What is the minimum amount to purchase from electronic part resellers?

[hkBattousai]

I'm trying to create a laboratory environment for my small electronic projects.

For this purpose I want to purchase from various kinds of electronic discreets, ICs and other semiconductors. An experienced acquaintance of mine said me that big reseller companies will not sell me small amounts of those components.

What I mean my "small amount" is (The amounts I want to purchase in),
200 SMD resistors of all each E48 series (i.e.;200 x 1kΩ, 200 x 1.2kΩ, 200 x 1.5kΩ, ...).
50 various kinds of IC packages (opamp, analog multiplexer, buffer, etc... (50 of each))
100 different capacitors (not 100 at total, 100 of each)
50 different microcontroller ICs (at most 5 of each)
... (and more)

For instance in Farnell, price of a 22kΩ resistor is listed as:

50+ €0.008
500 + €0.007
1000 + €0.006
5000 + €0.005

This theoretically means that, you can purchased only 50 pieces of that resistor, isn't it?
But my friend says that, in practice, no one will bother to give me that little amount because it will take several hours of a worker to combine and pack my order, the wage of the worker for those hours will be higher that the profit they will make from my order. And I have to purchase at least 1000 of those parts.

Is that true?
Do I need at least about 1000$ to create my laboratory?


Note: I don't want to buy resistor or capacitor kits, because that way it becomes more more expensive.

 

[JimB]

In your example, the minimum order quantity for the resistor is 50.
So, you must buy at least 50 of that resistor which will cost you 50 x .008 = 0.4 Euro

If you want 200 resistors it will cost you 200 x 0.008 = 1.6 Euro

If you only need 10 resistors, tough! you will have to buy 50.

Do you have to buy 1000 resistors? no, your friend is wrong.

I think that explains it.

JimB

 

[Ubergeek63]

dont forget order minimums and shipping

 

[audioguru]

In "the good old days" I ordered one or thousands of resistors. But I never ordered one, I got a few more as spares for my resistor drawers.
Now I usually buy sets of many resistor values from Velleman.

There is an electronic surplus parts store near me (Sayal). I purchased a single resistor from them for four cents. They did not charge any tax and when I gave them one dollar they said it is OK, it is free.

 

[Hero999]

Here in the UK, carbon film resistors cost less than 1p so it's not worth suppliers selling them in single units, for example Rapid sells packs of 100 for 50p.

 

[hkBattousai]

Thank you very much for your replies.

But my friend says that, in practice, no one will bother to give me that little amount because it will take several hours of a worker to combine and pack my order, the wage of the worker for those hours will be higher that the profit they will make from my order. And I have to purchase at least 1000 of those parts.

Can anyone please comment on this fact?
I seems quite reasonable for me.

 

[mneary]

Thank you very much for your replies.

**broken link removed** Originally Posted by hkBattousai
But my friend says that, in practice, no one will bother to give me that little amount because it will take several hours of a worker to combine and pack my order, the wage of the worker for those hours will be higher that the profit they will make from my order. And I have to purchase at least 1000 of those parts.

Can anyone please comment on this fact?
I seems quite reasonable for me.

Any supplier that I have dealt with has a clearly stated policy on quantities. Some might have minimums, such as a minimum dollar amount per line item. Others will have a minimum total order amount, below which a service charge applies. You see different prices for 10+, 100+, and 1000+ that covers their costs. If they give a price for 10 then you can order 10. If it's 50p for 100 that's exactly what they mean. 10,000 might be 1/100 the unit cost of 10 and that's how they are paid for their work.

Resistors and most other parts aren't counted in the way you might think. They come on taped reels so they measure a strip of a certain length which contains the requested number of parts. They get the perfect quantity in seconds, not hours.

Distributors are in the business of filling large and small orders.

 

[hkBattousai]

Thank you for this great explanation.
I will start filling my shopping cart this evening...