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Line manager: Uh, Boss?
Boss: Yes?
L: We finished that new run of the component. We sent it to QA.
B: Okay? Is there a problem?
L: I just got the report back. This batch, uh, didn't meet the tolerance goal.
B: [rubs temple] Okay, shit happens. I guess it goes out as 10%. That's not too bad a hit.
L: Uh, it didn't meet 10% tolerance, either.
B: What? How bad is it? 20%?
L: Uh...
B: It's *worse* than 20%?
L: Most of the parts are barely within 50% tolerance.
B: ...
L: So, uh, we should probably ...
B: Who was running the line?
L: ...
B: It was Chuck, wasn't it?
L: ... yes.
B: Was he drunk again?
L: I don't know. I sent him home.
B: Nobody's made these components in 50% tolerance for thirty years. Where am I going to sell them?
L: ...
B: Okay, AliExpress it is. Go to the noodle shop across the street and offer him some new boxes if we can have the ones his supplies come in. No way I'm putting these parts and the company name in the same room together.
(inspired by some parts I received today...)
I really hate that I have to say this, but this was just supposed to be a funny story. "Chinesium", "yum cha", and "Short Fiction" were clues.
I'm aware that because a market for substandard but drastically cheaper parts exist, more of those substandard parts are made available. Stuff that failed QA, so called "third shift" output, salvaged parts, inventory that fell off the back of a truck, etc.
And I think this is a *good* thing.
When I was doing my final-year project at school (Computer Engineering Technology), there were no cheap Chinese sources for parts. There were a couple of electronic supply houses in town that cost an absolute fortune. The cheapest way to get parts was DigiKey. I got four of my classmates together to do one bigger order, to get quantity discounts and split the shipping charge.
Plain through-hole resistors in common values were $0.25 -- each. After minimal income tax at minimum wage, that meant I could work for an hour and afford maybe 12 resistors. Virtually everything else was measured in dollars apiece. It cost a bloody fortune just to build my project (a computer-controlled slot machine).
I'd always been interested in hobby electronics, but I and many others simply couldn't afford to participate.
Now I can go on AliExpress and order an assorted kit of tens of pieces of each of dozens of common values of 10% resistor for four bucks, including delivery. A hundred dual FET op-amps for ten bucks.
1/2
Yes, you take your chances - there's the occasional outright scam, or so-so quality parts (like the ones that inspired me to write this), but you go into it with your eyes open. You take a chance because it's dirt cheap.
And 90% of the time, the parts are just fine.
For anything important, or safety-related, or mains-connected, or anything I build for other than personal use, I won't use yum-cha parts like this. For those, I order good name-brand parts from a reputable supplier (Newark/Element14/RS, DigiKey, etc).
But for hobbyists just having fun, messing around? AliExpress and friends are an absolute godsend. You can now get into hobby electronics for practically nothing, and build stuff and see if you like it.
There's a place for quality parts, and a place for cheap parts. Knowing which is which isn't hard.
Three cheers for cheap components!
2/2
@cazabon The problem for me are those ancient parts (say, mid-1990s Toshiba MOSFETs) where whatever NOS or even used parts are out there are just drowned out by the fake ones. I'd have _no_ problem with buying "marginally failed QA" or used or somesuch, if the main characteristics were still there. I just can't find them in the sea of scam.
These days, if you buy a vintage MOSFET or transistor, you're lucky if there's anything in there that actually has an hFE.
Oh, agreed - you're not going to find genuine "classic" parts on a market that exists mainly as a dumping ground for cheap crap.
If you're building something where the required characteristics of a part are more specific than, say "n-channel MOSFET rated for 30V and 3A", then you're probably in buy-from-a-reputable-distributor territory.
@cazabon .... it's a repair thing. I am repairing a Sony hifi amp from the 90s, and one of its output MOSFETs (2SK1529-Y) is blown. I probably will to just have hope I'll fine the genuine article eventually.