Solder Pricing Confusion - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Garywoo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2022, 08:31:17 pm
content: I'm looking to buy around 500g of 60/40 solder wire, but the prices on the UK CPC site don't make any sense to me. See the attached screenshot showing the prices.Why is it cheaper to buy 5x 100g reels, or 2x 250g reels, than 1x 500g reel? The bulk pricing is seemingly backwards. What's going on?

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2022, 10:21:05 pm
content: Don't think anyone can tell you why, thats just how they set up the pricing.With the 5+ one, they have a generic discount, presumably, across most items.It looks like lead free is more priced as you expect.

author: SmallCog
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 10:15:30 am
content: My guess is that 60/40 isn’t used as much commercially any more so there’s not much demand for bigger rolls making them a bit of a special uncommon thingThey probably sell a lot more of the smaller rolls so the pricing is sharperI can’t think of a good reason to have 1 big roll over a few smaller ones so take it as a win

author: BrokenYugo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 07:54:41 pm
content: I'm not sure how exactly this stuff is made, cast a tube, fill it with flux, then draw/extrude? Might be that the shorter lengths are good chunks of failed runs or made on a smaller cheaper to operate machine.Are they all the same flux formulation and content?

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 08:16:44 pm
content: Also, since that’s not name-brand solder, their pricing may reflect being sold for hobbyists, and their buying smaller reels in volume. Or the wholesale price has been rising, and they ordered the smaller reels longer ago. (Many businesses only update prices when they themselves purchase.)I wouldn’t read anything into it. Pricing oddities happen all the time, in all areas of sales.

author: Nusa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 08:24:04 pm
content: I see it at the grocery store all the time, where the bulk product is actually more expensive than smaller easier-to-use packages. Not everyone bothers to do the math. Or in some cases are capable of doing math. Me, I do it in my head...I was always getting marked off in school for not showing enough work.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 08:54:38 pm
content: Anyone who's regularly dealt with CPC before wont be surprised. They are not noted for their competence. e.g. see my comments in reply#21 here:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/nooo!-rs-components-what-have-you-done-ruined-my-with-new-delivery-charge/msg3098718/#msg3098718They often had stuff at ridiculous prices - either unbelievably cheap or unbelievably expensive, and the only explanation we could come up with was poor quality data entry, comparable to their poor quality goods inwards department which was quite capable of repacking cheap & nasty phono connectors in bags labelled and coded as expensive semiconductors, and shipping them to customers that had ordered the semiconductors. That took three months to fix + our CPC rep personally ordering every single one they had in stock of the offending stock number to clear out the mislabeled bags, then hand walking the offending parts through their returns department to get credited without them going back into stock!

author: Damianos
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 09:41:23 pm
content: From the pictures, it seems that the only obvious difference between them is the package. The lighter one is wound on paper, but the heavier one needs a more robust spool and they maybe charge for it.

author: Garywoo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2022, 11:10:46 pm
content: Well I've ordered the cheaper option of 5x 100g. Let's see what turns up!

author: HwAoRrDk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2022, 12:30:22 am
content: At least it seems they're prepared to actually sell you leaded solder, unlike some - who was it, RS? - who won't unless you're a "professional" or "business" customer.

author: Garywoo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2022, 12:53:25 am
content: Rapid electronics will only sell it to credit accounts, not regular cash accounts