I’ve been buying electronic components from eBay for a while now. When I started, I had some concerns with the quality, the opportunity for being ripped off and the time that it takes to have the components that I want in my hot little hands.

There are some things that you need to think about when you go about buying electronic components on eBay. If, when you buy something from eBay, it doesn't work … it can be a hassle to return the item(s) and get your money back, so I plan NOT to.

I guess that the easiest thing to do is to make sure that you are only buying cheap stuff that doesn't really matter if it goes astray or if you have to buy a replacement if the quality isn't good enough. I like to keep my risk low, so I really only buy stuff that is less than $10 AUD. That way, if it turns out to be a scam or a dud, I can write the loss off as a lesson.

In this article, I talk about some of my experiences and lessons learned when buying electronic components online.

Step 1: Manage Your Orders

The easiest way to get frustrated when you are waiting for your order to arrive, and to avoid fretting about the order coming late, is to record your orders somewhere and in a way that makes it easy to track your orders, track the vendors and to help allay your fears.

I wrote a small database application that I use to track my online purchases (eBay, Adafruit, Amazon, whatever).

The application uses the date of the order, type of component, item name, description, # items I’m buying, order cost, vendor and a bunch of other stuff. You could just as easily do this in a spread-sheet with a little jiggering around.

What I can do is, keep track of my orders and get some evidence of how the different vendors serve me. Then, when I place another order, I know what to expect.

I’ve also made another category for my orders for “Wish List” where I can record the stuff that I want to buy later on … all in once place. Handy for me.

Alternatively, I have made a spread-sheet in MS-Excel that does a very similar thing and I can use data sorting, filtering and searching to look at various aspects of the orders that I've made.

Step 2: But Is It Safe, I Hear You Ask.

What I can say from this experiment is that, in my experience, buying stuff on eBay is pretty safe (at least when you are buying stuff for a couple of bucks). I’ve had a couple of orders that simply never arrived (3 orders for a total loss of $6.69 AUD), but, compared to the orders that did arrive (103 at a total cost of $444.86) means that my overall risk is around 1.5%, so … not too bad.

I also have a couple of vendors who I would not use again (please don’t ask me who).

The other thing that I was worried about, the time it takes for the parcel to arrive, is also managed using my application. The vendors usually have some information on their item pages that tells you how long it usually takes for parcels to be delivered to your country, but you also want to know how long it takes when it arrives in your country. I’m currently living in what is lovingly referred to as a “Remote Location”, that’s right … Hobart Tasmania! So I need to factor the “Bass Triangle” into my estimations. With my application, I can work out the averages for each vendor in terms of:

Time to send the parcel;
The vendors estimated delivery time-frame (I usually take their pessimistic estimate);
The date that the parcel arrived.

So, armed with this data, I can get a fair idea of when I can expect to get my new toys. On average, the delivery of stuff from vendor to me is 15 days in transit. There are a bunch of variables … the vendors are not all in the same place, they don’t all use the same method of delivery … you get the picture, so I won’t die in a ditch if the parcel is +/- 5 days!

Finally, on the question of quality. Most of the stuff that I buy is fairly inexpensive, and that includes inexpensive to manufacture. Almost every component that I have received and tested falls within an acceptable tolerance range and that too is often stipulated on the vendors item page. I have been pretty pleased with the quality of the stuff that I’ve bought off the interweb … I don’t have particularly high expectations in this regard, no-ones life depends on the build quality of the components that I use, so that is an acceptable risk too. There has only been one time where I bought something, tested it and binned it, and to be fair … I hadn’t read the fine print on the vendors item page (READ IT!).

Step 3: Are There Any Benefits?

You betcha ... and the main benefit is CHEAP!

There are some other benefits. Occasionally when you buy stuff from an eBay store, the parcel will arrive with a savings coupon for your next purchase. If you use these wisely, you can really save some money.

The main benefits that I was looking for when buying electronic components online were:

Cost; and
Availability

My experience has shown me that buying online exceeds my expectations there. When I started buying components from eBay, I would find a similar item from a local bricks and mortar vendor and compare the price. Often, I was saving up to 90% on the purchase. For example … a 5mm 20,000 mcd white LED cost me @ $6 when I bought it in-store … when buying 200 items from eBay, they work out at $0.02 each that is a saving of > 90%. Although it isn't an apples and apples comparison, but for my purposes, the $0.02 LED is fit for purpose whereas the $6.00 LED is way overspecced for what I need. An LED with the same specifications as the $0.02 one was not available in store, so the comparison stands.

My advice is, if you can risk the small amount of money that you are spending buy online, track your orders and test the goods when they arrive.

Step 4: How to Make Your Own Spreadsheet

This is very much based on my experience and the data that I'm interested in. You may want to add columns or do other stuff (like add a URL to the order or item, add a picture ... rate it in carrots, I dunno) in which case, I hereby give you permission to do that!

Start out with columns…
Order Number – you increment this … it’s there for sorting
Date of Order – The date you placed the order (and paid)
Category – An arbitrary category used for column filtering
Item – A short description of the item
Description – A more detailed description of the item
Cost – The total cost for the order
# Items – the number of pieces
Cost Each – a calculated value of the cost per item
Vendor – the name of the vendor (sorting and filtering)
Sent Date – the date that the vendor tells you the order was sent
TTS Days – Time To Send days (calculated)
ETA – The date that the vendor estimates for delivery
ETA Days – the estimated number of days to deliver (calculated)
Arrived Date – the date that the item actually arrived
ETA/ATA Difference – the difference between estimated and actual (calculated)
Travel Time – the time that the order was in transit (calculated)

Now to put in some calculations … This is where the value is added. I’m using Excel 2010, so these formulae are using functions that I know are there in this version … don’t blame me if your spread-sheet doesn't have the DATEDIF function!

Cell Reference	Formula	Purpose
H2	=F2/G2	calculates the cost per item
K2	=IF(J2<>"",DATEDIF(B2,J2,"D"),"")	Calculates the number of days to send the order
M2	=IF(L2<>"",DATEDIF(B2,L2,"D"),"")	Calculates the estimated number of days to arrive
O2	=IF(N2<>"",IF(N2>L2,DATEDIF(L2,N2,"D"),DATEDIF(N2,L2,"D")),"")	Calculates the difference between the Estimated and Actual time to arrive days
P2	=IF(N2 <> "", IF(N2>J2,DATEDIF(J2,N2,"D"),DATEDIF(N2,J2,"D")),"")	Calculates the number of days for the order to arrive

Copy the formulae down the columns in the spread-sheet and you should be good to go.

You can turn on Filtering in the spread-sheet so that you can track individual vendors and item categories. When you don’t enter an ordered date, the item is, effectively, a wish-list item.

Well … that’s my experience. I wish you all the very best when ordering components online.

For me it's rather like gambling ... and I never bet more than I can afford to lose.

The attached spreadsheet is provided "as is" use it at your own risk.