LCSC vs Digikey

[asmi]

I always knew that Digikey is more expensive than other suppliers, but only recently realized just how much the difference is!
I've bought a reel (2000) of Samsung 22uF 0805 caps for 30.4 USD, the exact same reel (same p/n down to the last letter!) on DK is 581.21 USD! I've also managed to snag a last reel (15000) of Yageo 0.47 uF 0201 caps for 34.5 USD, while on DK the very same reel goes for 391.88 USD!
Wow! I wonder if there is any explanation for such ridiculous difference in prices.

[spongle]

How sure are you that you'll actually get CL21A226MAQNNNE from LCSC

If you look at a lower rated cap, say CL21A226MQQNNNE, the price difference is a lot smaller..

[FrankBuss]

It is from China, so they are right at the source of it, and labor cost is much lower. And I guess they have lower maintenance costs because they have a smaller warehouse and not as many parts.

But same with PCBs: I used to buy them from http://pcbpool.de (now "Beta-Layout"). They are still selling one 2 layer PCB, 10 cm x 10 cm, 6 days, for EUR 80.93. You can get 10 of these from JLCPCB for $2. Ten PCBs costs EUR 245 from pcbpool. This is more than 100 times the price of JLCPCB. I don't know why they are still in business. But hey, you can get a free stencil from pcbpool

I bought a few times parts from LCSC. So far no problem with it. Looks like they are genuine, good quality and according to specification.

[coppice]

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.

[asmi]

How sure are you that you'll actually get CL21A226MAQNNNE from LCSC

I can ask you the same question of DK. You are sure because they say so, and you take their word for it. Or you call the vendor and ask them to confirm if tracking information that is on a reel checks out. If I was to use these parts for serious production, I'd surely do the latter, but for now I will take their word for it. All suppliers had incidents when they shipped fake parts (I think there is a Dave's video about DK), but these incidents are rare enough for most customers to not care because they are doing the right thing and always provide healthy margins so their devices will work even if parts are not 100% up to spec. And those few who do will take care to save all tracking information in case some incident will happen.

But none of it can justify almost 20x price difference!

[Bud]

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.

[langwadt]

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.

where do you think the components DK et al. sell is made?

[spongle]

sorry but you can't possibly think LCSC has the same reputation and standards of traceability as digikey

[spongle]

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.

where do you think the components DK et al. sell is made?

big difference between buying from manufacturer with Chinese facilities and from Chinese distributor.

[mzzj]

I always knew that Digikey is more expensive than other suppliers

Ha! What color of pills did you take in the morning? 
Digikey is usually cheapest supplier that I would trust if you are buying less than zillion pieces. 
Plus they are really fast and actually stock good range of items.

[asmi]

sorry but you can't possibly think LCSC has the same reputation and standards of traceability as digikey

It does for me. Actually I do know for fact that DK have had incidents with shipping fakes while I haven't heard the same of LCSC yet

[asmi]

big difference between buying from manufacturer with Chinese facilities and from Chinese distributor.

And that difference is....what exactly?

[asmi]

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.

That's good. People like you due to various phobias keep DK/Mouser in business, while others can save a ton of money by going closer to the vendor, and cutting greedy US management out of equation.
I wonder what will you do when you do finally encounter a fake from DK

[ddavidebor]

I always knew that Digikey is more expensive than other suppliers, but only recently realized just how much the difference is!
I've bought a reel (2000) of Samsung 22uF 0805 caps for 30.4 USD, the exact same reel (same p/n down to the last letter!) on DK is 581.21 USD! I've also managed to snag a last reel (15000) of Yageo 0.47 uF 0201 caps for 34.5 USD, while on DK the very same reel goes for 391.88 USD!
Wow! I wonder if there is any explanation for such ridiculous difference in prices.

Because electronic is now made in Shenzhen. Everybody else can suck their toe.

[mzzj]

Digikey is usually cheapest supplier that I would trust if you are buying less than zillion pieces. 
Plus they are really fast and actually stock good range of items.

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)?

Also, from Japan, Chip-one-stop has some cheap stuff (an Arrow company).

If you are okay with new old stock, check out Verical (another Arrow company) and Rochester.

FYI, if I need a part, I always do an Octopart search and pick the cheapest one.

O tempora, O mores. Last time I heard of Arrow was back when they wouldn't even to spit on small 50usd customer. 
Digi-key was the first? one to stir up the market with free shipping and others seem to have followed.  Mouser I'm familiar but last couple of times they were missing some exotic crap that I had to have.

Good to know the Arrow free shipping deal, even if it won't help with my craving for Tadiran high temperature batteries..

[coppice]

Digikey is usually cheapest supplier that I would trust if you are buying less than zillion pieces. 
Plus they are really fast and actually stock good range of items.

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)?

Also, from Japan, Chip-one-stop has some cheap stuff (an Arrow company).

