AliExpress, worth it?

Based on what I’ve read, ICs from AE are a crapshoot. Depending on the vendor, or even varying within the stock of one vendor, they might be fine, they might be garbage. One thing’s for sure, when you see for instance DIP AD633s, parts that Analog Devices sells for $8.03 in quantities of 1000+, offered for $1.70 each, you know those are not genuine new first quality Analog Devices parts. Maybe they’re used or seconds or knockoffs that will work well enough, maybe they’re counterfeits that won’t work at all. You can’t tell until you buy. And even TL07x chips are absolutely not immune from counterfeiting. The other thing is delivery time, which can be glacial especially at the lowest rates; that makes AE best for replenishing my stash, not so much for getting parts needed for a specific build I want to get done soon. I stick with Tayda, Digi-Key, and occasionally Mouser for nearly all my semiconductors and most other components and go to AE mainly for stuff like knobs and LEDs.

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