Octopart is not Your friend. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MBN65
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 08, 2019, 07:29:36 pm
content: Octopart doesn’t care about you!They were, as a startup, carried on their patrons backs to quite a success.What do they do? Octopart is aggregating free data from various suppliers and electronics parts into a unified search engine. Super useful for bom’s, cad programs and parts inventory amongst other things.So, what’s wrong with that?Nothing really, it’s a good initiative.The problem is, the are getting greedy. At start, hobbyist and non profit users could use their services for free, pretty much the same users who carried them to success.Now they want close to 300 dollars a year from a hobbyist to use their services. In 10 years that’s 3000 dollars, probably more than the total revenue of a hobbyists total stock of parts. They are nowadays not you friends.This way, they are spitting their patrons in their faces, the same people who carried them to a position where they could get some rewards for their efforts, which are great by the way.I suggest that everybody stop using them and never talk about them again and always recommend other solutions before Octopart.By doing this, they are killing their own business.I predict that their out of business faster than a duck says “quack”, ‘cause we all hate greedy bastards. If, and I say only if, they’re not changing their business model.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2019, 07:45:16 pm
content: I regularly use Octopart and don't pay a penny, so I might be misunderstanding you here.I simply use the BOM tool and export CSVs then put this through a simple Python script that generates aggregated cost- and shipment optimised BOMs.These are then imported into the distributors and a direct order made.Octopart don't get the click through revenue but they themselves have not provided an easy way to do what I am attempting to do, so their loss I suppose. (You can order one item at a time, but I have a life!)Where is the $300 charge?

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2019, 07:46:51 pm
content: Quote from: magnus@brynhagen.com on September 08, 2019, 07:29:36 pmWhat services are they charging for?

author: oPossum
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2019, 07:54:50 pm
content: http://pages.octopart.com/rs/873-DVH-888/images/Octomyze_RateCard_April2017.pdf

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2019, 08:08:05 pm
content: Capitalism at work sadly. Lot of companies start as being nice companies that care about their customers but once they start to grow they just go the full capitalist route where the only thing they care about is maximizing their profits at all and any expense.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2019, 08:08:17 pm
content: Right...so they charge you for listing product on their service, for which you probably make a profit from.Sorry I really don't see why this is a big deal given any good distributor is going to want a cut from any sale.

author: ddavidebor
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2019, 11:22:36 pm
content: There is nothing new here, Octopart has been always open about their business model

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 12:04:33 am
content: You mean companies won't work for free? I'm appalled!

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 12:10:27 am
content: I know the ability to track users is nothing new, I guess it's just distressing to see it so blatantly advertised:

author: ddavidebor
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 12:12:01 am
content: better than hidden

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 12:14:20 am
content: Quote from: ledtester on September 09, 2019, 12:10:27 amAlmost every relatively big website or integrated ad does it. I guess you prefer when someone exploits you unnoticed.

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 12:17:34 am
content: Quote from: ledtester on September 09, 2019, 12:10:27 amThe issue is online advertising. Having literally over 500 "partners" data is shared with when you visit a website isn't uncommon nowadays. People have no idea.

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 12:26:06 am
content: I wonder how well it's working out for them and their advertisers. After all, electronic components are not impulse consumer items that you buy with disposable income.

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 10:01:07 am
content: So, they want to be paid for showing advertisements by the advertiser? Oh the humanity!

author: mark03
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2019, 04:17:56 pm
content: Quote from: ledtester on September 09, 2019, 12:26:06 amHey, speak for yourself!My only gripe about octopart is that they got rid of the historical pricing graphs. When I see things like that it's hard not to imagine that there was some pressure behind the scenes.

author: BrokenYugo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2023, 01:49:59 pm
content: No one or thing that primarily exists to sell you stuff is your friend.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2023, 08:22:50 am
content: :phew:lol its owned by altium. i think eevblog was started because altium was evil enough for dave jones to quit. they have all sorts of loony toon ideas about what service model the future will be . the usual crack pipe dream of running a zero employee money machineit seems like a pretty predatory company loldefending altium for anything on eevblog lol. i think they even tried to harass this website before. mad people agree that its a pretty bad companyand they run it like the FBI, look at this one, 3 year case built against some guy that got scammed on a license! not sure the stasi would wait 3 years!https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/sued-by-altium-dont-do-what-i-did!/

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 16, 2023, 12:55:07 pm
content: Octopart is indeed part of the Altium "family". I tend to avoid it as there are more grey market sellers in Asia on there than trusted distributors so I don't see the point unless it's excrement heading in the direction of the fan time.I use findchips instead, they only have distributors on there that I'd trust other than LCSC of course, they will list crystals made by TKD, yes I wrote that round the right way, and their logo in totally not a copy of the old TDK logo.... but by the time it hit findchips it was being called TDK, but then I did ask for it and then removed that part that the work experience student probably put in our library.

author: Squarewave
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2023, 04:15:09 pm
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on September 08, 2019, 08:08:05 pmCapitalism, yes, it's very sad that people won't work for free.