[Lab] Voltage Regulators

[Justin Hornosty]

justin at slootsky.org writes:

> How does one find these things on ebay from a reputable seller? I've heard that there is useful stuff on ebay, but wading around gets overwhelming (the Digikey catalog is also overwhelming for me) 

I used to do biggish orders from mouser (over $200 is free shipping) but
I have slowly moved to only using eBay. The shipping is slow so if you
need something fast digikey (I think it's ~$7 shipping for most stuff, a
bit cheaper for single parts than mouser if I remember correctly) is the
way to go.

I have found some stuff that's just way cheaper. For instance, on
digikey the MAX7291 is ~$11 each. eBay you have 10 pieces for $8 free
shipping. Lot of stuff like LED's are great there as they come with
resistors.

As far as eBay sellers go, I have had zero issues. The
sellers out of China are really good and tend to ship quite fast, and if
you have any problems (like a part arriving damaged) seller is more than
happy to send you a replacement (and they don't expect you to send the
part back)

For the most part I do the 'buy it now' option and usually
only do free shipping (though it doesn't really matter, the total price
is usually the same)

Right now however is NOT a good time to order from china as it's the
Chinese New Year.

-jjrh.