I needed some AD9201ARSZ a2d converters for a scope project which I have used before.
Out of interest looked around usual vendors for a price. Prices ranged from around £10 upwards.
I looked on Ali Express and they were 52p each !
The last batch I got a couple of years back from Ali and they worked fine.
Looked for some 4700uf 35v caps on RS and they were £2 + VAT.
Looked on ebay and they were 60p each including p+p
Out of interest looked around usual vendors for a price. Prices ranged from around £10 upwards.
I looked on Ali Express and they were 52p each !
The last batch I got a couple of years back from Ali and they worked fine.
Looked for some 4700uf 35v caps on RS and they were £2 + VAT.
Looked on ebay and they were 60p each including p+p
Yes Ebay is a fantastic source for fake/relabelled/recycled parts of dubious sources but they have one good parameter which is important to many: cheapness.
Yes ebay is a lottery.
In my experience on ebay the biggest problems come with power devices.
I bought some power mosfets that burned when I turned off my soldering iron !
The glitch on the mains got into amp and took mosfets into breakdown region.
Got replacements from RS Components and amp is still going 2 years on.
I buy solder on ebay because it is cheapest.
Had a bad experience to start with when I bought some solder that barely melted.
So got some Neillsen solder and that worked great. So saved the seller and always buy solder from them.
If you do manage to buy something fake/poor etc then always do a return on it and that helps put a stop to it.
And leave appropriate feedback.
In my experience on ebay the biggest problems come with power devices.
I bought some power mosfets that burned when I turned off my soldering iron !
The glitch on the mains got into amp and took mosfets into breakdown region.
Got replacements from RS Components and amp is still going 2 years on.
I buy solder on ebay because it is cheapest.
Had a bad experience to start with when I bought some solder that barely melted.
So got some Neillsen solder and that worked great. So saved the seller and always buy solder from them.
If you do manage to buy something fake/poor etc then always do a return on it and that helps put a stop to it.
And leave appropriate feedback.
It is a system solely based on low price and not quality and it was rather unnecessary till now.. Things sure have changed in 2022.
My approach is (was?) not to buy cheapest quality and certainly not on Ebay. It does save time. Time is more valuable than money. So cheapness is in fact more expensive.
My approach is (was?) not to buy cheapest quality and certainly not on Ebay. It does save time. Time is more valuable than money. So cheapness is in fact more expensive.
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That can not be true. Time is not free. Maybe you need to make a living out of the stuff you build but when it is for hobby better build good stuff with good parts otherwise it certainly is time lost.
Part of the money that is supposedly is saved is lost at time loss, repairs and the hassle with Ebay. Besides that, unreliable stuff is one of the most annoying things in life. If is is for a living a local distributor that sells industrial quality parts may be a better source and maybe customers will like the products quality more.
Part of the money that is supposedly is saved is lost at time loss, repairs and the hassle with Ebay. Besides that, unreliable stuff is one of the most annoying things in life. If is is for a living a local distributor that sells industrial quality parts may be a better source and maybe customers will like the products quality more.
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My experience of trying to find obsolete or generally unavailable parts is that Ali Express may be the only source. Getting the actual functioning part runs around 50/50. I have seen vendors who from their reviews collect the money and then don’t even send anything.
I have managed to repair gear by getting ICs that were pulled or even desoldered from scrapped equipment. So I can see using such “vendors” as a last resort.
For production, particularly in quantity, I find reputable sources to be economical. I recently stocked up on some old design dual opamp ICs straight from the manufacturer for under 7 cents apiece! (LM358) Ali Express was 5 cents each, thus not worth the risk!) The current premium dual opamps in quantity were 65 cents each from the manufacturer and more than $1 from Ali Express.
I have managed to repair gear by getting ICs that were pulled or even desoldered from scrapped equipment. So I can see using such “vendors” as a last resort.
For production, particularly in quantity, I find reputable sources to be economical. I recently stocked up on some old design dual opamp ICs straight from the manufacturer for under 7 cents apiece! (LM358) Ali Express was 5 cents each, thus not worth the risk!) The current premium dual opamps in quantity were 65 cents each from the manufacturer and more than $1 from Ali Express.
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I get very few returns and even those are often not hardware related.
My last return was a blown motor driver IC.
Turned out to be a bug in the software not turning the motor driver off when overload was detected.
My last return was a blown motor driver IC.
Turned out to be a bug in the software not turning the motor driver off when overload was detected.
For what I make the clients cost for a return will be a minimum of $150.00! As where they are installed requires strict security, a service visit can require a minimum of 8 hours!
So far our of a few thousand sold I have had a few returns. One should never have shipped as it must have missed final test as it had an IC installed backwards. One perhaps had been dropped as the PCB was broken in half. Two others were not even my product!
Sounds like a known strategy to me. Why pay for low quality stuff when you can have good stuff for the same price or less? I have seen lots of very expensive (new) equipment being sold for scrap value in overstock and bankruptcy cases. The relation between quality and price is in the heads of consumers, "if I pay more then it will be better". This once was a more or less truth but not so anymore.
So even the known supposedly A brands try to buy stuff for the lowest possible price, cut out costs and have the highest profit margin. If people believe the stuff to be OK they will accept a lot.
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