Author Topic: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)  (Read 4514 times)

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Offline gussyTopic starter

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DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« on: January 06, 2021, 08:42:03 pm »
Since buying from DigiKey is easier than getting a new vendor approved at many of the places I've worked, I've started to explore categories of DK that I've never looked at before.

What have people found on DK (Or Mouser) that doesn't fit into the normal "electronic components and supplies" categories?

Here's a few that I've discovered on DK:

- Good german tools: Wiha, Knipex, Gedore
- 8020 Aluminium Profile (See "Structural, Motion Hardware")
- Laser cutters and 3D printers (Glowforge, Dremel)
- 3D Printing filaments (Overpriced but decent range if you're in a pinch)
- Raspberry Pi's (Handy when out of stock everywhere else)

This isn't limited to DK of course. For those with McMaster accounts: https://www.mcmaster.com/3542N11/
 

Offline ozcar

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2021, 10:33:33 pm »
I have not bought anything at all from Digikey for a very long time.

I did get a vacuum cleaner filter from Element14 a few months ago.
 

Offline Zero999

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2021, 10:36:40 pm »
They sell a lot of things, but fairly recently they've started to act as an online market place for other vendors, so a lot of the products are from other sellers.
 

Offline thm_w

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2021, 11:07:08 pm »
Was hoping they'd take over mcmaster when they started selling bearings: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/filter/bearings/979
but that hasn't been the case.
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Offline T3sl4co1l

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2021, 11:12:29 pm »
Yup, they even stock* tubes now. :)

*Albeit via marketplace.  I think Richardson is the last, traditional large industrial supplier of tubes; everyone else is either in the audio market, or at least smaller local suppliers that you'd have to find.

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Offline helius

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2021, 11:18:13 pm »
Was hoping they'd take over mcmaster when they started selling bearings: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/filter/bearings/979
but that hasn't been the case.
Oh, so you want McMaster's website turned into shit too?
 
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Offline thm_w

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2021, 11:25:12 pm »
Oh, so you want McMaster's website turned into shit too?

I mean take over their business and start selling more hardware parts: screws, nuts, drills, etc.
mcmaster is not as reliable to Canada as digikey is.
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Offline gussyTopic starter

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2021, 11:42:27 pm »
They sell a lot of things, but fairly recently they've started to act as an online market place for other vendors, so a lot of the products are from other sellers.

I see the marketplace gets a lot of hate here. For the hobbyist or for personal projects I can see how the marketplace would be a pain, but for businesses or workplaces I think it's great. I'm making at least one DK order a week for my team/lab at work, sometimes multiple if we have a lot going on. Need a new scope? I could go through the process to get Siglent added as an approved vendor, wait a few weeks, get a quote from Siglent, generate a PO, wait for approval, then make the purchase. Or I could buy the Siglent gear through Digikey on our account and get on with my day. I suspect this is the exact use case DK had in mind for the marketplace.

You don't have to buy the marketplace products, and there's even a checkbox to exclude it from search results, so I don't really get what the issue is?

I mean take over their business and start selling more hardware parts: screws, nuts, drills, etc.
mcmaster is not as reliable to Canada as digikey is.

Good tip on the bearings!

McMaster also treats you differently as a business/individual, and if you're using it for personal projects not having fixed shipping costs is insane. I've often been hit with $100+ of (ground) shipping on $100 of hardware because it comes in 3+ separate packages from different warehouses. Hitting the order button is a huge gamble. My personal McMaster account got muddled with all our work accounts, and I always cheap next-day shipping. After I got it separated from the work accounts, no more overnight shipping and every order since has taken a week to arrive.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2021, 11:53:31 pm by gussy »
 
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Offline SVFeingold

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2021, 12:30:11 am »
I see the marketplace gets a lot of hate here.

Not surprising. Maybe it's too soon to know. There's a right and wrong way to do a marketplace. Newegg is a classic example of doing it the wrong way: "Hey everyone come dump your cheap shit and counterfeit products here, we won't even vet you as a vendor, promise!" Amazon is whatever. Good luck finding non-counterfeit batteries on there. It is literally impossible.

Usability aside, the one great big gigantic obvious reason to order from McMaster or Digikey is trust and reliability. You know exactly what you're getting, and you trust that they do the diligence to ensure that counterfeits, scams, faulty stuff, etc. simply isn't a concern, or at worst is incredibly rare. Maybe they'll do the same diligence for the marketplace. But maybe not. MBAs always like to come in, fuck up everything that built X company into what it is over the last several decades, and then bounce right after completely demolishing the reputation.

Anyway that's the concern. OTOH if "marketplace" just means "allowing other trusted vendors to sell stuff" then it's a good thing.

