Long Time Build Up of Parts List on Digikey

Feb 06, 2010 19 Replies

I'd put off shipping for as long as possible when ordering parts off Digikey.ca. I'd add a part one week...add a part another week.. etc. I was stalling on shipping for months. Order was over $140. Then the pita started to build up. Items were starting to be no longer available and/or long lead times. There was an intolerable amount of missing stock at Digi that I have to transfer my order to Mouser which has stock.



Lessons learned. Ship asap before it disappears on Digikey. Good thing I'm not doing a small production run. I'd be part starved by Digikey. Mouser wins this time. Trust nothing. :P


D from BC British Columbia

You're supposed to place the order before the items are obsolete! Did you have many vacuum tubes on the list? :-)

RogerN

Why go to that much trouble to save an amount that won't buy a decent chocolate bar or draft beer?

John

Agreed. Digikey used to have a minimum order amount (that

*seems* to have disappeared). So, if I just needed a handful of hi-temp caps, I'd wait and add it to a later order. (I think the "small order surcharge" was ~$5... outrageous when you're only looking to buy $3 worth of caps! OTOH, processing that order costs them money so... :< )

I still like the ~$25 target for an order as otherwise I have a hard time keeping track of what I have ordered and what I have already received (and what has yet to be ordered), etc. If I need something in a hurry, I'll pick it up locally and pay the premium for the parts. Otherwise, it's easy to come up with a $25 list of "piddly stuff" each month.

(pay in advance with a check to save the $5 postage)

If I place 5 orders for $40 each I'd pay $200 + $40 in shipping (5 x $8 each). One order for $200 and it's free. Worth a bit of consideration, IMO, particularly if it's just consolidating a week's worth of stuff. A lot of stuff isn't needed overnight.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

Yeah.. I aimed to decrease shipping frequency to save money. But...That wasn't the only thing at play. I kept juggling my design and the BOM changed frequently.

Compare the paper catalogs; the Mouser catalog has nice stiff dividers that additionally has a section directory: by section type and then by manufacturer. And almost always alphabetically sorted in each section type. Almost faster to find something WRT the web on dial-up. DigiKey catalog? fergeddit!

Yes...6SN7s anyone? ((just kidding))

Are you talking about the "replace a junker" program?

How is Mouser for Canadian orders price wise on delivery. Do you get dinged with a large delivery charge like brokerage, customs?

You might also try

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Twelve bucks flat rate over night shipping.No brokerage or other customs BS fees.

o
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d you

With a 6SN7 you can make a flip-flop. I suspect that a compute made from them would draw more than a Pentium does.

That's the atitude I was using. If the parts are not needed now, stall,stall stall... The savings is supposed to add up but.... I'm discovering Digistock is too chaotic to do that too long. Maybe just my bad luck with the parts I picked or Digistock varies like the wind. Dunno.

Another reason I like stalling on shipments is: It's happened many times where while waiting for my delivery, I would improve and change my design to the point of making my ordered parts useless. I'd receive a box of junk.. Fk.. And have to order again.

D from BC British Columbia

Reminds me of the time.... I needed $1 to feed a parking meter at 5pm The meter is free after 6pm I only had a $2.00 coin. For the area, I estimated it would take about 10 minutes to get change. I popped in the $2.00 coin.

Wasted a dollar to save 10 minutes.

D from BC British Columbia

You'll be finding parts getting harder to get as distributors reduce their stock and manufacturers reduce output as the recession gets deeper. We're finding many ICs going on allocation which means 3 month lead times. If it gets as bad as the late 90s, common resistors and capacitors will go on allocation.

I ordered spearheads, stone axes and fire. They had it in stock a month ago and now it's a 3 month lead time.

Dinosaurs are out of stock too. Probably something to do with God not wanting to be Jesus to be fed to a T-Rex eating machine. Jesus's head sticking out of a T-Rex mouth would be a sadder church statue than a guy nailed up on a cross. Sure rotting bodies on crosses made for a dramatic statement (Don't mess with Romans), but a chained up T-rex pooping piles of human bones might be more frightening. (btw..the bible should have had some word about the health hazards of bodies on crosses.) Maybe Jesus could have been resurrected by passing through the T-rex. (And after 3 days of digestion, the lord did returnth.)

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The logical extension of that is to never finish a design.

John

My designs have a designed design end. If that makes sense... :P Means that I have to make an end to the project otherwise I'll keep on improving and altering for an unknown amount of time. But sometimes I just have to tweeek, the BOM changes and then I have to order more parts..

I'm only now digging into Mouser shipping details. By the looks of it, they can ship by USPS and I suppose when I get the package I'll have to pay iirc $12.00 Canada Post brokerage.

Thanks.. Forgot about those Newark guys.. I'll test out my order to see if they have stock or at the least shorter lead times than Digikey.

D from BC British Columbia

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