Description:
Obsolete electronic components and parts. Electronics Obsolete is a specialist supplier of discontinued ic"s, chips, transistor, diode, capacitor, semis, connector, IC and integrated circuits.

We specialise in selling obsolete electronic components to industrial, professional and commercial users - world-wide. Diodes, transistors, valves (tubes), integrated circuits, connectors, fuses, capacitors, resistors - whatever goes onto a circuit board - we supply.

We supply old and obsolete components - the older the better.

Search our database - free of charge - and send us an enquiry.
Sorry - we can not supply home users or hobbyists. We are a British company selling world wide. Our prices are in £ sterling - minimum order value £150. We welcome payment by credit cards - Mastercard or Visa.

Old and obsolete electronic components

Who are we - We are a brokering company specialising in the supply of obsolete electronic components, supporting OEM's and professional users across Europe and North America

What we do - Every year, many thousands of new components are introduced. These new components will be faster, more powerful and cheaper than the devices they replace. Technology must keep moving on and as new items are introduced, older ones become obsolete. Sometimes it's easy to use a new component in place of its obsolete predecessor - but not always. Often the cost of re-engineering a design is prohibitive or too time-consuming.When you absolutely must have the original part, you need the specialist services of Electronics Obsolete.com. We have experience going back to the 1970s. Our database of obsolete types is the most complete in the world. We list over 1,200,000 different types of components, backed by a specialist research department dedicated to finding the exact version and spec.

What we sell - Germanium transistors, valves, 4 bit microprocessors, 4K Drams and ECL Logic - we grew up with these types of products... and we remember brands like Commodore, Signetics, Westcode, Plessey, Raytheon, Mullard, Sperry, Mostek and Intersil.

Search our database - Since 1989 we've been collecting information about electronic components - and where to get them from. We've built a huge database of component sources and this database is now available for you to search.

Search our database - it's free to use - when you find what you need, send us an enqury. We'll check the physical stock and send you a quote. If you like our quote - you place a secure order by credit card.


Our customers - Our customers are original equipment manufacturers, service centres and professional users in Europe and North America. Unfortunately we can't sell to hobbyists or private individuals. We accept payment by credit card and have a minimum order value of £100.

Lets do business - Check out the "Our Service" link on the left. It will guide you through searching our data base, sending an enquiry to us and placing your order. It also contains very important quality information.

Doing Business With Us.

Please take a few moments to look through how we do business below. There’s some important information about quality expectations, details of what our prices include, how we calculate the total cost of your order and shipping methods. Once you have decided to do business, we accept Visa or Mastercard - but there's nothing in this web site that will ask you for your card details. Feel free to search our database and explore our site. We hope you'll find it useful and look forward to doing business with you.

First.... Search our database. Our database contains details of over 15 million different components from 40,000 suppliers around the world. It’s a database of old, obsolete and slow moving items. We collect the data without verifying accuracy. Regard the data as a list of possibilities not a definite availability. Once you’ve made a search – the system will help you send us an automatic enquiry to verify the actual stock. Make a search Check out “search tips” in Help, do an initial search then refine it. Don’t expect to find what you’re looking for first time around. Start with a generic search and drill in to find the exact part you’re looking for. Interpret search result The results of your search are sorted according to the quantity available when the data was entered – highest quantieies at the top.

Next stage.... Request a quotation The system lets you send us an automatic email – just tick the items you’re interested in and fill in your name, company, phone number with optional comments. We aim to reply to normal requests for quotation in a couple of days. If it’s urgent – please call (01383-824642) or fax - details under contacts. Select the entries you are interested in Enter the quantity you need, and your target price If there are a lot of search results – select only three or four ~ more than three or four just clutters up the system and slows down our response. Enter the quantity you need against each line, and put in a target price if you have one. Your target price should be in £’s – omit the currency symbol eg .10 means 10p or £.10

When you give us a target price – remember the minimum order value of £300 ~ so if you only need a quantity of 100, don’t give us a target of £.25 because you won’t beat the min order value! Send your RFQ by email Fill in your name, company, phone number and e-mail address add any optional comments Reminder about terms of sale This service is for companies, organisations and professional users only . We regret we’re unable to trade with hobbyists or private individuals. Don’t forget – we only accept payment by secure credit card and we’ve a minimum order value of £100.

When we get your enquiry.... We’ll verify stock We’ll contact the supplier (who may be on the other side or the world) and ask him to confirm the quantity he’s got in stock. When stock is confirmed, we’ll quote you a price. Our quote will reflect the package quantities and will be priced to beat the minum order value. So if you only need a quantity of 2000 but the parts come tape and reel 2500 per reel, we’ll quote 2500. We’ll never split reels or open factory sealed packs or tubes. Price includes The cost of the goods plus (if applicable) import freight into the UK plus import duty into the EU.

