What if you only need a few dollars or even a few cents worth of parts? You're still looking at at least $6 in shipping costs. I'm used to living in Toronto where there seem to be more good electronics stores than starbucks. I'm in the habbit of making a trip to Active, Daiwa or any of a lot of other choices buying everything I think I need for a project and then going back a few more times for what I really need while I'm working on it. I've recently moved cross country, and there isn't any sort of electronics store besides radio shack within 300 miles. I've checked with the local robotics club, even the model train club, and I've spent a lot of time looking online. For my current project, I needed about $10 worth of parts from All Electronics. They have a flat rate $6 shipping fee. So I decided to get double what I needed plus a lot of other stuff I might need, just to make the shipping worthwhile. I ended up spending over $50, and an hour after I placed the order, I realized I forgot some 14 pin IC sockets. I emailed them and they were very good about adding it to my order. Now for the same project I realize I forgot about connecting the LCD to the circuit board; I need a header connect to the board (30 cents), and the cable ($1.25 with the 14 pin IDC sockets already attached). So for my $1.55 in parts, it looks like I'll have to pay $7.55 because of shipping. Of course, to make it worthwhile, I'll end up adding lots for stuff I don't need but might, so now I'm out a lot more money and I need to find some place to store it. I also need a keypad. I didn't order that from All Electronics the first time; they have phone keypads "removed from equipment" for $5 US. I used to buy identical keypads for $0.35 CDN at active annex. Alltronics has membrane keypads for $1, I'd rather get some of those than the $5 ones at All Electronics, but then there's a $15 minimum order and $6 shipping fee. Alltronics doesn't seem to have the header connectors at all. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that without a local retail parts store, it's simply impossible to do electronics work as a hobby. Jason ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Rolf" To: Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 8:57 AM Subject: Re: [OT:] RadioShack Canada Sucks > With the likes of Digikey, Mouser, Jameco, Newark, etc. > why would anyone bother with a retail parts store? -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads