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>> No. 2395 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 12:21 pm
2395 dead maplin
It's been a shadow of its former self for a long while, and I guess getting destroyed by Amazon. But will miss it.
Expand all images.
>> No. 2396 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 12:31 pm
2396 spacer
I'll miss it too, but I've been missing it for half a decade now. Once they started focusing on selling you drones and CCTV cameras for 10% more than the RRP we knew where it was headed.

It was nice back then to have somewhere to go to buy random bits for projects, and even now you can still do that but they charge you horrendously - I paid nearly a tenner for a single CR123A last month from them. But I needed it then and there.

There's still a radiospares near me, at least, but it's a forty minute drive. I hope whatever Amazon does it means I can get a resistor at 11pm.
>> No. 2397 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 12:39 pm
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>>2396
RS does free next day delivery with no minimum order. There's literally been no reason to buy anything at Maplin for years other than needing something before close of business that same day.
>> No. 2398 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 12:46 pm
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>>2396
Exactly how I used to use it too - felt the same about the drones and RC cars (even though both are a hobby).

Electronic components is the sort of thing that you would have thought someone like B&Q could pick up.
>> No. 2400 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 1:09 pm
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>>2397

>There's literally been no reason to buy anything at Maplin for years other than needing something before close of business that same day.

That happens to me a lot. I'm often not patient enough to wait a day for stuff to be sent to me, usually I get on a roll with something and hate to have to give up because it's the middle of the night and I've ran out of solder or something equally as daft.

I need to properly stock the shed, really, but I'm not consistent enough to justify having the broad scope of stock I'd want. Maybe I need to establish one of them trendy hackerspaces and hope enough wonks come to it that I'll always have access to a basement full of parts.
>> No. 2401 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 1:31 pm
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>>2400

The Chinese suppliers do very good deals on job lots of components. I've gone all SMD for prototyping, so I have shelves full of these sample books:

https://www.banggood.com/5525PCS-221-Values-0805-Chip-Resistors-SMD-1-0-20M-Assortment-Kit-Sample-Book-p-1111328.html

If you're still on through-hole, you could stock up on all the passive components you'll ever need for less than £50.

I've also got boxes full of common connectors and switches for repair work:

https://www.banggood.com/14-Styles-USB-Male-Female-Mini-SMD-Vertical-Socket-Connector-For-DIY-p-1099042.html
>> No. 2402 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 2:04 pm
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Maplin only just opened a new shop in conurbation I reside in. Really fucking annoying because they closed down the one a five minute walk away from where I live in the bargain.

Fucksticks. Now the only shops I can go to to buy electronics are PC World and Asda. That's like being forced to buy electronics from either Satan or your Mum.

I don't like the idea of buying electronics online, sometimes you just need to open a packet and see if the connectors fit. Sizes and standards change just slightly faster than the rate at which I need to buy new things, every time I feel like I've got the insides of a PC sussed, I go to upgrade something or build a new PC, and my graphics card suddenly needs to slot into something else that my motherboard doesn't have, monitors won't plug into whatever my graphics card has, hard drives don't plug into the the wires that plug into hard drives any more. It's a fucking nightmare.
>> No. 2403 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 2:22 pm
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>>2402

If you just ring up Overclockers UK or Scan, a competent person will tell you what you need to buy.
>> No. 2404 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 4:18 pm
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>>2403
... and in the case of OCUK, optionally try and upsell you membership in the BNP.
>> No. 2405 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 5:52 pm
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>>2404

Spie isn't involved in the business any more. He sold up in 2012 and moved to Jersey to pursue his lifelong ambition of being a full-time racist. OcUK is now a subsidiary of Caseking Group.

The farm takes up most of the day and at night I just like a cup of tea.
>> No. 2406 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 6:48 pm
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I'll miss Maplin for all the aerosols they have in.

