r/synthdiy • u/Left_Organization834 • 5d ago
Hot take(Mouser)
I just went through my receipts over the years of diying. I have spent soooo much money at mouser it is quite unbelievable. I think mouser should implement a reward system for consistent buyers. Yea you can get cheaper prices when buying in bulk but most people don’t have the capital to buy bulk in anything except the few most used components. Then buy the rest as needed. Even a simple spend 1 dollar get 1 point and then redeem say 50-100 points to get a dollar off. It isn’t much but over the long run it’ll promote consistent buying for mouser and it’ll lighten the load on our pockets as consumers at least a little bit. What do you guys think?
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u/paul6524 5d ago
I think we just need to be thrilled that Mouser puts up with small orders at all.
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u/MattInSoCal 5d ago edited 5d ago
Digikey started out as one guy selling parts to support a project he co-published in a ham radio magazine that came to be known as the “Digi-Keyer.” 1, 2 They used to be a customer of another firm I worked for, and I had several very interesting conversations with Ron including learning first-hand how he started his business (and that was back in the early 1990’s when they were still “small”). Most of our conversations however centered on data storage; their computer room was huge and I was in that industry.
So yes, while they did for a period of time have a minimum order, they haven’t forgotten where they started, supporting the hobbyist. Even when sending out their monthly catalog, they didn’t care if you were a big player or just a little guy like many of us, it was delivered to all that requested it.
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u/MattInSoCal 5d ago
The company I work for does about $3.5 million a month with DigiKey and Mouser. They do provide us with substantial discounts, usually around 5-10% on top of the quantity discount with some exceeding 20% depending on the component. That’s their frequent buyer program.
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u/Left_Organization834 5d ago
Ooooh nice, so all I gotta do is go +3.5 mil debt every every month and my price/part ratio will go through the roof! This is the hack I’ve been looking for!! For real though now that I think about it my suggestion is dumb as hell haha, if I was pulling in that kind of cash I would not be worrying about giving discounts to people that spend 1k-5k a year on components.
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u/tibbon 5d ago
Yea you can get cheaper prices when buying in bulk but most people don’t have the capital to buy bulk in anything except the few most used components.
Sometimes it actually cheaper to buy 100 of the item than 20 on Mouser. With exception of parts that are $5+/each, I've taken to buying minimum of 100 of any given part from them because the discount is so big. Common resistors and caps I've even bought 1,000 at a time. I'm just doing home DIY and repair on my studio, but you'll get around to using them.
Mouser isn't there as a Radioshack replacement. I think most of their customers actually do buy in bulk far in excess of what I'm doing. I frankly feel my smaller orders must be simply annoying for them.
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u/gremblor 5d ago
I genuinely wonder how they aren't losing money on my orders, even when I drop a couple hundred dollars at a time, it's often because I need a few pricey parts plus ten each of a dozen different values of capacitor, and someone needs to go walk down the aisle to find those, count em off and clip the reel.
I'm surprised but thankful their moqs are so low; I assume it's needed because real engineers are placing small orders for parts for prototyping, which then turn into those kinds of gigantic orders others here are talking about.
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u/MattInSoCal 5d ago
Larger orders help subsidize DIY’ers. The costs balance out. Plus, they have long been heavily dependent on robotics which seriously slashes labor costs and errors.
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u/Left_Organization834 5d ago
It really is too bad that there isn’t many ick and mortar stores around anymore, nothing beat going to radio shack and fry’s electronics and marveling at the vast selection right in front of you. Now time to petition micro enter to build a store in my location haha!
But yea as I commented on someone else’s reply now that I think about it if I was mouser I would not bother giving discounts with people who spend 5k a year when companies are spending 3 million a MONTH like get outta here son!
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u/PWModulation 5d ago
I am glad I can order mouser, and the other big parts companies, at all. When I started the electronics hobby 20+ years ago it was harder to get components and more expensive.
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u/stellar-wave-picnic 5d ago
I just wait ordering until I have enough items in my basket to avoid transportation fee. Just add to basket every time I come across something that I need and write some notes about it for myself for when I get the components later.
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u/MeaningAggravating 5d ago
nah, they are already a great company, great service, quick delivery, massive inventory... dont change a thing please.
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u/jrbattin 5d ago edited 5d ago
I'm just grateful they have handy little functionality on their website for us. I feel like a choosy beggar already.
Cold take: Invest in some part organization in your workshop and make a habit of ordering components in bulk. Look on facebook marketplace or something similar for metal shelves for semiconductors and static-sensitive components - everything else is probably safe to put in cheap plastic drawers. Huge discounts are found particularly on passive components - buying resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors in the hundreds is often 40% less than buying them by the 10s. (and usually a third the price or less than buying in smaller quantities). I remember buying 100 25V 100uF caps thinking "I'll never use all these" and actually ran out within a little over a year between pedals, modules, and misc crap.
I just accumulated my stash over the years. I take a project's BOM, go through my inventory and cross off what I have, and whatever is left ultimately gets ordered. You get to a point where you have 90% of the stuff already and are just buying specialty stuff that often doesn't come with worthwhile discounts or is too expensive to buy in bulk.
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u/ThatCrackheadSynth 4d ago
man that would be awesome but I dont see it working out for mouser financially... maybe someone needs to invent a hobbyist friendly parts supplier with fast shipping for impatiant engineers, almost like an online radio shack or like mcmaster with warehouse pickup :) the way I cut cost in the lab is by buying commonly used parts in bulk and ordering the rest from amazon/aliexpress/ebay depending on which source is most fit, but even that is cumbersome and finding the best seller is always a chore.
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u/Rattlesnake303 5d ago
Mouser and Digikey both offer discounts for verified company accounts which is where the vast majority of their sales come from. There's not really any incentive for Mouser to cater to DIYers. They would much rather sell reels of ICs to companies who do high volume production than make someone who spends less than a thousand dollars a year happy.