from the order line,
> so the security issue isn't purely electronic, and it doesn't
> bother me at all in practice.
>
> 2. Newark. ( http://www.newark.com ). Newark has always been
> oriented, IMHO, towards selling to large corporations that do their
> buying through purchasing departments. This leaves an odd "flavor"
> to their business relations that I find unnecessary for my smaller
> orders. That said, the availability of on-line ordering from Newark
> has greatly increased the amount of business I do with them, as I
> don't feel awkward asking for one of this, two of that, five of these
> if I'm buying over the net.
>
> Newark's current on-line order entry system is pretty slick. I get
> real-time stock status, though the back-order status isn't
> as obviously displayed as in Digi-Key's system (in particular, I have
> to click on a "detail" display for each item that I've entered to
> see if it's actually in stock.)
>
> Newark's on-line database contains many
> items (especially semiconductors) not listed in their paper catalog,
> and this is a huge advantage to me.
> For many items, I can click and view other similar items from the
> catalog quite easily. Their search interface is quite complete.
>
> Newark's on-line ordering system shows several deficiencies after
> the order is entered, though. Often I've entered orders around
> 2 PM central time and not had them processed for shipment by the
> same day - despite the fact that Newark claims this is the case
> for every order. Often stock is split between multiple warehouses
> scattered geographically over a wide area, and I've sometimes been
> charged $3 in shipping for a $0.30 part. With the web interface,
> it's not possible to tell in advance if an order will be split like
> this. It seems to me that on-line orders are still entered into
> their computer system by hand, and it sometimes takes several hours
> for an on-line order to be acknowledged. In the acknowledgement,
> a salesorder ID number is mentioned - but often if I attempt
> to find the order status electronically I'm told that my salesorder
> ID doesn't exist. It appears that online order status requests are
> also done manually, as these are never acknowledged outside
> "ordinary business hours" and even if submitted during ordinary
> business hours it takes several hours to process. Only rarely do
> I get any useful tracking numbers if I request order status online.
>
> The Newark system completely falls over on any item that must be
> drop-shipped from the manufacturer - many transformers and other
> heavy items fall into this category. You can't tell whether any
> particular item is going to be drop-shipped until you get the order
> acknowledgment, sometimes several hours after you've submitted your
> complete order, telling you that this part number can't be
> ordered electronically, you've got to do it over the phone. This
> is an area where they really, really need to improve their system.
> At the very least, if a part isn't orderable over the Internet, you
> should be told that and not allowed to build it into your Internet
> order!
>
> 3. Jameco ( http://www.jameco.com/ ). I don't make many orders
> from Jameco these days, but they have a pretty good stock in
> semiconductors, "standard" connectors, transformers, wall warts, cheap
> tools, and PC-clone accessories. Unlike Newark or Digi-Key, when
> I order semiconductors from Jameco it's rarely obvious who the
> manufacturer is going to be. In the past few years Jameco's
> stock of discrete components has really taken a downturn, but
> the remaining discretes that they do still carry are always very
> inexpensive.
> Jameco's web ordering interface is pretty good. I've never ordered
> anything that turns out to be out-of-stock, so I can't comment on
> this part of the system.
>
> Jameco's after-order customer service (shipping status, tracking
> numbers) is completely unavailable over the web. You have to call
> them up by phone and ask. During some parts of the day, their
> phones are quite busy, but after getting a real person on the other
> end of the phone it's always been very quick and painless to get
> my order status.
>
> 4. MSC Industrial Supply ( http://www.mscdirect.com/ ). These
> folks aren't really electronics distributors, but they do distribute
> all sorts of mechanical items, tools, bits, industrial sensors,
> etc. MSC's on-line ordering page is almost non-existent - it's
> a completely "open" form where you fill in the part number from their
> Big Book, the quantity you want, and the price you think the Big
> Book says it costs. When you're done, evidently, this form goes
> to a real human operator who types in the order. While on-line,
> there's no way to check for stock availability, or even if the part
> number you've entered is a real part number that's in their system.
> You may as well order by fax as by on-line methods.
>
> On the other hand, MSC has always been very good for taking orders
> over the phone. Their web interface has a long way to go, and I'm
> going to stick with ordering from them by phone for now.
>
> --
> Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
> Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
>
Received on Tue Jun 18 2002 - 08:39:49 BST