Our prices are in £’s sterling but your credit card will be debited in £’s sterling but you pay in your own currency. We debit your card in £’s which are converted into your currency by your card issuer. Shipping charges UK Customers £10 We use Business Post “Next working day” Customers outside the UK £30 We use UPS Express for customers in Europe and North America – European customers can generally expect a “next working day” service. The UPS North American service is generally “Two Day”. VAT Customers in the UK pay 17.5% VAT Customers in other EU countries need not pay British VAT if they provide us with their VAT number when they place their order. Export customers outside EU Customers outside the EU do not pay any British taxes but may need to pay import duty or sales tax when they import from Europe. Consult your local Customs or UPS office for further information.

Placing your order Ordering is very easy and totally secure. Once you’ve decided to order, we communicate by fax – we’ll never ask for your credit card details on email or through this web site. Send your order by email or fax Please specify the full company (or organisation) name. Specify the invoice and delivery address with phone & fax numbers, post code and VAT number if you have one. Specify the quantity, the part number and price – don’t give us your credit card details yet We’ll contact you by fax We’ll send you an order form which contains a note of what you’re ordering and authority to debit credit card. Authority to debit credit card must be completed and signed by the cardholder. We’ll also send you a “Quality Expectation” information sheet – see below Security Please fax us back the signed authority to debit your credit card We’ll process the transaction immediately. We may need to call you with additional security questions if required during card authorisation.

Quality requirements questionnaire Quality Expectations We want you to be delighted with the components you are buying. It’s vital that we understand what you expect – remember we are selling old and obsolete components; the condition of which will occasionally be perfect, often tatty and sometimes dreadful! When we ask you to pay for your order, we will ask you to indicate the minimum quality you expect. We will inspect the parts to your quality expectation. Please spend a few moments reading our quality definitions and terminology Grade = New, Refurbs or Pulls New New doesn’t mean “young”! It means the product is un-used. The parts have never been used, programmed or put on boards – this is the best grade.

Refurbs Refurb (or refurbished) parts are “second-hand”. They’ve been previously used but have then been cleaned and re-conditioned to bring them back up to “nearly new” condition. Refurb parts often bear the brand name of the refurbishing company – reputable companies include Kreug and CM. Refurbished components are mid-grade but not a low cost option because of the work involved in salvaging and re-conditioning them. Pulls Pulls are at the bottom of the quality tree. Like refurbs they are “second-hand” and have previously been used. They have been removed from their original circuit board (hence the name pull) but no attempt has been made to clean them up. They carry the original manufacturer markings and are a lower cost alternative than refurbs. The very best pulls may be indistinguishable from new parts – the worst will be grim. Condition The condition of parts reflects the way they’ve been packed, stored and handled. Ideally, we’d like to see everything hermetically sealed in protective nitrogen atmosphere, stored at zero humidity at 20 degree C. In the real world of obsolete components the best you can expect is: C1 = Factory sealed Factory sealed is the best you can expect. Factory sealed only applies to New components. It means the parts were packed and sealed in their packaging by the original manufacturer. More important – the seals remain intact and the labelling on the outside of the pack is original. The provenance of these components is un-doubted and they will not have been subject to risk of ESD damage.

However, their leads or terminals may have oxidisation or pitting and the adhesive used in taping may have deteriroriated with age which will prevent them being used on auto-insert machines. In all cases it may be necessary to adapt manufacturing process to accommodate the characteristics of aged components. C2 = Good Condition This is typical of the components we sell in each grade. Good condition means the parts have been stored normally (though they may have the oxidisation and taping characteristics of grade C1). They will be well packed in protective packaging and should have straight, correctly aligned leads. C3 = OK Condition Components in this condition should be OK – nothing more. They may have been taken out of their original packaging and re-packed in non-original packaging. In addition to the oxidisation mention above some may have leads which are not perfectly straight. These components will work but they won’t look pretty. C4 = Poor Condition Old obsolete components have often been stored in poor conditions. They may have been handled carelessly and will look sub-prime.

Expect bent leads and poor packaging. The condition of these should be a sign of their age – nothing better can be expected. C5 = Bad Condition These will be grim. They might work but we do not guarantee this. We will not ship grade C5 unless the customer agrees to take the parts un-conditionally. Components sold in grade C5 are not of merchantable quality and not fit for the purpose intended. Grade> N = New R = Refurb P = Pull Testing We do not test components – it would be very expensive, time consuming and impractical. In common with the industry best practice we assess component quality by visual inspection. Static damage Most MOS devices (ic’s, memories, processors etc) may be damaged by static discharge. It is vital that these are packaged in anti-static packaging and that steps are taken to continue anti-static precautions. We do not normally remove components from their anti-static protection and we inspect through tubes, bags etc.

Describing components Using the Grade and condition definitions above, we describe components using a simple code eg R3 means Refurbs with OK quality Sample size – it’s impossible to look at every single component which we sell. We take a sample which wse examine in detail. We regard the smallest pack as our sample size eg when inspecting 500 ic’s in tubes of 25, we inspect individual tubes – not every ic We judge condition according to the overall condition within the smallest pack. It is therefore possible to describe a tube of ic’s as “good” even if one individual ic in that tube is damaged. Acceptable quality By default we accept condition 3 or better unless the customer specifies otherwise