I ask him to send me a total, and he sends me a total incl. shipping ready to be paid by Paypal😀 Special, but not complicated.
Nothing is free where i come from. The best i can hope for is that they will only stick one vacuum pipe into my wallet, and not run the sucktion on max.🙁
Best suppliers in Austria/Germany
In the US I mostly used mouser for quality parts and Tayda for throwaway/experimentation parts. Their parts are not 100% trustworthy for a proper build, though their prices can't be beat. I only used Digikey for LT parts (which mouser generally doesn't carry) and various sampling services from manufacturers (TI in particular). It was semiconductor heaven...Then We moved to Austria....
It is true that semiconductors are generally more expensive here, and harder to find. On the other hand, some parts are cheaper. E.g. WIMA Foil caps are cheaper, while LT parts are more expensive. JFETs are cheaper while most mosfets I use are more expensive. Power transformers are more expensive (and it's harder to get 110+110 primary ones) but oddly enough small pcb transformers are a bit cheaper. Nowadays I use:
1. TME.eu - 7.99 shipping, arrives in two days (from Poland). They have a lot of generic parts, a good selection of toroids, and very cheap prices on available parts (e.g. I compared Mouser with them on my last shipment, and they came out 30% cheaper for the exact same parts.) Be aware though, that there is a 23% VAT on TOP of the price you see in their list - and their online site has some issues (Apr 2015) where the cart sometimes gets emptied, so try moving items to your parking, then order everything together. If you visit their facebook page, they generally have some discount code running, for 15% off or free shipping - unfortunately they pick random countries for those discounts, and Austria does not seem to be on their radar 🙁
2. If TME does not carry a part I compare Mouser and Farnell. Mouser is by far cheaper and ships from Germany (3 days on my last shipment). Farnell has a ridiculously good selection though, especially for Japanese and other international parts (Semelab, Toshiba, etc.)
3. Farnell - only if I have to, or want something exotic. Their price + shipping + VAT always ends up being ridiculously high.
4. Conrad and Reichelt (local suppliers) for test equipment or wires, etc. Sometimes they have sales on wire, cables, switches, or test equipment that makes them about as cheap as the US.
5. ebay/china - keep the total price per order under 30 Euros, and there will be no import duty. I use it mostly for heatsinks, plastic parts, smd kits and other knick-knacks. Be aware that shipping from China to Europe generally takes longer (about 2-4 weeks) vs the US where it took (7 days-14 days).
7. Tayda Electronics: they ship from Taiwan if I remember correctly. Everything is nicely packed (not mouser quality packing with silica and ESD safe though). For jellybean parts their prices cannot be beat. Their non-semiconductor parts (except for pin headers) are rather low-quality though - so be careful what you get. Also, I have received fake transistors and fuses with lose caps from them in the past and their controls are not as tight as big-name suppliers. I keep my orders below 30-40 euros, and normally don't end up having to pay duties. Their shipping cost was reasonable, even to Europe.
Overall I am spending about as much as I spent in the US, but that's only because I brought a huge stock of components with me. (yes you can do that for free if you have owned the parts for at least a year 😛 ). I expect my costs to rise when my stocks drop! One thing that I do miss in Europe is the US surplus sellers. I loved those huge grab boxes of electronics from Electronics Goldmine - there is no equivalent here in Europe. I still start giggling when I look at a huge box of Brand-name RF and power transistors, and boxes of precision resistors that I got from them for almost free!
Hope that helps anyone living in Austria/Germany.
In the US I mostly used mouser for quality parts and Tayda for throwaway/experimentation parts. Their parts are not 100% trustworthy for a proper build, though their prices can't be beat. I only used Digikey for LT parts (which mouser generally doesn't carry) and various sampling services from manufacturers (TI in particular). It was semiconductor heaven...Then We moved to Austria....
It is true that semiconductors are generally more expensive here, and harder to find. On the other hand, some parts are cheaper. E.g. WIMA Foil caps are cheaper, while LT parts are more expensive. JFETs are cheaper while most mosfets I use are more expensive. Power transformers are more expensive (and it's harder to get 110+110 primary ones) but oddly enough small pcb transformers are a bit cheaper. Nowadays I use:
1. TME.eu - 7.99 shipping, arrives in two days (from Poland). They have a lot of generic parts, a good selection of toroids, and very cheap prices on available parts (e.g. I compared Mouser with them on my last shipment, and they came out 30% cheaper for the exact same parts.) Be aware though, that there is a 23% VAT on TOP of the price you see in their list - and their online site has some issues (Apr 2015) where the cart sometimes gets emptied, so try moving items to your parking, then order everything together. If you visit their facebook page, they generally have some discount code running, for 15% off or free shipping - unfortunately they pick random countries for those discounts, and Austria does not seem to be on their radar 🙁
2. If TME does not carry a part I compare Mouser and Farnell. Mouser is by far cheaper and ships from Germany (3 days on my last shipment). Farnell has a ridiculously good selection though, especially for Japanese and other international parts (Semelab, Toshiba, etc.)
3. Farnell - only if I have to, or want something exotic. Their price + shipping + VAT always ends up being ridiculously high.
4. Conrad and Reichelt (local suppliers) for test equipment or wires, etc. Sometimes they have sales on wire, cables, switches, or test equipment that makes them about as cheap as the US.
5. ebay/china - keep the total price per order under 30 Euros, and there will be no import duty. I use it mostly for heatsinks, plastic parts, smd kits and other knick-knacks. Be aware that shipping from China to Europe generally takes longer (about 2-4 weeks) vs the US where it took (7 days-14 days).
7. Tayda Electronics: they ship from Taiwan if I remember correctly. Everything is nicely packed (not mouser quality packing with silica and ESD safe though). For jellybean parts their prices cannot be beat. Their non-semiconductor parts (except for pin headers) are rather low-quality though - so be careful what you get. Also, I have received fake transistors and fuses with lose caps from them in the past and their controls are not as tight as big-name suppliers. I keep my orders below 30-40 euros, and normally don't end up having to pay duties. Their shipping cost was reasonable, even to Europe.
Overall I am spending about as much as I spent in the US, but that's only because I brought a huge stock of components with me. (yes you can do that for free if you have owned the parts for at least a year 😛 ). I expect my costs to rise when my stocks drop! One thing that I do miss in Europe is the US surplus sellers. I loved those huge grab boxes of electronics from Electronics Goldmine - there is no equivalent here in Europe. I still start giggling when I look at a huge box of Brand-name RF and power transistors, and boxes of precision resistors that I got from them for almost free!
Hope that helps anyone living in Austria/Germany.
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