I was doing some PCB order on seeedstudio and noticed a price error. So I thought it would be cool to make the pricing matrix for the several board sizes that I use (bet others use these sizes also). Saves you time from digging on their site:
5*5 PCS Cost Unit cost
5 $9.90 $1.98
10 $9.90 $0.99
20 $28.90 $1.45
30 $28.90 $0.96
50 $39.90 $0.80
100 $79.90 $0.80
10*10 PCS Cost Unit cost
5 $20.90 $4.18
10 $24.90 $2.49
20 $45.90 $2.30
30 $69.90 $2.33
50 $109.90 $2.20
100 $179.90 $1.80
5*10 PCS Cost Unit cost
5 $18.90 $3.78
10 $23.90 $2.39
20 $42.90 $2.15
30 $56.90 $1.90
50 $69.90 $1.40
100 $104.90 $1.05
10*15 PCS Cost Unit cost
5 $45.90 $9.18
10 $55.90 $5.59
20 $86.90 $4.35
30 $124.90 $4.16
50 $139.90 $2.80
100 $249.90 $2.50
Notice the mistake in there?
It seems like from 1010 to 1010, you pay a deep increase.
I just decided NOT to go with seeedstduio for a while. They excluded PCB service from $50 free shipping. They've been doing this for years but just removed it. This triggered me to look at alternative, iteadstudio.
I had some quote dispute with itead a few years back. I do 100-200 boards at a time for some of my kits. One guy gave a price and the other guy would give a very different one, like twice as expensive. Confusing a whole lot. I decided to drop them and return to seeed, knowing they were a bit more expensive, but discovered the free shipping.
Now I took another look at itead, they have slightly lower priced 10*10 boards ($5 less) and shipping is quite a bit more reasonable compared with seeed. I'll see how they handle 100-200 board quotes.
I know CR has been using/recommending itead
I've used iTead a few times, no complaints at all. The only reason I currently use Elecrow is that they do coloured boards for no extra charge!
I've been happily using itead for a few small runs: only 10-20 boards not 200 - got my latest delivery just last week! However they have the full quantity pricing structure laid out on their website (qty up to 300) so there shouldn't be any confusion; for example, 10x10cm.
The process standards (clearances, min line widths, etc) are not up to local (Australian) quality but it is literally 10-50x cheaper and more than good enough for simple microcontroller work.
And they are still shipping with desiccants. I don't know if that's good or not for transportation. Seeed says that's not allowed by their mail carriers. Anyway, it's good to know the boards are dry.