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It would be ace to be able to walk into a RPi shop and be able to purchase LEDs, resistors, OLED screens, ESP8266 modules, breadboards etc. Maplin was a great

• pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  If they don't sell all that, what do they sell? Just RPi? In which case it probably is just an advert, not a store as such.
• H1Supreme 8y ago
  When Radio Shack in the US still had components for sale, they were absurdly more expensive than Digikey or Mouser. I think I remember a 5 pack of 220ohm resistors being $2.99. Digikey will sell you 100 for under two dollars. I suppose it would have to do if you're in a pinch, but there's a reason walk-in electronics stores have mostly vanished.
  • fenwick67 8y ago
    It was still a lifesaver when I wanted resistors, LEDs or other components ASAP. $3 is still cheaper than digikey shipping.
• new299 8y ago
  Maplin mostly stocked poor quality products and massively overcharged. I think charging x10 what a product would cost on eBay is reasonable. But often you’d be charged x100 to x1000 times more for cheap components (resistors etc.). I mostly ended up buying larger packs of parts which might come in handy, because I didn’t want to be overcharged to that degree. I wouldn’t mind so much if they stocked good quality soldering irons (e.g. Hakko) or good quality hand tools. But they didn’t. It’s a shame there are no good electronics high street shops left, but I’m not particularly sad to see Maplin go personally.