erco Deals: Tough Times
erco
Posts: 20,256
I keep looking for smokin' electronics deals to share but not much these days, as prices have spiked in the pandemic. Free ship from China is way down. Ken may be happy about that but this cheapskate isn't! Many things on Ebay are triple+ the price now, with shipping included. I'm glad I hoarded as much when I did. And it's relatively organized & accessible now in my shop.
I have mostly used up my stash of Dollar Tree (now $1.25 Tree!) amplified speakers and those are long gone from DT now. Shoulda bought more! Now $5 on Ebay shipped!
One exception is this YX5300 MP3 player module, still cheap at under $3 (free ship!), I use a few of them each year. Same one I demoed here with the DT amp above.
I'm using AliExpress more than Ebay now that they finally take Paypal. Prices vary wildly, as do shipping costs. Bargain-hunting is a fun armchair sport. Often I'll buy a dozen items to get the per-item cost down, depending on their crazy bulk ship algorithm. Playing around with quantities to see shipping costs is a strange game.
My invention & freelance business is doing well. I get many requests for simple jobs in the toy industry, flashing LEDs, sound modules, etc. Boring stuff really but they are desperate so I have a nonstop stream of work. A good problem to have these days. I still have a steady stream of parts coming in the mail. Sexy stuff: battery holders, project boxes, switches, wiring, LEDs, mosfets, caps, resistors, mosfets, etc. And I'm very lucky to have a great old-school shop nearby, Torrance Electronics. Everything from dusty old boxes of banana plugs to vacuum tubes to ICs.
Hopefully everyone here is doing well too. At least our programming/electronics hobby gave us all plenty to catch up on during lockdown. God bless us every one!
Here's a Christmas project I did with my daughter Lindsey (AKA YEDLSIN) who loves "Stranger Things" on Netflix. She's interested in both Morse code and BASIC programming because of that show!
Comments
So does quality. I bought a couple CO2 monitors from them. They were total junk.
-Phil
Aliexpress customer service is good, I have gotten pretty quick full refunds on a few items with issues.
Better than Wish.com!
Mixed results. In most cases refunds work ok. While I question the 'quick' there. Once I got a broken keyboard. 100% not useable and only 50% refund.
𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚛!
Erco,
[Over a] Doller Tree isn't as great as it used to be; last time I went there only the food was a real deal.
I did get a bunch of LED flashlights for work along with batteries and some magnifying glasses.
Is it me or do those little flashlights eat up batteries?
About 6" long, have a dozen or so white LEDs and use 3 AAAs.
Even 99 Cents Only isn't as great as before and many of the little Discount stores around me have also needed to raise their prices or are no longer there.
And now that Fry's is gone, MicroCenter seems be paring down their hobby electronics section.
Hello!
MicroCenter is doing that? Where? Here in NYC, the one in Brooklyn is attracting people as fast as light itself. The one in Queens has only one problem, it is in a difficult location to get to easily. And my first one, in Yonkers was doing rather well after they became their shopping center's position reference. And nearly every purchsase from Microcenter comes with a questionaire, fill it out and complain. They do pay attention to those things.
@erco I'm turning the colors of a C17 (Globemaster III Cargo bird) with envy regarding that store. We haven't had a store like that in NYC in about thirty years. That alone supports a reason to visit LA, that and a tour of Paramount Studios, and a certain Observatory.