LCSC vs Digikey

[ratatax]

They offer several shipping methods (DHL, royal mail...) it's not free but you have the choice, Fast and pricey or cheap and slow...

I don't know for Canada

[1276-2449-1-ND]

LCSC is great and they earned my trust, but they're not always cheaper than NA distributors for large amounts.

For example some caps/resistors are around the same price or cheaper at Digikey for full reels.

[SMTech]

Yup we have a client whose volume dwarves ours and I have seen their pricing from conventional suppliers (Arrow,Avnet,Rutronik etc), you're talking up to 5 times cheaper than the cheapest break price on LCSC for your boring 1% resistors. Of course to those of us without those volumes, probably couldn't do much with the saving even if we had it anyway, the cost per device to place is higher.

[james_s]

Ever heard of Arrow (free overnight shipping in US, free priority shipping internationally, for orders $50 or more) and Mouser (on average 5% cheaper than DK)?

Arrow had free shipping for a while and it was great, but the last couple times I checked their shipping was more than 50% higher than digikey for the same items, plus an additional handling fee on small orders, plus their parametric search is a pain. If they're back to doing free US shipping I'll consider them again.

[thm_w]

How about shipping? What shipping methods do they offer? Do they ship for free? Do they do DDP to Canada?

Currently for Canada:
- ePacket ($5 <2 weeks usually)
- DHL ($20)
- DHL ecommerce
- EMS
- Fedex

Fedex/DHL you will be paying fees (~$15) and taxes. With epacket (canada post) its unlikely you will pay anything unless its a very large order ($100+).
EMS and DHL ecommerce I'm not sure as I have yet to try those.. if anyone does please update.

[EEVblog]

Digikey is a supplier of convenience for development work and production emergencies. They don't really position themselves as a low cost supplier for mass production.

Depends on your definition of "mass production" and your margins.
Some many products mass products is in the thousands, and in many cases using Digikey/Mouser for that is just fine.

[mrpackethead]

Digikey is a supplier of convenience for development work and production emergencies. They don't really position themselves as a low cost supplier for mass production.

Depends on your definition of "mass production" and your margins.
Some many products mass products is in the thousands, and in many cases using Digikey/Mouser for that is just fine.

Shoppign around saves me many thousadns of dollars each week.  The rules and prices are in constant flux, and the best deals move in real time.   This is hard. You need to work hard.  If you want easy, then its expensive.

[mzzj]

How about shipping? What shipping methods do they offer? Do they ship for free? Do they do DDP to Canada?

Currently for Canada:
- ePacket ($5 <2 weeks usually)
- DHL ($20)
- DHL ecommerce
- EMS
- Fedex

Fedex/DHL you will be paying fees (~$15) and taxes. With epacket (canada post) its unlikely you will pay anything unless its a very large order ($100+).
EMS and DHL ecommerce I'm not sure as I have yet to try those.. if anyone does please update.

Incoterms DDP is the killer deal from Digikey in here. Free shipping is nothing if the DHL/UPS/whatever adds 45 usd! fees for handling the customs forms. You can do it also it by yourself but assholes at DHL want that 45 usd to give the needed information to do DIY customs declaration 

[wraper]

You can do it also it by yourself but assholes at DHL want that 45 usd to give the needed information to do DIY customs declaration 

Are you certain about that? In Latvia they send all needed documents for free.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

Not in my wildest dream will i buy production components from China. Even for prototypes nothing more than resistors, since i must be 100% sure when prototyping that if i have a problem the junk parts are not in the equation. Saved me a Lot of grief over the years.

How many thousands of times I will have sworn that "next time I'll check each and every one of the components before assembling them", but still (almost) never do it.

[mzzj]

You can do it also it by yourself but assholes at DHL want that 45 usd to give the needed information to do DIY customs declaration 

Are you certain about that? In Latvia they send all needed documents for free.

Yeah, I'm sure as I got my ass bitten by DHL fees. 20 euros + 5% of taxes OR 40 euros "Release to Broker" for DIY option. 

Now they were forced to change their policy after consumer protection board got unhappy about DHL's extort fees. But AFAIK that only applies to private consumers, not companies.
They are still running some weird "scam", offering free "DIY customs documents" only in case recipient wasn't informed in advance  of the DHL fees.

[wraper]

Yeah, I'm sure as I got my ass bitten by DHL fees. 20 euros + 5% of taxes OR 40 euros "Release to Broker" for DIY option.

Hmm... I found this fee on their website. However when doing this for company shipments, a few times I just forwarded documents they sent by default (label scan and invoice with track number) to other customs broker and got things done there  , no fee asked by DHL. One time they were a bit confused when I mailed them parcel is already cleared.

