Purchasing transistors and power caps on ebay, should I?

[SaSi]

You can get almost everything from reputable electronics dealers online. And many offer free shipping for orders above a price point. You can't enter a BOM to any ebay seller and get a significant batch. And anything you purchase will be suspect.
I have purchased some capacitor and resistor assortment packs from ebay, because they were cheap and offered free shipping. But I only used these components for experimentation circuits and treat them almost like consumables.
You may find some obscure and long obsolete TO-3 transistors on ebay, as NOS. The fact that you can find them there is suspect by itself. It has been documented by many that these are fakes.

 

[petes'picks]

I have saved a couple of sellers that I know for sure sell authentic electronics surplus . Both used to have great deals but 2 or 3 years ago many other folks started bidding on their parts so no more steals to be had. I purchased mostly surplus film caps and most were in original boxes with original manufacturers labels still intact.

I wouldnt purchase Electrolytics unless I can see the date codes but they are almost always at least 10 years old if you can spot it. Besides most electrolytics are so cheap these days why not order fresh ones from a reputable dealer.

The only transistors I ever purchased from ebay were part of a lot that were included in some parts bins, after sorting them the grim on my fingers proved they were at least 40 years old.

Attempt at your own risk but there are things you can do to reduce your risk. Make a small order of something they have in stock that matches something in your parts bin from Mouser and Digikey then compare the parts using test equipment (if its a 63v cap then use a power supply to run 63v through the cap, test ESR, DF.....).​

 

[Jonstigator]

We all came across a piece of gear with a missing board or a knob or something. I use eBay for that. And where else could I sell gear I don't want?

 

[Guest159]

The output MOSFETs in my left channel F5 are parts from eBay. 5 IRFP240 and 5 IRFP9240. The P-channel parts were new unused, as advertised, but the N-channels had been in something judging from the solder on the legs. They all worked just fine though. I made no adjustments to the amp aside from the bias pots and the sound identical.

I turned to eBay because nobody had those parts in stock and I didn't have much of a choice unless I wanted to wait 2 months. I'd trust transistors from a reputable seller with impeccable feedback who's testing and matching the parts themselves, like some of the guys selling the old Toshiba JFETs. Caps... I wouldn't bother. Caps aren't so special that you can't find a part from Mouser or Digikey with confidence. But, I've heard that even Mouser and Digikey have had issues with fake caps. It's a pretty big problem, and if those guys have had issues with cap sources, I wouldn't trust anyone on eBay selling caps. It's not worth the savings.

 

[safebet]

Been needing an STK-015 to fix a cute little STA-46 receiver that had belonged to my friends parents.

If someone knows a source for a legit one please share or PM me!

 

[EduardVT25]

Hello.
It would scare me to buy transistors on ebay. But i have some genuine Hitachi 2SK135 for some decades and i would put them on ebay too if i need some extra cash. Recently i sold some 310A tubes made by Western Electric, Cetron and the French W.E branch on ebay. They were gone after a few views.
I bought old tubes made in Western Europe in European countries. I bought Russian military caps from Eastern European countries. I bought American made CSI capacitors from an Americain surplus dealer.
Always a good idea to figure out how the parts ended up in the attic of the seller. I wouldnt trust buying Black Gate caps from a Russian or Chinese seller.
Talking about caps, the ones ( not my 10 microfarad 1200 volts) that most people use in their power supplies ( tube or solid state) just get them from a company like MOUSER. They can deliver exactly what you are looking for not a 63 volt cap that hardly fits while you were looking for a 25 volts one. You have a broader choice, you can decide if you need one that can handle a higher temperature.
Greetings, Eduard