I'd bought from Digi-Key in the mid 1970's when they first started business, catering to the small orders and hobbyists. They were the most expensive distributor around and still are, but their service is what you pay for.
Engineers doing small stuff and prototyping paved the way for the larger orders and production. Back in the day when customers meant something.
This
Marketplace crap is all about profit: "Digi-Key takes a 25% commission from the sale price of each order."
They even offer price-fixing:
"Digi-Key does reserve the right to modify prices for two purposes:
-Adherence to price fixing laws, and
-If a supplier were to enter the market and attempt to undercut all competition by lowering their sale price below standard market pricing, we would adjust the price upward to put all suppliers on an equal footing. We don’t want a supplier trying to “buy” the market and force out the competition. At the same time, at no point would we adjust downward the resale cost, as that would impact the market as a whole and reduce the revenue of the supplier – obviously unfair to all involved."
Can I search and select Marketplace only? No. Then what's special about it?
I would want oddball, boutique parts sold in it (marketplace), how about some variety and fun parts... but we all know it will soon get polluted with vendors just reselling cheap parts from the bowels of Shenzen, some at silly high prices just like Amazon, Best Buy etc. retailers. There is mention of the Marketplace for services, perhaps PCB's or
Tindie-kind-of offerings - but 25% markup is kinda high? Tindie is 5%.
Do they have rules/policies to vet marketplace vendors? Did they explain this anywhere?
I don't see any criteria in their FAQ. It doesn't really matter, because they are just pimping out the vendor to make money and who would be against that?
It's too bad they are just copycatting other e-commerce sites instead of innovating or providing something customers actually want.