Customs Charge Threshold

[Yorkie]

I know we're drifting right of topic and the original query has been answered, but what the heck, we're allowed to ramble and here without an avenging angel swooping down from on high to kill the thread.

Wherever we buy our bits from, (eg, e-bay or re-sellers such as RS, Farnell, whoever), there's an almost complete certainty that components are made in China.

Why?

Because that's where most of the equipment that the components go into are made, so it makes sense for the bits to be made there. Take well known names such as Vitrohm and Ferroxcube as examples. Both are own by the Yageo Corp'n (Yageo.com). Yageo was establsiehd in 1977 and is the worlds No1 for chip resistors, No 2 for MICCs (Huh?), and No 3 for ferrite components. It has a turnover of 890mill USD. Where are the markets for its components? 68% in China, 23% in Europe, 7% in Asia, and 2% North America. On which stock exhange is Yageo quoted? Taiwan. Nuff said! The West hardly makes and stuff any more - heck, we hardly mend it, let alone make it. (When I say 'we' I generalise - I don't mean we the forum members, 'cos mending stuff is what we do!).

Whilst it's true of course that UK distributors do supply data sheets and I don't doubt the integrity of their corporate governance or the products they re-sell as distributors, (just as customers didn't doubt Tesco's integirty to not sell horse meat labelled as beef), it doesn't automatically follow that anything that doesn't come from UK distributors is of dubious quality. Chances are (though admitedly we're in the dark about it), the stuff bought from e-bay HK sellers may well come out of the same factories - metal film resistors aren't the sort of things that can be made in small backyard huts after all. Leastways, I dont think so. No - they're made to be used in their millions by consumer electronics firms in China. We are way down the food chain from that. Or so it seems to me.

Just musing really - it's not an issue for me - I buy so few resistors and caps and they're so cheap anyway, that I can get the few that I need from UK sources.

But let's face it, the passage of time has shown that Brit brands such as Hunts were not a byword for quaity and reliability.

All the stuff I've bought from China has been very high quality, at ludicrously low prices and often unobtanable from other sources. Digital meter modules, frequency counter modules, small amplifiers - all sorts of bits and bobs at 'Buy Now' prices. All from firms such as Asia Engneer who have done tens of thousands of trades with excellent feedback. What feedback is there from RS, Farnell, Maplin, Rapid et al? None - so we don't know, other than from our own expeirneces and hearsay, how they are performing..

The main downside of buying from China is the long delivery times that ensue, but stuff usually arrives in 3 weeks or so. I'm rarely in much hurry any way.

Rambled and dribbled Yorkie.