Got some very good deals recently, some others, not so good.

Now when you're a hobbyist, it's not a big deal to put a dab of adhesive on a shaft, but if my project does go into production, average of 50% failure rate on these knobs is not going to be funny.



And then there's the packaging failures; rotary encoders and potentiometers in a plastic bag, wrapped with a paper envelope with a coating of tiny air bubbles; something like 90% of those air bubbles are busted. Most of the pins on the rotary encoders are bent, they're weaker. You can actually see on PC the hundreds of puncture marks in the plastic bags made by the pins.





The pins on the potentiometers aren't that badly damaged, but will still need alignment to some degree.



They only reason I buy these parts from them is because Digikey, Mouser and Newark sell them 5-10 times the price. There is the occasional success stories, like that set of 30mm knobs and the set of 10mm knobs (perfect for rotary encoders); so far those are all perfect.

I'm just hoping my orders of 7-segment LEDs arrive in better shape. The last time I bought some, they were pinned on styrofoam; perfect condition considering this was eBay 15 years ago.

Robert