Quote
Need a new scope? I could go through the process to get Siglent added as an approved vendor, wait a few weeks, get a quote from Siglent, generate a PO, wait for approval, then make the purchase. Or I could buy the Siglent gear through Digikey on our account and get on with my day. I suspect this is the exact use case DK had in mind for the marketplace.

On this note, if you ask they can probably order something for you and just create a custom PN. Not something that'll be on the site, just a little value added service. McMaster did this for us when a German vendor refused to open a vendor account with us due to our poor credit rating.  :-X
 

Offline gussyTopic starter

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2021, 01:56:59 am »
[snip ...]

Anyway that's the concern. OTOH if "marketplace" just means "allowing other trusted vendors to sell stuff" then it's a good thing.

That makes sense, and I can get behind that. Amazon is a gamble but returns are easy, NewEgg is a disaster. The reason I pay a premium for something like a Fluke DMM over buying it from Amazon is because I know it will genuine from DigiKey.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2021, 11:52:18 am »
They sell a lot of things, but fairly recently they've started to act as an online market place for other vendors, so a lot of the products are from other sellers.
No, a vanishingly small percentage of the products are marketplace products.

Don't get me wrong: I hate marketplace BS, and I can't see how it actually helps most of DK's customers. But since they make it trivially easy to exclude those products from search, and those parts make up such a tiny part of the catalog, I also cannot understand the degree of outrage DK has been getting here on the forums.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2021, 11:53:05 am »
Since buying from DigiKey is easier than getting a new vendor approved at many of the places I've worked, I've started to explore categories of DK that I've never looked at before.

What have people found on DK (Or Mouser) that doesn't fit into the normal "electronic components and supplies" categories?

Here's a few that I've discovered on DK:

- Good german tools: Wiha, Knipex, Gedore
- 8020 Aluminium Profile (See "Structural, Motion Hardware")
- Laser cutters and 3D printers (Glowforge, Dremel)
- 3D Printing filaments (Overpriced but decent range if you're in a pinch)
- Raspberry Pi's (Handy when out of stock everywhere else)

This isn't limited to DK of course. For those with McMaster accounts: https://www.mcmaster.com/3542N11/
Here's something I wish DK sold, but doesn't: the blue baggies they use. I'd love to buy packs of them, but they don't sell them.
 

Offline hans

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2021, 12:35:43 pm »
I also found out that Digikey and Mouser sell Adafruit, Seeed and Sparkfun products.

Very useful because although they are marked up a little bit (IME a tiny bit), Mouser is AFAIK the only one that offers DDP Fedex shipping+tracking for free at >50EUR to EU, which when supplemented with other hobby components, is met on a regular basis. Probably Digikey also has fast free shipping for >50EUR, but not sure if they do DDP to EU though.

I found this to be really useful, as it combines several shop purchases into one with no extra import hassle. For example, I could order a BeagleBone Green from Seeed for 44$, pay with Paypal and then also pay an additional 17.49EUR at the door for import fees for a grand total of 53.18EUR (assuming that DHL/UPS/Fedex shipping is free, which it isn't). Or I can order one from Mouser, supplement with 12 EUR of other stuff (always good to have a wish/todo list), pay without a CC or Paypal, and have it Fedex shipped while only paying 46.65EUR for the same product. :-+
« Last Edit: January 07, 2021, 12:37:19 pm by hans »
 

Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2021, 01:31:01 pm »
Probably Digikey also has fast free shipping for >50EUR, but not sure if they do DDP to EU though.

They do ;)
 
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Offline ConKbot

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2021, 03:41:36 pm »
I also cannot understand the degree of outrage DK has been getting here on the forums.
When you see something you don't like, bitch loud and hard while its an insignificant portion of their business. I you just go "maybe this time it will be different than Amazon, newegg, Wal-Mart's website!" And wait for it to turn into a shitshow, it can grow into something that isn't easily pruned from existence.

I'm already seeing stuff where if you search an exact manufacturers part number, the marketplace item comes up inatead of the search page because they use mfr PN as their PN. So if I give someone in purchasing a manufacturer part number so they can source it from digikey/mouser/newark as needed, now they could end up with parts from whatever random vendor, instead of a trusted vendor. So now I have to babysit the purchasing people even more.
 

Offline themadhippy

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #15 on: January 07, 2021, 03:56:24 pm »
Digikey are mere amateurs,if you want an electronics supplier who will sell you bog roll along with a pic or 2 some  transistors and a 500 piece jig saw (  code LH06076)   look no further than  cpc
 

Offline tooki

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #16 on: January 07, 2021, 05:21:13 pm »
I also found out that Digikey and Mouser sell Adafruit, Seeed and Sparkfun products.

