FIRST Discounts from Suppliers - MSC, Digikey, Newark, etc...

[Ken Streeter]

We've been making use of the FIRST Discount at MSC since 2005, but are wondering if there are discounts available for FIRST teams at any of the other major industrial suppliers?

In specific, we're looking for discounting from any of the following suppliers. Alternatively, if you're aware of discounting from other national suppliers in which we may be interested, please let us know!

• Digikey
• Grainger
• McMaster
• Newark

Thanks!

[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by Ken Streeter

We've been making use of the FIRST Discount at MSC since 2005, but are wondering if there are discounts available for FIRST teams at any of the other major industrial suppliers?

In specific, we're looking for discounting from any of the following suppliers. Alternatively, if you're aware of discounting from other national suppliers in which we may be interested, please let us know!

• Digikey
• Grainger
• McMaster
• Newark

Thanks!

I was just about to make a new thread to ask if teams were aware of a FIRST-wide McMaster account that we could piggyback on, but decided to first do a search to see if anybody had published one. Surprisingly enough, I turned up this old thread where I had asked the same question a couple of years ago, but received zero replies (pretty odd for any CD thread!)

Does anybody have access to FIRST-wide discounting for other suppliers that they can share? Right now I was particularly looking for discounting from McMaster, but would be interested in any discounting news from other suppliers, too!

In the interest of sharing, since it seems that these instructions haven't been in the kit of parts for a few years, here is how teams can register for the FIRST Robotics Competition Account on MSC. The discount is typically about 10-15%, depending upon the specific parts being ordered:

Go to the MSC home page, http://www.mscdirect.com

Click on "My Account", then "Locate Account."

Enter the FIRST Account # (01716425) and FIRST zip code (03103).

You will be taken a sequence of pages where several accounts appear. (About 6 pages of them at 15 accounts per page.) Page through these to ensure that there isn't already an account set up for your team.

To create a new account, go to the bottom of the page, where there is a "New User" entry. For the "Contact First Name" enter "Team" and for the "Contact Lat Name" enter your Team Number (e.g. 1519). Click on "Register" and you will then be able to register for an account which will receive the FIRST Robotics Competition discount.

Hopefully this will be of help to other teams!

[Cory]

I've never heard of McMaster discounting prices for anyone, so that one may be a lost cause.