From a comment in FB group
I buy most stuff from Mouser because I found their prices are lower than Digikey. I’ve had bad experiences with mouser, mostly shortages on quantity, but I had some disc caps thar were below tolerance. Mouser has some cool ways to narrow down the selection to a manageable size. But I can’t understand why some parts don’t show online but show up in a page of their catalog.
But Newark Element14 has some good deals, too. I can’t figure out what goes on with them because some parts come from multiple places. And Arrow has had free shipping, depending on things, and some parts come from a company called Verical, apparently a subsidiary.
I bought stuff on eBay and found the prices were fair for quantities below 100, but the sellers are sorely lacking on specifications. Lots of things can’t be told by pictures, but you can always message the seller and ask. I’ve had more bad experiences with eBay than anywhere else. But then I’ve bought a lot of items from a lot of sellers.
I had one bad experience with Alibaba, but it was my first, and will be my last for a few years until they mature to the point where eBay is today.
I’ve bought a lot of stuff from Amazon, but they have so many sellers it’s hard to tell who’s selling what. Prices are higher, but you get better service. What I dislike is Amazon won’t accept PayPal. I think Amazon was better years ago when they were trying to gain market share. They offered free shipping for $25 minimum, it went up to $35, now it’s $45, or whatever. I just had to use their return service recently, and I think their menus were not user friendly.
And I’ve bought stuff from other online stores, and found that it pays to shop around.