Would have been a Maplin purchase

They do now... as does CPC and Rapid (and for that matter Mouser and Digikey)

Just about my standard list too CPC, Rapid, possibly RS and for individual small items eBay and AliExpress.

For small components, Cool Components. Nice guy.

Something similar to an online equivalent of Maplin is

All the major players like CPC and RS sell to anyone these days. But may not be best for a small purchase due to a handling charge and P&P.

Ebay is usually a better choice for the odd project box that you'd have gone to Maplin for. (and usually found to not stock it at your store)

But do check it is UK stock if delivery time is important.

Yes the lack of Maplin and Tandy has really been felt by home electronics folk.I'm no longer able to make things like that but I used to and its always fun to use things you have made yourself.

There are still a few hobby related shops but many have closed due to the rates they need to pay these days. Some Ham radio outlets still stock boxes and plugs and sockets and some bespoke audio shops stock good quality connectors, but when it comes to bits of old wire and the like left over from warehouses, often the mail order or online folk are where you can get a bargain. Brian

Rapid Electronics or CPC.

Yep appreciate that ... but for a couple of items shipping is usually too high.

Thnx .. not heard of them before.

Conrad shops were excellent for electronic hobbyists when I lived in Germany. I believe they opened an operation in the UK a while back so that's another avenue which could be worth investigating.

They shut the bricks and mortar stores and the separate co.uk website, still sell to the UK though, have only used them once ...

Yes, their prices are fairly competitive but often their carriage charges are somewhat excessive. It varies a lot from item to item though, some things are just plain expensive from Conrad.

Just checked and Rapid are owned by Conrad, do they stock all the same lines?

They list a lot of Conrad stuff, but beware that it's often on 'delivered within 2-3 weeks' kind of timeline. Which might not be what you want for short term projects. I assume they're warehousing it in Germany and shipping it over on demand.

The Rapid catalogue seems somewhat more a list of things they can hopefully get one day, than the list of core lines they could get to you 'Rapid'ly that it used to be.

Theo

No, not at all, obviously there's some overlap though. They're definitely more different than CPC and Farnell for instance, the CPC and Farnell web sites obviously come from the same stable but Rapid and Conrad don't (yet?).

Which is why it's worth checking Ebay. Many firms there are geared up for small value purchases.