Review parts stores

[Half Shell]

I'm sure we have all had that headache - trying to find the rights parts at the cheapest prices for our projets, and occasionally getting screwed over by what we order or by the company. Sometimes we order from places that are robotics oriented and a little friendlier to our needs. Other times we have to order parts from places that don't even have catering to roboticists in their minds.

We all have our favorite places, and many of us share places. Likewise, with Robotics becoming more prevalent in our world through hobbyists and for professions, more places are coming out constantly claiming to be the better store.

I'm suggesting that we begin, either through this forum or another medium on the website, reviewing the various stores we order from. I understand the Admin may not want us to do this due to advertisers, so if he says no then I completely understand. But I believe if we were to create a regularly updated list of robotics suppliers and keep reviews of it will help pricing out projects much quicker.

One particular feature I want to focus on is the ability to label a place as "cheap" for certain parts. For instance - if one site has subpar reviews but is labeled as a really cheap place for servos, then I will look there first for my servos instead of merely overlooking it.

Thoughts, suggestions, and comments are welcome. I think this is an idea that can make a our projects much easier on both mind and wallet  .

[cooldog]

www.allelectronics.com cheaper then digikey

[paulstreats]

One aspect of my new business will be to provide components retail.

The reason that i want to do this is because whenever I go looking for robotic components, I will find 1 site that offers the hardware like wheels and bases but very few electronics (usually overpriced if they stock them). Then I will have to go somewhere else for electronics components. So I am proposing to open a web sales outlet to cater for both (provided there seems to be an acceptable market. Im still contemplating wether this would be a good complementary business to have or not)

[airman00]

One aspect of my new business will be to provide components retail.

The reason that i want to do this is because whenever I go looking for robotic components, I will find 1 site that offers the hardware like wheels and bases but very few electronics (usually overpriced if they stock them). Then I will have to go somewhere else for electronics components. So I am proposing to open a web sales outlet to cater for both (provided there seems to be an acceptable market. Im still contemplating wether this would be a good complementary business to have or not)

I like that idea! One product which is hard to find

servo wheels for cheap that come in various diameters

[Half Shell]

So people seem to enjoy the idea thus far. What features do we want to see though?

Obviously we have to have a review of customer support and shipping as one category. Then we have to categorize the site's overall focus (roboticS? just electronics?).

After this we can talk about the size ofthe selection of robotics components. A rating on price for tehse components as well.

And the most important thing IMHO, is if they are exceptionally good for providing a certain part cheap.

I'm going to create a template that I will soon post that will allow people to quickly fill it out and send to me. Over time we should be able to create a listing of all the robotics stores out there and have decent reviews on all of them.

Of course I'll be depending on all of your input. I'll be making the template a harmless easy to fill out document you can just submit to me.

[Admin]

The only good solution to this would be to create a robot parts database. I've been thinking about this for years.

(anyone with web skills willing to make one?)

The database will constantly need to be updated (prices change, new products come out, etc), so it would require a someone working on it all the time . . .

Microsoft about a year ago was funding this group at CMU to do such a thing (robot parts database), but I haven't heard about it since . . . I figure they failed . . .