I found this rather interesting: http://www.amazonsupply.com though I doubt it’ll be a McMaster killer. Decent selection and website. It’ll be interesting to see where they go with this.
The free 2-day shipping on orders of $50 could be a mcmaster killer. Especially when mcmaster will often times create multiple packages and charge you shipping for each. If I can save an average of $20 (2 boxes) in shipping costs per shipment I will always look at amazon first. Price looks pretty close to the same though
The creator of Amazon dreamed of a store that would sell everything. He is ever-closer to his dream.
I couldn’t find much of anything that I ordered from McMaster-Carr this year in this catalog. Blue Nitrile, Colson, 8 mm keyed shafts, 20PA 32DP gears. Maybe I just missed it on the searching. I like McMaster-Carr’s searching a lot better plus they include CAD files for a lot of things.
I might just have to start looking through this site…
It does look like this website is still Beta so hopefully the searching will get better. Since this website is in its infancy maybe the FRC community can contact them and suggest improvements and more products to stock. Just like we do to other supply companies every year I am sure we can make their sales quadruple in the first quarter of 2013 if they start stocking the right things now.
What happened to SmallParts.com?
SmallParts, Inc., joined the Amazon family in 2005. In the past seven years, the dedicated team at SmallParts helped us expand our service and selection until we have grown well beyond our original focus of tubing, parts and fasteners for the medical supply and research industries. We have chosen the name AmazonSupply to help communicate our new, broader selection, but we continue to carry on the SmallParts traditional of providing responsibly engineered products to the business, research and scientific communities.
Looks like it’s a new name on a familiar brand. (Familiar if you were in FRC during the late 1990s or early 2000s: Small Parts was the only legal general-purpose vendor for many years.)
I imagine it is free in name only – it’s just subsidized by the premium you pay for ordering from a McMaster or SmallParts. Much like McMaster shipping is generally cheaper than it is to have any other supplier overnight things to your door. 
I don’t know anywhere overnight is cheap but I do know that every ground package regardless of size shape and money spent is around $8 bucks at mcmaster. If you order metal, threaded rod, and bearings from mcmaster it will come in 3 boxes and they will charge you for each box. If I can get the same stuff for around the same price and get free shipping I can spend that extra money on making buttons or T-shirts.
Interesting. This is the new Small Parts. I kind of miss the Small Parts of 2002.
It looks like this is very much still a beta website, considering that the only filters I can find are product category, material, and brand (I can’t even sort by lowest price! :ahh:) Knowing Amazon, though, they’ll improve it soon… actually, I’m surprised they even put it up in this state. Where did you find it?
I used them when they still went by “SmallParts”. They have been operating as a subgroup of Amazon for a few years now, but they decided for identity’s sake they would adapt the name to match. They have a great selection and decent prices, but as others have said, need an improved search to be a contender.
Looks like amazon prime accounts get free 2 day shipping as well on a few of the materials I just looked at.
To be honest, I’ve never had this problem with McMaster-Carr. Of course, I usually order things that all come from the NJ warehouse. If your order splits from among their warehouses (NJ, IL, GA, OH, CA), it will (obviously) come in separate boxes. Rarely does anything I want come from Chicago and I’ve never had anything ship from any of the other sites.
As for the new site, it’s not bad. I’m not as happy with the drill-down they use, but it works after a fashion. I’ll probably still stay with McMaster, given that Ground shipping is overnight to Delaware from NJ. It’ll all be a matter of personal preference. Usually, when we need something, we need it at 9pm and can only wait two days anyway (one to process, one to arrive). AmazonSupply would cost us another day, which might help get us out of some of our bad habits … :eek:
Between that and the free shipping terms, it sounds like the American teams are winning out on this.
Maybe FIRST can win too with a new major platinum level sponsor from a major brand?
I love Amazon. I’ve had nothing but fantastic experiences with them. Everything usually arrives before expected and their customer service is just wonderful. I look forward to getting supplies from them for next season.
If anyone has amazon prime, you can get free 2 day shipping on any order and also 4.99 per item overnight shipping which is a pretty good deal.
Nor have I.
I saw this mentioned on another forum the other day so I went and compared prices. Some of the stuff was comparable but on other things Amazon was way high. Searching for things stunk compared to McMaster though as mentioned it is a beta site so that may improve and of course McMaster has the CAD a huge plus for many items.
Was it the 2002 championship where Jeff Bezos was one of the keynote speakers? The one at Disneyworld, anyway.