[TJ232]

Go and get a EORI number as european citizen, or EU company:
https://tulli.fi/en/e-services/search-and-query-services/eori

Inform DHL/FEDEX/whatever that you have your own EORI number and you will pay EU Customs taxes by yourself.
If they not comply you can raise an oficial complain as they are not respecting EU rules and regulations. Usualy as soon as they know that you know EORI story they will not continue pushing for that extra fancy "processing" money stuff.

Link with all details for all EU member states:
https://www.customssupport.com/brexit-where-can-i-get-an-eori-number-an-overview-of-all-eu-customs-authorities/

How about shipping? What shipping methods do they offer? Do they ship for free? Do they do DDP to Canada?

Currently for Canada:
- ePacket ($5 <2 weeks usually)
- DHL ($20)
- DHL ecommerce
- EMS
- Fedex

Fedex/DHL you will be paying fees (~$15) and taxes. With epacket (canada post) its unlikely you will pay anything unless its a very large order ($100+).
EMS and DHL ecommerce I'm not sure as I have yet to try those.. if anyone does please update.

Incoterms DDP is the killer deal from Digikey in here. Free shipping is nothing if the DHL/UPS/whatever adds 45 usd! fees for handling the customs forms. You can do it also it by yourself but assholes at DHL want that 45 usd to give the needed information to do DIY customs declaration 

[Siwastaja]

Incoterms DDP is the killer deal from Digikey in here. Free shipping is nothing if the DHL/UPS/whatever adds 45 usd! fees for handling the customs forms. You can do it also it by yourself but assholes at DHL want that 45 usd to give the needed information to do DIY customs declaration 

Never seen this, and I order from them all the time. I guess the problem is, you are buying as an individual, not a company? Registering as a sole entrepreneur - IIRC the cost was around 80 EUR - would enable you to get rid of this problem, and give you access to any company who doesn't want to deal with individuals. The downside is, you lose the possibility to most forms of social security transfer payments.

[mzzj]

Incoterms DDP is the killer deal from Digikey in here. Free shipping is nothing if the DHL/UPS/whatever adds 45 usd! fees for handling the customs forms. You can do it also it by yourself but assholes at DHL want that 45 usd to give the needed information to do DIY customs declaration 

Never seen this, and I order from them all the time. I guess the problem is, you are buying as an individual, not a company? Registering as a sole entrepreneur - IIRC the cost was around 80 EUR - would enable you to get rid of this problem, and give you access to any company who doesn't want to deal with individuals. The downside is, you lose the possibility to most forms of social security transfer payments.

Oh, should have been more careful with my wording.

Killer deal = (extremely) good/excellent/favorable deal
Deal killer = not good

Digikey shipping terms are DDP =delivered duty paid = UPS/DHL bills handling fees and custom duties from Digikey (but not VAT)

Too much work to check every other distributor but AFAIK Mouser et al. wont use as generous shipping terms like Incoterms CPT
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/incoterms-on-shipping-(ups-dhl-etc)-with-mouser-digikey-etc/

[mzzj]

Never seen this, and I order from them all the time. I guess the problem is, you are buying as an individual, not a company?

Company.
Btw have you ever look carefully at the Digikey/UPS VAT bill?

At least couple of years ago they calculate the amount of VAT wrong every time.
"Free shipping" was too complicated for UPS so they added 18 euros on top of the Digikey bill and calculated VAT based on that 
So you paid 70 euros with free shipping, UPS calculated VAT from 88 euros 
Company accountant was not happy when the numbers never matched on UPS import VAT bills.

edit: nowadays digikey shipments seem to go bit different route, imported in Germany? and shipped intra-eu to here.

[NorthGuy]

Company.
Btw have you ever look carefully at the Digikey/UPS VAT bill?

Here, in Canada, DigiKey uses FedEx (I don't remember of you can change this or not), and there's never any surcharges. I try to avoid UPS as much as I can, and I would never use DHL under any circumstances.

When I order from China (never tried LCSC though), I try to use ePacket. It is 2-3 weeks (compared to 1 day with DigiKey or Mouser) and no entanglements.

[Bud]

Company.
Btw have you ever look carefully at the Digikey/UPS VAT bill?

Here, in Canada, DigiKey uses FedEx (I don't remember of you can change this or not), and there's never any surcharges. I try to avoid UPS as much as I can, and I would never use DHL under any circumstances.

When I order from China (never tried LCSC though), I try to use ePacket. It is 2-3 weeks (compared to 1 day with DigiKey or Mouser) and no entanglements.

That is because Digikey in Canada has DDP (duty delivery paid) Incoterms. The cost of duties is included in the parts price.