Maplins potentiometers

[Les Turnbull]

Maplins selling there potentiometers cheep . https://www.maplin.co.uk/search/?text=potentiometers
  Ordered some BC548b and BC549c hope I receive them with this bankruptcy thing going on . https://www.maplin.co.uk/search/?text=transistors

[merlinb]

Thanks!

[moid]

Thanks for spotting this! Although it seems that most of the good stuff has gone already And even with what is apparently a 70% discount, many of the prices are still above what you can buy the parts for at sites like bitsbox.co.uk - no wonder they went bust! If it helps anyone, 4070 CMOS chips are very cheap (15p) and still available:
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/4070-cmos-logic-hcfhef-qx26d

Other than that I bought a load of odd dual gang potentiomenters (never built anything with one, but at 24p each they seemed like a bargain and I'm a firm believer in buying something that I'll fin a use for in ten year's time. Just look at the contents of my garage ). I also got some resistors (the common values are all gone) and some rotary switches.

Side note: it's been far too long since I last posted; what an awful time it's been since then... I haven't built anything since September last year... I hope to get some tools out of storage soon, but I can imagine everything being on hold until the start of the Summer. Hello to all you wonderful people, I keep dropping in even if I don't have the time to post.

[MrStab]

thanks for the heads up, Les!

apologies in advance if any of you guys have worked there, i'm sure you're the exception, but in every single branch i've been to i've been met with rude and/or otherwise uncomfortable staff to be around. also, i've always found it really audacious how they manage to patronise uninformed customers on top of extorting them. and they really, really were joking with some of their prices, whilst edging out all the competition.

...so with that in mind, i've just spent a petty amount of money buying a large amount of petty things so the lovely folk at my local branch can have a fun morning . probably won't be as long as the time i spent 15 minutes waiting for them to figure out how to deduct an item at the till, whilst having an(other) argument right in front of me. good thing i didn't buy too many semiconductors, given their zero lack of regard for ESD.

i'm struggling to find sympathy. maybe the staff training or conditions were just bad.

[anotherjim]

We mentioned this in a thread about Maplin terminal decline in the Lounge.
The most common pot values disappeared from the on-line store very quickly - when the discount was only 10%.
I might miss those Omeg pots...  whatever material the back cans are made of suffers condensation corrosion very quickly, although they feel like they are packed inside with an insane amount of grease.

[moid]

My Maplins delivery arrived today - in case anyone is wondering, all the potentiometers they sent me were Alphas. However in true Maplins style; as a final swan song, they didn't send me some of the resistors I ordered... it really wouldn't be a Maplins order if they weren't screwing with you somehow I'm not going to complain but actually laughed when I realised what they'd done! At least they're checking out with the same style they've had for years!

[bluebunny]

My "last ever order" also had stuff missing and other mistakes.  Sad on so many levels...   

[nickbungus]

I would never order for postal from Maplins as there are much better online places.  I tend to use Bitsbox although when an order failed to come through I had to read out the letter of the law to get a refund (but thats another story).

Anyway, although the prices have always been far over the odds I am going to miss the place when it goes. I was finishing off a CE-1 on Saturday night and realised I didn't have any 470nfs in stock.  I needed 2 and then checked on Maplin and my local branch had 2 in, so I nipped down there first thing on Sunday and all was good.

Also, the copper clad board they sold was always good quality.

So, in fairness, the prices have never been competitive with what you would pay online but the convenience has always been great.  I will miss it when it goes as I am unaware of anywhere else where I can walk in and just get the odd component.

[slashandburn]

thanks for the heads up, Les!

apologies in advance if any of you guys have worked there, i'm sure you're the exception, but in every single branch i've been to i've been met with rude and/or otherwise uncomfortable staff to be around. also, i've always found it really audacious how they manage to patronise uninformed customers on top of extorting them. and they really, really were joking with some of their prices, whilst edging out all the competition.

...so with that in mind, i've just spent a petty amount of money buying a large amount of petty things so the lovely folk at my local branch can have a fun morning . probably won't be as long as the time i spent 15 minutes waiting for them to figure out how to deduct an item at the till, whilst having an(other) argument right in front of me. good thing i didn't buy too many semiconductors, given their zero lack of regard for ESD.

i'm struggling to find sympathy. maybe the staff training or conditions were just bad.

I'm with you for most of that, but remembering you're from Glasgow I will say that the Kelvinbridge branch was actually quite decent (circa 8 to 10 years ago). Same shocking prices but for the most part I found the staff miles more clued up and willing to help than almost any other branch I've had the misfortune to need to visit. For a time it was my local branch and I remember getting the impression they mostly hired the brighter of the students from the tech college up the road. 

My current local branch is a laugh a minute. Difficult staff. Even simply buying something off the shelf at the advertised price proved an ordeal more than a few times, with the manager doing that "I don't care if the ticket on the shelf says "£17.49 valid until next month", the price has gone back up to 24.99" thing.

[RedHouse]

Bummer.

"and another one's gone ...another one bites the dust"