There are many ways of sourcing electronic components. Manufacturers recommend that you use their recommended distributors, but that’s not always possible, especially for small quantities and obsolete components.
If you work in purchasing for an electronics company you may receive a regular supply of spam emails from overseas distributors: most people are wise enough to delete these on sight. Components can be sourced on EBay. Searching eBAY for STM8S005C6T6, a popular microcontroller from STMicroelectronics, returns 20 or more suppliers, mostly in China. (more…)