is there some reliable website where people group buy stuff?
if you don't kn what i'm referring to, i mean like a small community of people who order in bulk to save money, then split the items so they get small amounts at a fair discount.
it's all fun and games when your running the group buy and collect all the money before the purchase, but not so fun when you need to put money in and hope it's not gonna go wrong... but i want a really reliable place with 100 percent guarantee i won't get screwed... not sure if there is, but thought i should ask.
honestly, i just wanna float around and see what others are trying to organize, and if i think it'll be useful to me, i'll buy it! I can see myself buying alot of stuff if i can get good deals on them.
group buys are very good because you can buy a good amount of stuff without paying too much money.
but now that it seems that there isint a place to do group buys, it might be a good idea to start a section or site that does this... sounds like a good idea...
thanks for that very usefull tidbit of information. i wish i could afford to go out and buy whatever whenever, but the prices companies charge for small orders, like sparkfun and spectrasymbol, is nothing compared to a larger quantity. so if i can find a group buy for those more expensive type products, i'm opted to buy it, even if i don't see myself needing it in the immediate time.
I understand what you are saying and certainly didn't mean anything negative about what you are inquiring about.
It's been my limited experience at watching a few 'group buy' efforts on some forums, is that it seems to take forever for the organizing and collecting of funds and reshipment. It seems to be like trying to heard cats at times. I seldom saw such efforts get repeated. It takes a tremendous amount of work and time for whoever tries to coordinate such an effort.
i took no offense by what you said, i just wanted to explain my situation more, sorry if i seemed negative about your response...
but i think i might looking into possibly creating a website for group buying... if i make just enough money to cover the server, people would still get a good deal... do you think people would go for it?
Logistics for something like this are horrible, unless you're dealing with an international border and the discount is really steep.
If you have specific parts in mind, Seeedstudio is really good about finding cheap sources of parts from the Shenzen electronics markets. You can get a special order, or if there's enough interest he'll buy up a bunch and put them on his site for others to buy. The international shipping from China is pretty cheap.
Actually, I order a lot of stuff directly from China these days. Dealextreme is a source of just about anything weird and/or electronic, eBay has a lot of direct sellers that are great for things like LEDs and other electronic parts (watch out for counterfeit parts, keep an eye on those feedback scores).
Most other things I don't need in huge quantities, so the convenience of ordering from Mouser and Digikey is a big factor. I don't save a few cents per part, but I also get my parts in a day or two, almost any part in existence. I even have Jameco local if I want to walk in and ask for parts from their catalog, if I really need something the same day.
Group buys start to have advantages when the product is custom made. You see a lot of group buys in various enthusiast communities, like cars, audio, and Storm Trooper / Dalek / R2D2 builders. The price per part for custom doohickeys really drops when you order a few hundred.
I think you need to have a problem before you look for a solution....
Also, (not sure if you know about this) if you're looking at acquiring ICs a lot of times you can request free samples. I recently got 15 MAX7221 (Arduino Playground - LEDMatrix) for free as well as a handful of RTC chips to play with...
As far as the cost of a server to run a web site...it's really next to nothing. The software is where the expense is.
oh my god! your so lucky you live close to jameco. you prob get good deals becuase you pay good shipping. for me it only pays to buy from digi key or jameco if i order alot of stuff, because if i order 4 things, i'll be paying more for shipping then my order combined! what region/ area do you live in?
i live 30 mins from new york, but i haven't found any good dealers going through ny, so i can't get small orders minus shipping, even though it's new york...
and radio shack... they seriously see the prices online, and atleast quadruple them if not more.
5 resistors from radioshack = 1.29
100 resistors from online comapnies = 1.00
5 vs 100...
gross over charge.
but i agree it would be a huge thing to undergo, if i tried starting a whole site dedicated to group buys. shipping from me to the person who ordered would probably cost enough to make it not worth it, so it would only pay to do local buys.
maybe in a couple of years.
and trust me, i find all the discount websites, and they have their advantages and disadvantages, none really stick out for me.
and futurlec sounds kinda shady, even though i had a successful order, i don't know if it's worth it to risk another order. and i will say their customer service, for me atleast was good, their barrel plugs werent good, so they sent me another order of barrel plugs, free, and those werent good either, so they refunded my money. still too many bad reviews out there to keep me uncomfortable.
I have tried to be active in organizing a group buy of synth diy parts once. It's a freaking nightmare. People say "i'm in" but don't send you any money. And a lot of the savings on bying big is lost on shipping stuff round to people and packaging materials.
The idea is good, but there's a lot of work involved in it for the guy who does the actual buying.
The best solution is to find people near you, and pool your orders. But that is of course not always possible.
If you're that close to NYC you might want to give the people over at NYC resistor a visit. Surely they know all the best places to buy stuff in the city.
didn't know about that group, thanks! do you know if they have an e-mail adress? i scrounged their website with no result, and the phone number left me talking to a robot lady telling my to leave a message lol
