[sdiy] Dealing with China

[Tony Mowbray]

I have been buying bits and pieces from China though through local drop-ship
outfits. Only ever had one reject - it was a bit of effort through eBay and
I had to threaten and bad review before I got a refund. Fortunately, most
are good!

 

 

 

 

Kind Regards

 

Tony Mowbray

 

From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> On Behalf Of Mike Bryant
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2024 9:58 AM
To: SDIY <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>; Dave Kendall <davekendall at ntlworld.com>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Dealing with China

 

Well obviously if LCSC have it then use them - they're larger than many of
the Western distributors now.

 

The smaller suppliers aren't actually distributors.  You order from them and
they go and buy the parts in the market in the video, then post them to you.
And that market is far bigger than all the Mouser warehouses put together.
Remember your supplier will be on the lookout for dodgy parts as well - it
will be them refunding you if they are fake.   I've only had two batches of
fakes, one of which was at a too good to be true price so I ordered to see
if they really were.  

 

But I've also had a surprise when a third order for a reel-end of OPA2134s
at a knockdown price really were OPA2134s !  So just order the parts and if
they arrive faulty just ask for a refund.  Aliexpress is far better than
eBay for doing this - it's almost immediate.

 

And that market is almost the only source now for older parts such as the
older AKM or Cirrus Logic convertors.  Companies are getting more aggressive
at obsoleting parts so that they can shut old fabs, so the only place you
can find them is on the surplus market.  That is where the Western resellers
will be getting their supplies of these same parts, just they charge ten
times as much for stocking them.

 

I think a lot of negative comments are more towards mechanical items.
They're not fakes but clones.  And they simply aren't made to the standard
of an Alps or Bourns component such as pots, or the better brands of jacks.
But they obviously cost much less.  So you need to decide how much the
'feel' of your product justifies the higher quality but far more expensive
part.

  _____  

From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org
<mailto:synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> > on behalf of Dave Kendall via
Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org <mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org> >
Sent: 12 January 2024 22:28
To: SDIY <synth-diy at synth-diy.org <mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org> >
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Dealing with China 

 

Is it that the larger distributors (like LCSC for example) have a good rep,
but that smaller suppliers are more likely to sell B stock, rejects and
fakes ?

What have people's experiences been ?

 

I'm looking to source some through-hole components that are getting harder
to find - DACs and 74HC mostly.

 

I  only have limited experience of buying mechanical parts from China so far
(connectors mostly), but have seen a lot of comments and negative reviews
criticising eBay and AliExpress vendors selling ICs. 

 

Dave





On 14 Dec 2023, at 13:13, Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com
<mailto:mbryant at futurehorizons.com> > wrote:

 

I've got all my established contacts and find them excellent, but I still
see comments here obviously not trusting Chinese suppliers and paying over
the odds instead to suppliers who probably get their supplies from China
anyway.   

 

Even if you don't buy the book, it's well worth watching this video just to
appreciate the scale of the Shenzhen market and how it totally dwarfs
anything in the West.  There's also huge warehouses backing up these
operations which she doesn't show, and of course all the PCB manufacturers
and assemblers.

 

https://www.crowdsupply.com/machinery-enchantress/the-new-essential-guide-to
-electronics-in-shenzhen

 

In over 20 years of buying thousands of packages from China, I've had one
faulty set of ICs due to bad packaging, and two counterfeits.  All three
refunded.

 

 

 

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