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Interesting/useful parts to buy to bulk up baskets for free delivery

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MK14:

--- Quote from: tooki on October 28, 2022, 07:54:15 pm ---Little dev/breakout boards, like microcontrollers and peripherals.

What I do on Digi-Key is keep a “general wish list” list into which I place things that I find interesting, or things I need (but not urgently), precisely for padding small orders.

--- End quote ---

That's exactly, or very similar, to what I try and do.  Except that the microcontroller boards, have generally either disappeared off the face of the Earth, these days, or become over priced (and still relatively unavailable).

tooki:
Honestly, Digi-Key and Mouser continue to have decent selections in stock.

MK14:

--- Quote from: tooki on October 28, 2022, 08:13:29 pm ---Honestly, Digi-Key and Mouser continue to have decent selections in stock.

--- End quote ---

I guess it depends what you were aiming for.  The individual microcontrollers (especially non-BGA ones) and almost (PICO aside) all raspberry PI boards especially, but also the Microchip ones (low cost versions, I wanted).  Have mostly or fully disappeared.
Also, the various Microchip/Atmel stuff.

There are exceptions, such as the ESP32 and related things, which have generally continued to be freely available, a lot of the time.

EDIT: On reflection.  Sometimes, or for long periods of time, the low cost versions of the development boards, have been available, but I tended to miss the opportunities to get them, and they went out of stock.  The high priced boards, do seem to have remained in stock, throughout, in general.

tooki:
There also seem to be many STM32 Nucleo boards available. (Not all of them, to be sure, but enough to have fun with.)

Indeed, Espressif seems to have done a respectable job of maintaining availability throughout the pandemic. (The RP2040, too.)

tom66:
I remember ordering a product from Boots that was £49.99, and the free delivery threshold was £50.  I added a 49p pack of cotton wool "ear buds" to it to get free delivery as it was something steep like £7 delivery fee.  It was dispatched separately, from a different warehouse, by a different courier.  I've heard they're financially struggling now, wasn't me honestly. :-//

On the electronics front, I usually add a few reels of solder wick or FluxClene.  The latter usually makes it a hazardous package and so it won't go by a standard service, but at least at £10 or so a can it probably makes sense for them to ship it that way.

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