Well, I travel all kinds of places for my job, mostly in the US, but occasionally overseas as well. This week I find myself in Hong Kong.
If I can find any time away from work, I wanted to venture out and see if I could find any electronics stores and see if I can get any deals on parts.
Any locals on this forum that could give me some places? Just thought I'd ask. I'm doing my own research as well. Thanks!
Ian
On my last full day in Hong Kong I ventured out on my own. This massive city is surprisingly easy to get around. The subway system here is awesome. Anyway, before leaving the USA I did some research on where to go to buy some DIY audio parts and a few places directed me to Welfare Electronic Component Limited (WECL) on Apliu St, which is a new/used electronics open-air market that apparently back in the day was the place to go for all of your pirated software needs.
I walked up the stairs to their store and felt like I was walking into heaven. They had just about everything, and it was RIDICULOUSLY organized. I was really hoping to stock up on box caps, but their price for them wasn't all that great. I think they were around $0.40 each (I'll be using US dollar equivalents in this post). I didn't have a lot to spend, so I was pretty much looking for what I could get the best deal on. Prices on ICs, transistors, resistors, etc. were pretty similar to the States prices.
But then I found the potentiometer section of the store.... 16mm Alpha pots (PCB mount, not lugs) for $3 Hong Kong, which equals around $0.38 US. DING! DING! DING! JACK POT!
I bought 35 pots :)
I bought some various ICs that were decently priced, some sockets that were dirt cheap, some 2N5088s, 2 of those reverse action tweezers, and a UNI-T UT603 multimeter (does resistance, diode/continuity, capacitance, inductance, transistor hFE... pretty much everything but voltage) to replace my crappy RadioShack multimeter (that does do voltage, but not capacitance or transistor hFE).
There was definitely a language barrier, so I didn't know how to find out if there were quantity discounts for anything. But that was ok, it's my fault for not speaking Chinese :)
The way you shop there is they have these little bowls all round the components section of the store and you take one (or in my case, 2) and walk around and throw what you need into them. When you are done, you take you bowl(s) to the little old lady cashier, and she dumps everything out onto a counter and, like a machine, she sorts everything out and types in what you have in the computer, bags it up, takes your money, and sends you on your way. Crazy efficient.
I did that math and i got about $130 worth of stuff for about $70. Not too shabby. I was bummed that i forgot to go back to the resistor aisle and stock up on trimpots. They had some really nice ones for around $0.25 each. Oh well, I still made out pretty well.
This will all be in my checked bag, so I hope that I make it through customs with no issues :)
I start my long journey home tomorrow, but it's been a great trip :)