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I know purists will scoff at them but I bought several E96 1/4W resistor kits from eBay, almost every value imaginable, dirt cheap, from China. When I don't have a "proper" resistor I'll use one. I also bought the same kits for 1206 and 0805 SMD resistors. Yes the leads are thin and they don't all look the same but I got tired of playing the revolving order game.

I have a tub of op amps that were a "good deal" I bought to round out resistor orders.

I once ordered 1 qty Analog Devices DSP chip for $10, it came in a whole JEDEC IC tray set and 2' x 2' x 3' box sent Next Day Air. It can't be profitable, and they have to be well aware of it. It will end one day...



I went through a 3 year phase of building tons of stuff, it was much easier to buy 1-2 each and not have to keep inventory, especially when they had next day shipping from halfway across the country.

Auctions can be a crap shoot for sellers. I've sold around ~50 items since last October on both eBay and Reverb (long overdue decluttering) and have had very good experiences. I've under-priced some things because I didn't research well enough but what did I lose? $20? $50 maybe? Not enough to cry over.

If you want some bad experiences on eBay, try selling anything made by Apple. It brings the kooks and scammers out of the woodwork.

In this vein I pulled out my very crusty old German safety razor and found a 10+ year old unused blade. I'm sure I did it all wrong and the blade was crap, but it worked. Face was somewhat more irritated than normal. Blades are around $0.07US each so I will get some more.

I was never into the whole liturgical man-grooming thing where you use horsehair shaving brushes and special salves, tinctures and ointments. I just want a shave dammit.

Every hobby has douchebags like this

Missouri is hellishly hot and humid in June and worse in July. Dress appropriately, bring (or buy) hats and sunscreen.

You'd be surprised what sells. I sold a set of humbuckers last month on eBay.

• Whether on eBay or Reverb take good pictures, post accurate descriptions and set reasonable pricing expectations. If the "average" item sells for $100 and you list yours for $120 it isn't going to sell unless there is something extra to sweeten the deal. Don't try to sell broken or defective gear without clearly describing the problems.
• Pay attention to your shipping costs, Reverb will make you put down a fixed cost and depending where the buyer is you could get hosed shipping it across the country (speaking from experience). eBay will calculate shipping for you based on weight and size.
• I don't usually turn on offers on Reverb, they set it to 50% so not really worth my time. eBay will let you set a minimum offer amount which I use frequently.
• Reverb is slower to sell than eBay, but the fees are much lower. Perhaps a little better class of customer IMHO.

Congrats on the birthday

Let that be a lesson to all of us, lest we forget the protection diode at the power input of our designs...

Maybe they used your $22+ to hire some 8th grader to update their website?

No, they hired the same people who designed the site https://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/

Many places were selling in catalogs and trade rags long before Marc Andreessen was a twinkle in his father's eye. They wouldn't front a bunch of money for a complete redesign of their sites--the web is just a fad, you know--and just "lift & shift" the content from print publication to the web.

Call your credit card company, your bank or PayPal.

My eyes got misty at the end of Red Dead Redemption 2.

I started selling off stuff on eBay. The money is OK, getting the stuff out of my sight is even better.

I went to a very small high school, 38 kids in my graduating class. I literally got on a plane the night of graduation and never went back. Fast forward 15 years later I met up with a couple classmates I was close friends with and they started dropping names while telling stories. I'm just sitting there looking blank-faced over my beer with no idea who they were talking about. It was mostly about kids in my age range, I'd forgotten most of them.

If you're taking a package to the post office to ship, following these helpful suggestions before you get there should speed your trip and the trip of everyone else waiting in line:

Put your ******* ship to address on the box
Put your ******* return address on the box
Know what you ******* put in the box, it isn't a game of 20 questions with the clerk to find out what prohibited items you have inside
Bring enough ******* currency to pay for your shipping, they don't accept baggies of meth as payment
Seal your ******* box with tape