getting equipment componets from overseas sellers off Ebay  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: R_G_B_
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2014, 07:23:30 pm
content: What do you look out for when buying off ebay when making payments goods. What costs and what should you do regarding this customs stuff like that I just thought you see what you want and buy it all costs are included when you buy the goods is this true???

author: Falcon69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2014, 09:00:56 pm
content: Well, so far....When ordering IC's, my ratio for good chips versus bad is about 40% good chips, 60% bad. I won't order IC chips off eBay anymore. It's just ot worth it. To many fakes and too many of them are just low grade.Stuff Like LED's, my ratio so far has been about 98% working (through hole). So, I'll keep ordering those. I just purchased alot of 0603 LED's, I'll see if I get the same or better results with those.Stuff like connectors and such, all been fairly good for the most part.

author: Darkwing
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2014, 09:57:20 pm
content: No issues with quality so far here!Besides eBay sellers, I recommend taking a look atAliExpressandDeal Extremealso.Concerning eBay: if customs handling is included, such a thing will be highlighted in the product description. (But mostly it’s not the case).The thing with customs is this: check out if your country has some kind of‘order value threshold’where no customs duty and/or import tax is charged; should be some info on the customs webpage of your country – or simply google for it. When you know the amount and place the order accordingly, you can be quite sure that no surprising fees will occur afterwards.In Germany (where I live) for instance this threshold is about 26?Euro. So when placing an overseas order somewhere (in China or Hongkong), paying in Dollars (via PayPal), I make sure that the order value including shipping does not exceed 35 Dollar – so 35 / 1,35 conversion ratio Dollar/Euro will make about 25,92 Euro. (Plan in some buffer due to rounding issues.)How does customs know what’s the worth of the parcel? The seller does put a sticker (called CN22) on your parcel where amount, weight and value will be noted. Most sellers are very ‘generous’ and your 35 Dollar order will be declared as 15 Dollar outwardly or something like that. They know how things roll in the shire.But don’t count on it.If the parcel is small and stuffed with some electronic components like ‘modules’, or ‘arduino’, declared with some tiny Dollar value on the CN22 sticker, no one at customs will check the inside of such a parcel, if these descriptions are true?… But don’t count on it.I recommend: always place an order with a value according to your countrys threshold value (if such a thing exists at your place!) –?then you’re safe in all cases. When a seller offers free shipping (this may then take 3 or 4 weeks or more), it’s better to place two small orders than one big order exceeding the threshold value. So when time is no issue, you can get quite cheap stuff from overseas sellers out there! I’m amazed quite repeatedly by this.Hope that helped a bit to get you started.

author: graciaj
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 04:28:40 am
content: Just got into electronics a few months ago. Just learned that asia ebay ICs are NOT worth it. Out of 10 LM386, 8 were bad.Being a noob thought my circuit w as bad, just to learn after few days of troubleshooting that the issues is bad ICs.Never again saving few dolar to end up spending hours troubleshooting and due to lack of experience thinking my circuit is the cause!

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 05:01:39 am
content: Whenever any merchant overseas talks about "All costs included" or makes any suggestion of such, they are only talking about getting your shipment OUT of their country.Getting it INTOyourcountry is completelyyourresponsibility. This includes knowing your customs regulations, restrictions and tariffs, permits (if required), payment of import duties as well as storage and processing charges.LikeDarkwinghas said, it is wise to size your orders with this in mind, so you keep under the threshold.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 05:30:38 am
content: If you want to pay customs fee and tax you should use dhl or ups. Oterwise just wait 20Days for the "free" shipping to arrive.

author: alsetalokin4017
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 06:34:53 am
content: Ordered a lot of 10 PCF8563P rtc chips from a Hong Kong seller via Ebay. Received them in 14 days from date of order. $3.36 for the chips and $2.50 for the shipping, total $5.86. They all look like genuine new old stock NXP chips, they came in an antistatic tube, and they all seem to work fine in my preliminary testing using a clock/calendar circuit. No customs tomfoolery. I'm happy.There were many vendors of these chips listed on Ebay with varying prices. Many of the sellers used the same photo with an NXP logo that looked kind of dodgy, so I selected the vendor with a different photo that showed a more realistic logo and date code, and his prices were a bit higher than some.

