Mouser vs. Digikey

Anybody notice that the price of shipping has skyrocketed when buying from
Mouser?

Needed a single SO-8 pin chip for a repair on a HP 34970A.

Both companies had the part for about $1.48.

Digikey shipping: $2.80
Mouser shipping $6.99

Both ship USPS.

Sheesh. I'll think twice before buying from Mouser in the future, unless
they're the only one that has the part I need.

 

Mouser also plays games with the UPS shipping, so use the US Mail option
when you can - I had them ship a package to work, which is a real
workplace with staff sitting there to receive packages, and they charged
me the higher "residential" rate. They also take it upon themselves to
collect sales tax for states they don't operate in - for the (small)
volume of business I do that basically means double-paying, since the
paperwork to track it all is a time (thus money) sink far larger than
just handing the state the "safe harbor amount" for online purchases. I
don't recall what DigiKey does on that front as I haven't ordered from
them in a while (Mouser has had stuff in stock I wanted that they didn't
have for the past few orders.)

I certainly prefer Mouser's online catalog to Digi-Key's - Newark was in
there for a while but has not been worth following up on for the past
few orders either.

 

I'm surprised newark even has a website. that place is seriously backwards
with their weird flip flop between the 45 names they use and inability to
calculate shipping.

I might use them about once every 5 years, as a last choice.

 

Last few orders where I chose USPS priority, the orders were shipped UPS
second day air for same price. I have no complaint with Mouser,
excellent website, fast shipping, but my orders are usually $50-100 a time.

 

I'm shipping to MA, but it is a residential address. Zip is 02108
Shipping from Mouser is listed as $6.95, but when I process the order they
add four cents for some odd reason.

On my last order of under 1lb , it didn't even come USPS as I requested,
but came Fedex instead.

 

Looking at the Digikey chart, it appears that they will only ship USPS

Sometime in the recent (?) past, Digikey switched to a "no minimum order"
policy. This doesn't work if you don't provide an inexpensive way to ship
small, low-cost items. This is what Digikey did.

Shipping has gotten really expensive. I can no longer "afford" to buy less
than $50 to $100 of items at a time. Otherwise, the shipping represents too
high a percentage of the price.

 

For my $.25 worth, both Digi-Key and Mouser are excellent for $50 and
larger orders, or if you REALLY have to have the parts. (IOW,
shipping expense isn't a factor). If you need a half dozen caps,
Digi-Key will get them in your hands quicker and cheaper.

What I admire about both is No Minimum Order, No Handling Charge for
small orders, and I've never been jerked around with the "Yes, we show
it in stock, but we can't sell it to you" from either of them.

PlainBill

 

Since we have no state sales tax the tax impact isn't an issue with
us, however I recently ordered an eprom from Encompass. This part was
about the size of a deer tick, cost 5.48, and came in a box large
enough to ship a toaster in. I had asked for it to be shipped in an
envelope but they wouldn't do it and charged me 9.68 for shipping
instead. I was pissed but was told that this is their "handling" fee
as well. How about a "handling" fee at Macdonalds for getting your
hamburger? Lenny

 

I can certainly understand that. Decades ago Newark was very nice to me.
I gave them all the business i could afford at the time; i had to ride my
bicycle there and back. All of the times i have dealt with them since has
not been a problem. Just not very frequent.

?-)

 

I did recently get a 13 cent part from them, and some other stuff. they
were pretty friendly when I phoned in the order.

The other thing that's obnoxious about all those distributors is most
claim to carry all parts, but what's in stock is a different story.

It was never like that back in the printed catalogs day.

I'm not going to special orer 24,999 "spare" diodes, but thanks for
listing a product you have no intention of actually stocking.

 

Ditto on most everything on this thread as I take shipping into account (no pun) when budgiting for a project. Sure would like to know from the person which state of his has no sales tax ?!