It sells.

See, there is a demand for goods and if it is not available as genuine items, the sellers will somehow manage to sell you something you need.

An example. Some years ago, a client of mine ordered Punsumi brand capacitors 'value 1000uF/16V' He got cute looking capacitors which were faithfully installed into his consumer product and sold. After a few months, we noticed lots of these products coming back faulty. Reason - blown capacitor. Cause - manipulated rating. 6V capacitors were reprinted to read 16V. So, they kept blowing.

You find the same thing happening even today and there is no easy recourse to these problems except that you buy through a reliable source who can guarantee his material comes from an importer of goods etc,. and will exchange or take back defective ones.

As for the charges - Mouser and Digikey charge you and me the same. However the shipping part is what prevents us from buying direct from them. Shipping via Post is cheaper at $15, but most online sellers ship via Fedex or USPS which are expensive. Then the Indian customs duties add to the burden. So, for a $1 item, we end up paying at least $100. I agree there is a business opportunity if many small orders are consolidated and shipped in one lot. But thats where people like RS components comes in. They charge almost n times the cost for an item and deliver!!

Now, I use direct online purchases where possible or maybe buy from the local distributor where possible. Even so, the conversion rate applicable to us is 65INR to a USD whereas the exchange rate is 40INR to a USD.

Now you know why many folks resort to using readily available parts like ATMEL in our part of the world. Many of my designs are built on the ATMEL controllers

Jerson