Same with JLCPCB but there they have an “add item” button and you can keep growing your order until it ships. That’s how they get you.
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I really wish Mouser had a button like that.
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I’m starting to see an apparent pattern: I build up a large Tayda wish list, then order it, shipped DHL from Thailand to arrive in about three days, and within a week (if not a hot minute) I discover I need something else before I can make progress. So I don’t want to wait until I have a long wish list again, but nor do I want to pay DHL rates for a small order, so I settle for a small order shipped USPS from Colorado, which takes a week or ten days to show up. And by then I have a long wish list ready to go, arriving about three days later, lather rinse repeat. If I’d get it into my head that it doesn’t really slow me down much to wait for the long wish list order I’d at least save the USPS postage.
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I’m not really happy about long supply times so I haven’t bothered with Tayda or (after a couple of extremely expensive small orders) Mouser.
I’ve found that a lot of what I want is available either via eBay and sourced locally or (surprisingly) Amazon Prime with a one day delivery. This ranges from cables to all except the most specialist of components. I get the specialist chips from Electric Druid, which can take weeks rather than days.
I avoid designing or using PCBs as a matter of policy. There’s nothing intrinsically better for my purposes about a PCB compared to a veroboard, and with veroboard I’m left free to improvise. I know for cottage-scale production of module kits PCBs have many advantages, but that’s not my approach.
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If I look for an LM13700 in DIP format from US vendors on eBay, I find I can buy one for $9.95 (shipped) or I can pay $7.95 (shipped) for a “pre-owned” part.
On Amazon I can get 10 for $9.99, with Prime shipping, from a vendor with 11 negative reviews out of 133 for the past year; one comment in their feedback: “These devices are not new. They are previously used devices. I’ve attempted to use 5 of them, 2 have been DOA.” Or from another vendor who charges more and has a similar feedback rating. They’re the only Prime vendors I can find for this part.
Or I can wait until they’re back in stock at Tayda (for about $2 each), or I can get them at a similar price from DigiKey, whose lightning fast turnaround I have already mentioned. I don’t actually need any immediately, so I’ll see if Tayda’s stock arrives in the next few weeks.
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Sounds like you’re in a completely different market. There’s no shortage of UK locally sourced items with that description on eBay from sellers with a good rating.
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Yes, I get that impression. Same with precut sheet aluminum and I’d guess a lot else. Ebay seems to just be far more viable in the UK than in its native country, for whatever reason.
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I think the aluminium problem is because of punitive tariffs, a protectionist measure that helps local distributors at the expense of local consumers. I’m not sure whether tariffs would similarly affect the prices of electronic components. It’s plausible but seems unlikely.
Ironically here we’re used to finished consumer items being more expensive even after accounting for the British practice of including the national 20% VAT in the list price tag.
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Yeah, I’ve always got really fast shipping for Digikey and Mouser, orders in the mail same or next day and arriving a day or sometimes two after that.
When I do find things on ebay they’re usually from out of country and take forever - and if they’re in country even if they ship the same day they usually take 4-5 days to get to me. (In the US, AZ)
I just learned about Tayda from this forum and have been pretty impressed with their shipping speed, the DHL option is usually only a few dollars more and seems to be about twice as fast. I just miss the ability to sort and save BOM’s and assign part numbers to components that I’m used to with Digikey and Mouser - so nice to be able to order all the parts for a build and have them arrive pre-sorted and labeled.
Still - it does seem to be a rule of the universe that you’re always one part short. I have about 25 years of projects that are just one or two components short of being completed and got put aside until the next time I ordered parts since I couldn’t justify $7 in shipping for $0.20 of parts - only to have those projects continue to sit because the next time I ordered parts I still forgot to order that one part I needed.
It got really bad last month. I build some “sangaboards” for a couple of openflexure 3d printed microscopes I had built. And of course the one SMD capacitor value I didn’t order extras of decided to go flying out of my tweezers. So a few days later when a friend sent me a PCB for a Time Fountain in exchange for one of the sangaboard PCB’s the first thing I thought was “Oh good, an excuse to order those caps I need!” And somehow I still managed to forget the caps and a diode for the time fountain I didn’t have in my parts bin…and found that the time fountain needed a single resistor of a value that somehow didn’t exist in my resistor stash.
I’ve just learned the key is to always have new projects lined up so I always have an excuse to order more parts when I need just one super small and cheap bit to complete some other project 
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Got the AS3360s in. Popped em into my Quad VCA Mixer… to discover an LED was put in backwards. The modules works, though. Time to remove all 20+ nuts and the knobs. 
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My modules gotta earn their knobs
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Got some magic smoke from an oscillator I think. Seems to work okay. Will go over it thoroughly tomorrow. Didn’t feel any hot ICs.
The quad VCA mixer I just put together also seems to be misbehaving. Very low output. High noise. When I turn it off, the mixer (with no patch cables connected to it) lets out a crazy squeal. Going to be combing over it tomorrow as well. Not a good day for my modules.
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Unlike bbq, you arnt supposed to smoke your OSC before enjoying them.
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I wasn’t going to say anything, but I made the oscillator smoke again this morning by plugging into the link socket. Thiso VCO is a little on the well-done side of things. Works now, though.
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?
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Yep, though that wasn’t the main issue. Look at the pads on the right side.
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Jacks soldered before you finished the sockets? Looks like plenty of room to me 
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Oh yeah. Tons of space. Super quick fix once I figured it out.
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didn’t Finnish soldering the IC sockets , lol been there done that . and that dam link socket , burnt up a perfectly good IC trying to power it with that socket myself .
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