Component Price Rises in Last Year or So

[thermionic]

Every distributor that I use has increased their prices massively in the last 12-24 months. Rapid started doing do a few months back, so I started trying to use CPC more. Now, CPC seems to be following suit. Oddly enough, it's more expensive than its Farnell 'Premium' sister on many lines (toroidal t/formers spring to mind). I'm worried that the Farnell / CPC suits want to gear CPC more towards consumer electronics to compete with Maplin, and they think that the geeks who buy components will just put up with it as they have no other option (trade distributors such as Arrow and Anglia are usually *far* cheaper - so if you can get what you want from them, do yourself a favour and set up an account).

Stateside, Digikey prices have rocketed up in recent times. When I first used them I used to think of them in a similar way to Rapid and CPC, i.e representing a nice saving. Now, their prices are similar to Mouser (who I tend to think of as always having been expensive - in a similar way to Farnell, i.e. they're pricey, but you accept this to an extent because the selection is so diverse / extensive) .

The USD - GBP rate has fluctuated somewhat over the last 18 months, but the rate of increases in component prices has far outstripped this.

Have you noticed that your  weekly component basket has increased in recent weeks? Is it partly due to the cost of producing in China increasing? What other factors are at play? 

 

[ruffrecords]

I cannot say I have noticed any significant price rises. One thing I like about  CPC is they do not charge postage for small orders valued more than £10.

I used to use Rapid a lot but they stopped doing many of the things I need (high voltage capacitors for instance). Also their web pages are a joke.

Cheers

Ian

 

[okgb]

I thought it was just bad exchange rates but my pending digikey order easily got to 100.00 quick
I had to rethink NOT getting extra's of anything

 

[emrr]

Mouser prices used to be relatively stable.  The last 5-6 years, increases are constant to the point that the online catalog price will usually be lower than the price which arrives in a shopping cart.  Sometimes substantially.  They can't even keep the catalog up to date anymore.  If there's metal in it, it's up, every week.  I don't remember the specifics, but I compared the price difference on the same 1 lb roll of solder roughly a decade apart, and it was roughly double, maybe more. 

 

[Rocinante]

Im not sure if digikey is a cheaper alternative. Maybe for some stuff. Definitely  faster. Toroidals have certainly gone up everywhere.

 

[zebra50]

My mumetal can supplier has  near doubled in price since my last order, and are now quoting 6 weeks delivery rather that 2 days.  I only buy these about once a year but it has been a bit of a shock!

 

[PRR]

Mouser used to be cheap, quite a few decades back. DigiKey was the high-class (price) source. (And that was long after Lancaster first made fun of DK's address.)

Solder doubling in a decade? Tin has wobbled more than 7X over the last 13 years.
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/tin/all/

All the metals took a wild ride around 2009, have fallen-back, but not to historic levels.

(And be sure what you are comparing: solder used to be Tin/Lead but the Silver/Tin Pb-free stuff is very common now, you can get it by mistake. Silver is stupid-cheap today but still semi-precious.)

1/2W carbon-comp resistors have been two for $0.25 all my life, albeit today you may 'have' to take carbon-film for a little less.

I remember $7 for a CK722 transistor. Today you can't possibly buy a transistor that bad, you get a hundred parts 100X better.

In recent weeks there is that dock-dispute out west. If distributors are buying just-in-time, and there's a hold-up in delivery, they may want to spread their sales, reduce "extras".

 

[JohnRoberts]

The dollar has also gone up about 10% in last few months so all else equal parts from offshore will cost more.

JR

 

[PRR]

me> resistors have been two for $0.25 all my life

From 1933.

Small resistors 9 to 15 pennies (pence, small copper coin) each.

True, a penny bought more then. And these are wire-wound on glass, not coal-dust. But an interesting way-back reference.

 

[gar381]

Resistors at Mouser in December were $12 per 1000 In January they went up
to $18 per 1000.  Quite a Jump

GARY 

 

[Pip]

I have to say I have not noticed an out of pattern increase with most of what I buy either. What I have noticed is large gaps in product lines. Especially connectors. Most of the online retailers will stock only small groupings of a line or have the shells but not the pins. Switches have gotten hard to find in certain configurations and the ever difficult capacitor hunt continues.

Anything made with high heat generated by fuel oil will have gone up to reflect past costs for the fossil fuels i.e. toroid core components and the extruded copper etc..  But should come back down in the future to reflect the massive drop in same fuel.

 

[Piedwagtail]

Deflation is causing price increases too.
Commodities are lower but the Baltic Dry Index of shipping activity is now at an all time low.
Everything is starting to get sticky, raw materials aren't moving.

You want two of x?....ok  but it'll cost you to drag that into existence.
You'll rethink the design...ok we'll discontinue that line or put it out of stock with 1000 minimum.
Deflationary spiral.

Groupdiy is a luxury activity.
Maybe capacitors should be seen as the bellwether.

OP: I found myself replacing Rapid with good old RS (nice local pickup against post price insanity)and chinesebay.  In some spheres of interest, groupbuys from Mouser or manufacturer direct etc. are springing up with specific projects. I just bought a lot of THAT chips through such a deal.

R