When I need a new tin of electrical solvent cleaner or something like that, it's a massive pain in the arse trying to buy one off the internet, the royal mail wont deliver them. Click and collect services like Amazon lockers wont deliver them. I could get them to deliver to my place of work, but I don't trust the numbskulls in goods in to not immediately take a knife to the box before bothering to read the label.
>> No. 2407 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 6:50 pm
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>>2406
If they do close down then stock up when they eventually have them reduced?
>> No. 2408 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 7:13 pm
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>>2407
Yeah, I figure that if they do have a fire sale that it'll be the first time in years that it'll have been worth buying anything from them. That's "if" of course - the administrators would be well within their rights to say "no discounts" as is often the case, since they've got a duty to raise as much money as possible, even if it means cunt's tricks like refusing to honour credit.
>> No. 2409 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 7:24 pm
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I don't know much about this sort of thing, but surely Maplin stock is something that can be easily sold on or bought up by other companies? It doesn't seem wise to keep stores open for months while trying to shift a few diodes when RS could just send a lorry round.
>> No. 2410 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 10:04 pm
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>>2409
There's a bloke on ebay already who shifts RS's unsellable stock. I can't tell if he's RS themselves, or just gets the gear to resell. Had some cracking diodes off him, though, and loads of reels of good stuff.
Wouldn't be surprised to see Maplin's stock go the same route.
>> No. 2411 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 10:30 pm
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>>2410

I was going to post something about buying out all Maplin's stock and making the mother of all Ebay stores, but then I realised that having the up front capital to do that probably wouldn't be feasible, at least for most people this thread.
>> No. 2412 Anonymous
28th February 2018
Wednesday 11:55 pm
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>>2411

How much do you think it'd cost to buy all of their stock, the components anyway? It's probably not a huge price tag, right? My bank manager likes me, we might be able to swing it.
>> No. 2413 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 1:13 am
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>>2412

A bank loan wouldn't be the way to go, there's no way that the interest and your general overheads wouldn't outweigh your profit margin.

Your best bet would be to find someone willing to pitch in the capital for X% of the shares of your brand new LTD. In return for his startup cash and your legwork he'd get X% of your profits.

Anyway, fair's fair, who's up for necking eight cans of Strongbow each and going on Dragon's Den and pitching our startup Ebay shop Marple-ins? Anyone? No?
>> No. 2414 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 1:19 am
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>>2413
I've nowt better to do, lad. Fuck the strongbow, a bottle of scrumpy each will set us in good stead.
>> No. 2416 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 1:28 am
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>>2414

That's all well and good but I'm still taking my Iceland carrier bag full of Strongbow into The Den with me. Need to show them I mean business.
>> No. 2418 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 5:20 am
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>>2413
>Marple-ins

Pipkins would be a better name. I'm there lads with you, Strongbow in hand. I've always wanted to kick that Peter Jones in the cunt.
>> No. 2420 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 5:25 am
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>>2406
A very good point and reminds me I must stock up - I too have a large collection of isopropyl alcohol, various air and cleaning sprays, all from Maplin because nobody else posts them.

Will buy tomorrow.
>> No. 2421 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 7:32 am
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>>2413

I can't imagine anything more boring than saying you own an ebay shop that sells old maplins stock, mind.
>> No. 2422 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 8:25 am
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>>2421
Who cares about boring? Cash is king.
>> No. 2423 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 9:01 am
2423 spacer
>>2422

True enough, I'd just have to think of a better name for it.

Semiconductor transfer technician.
>> No. 2424 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 5:33 pm
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>>2420
> isopropyl alcohol
I've bought it off ebay before no problems, although only a little 100ml bottle.
>> No. 2425 Anonymous
1st March 2018
Thursday 7:24 pm
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>>2420

RS do free next day delivery on aerosol cans.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/facilities-cleaning-maintenance/electronics-cleaners-protective-coatings/contact-cleaners/
>> No. 2426 Anonymous
2nd March 2018
Friday 8:27 am
2426 spacer
I worked there for a long time, and in a different timeline I might still have worked there. I always said they were circling the drain.

Management were a complete set of tossers, and to make matters worse they took on a load of plonkers from Comet when they shat the bed. Within a decade it went from a handy shop to get a 15p battery connector, to a poorly staffed rip-off where the same connector would cost you £1.69, if they even had it in stock. Too much reliance on min/max stock levels and margin over volume, which drove away near enough all the trade business.

Still, I'm going to laugh when it turns out they'd been siphoning off the pension scheme too. I might go and visit my old boss just to laugh at him about it.
>> No. 2450 Anonymous
16th March 2018
Friday 7:06 am
2450 spacer
Just saw this in El Reg -

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/14/maplin_prices_still_higher_in_closing_down_sale/

Fucking hilarious.

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