Seriously, what is the value of a $30 thing that is unreliable?

[Kim Christensen]

I get that many of these things are great for initial ID of components.  I have a couple (the TC3 is my go to) and even use a $25 two channel USB scope for the display on my Thaikit Curve Tracer.
But what is the point of trying to select components with a measurement system that yields unreliable results.  Not even talking about calibration, just consistency and documented approaches to the calculations?

I wouldn't use my TC1 to select components. I use it as a quick check for pinout and go-no-go kind of testing. Or just a quick sanity check to confirm the ID of a component.

If I really want to fully test transistors, diodes, zeners, etc, I'll use a curve tracer.
For capacitors and inductors, I'll use a LCR meter with leakage test and ringer functions if it's critical.

[Irilia]

The best is to test in the PCB with a DMM 👀

[Phil1977]

@Temperance: In a production environment you are absolutely right. No one can afford to test the components coming out of the tape except it is indisputably necessary to do a pre-selection. And this is usually done with highly specialized equipment, process time is money - and yes it´s often about fractions of seconds.

@KungFuJosh: As soon as you combine manual handling with vintage components things get absolutely different. I suppose you follow basic ESD-rules but anyhow each manual step is a risk for sensitive parts - and that step does not necessarily be on your side. I´m quite sure if you buy single components at mouser in antistatic bags then their failure rate is higher than if you buy a reel that´s directly passed on to you from the manufacturer. OEM packaging also has a limited shelf-life in the range of several months. This is mostly neglected as soon as parts are singular and it should affect solderability much more than function of the parts - anyhow it´s a good reason to do more tests when manually handling components.

And as soon as you go from a well equipped lab to some home or beginners workbench or also to some aliexpress seller: There probably most of the parts are somehow pre-damaged. An AVR-tester is a really easy way to sort out the really dead ones.

[Nominal Animal]

I've used my DMM and an LCR-T4 to ensure I haven't goofed with my component storage, or when I accidentally spill similar components on top of my ESD mat when preparing for a build.  I even got the Aneng tweezers for my AN8008 just so that when I happen to have multiple resistors or capacitors of the same size, I can quickly verify I didn't misplace them in the wrong tray.

I like the idea of these LCR tweezers, for the same purposes: identification.  Both Fnirsi LCR-ST1 and Zoyi ZT-MD1 seem suitable for this, but I'd like to see a comparison; right now, I could buy either one for about 28€ (including shipping and VAT).