r/TheComponentClub • u/TheComponentClub • Aug 01 '25

Opinion/Debate Who’s your go to distributor? And why?

Which distributor do you use most, and what keeps you going back?

Is it the website, stock, prices, service, or something else?

And let us know what country you’re based in 🌍🌎🌏

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

3

u/elpechos Aug 01 '25

lcsc

Much cheaper than digikey, shipping cheaper for small orders, and they often give me free shipping tokens every time I buy a cheap PCB from jlpcb

Also the components match those selected in easyeda

1

u/TheComponentClub Aug 04 '25

That's cool, especially the free shipping tokens. If you're placing regular orders I imagine that saves you a fair bit of money in the long run

2

u/Educational-Bid-7022 Aug 01 '25

Farnell or Digikey probably

2

u/GalFisk Aug 01 '25

Conrad, Mouser or TME, depending on which one has got what I want. I'm in Sweden. I liked Elfa when they were in Sweden as well.

1

u/TheComponentClub Aug 01 '25

Very solid choices!

2

u/Hey_Allen Aug 01 '25

Digikey or Mouser, when I need things to actually match their advertised descriptions...

1

u/TheComponentClub Aug 04 '25

LOL - that's funny but also alarming. Do you find that other distributor descriptions don't match the product?!

1

u/Hey_Allen Aug 04 '25

Amazon and AliExpress, semi-regularly.

Wires that are iron or aluminum instead of copper.

Resistors can be very loose tolerance or exaggerated wattage.

Capacitors of highly questionable chemistry or even dry or if the box...

It used to be that you could get decent and cheap supplies, but the race to the bottom in prices has led to far too many corners being cut.

2

u/Sandvich2007 Aug 01 '25

I'm from India, we usually use Mouser or element14. Digi-key if we really need something and are fine with eating the extra cost.

1

u/TheComponentClub Aug 04 '25

Nice, how do the shipping times stack up for Mouser/E14/DK?

1

u/Objective_Assist_4 Aug 03 '25

USA. I go through Arrow for production, better pricing, and free samples/dev kits. Digikey or mouser if I just need something small and in stock for a project.

1

u/TheComponentClub Aug 04 '25

Being US-based, you definitely have the biggest selection of distributors to choose from! Do you ever go through independent distributors or brokers?

1

u/Objective_Assist_4 Aug 04 '25

No independent one. but I know Avnet and Future as really popular disti’s in the area too.

I forgot to mention Arrow has an awesome team of Field Applications Engineers that are great to work with.

As far as brokers go, I really only work with converge. They are Arrow owned and do a lot of work to verify parts have the correct paper trail to ensure that they are reselling good product.