author: Planobilly
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 12:49:25 pm
content: Hi guys,I have about 100 ebay orders in transit at the moment. I think in general terms, you get what you pay for. I am mostly involved in analog repair work. Not everything is coming from the far east. I save a lot of money using ebay and dealing with the vendors in China for example has been OK for me. Yes, some things arrive that fail but for common things like caps, resistors and the like, I have had little issue. I order in assortment kits and of course wind up with stuff I may never use. If I spend 10 bucks on a couple of thousand resistors for example and I through half in the trash it is no big deal. I check every component I install and that is true if it comes from China or DigiKey.Test equipment I have got from China worked as stated in the add so far, with no real issues. Vacuum tubes I have tried from China are a mixed bag...some good and some real crap. Again, I think you get what you pay for.I have had some issues with the Post Office saying they delivered something that I did not get. Nothing of any real value so I just deal with the issue as a part of doing business. Anything over $100 I make sure is insured.I deal with a lot of old guitar amps so at times finding a component that matches the value is a real problem. I can sometimes find the part on ebay or something close.As far as price goes, if money is a real issue with my client, I really have to search for the best deal and the answer is not always from the far east. Don't assume just because it is coming from China it will be the best price you can find.Cheers,Billy

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 01:32:25 pm
content: I recently ordered a bunch of TVS diodes from eBay (asia). They all come in little yellow bags that say "electronic component $2" with a piece of cut-tape TVS diodes.No mention whatsoever of the type. I had to look up the cryptic numbers on SMD parts. They also don't tell you the brand. Probably some local brand in asia and not NXP/ST or Diodes. I ended up testing a few to determine if they were 5 or 12V.I would not buy tvs diodes from eBay again. Same with fuses.I did the count of this year, for the Netherlands:13 orders from China (mostly eBay) with 0 issues, 1 tax (dhl).1 order from India, 1 missing parcel.15 from the UK, 0 issues.

author: graciaj
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 01:34:23 pm
content: the challenge for me as a noob in electronics, is be able to tell when the component ia bad.... the positive side of it is that forces me to dig deeper and learn/understand more what I'm doing, other than following schematics.my goal is learn electronics while building a modular analog synth

author: pelule
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 01:57:06 pm
content: I am selling worldwide via ebay and AliExpress since long time now. So far I had just one issue out of many (less 0.01% ). It was a badly packed US shipment and so the case was broken. As seller accepted a reasonable refund this was not a real issue.Out of this lot of experiances I have some "golden rules"- Don't buy the cheapest offer (you will pay for it later)- Check the seller prio the order, try to communicate with (no response means stay away)- If you are below the custom limit in Germany (as Darkwing said), shipment is easy, but please note, cost of good taken into account does include the shipment costs, thus international shipments are seldome below the limit. If you are above the limit you should ask for UPS, FedEx or DHL as they have the most professsional handling.If not, be aware to get a letter from the custom to come pick up personally (open the package, present the bill and directly pay VAT and custom). I am already well known at our local customs, so handling is quick and easy.BRPeLuLe

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 31, 2015, 02:24:44 pm
content: Quote from: Darkwing on March 19, 2014, 09:57:20 pmYou are outdated by almost 2 years. EUR sucks and conversion ratio is 1.09

author: RobertBG
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2016, 08:48:23 pm
content: Quote from: graciaj on December 31, 2015, 01:34:23 pmI cant stress enough the importance of buying quality parts in the beginning from known sources.Once you have things under your belt then shop around but like the other poster said it is SERIOUSLY frustrating to think its a skill problem when its a part issue.That $1.50 saved can cost hours of time and to me is not worth it.If you need a lot of something at least buy a few known products first before gambling so that you have something to test against

author: krivx
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2016, 09:04:15 pm
content: Quote from: wraper on December 31, 2015, 02:24:44 pmA post from March 2014 is almost 2 years out of date? Go figure

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2016, 09:14:02 pm
content: Quote from: krivx on January 01, 2016, 09:04:15 pmI only just spotted thatDon't blame wraper for the thread necro though!

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 01, 2016, 09:32:25 pm
content: Quote from: krivx on January 01, 2016, 09:04:15 pmLOL, didn't notice this is necro tread. Every post after that one was new.