Very useful because although they are marked up a little bit (IME a tiny bit), Mouser is AFAIK the only one that offers DDP Fedex shipping+tracking for free at >50EUR to EU, which when supplemented with other hobby components, is met on a regular basis. Probably Digikey also has fast free shipping for >50EUR, but not sure if they do DDP to EU though.
They do, but it depends on the country and the currency you pay in. Go to the Digi-Key website for your country and switch between currencies: a popup will open telling you the free shipping terms, incoterm, and available payment methods.

I’ve used both Mouser and DK here in Switzerland, and I only use Mouser if DK doesn’t have what I need: in my experience, Mouser has been both slower to get the package out the door, and UPS from DK in Minnesota gets here faster than from Mouser in Texas. (If I order at 6pm on Wednesday, a DK package will get here by 1pm on Friday!)
 

Offline tooki

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #17 on: January 07, 2021, 05:23:36 pm »
I also cannot understand the degree of outrage DK has been getting here on the forums.
When you see something you don't like, bitch loud and hard while its an insignificant portion of their business. I you just go "maybe this time it will be different than Amazon, newegg, Wal-Mart's website!" And wait for it to turn into a shitshow, it can grow into something that isn't easily pruned from existence.

I'm already seeing stuff where if you search an exact manufacturers part number, the marketplace item comes up inatead of the search page because they use mfr PN as their PN. So if I give someone in purchasing a manufacturer part number so they can source it from digikey/mouser/newark as needed, now they could end up with parts from whatever random vendor, instead of a trusted vendor. So now I have to babysit the purchasing people even more.
Again, since you missed my point: I’m not saying you have no reason to be annoyed. I just think the reactions here have been completely disproportionate.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #18 on: January 07, 2021, 06:16:13 pm »
Digikey are mere amateurs,if you want an electronics supplier who will sell you bog roll along with a pic or 2 some  transistors and a 500 piece jig saw (  code LH06076)   look no further than  cpc
LMAO. It’s CPC that’s the amateur: they carry about something in the order of 100,000 different items. Digi-Key carries a million SKUs in stock (of over 11 million SKUs available). And that’s without the marketplace.
 

Offline themadhippy

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #19 on: January 07, 2021, 07:57:15 pm »
I meant amateurs in the selling of unrelated tat,without an added marketspace
 

Offline IDEngineer

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #20 on: January 07, 2021, 08:50:17 pm »
At least DigiKey lets you exclude non-DK sources with a checkbox. I just click it by default now, along with the in-stock and active boxes.
 

Offline exe

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #21 on: January 07, 2021, 09:31:14 pm »
Probably Digikey also has fast free shipping for >50EUR, but not sure if they do DDP to EU though.

They do ;)

With mouser packages just delivered. With DK I have to pay taxes separately, either at delivery, or I got an invoice sent by mail two weeks later. Although, it's not that big deal make an IBAN transfer, done it three or four times already. I'm talking about NL, may be in other countries it works differently.
 

Offline tom66

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #22 on: January 07, 2021, 10:43:00 pm »
Up until a year or two ago, Farnell sold iPhones/iPods/televisions/etc.   CPC still does,  but that's the more consumer facing side of the business.

I suspect they realised that it wasn't worth competing with the big players on these,  they never seemed cheap. Maybe for companies for whom ordering from Amazon et al., was difficult but Farnell was easier.
 

Offline gussyTopic starter

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #23 on: January 08, 2021, 12:11:24 am »
Here's something I wish DK sold, but doesn't: the blue baggies they use. I'd love to buy packs of them, but they don't sell them.

Good one! They sell anti-static bags but not their blue bags. There's probably some hack were you can order a specific component that is very cheap and have it come in individual bags. I'm sure I've received packages like that before.

At least DigiKey lets you exclude non-DK sources with a checkbox. I just click it by default now, along with the in-stock and active boxes.

Selecting in-stock and active has become muscle memory enough now that I don't even think about it. It would be nice if you could just set it for good, but I get why that would be a bad UX for some users.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: DigiKey sells that?! (Items you didn't know DigiKey sold)
« Reply #24 on: January 08, 2021, 02:16:08 am »
Probably Digikey also has fast free shipping for >50EUR, but not sure if they do DDP to EU though.

They do ;)

With mouser packages just delivered. With DK I have to pay taxes separately, either at delivery, or I got an invoice sent by mail two weeks later. Although, it's not that big deal make an IBAN transfer, done it three or four times already. I'm talking about NL, may be in other countries it works differently.
Then it wasn't DDP incoterms. Again, with DK, it depends on the country, currency, and shipping option. Note that if you haven't ordered from DK in a while, take a look now — I know that their terms with Switzerland have changed in the past few years (for the better), for example.

Right now, it looks like DK to NL is DDP if paid in Euros, or when paid in USD but only with UPS (with FedEx or DHL it's CPT).
« Last Edit: January 08, 2021, 02:18:03 am by tooki »
 


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