If you are okay with new old stock, check out Verical (another Arrow company) and Rochester.

FYI, if I need a part, I always do an Octopart search and pick the cheapest one.

O tempora, O mores. Last time I heard of Arrow was back when they wouldn't even to spit on small 50usd customer. 
Digi-key was the first? one to stir up the market with free shipping and others seem to have followed.  Mouser I'm familiar but last couple of times they were missing some exotic crap that I had to have.

Good to know the Arrow free shipping deal, even if it won't help with my craving for Tadiran high temperature batteries..

The internet has finally changed things quite a lot. You can get small quantities of parts directly from many vendor's web sites. You can get small quantities from most distributor's web sites.

[mrpackethead]

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.

That's good. People like you due to various phobias keep DK/Mouser in business, while others can save a ton of money by going closer to the vendor, and cutting greedy US management out of equation.
I wonder what will you do when you do finally encounter a fake from DK

Yup. It all good.  These phobias help me remain cost competivtive.  Have now bought 100's of thousands of product from LCSC ( and SZLCSC ) and for the price difference, its well worth it.

[lilstevie]

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.

That's good. People like you due to various phobias keep DK/Mouser in business, while others can save a ton of money by going closer to the vendor, and cutting greedy US management out of equation.
I wonder what will you do when you do finally encounter a fake from DK

I just bought a whole heap of passives from them cause they were cheapest by a long shot, and at least as far as limited testing shows, they perform (within tolerance) of the manufacturers specs so  some of the other things like the NPN transistors I use they were slightly more expensive so didn't bother with them. Only thing I did take a gamble on was some DRAM to test in a known working design, but the package matches my US sourced Micron stuff, with no irregularities so seems okay.
Yup. It all good.  These phobias help me remain cost competivtive.  Have now bought 100's of thousands of product from LCSC ( and SZLCSC ) and for the price difference, its well worth it.

[wraper]

It's not all so nice. Yes you can save a lot on passives and other cheap jelly bean components. But when it comes to more expensive parts which make most of the BOM cost, it may get the other way around. Especially if you consider other big distributors already mentioned. Often they are more expensive at LCSC, and component choice is very poor in comparison.

[ddavidebor]

Of course, LCSC seem only competitive in the kind of component you will find in consumer products.
Fortunately, that's quite a lot. Only thing I have not found there were:
* some connectors
* industrial grade stuff
* fancy ICs

[thm_w]

LCSC often has a lot of "factory overrun" type parts that they may sell once to clear out, so sometimes its not fair to compare prices.

However, yes in general their prices are a lot better than DK, especially at low volumes CL21A226MAQNNNE:
LCSC 20pc 2.45c, 1000pc 1.53c (40% discount)
DK 20pc 97c, 1000pc 44c (45% discount)

Part of this is due to low labor costs in china compared to USA. AFAIK DK is not terribly automated in terms of grabbing and binning the parts. Also DK will often double bag and add a dessicant (to certain parts), which again increases cost of low quantities.

BTW I would try to find the voltage/capacitance curve of that cap, there is good chance its garbage and has little capacitance above 10V or so.
I couldn't find that exact PN but here is a similar one: https://www.samsungsem.com/kr/support/product-search/mlcc/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2019/01/29/Data%20sheet_CL21A226MAYNNNE.pdf
Look how useless that thing is above 10V. This seems to be a pattern with samsung caps I looked up.

[olkipukki]

Wow! I wonder if there is any explanation for such ridiculous difference in prices.

Never saw this huge difference between US-base distributors, but DK/Mouser vs Avnet/Arrow is common.
Basically, a few reels agains one for same price.

[wraper]

LCSC often has a lot of "factory overrun" type parts that they may sell once to clear out, so sometimes its not fair to compare prices.

However, yes in general their prices are a lot better than DK, especially at low volumes CL21A226MAQNNNE:
LCSC 20pc 2.45c, 1000pc 1.53c (40% discount)
DK 20pc 97c, 1000pc 44c (45% discount)

Particular component is way more expensive than normal. Probably caused by MLCC shortage. For example at arrow it's 10 times cheaper compared to DK.

[wraper]

Look how useless that thing is above 10V. This seems to be a pattern with samsung caps I looked up.

It's not just Samsung. You should expect something like that when going for top notch capacitance/voltage ratings at given size.

[asmi]

BTW I would try to find the voltage/capacitance curve of that cap, there is good chance its garbage and has little capacitance above 10V or so.
I couldn't find that exact PN but here is a similar one: https://www.samsungsem.com/kr/support/product-search/mlcc/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2019/01/29/Data%20sheet_CL21A226MAYNNNE.pdf
Look how useless that thing is above 10V. This seems to be a pattern with samsung caps I looked up.

That's not really the point of this discussion, but this is exactly why you would want to pick a capacitor with highest rated voltage available in the same package.