Cheap but good eBay electronics bits and pieces.

[luke_2700k]

Just wondering if anyone has any favourite eBay sellers for cheap but OK quality electronic components?

One of mine is alice1101983 have had great success purchasing tweezers, switches, project boxes, usb tester and usb load testers from this store.
http://r.ebay.com/KrDnZv

Another of mine is wind-speed168 these guys are a good source for LED's at bargain prices.
http://r.ebay.com/CeTJfc

Of course the stuff is not always the best quality but is adequate for once off projects or the beginner (like me haha).

Would be interested to hear of any others out there. 

[CJay]

Oh dear no, according to the wide experience on the internet forums, all Chinese components on eBay are 100% crap  .

My personal opinion and experience is almost completely the opposite, I buy £20-£30 worth of 'dollar' bits every month and yes, I've had some poor quality capacitors (ceramics) and the resistors I bought are odd values but I've only bought fakes (in the knowledge they would probably be fake) a couple of times.

Personal favourite sellers, I like

Delhanway2009
Fly.top
BuyFlying
One of the Alices referenced in Julian Ilett's youtube videos.

I tend to buy modules or breakout boards for chips, either because I can't buy the chip without signing NDAs or in small quantities and it's worked out really nicely for me so far.

Buy them as a hobbyist, use them and have fun.

[ralphrmartin]

Can't seem to find BuyFlying.

Others I have found to be good are
chip_partner
sureelectronics

[CJay]

Can't seem to find BuyFlying.

Others I have found to be good are
chip_partner
sureelectronics

Ah, typo.

should be buy.flying

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/buy.flying?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754

[Back2Volts]

I try to buy the small stuff from mdflyelectronics.   They ship from US, have combined reasonable shipping and delivery in a few days.

[janoc]

Some of mine:

Sureelectronics is good,

Franky's 99centHobbies has few but very good quality items  (Dave did an interview with him):
http://stores.ebay.fr/99centHobbies?_rdc=1

Hitechledworld (Huge LED store)
http://stores.ebay.fr/Light-Victory-Hi-Tech-Led-Store?

Nixie Store (obvious what is on offer)
http://stores.ebay.fr/Nixie-Store

Tomjira (Czech surplus seller)
http://www.ebay.fr/sch/tomjira/m.html

Spiratronics (UK vendor)
http://stores.ebay.fr/spiratronicselectroniccomponents/

AMTools (UK vendor) - mostly radio related stuff, toroids, etc
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/amtoolsuk/

I generally try to stay away from sellers that are peddling everything from clothing through fake watches, plastic jewelry, pool and gardening supplies to electronic components - they usually have no idea what they are selling and good luck sorting things out should anything go wrong.  You  are also likely getting the components shipped stuck to a piece of cardboard and wrapped in saran wrap, with no antistatic protection. Not worth the trouble, IMO.

[BBBbbb]

Definitely all positive for Frenky's ebay store. He might not be the cheapest one or have a lot of stuff listed, but you're sure it is of good quality and he ships it brutally fast (fastest shipment from China I've experienced, and I've seen I'm not the only one with this experience). Another plus is that you can make custom orders in his thread here.

Also very positive experience with gc_supermarket (http://www.ebay.com/usr/gc_supermarket), and I've seen their store name come up on this forum a few times, so I'm not the only one. Nice stock and fast shipping. And I am yet to be disappointed by the stuff I ordered from them.
Allice is also good and reliable.

Just keep your common sense and do not expect to get a brand name parts from china for 1/2 the usual Digikey/Mouser/etc. price. If I'm buying from Chinese sellers I stick to generic products or Chinese brands, i.e. locally produced goods.

I am amazed to find people shocked when they receive fake set of Hakko tips that they paid just a few $ (just one of numerous examples).

[PedroDaGr8]

I occasionally use ivtan. He is located in Oregon and seems to clear out a LOT of old parts from Tektronix.  Most of his stuff seems to come from there, done so in boxes with internal tek part numbers. I've gotten things like 0.01% high precision foil resistors and high voltage capacitors from him before. Also, he combines shipping which is awesome.

Edit: for example, these what appear to be logic probes might be interesting to some: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262730361944

Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

[imidis]

I believe there are quite a few sellers also on aliexpress, find sometimes ebay is cheaper of vice versa. 

[janoc]

I believe there are quite a few sellers also on aliexpress, find sometimes ebay is cheaper of vice versa. 

That's true, I believe AliExpress charges them lower fees and is more convenient for people in China than eBay. There are also plenty of eBay sellers that buy from AliExpress and resell on eBay.

AliExpress is better for buying stuff in bulk - like resistors or SMD capacitors. eBay is better for specific items, especially for specialties like nixie tubes or hard to obtain parts. Those won't show up on AliExpress.

[luke_2700k]

One of the Alices referenced in Julian Ilett's youtube videos.

Perhaps alice1101983 owes Julian some royalties, I had a look at the eBay store after seeing Julian's mailbag videos too.

[luke_2700k]

Will check out everyone's suggestions, thanks