Ask HN: What is the real cost of electronic components?

I like electronics and I think one of the design features that can be desirable in lots of different final products is robustness.<p>Not just reliability but one of the clear advantages is when your product is highly robust in the face of dramatic price swings for commodity components as well as specialty items like uncommon chips or transformers.<p>This may not apply to you, but with commodities, for a distributor ideally the internal cost can be zero when the parts are languishing on the shelf after being fully depreciated. Regardless of whether they account for it like that or not. Their pricing can realistically be based on what it costs them to get the parts to you, not what the part cost to acquire in the first place. That can be a lot of leeway, things are not always ideal but maybe more common depending on where you look.

I&#x27;m not exactly sure what you mean by the &quot;real price&quot;. Companies like Mouser and Digikey charge a premium to be sure, but they also perform a real service for that premium in the form of taking measures to avoid counterfeit and faulty parts. Discount sources (particularly unknown ones) come with a very high chance of selling garbage parts.<p>How important that is to you depends on your particular needs and situation.