In this segment I will discuss the inherent failure of some, not all, surplus electronic components. Despite the cheap initial price you always get what you pay for in the end. Take this Electronic Goldmine’s CdS Grab Bag as an example. The offer was tempting enough to consider at the time, only $2.50 for a large quantity bag, however after spending an hour testing each Photo-Resistor it deemed not worth the effort. The majority of the bag was basically rejected components as pictured above even after sorting and tossing out a lots of duds. Remaining parts were all very weak looking, bent legged, mismatched, and chipped. For a builder such wonky components are unacceptable, troubleshooting will be hard and the failure rate will be high. So spend the extra cash at Radio Shack, Jameco, or Futurlec on quality new components or pay twice later.