[Drools]

I usually purchase my electronic components from Digikey, however I have bees looking at some expensive driver chips LMD18245T. I have seen the same chips on the big auction site for half the cost as Digikey.
Are these alturnate sources selling the same chips as Digikey? Has anyone dealt with the overseas chip sources?

Thanks for the help.

[bharbour]

They might be the same or they might not. They might be removed from boards, they might be stock from companies that went toes up, they might be complete counterfeits. Check out the Sparkfun web site's comments on counterfeits, they have an interesting web site anyway.

Digikey is a first tier supplier and you know what you are getting from them. If your time is worth something, consider that too.

BobH