$1 PCBs from Seeed Studio!
Did you see!? Seeed Studio (seeedstudio.com) is offering for a limited time three (3) copies of a PCB design (up to 10cm x 10cm) for only $1!
New Project, New PCBs!
I recently was about to order some PCBs for a new project (stay tuned for an article about it), and was looking around online for good deals. That’s when I discovered this crazy $1 deal… How on Earth can Seeed Studio be making any money when they are selling PCBs for $1 for three copies??
I decided to reach out to them and ask how they were able to do this.
Turns out, they are actually doing it as a “gift” for their customers! It’s almost as if they are sponsoring each project customers make by subsidizing the cost of boards. Pretty nice of them if you ask me.
I’ve used Seeed Studio before for a few projects (read my review of their normal Fusion PCB service here), and I’ve never had any issues.
Side Costs?
I went through the process of ordering the boards for the $1 deal to see if there were any hidden fees. I still had to pay for shipping, which ended up being the vast majority of the final bill…
According to Seeed Studio, they don’t make any money off the shipping, and I believe them. They charge the same for the normal Fusion services as they do for the $1 service. They literally are just being nice and providing three PCB copies for just $1… So so cheap.
Shipping?
I looked around and compared Seeed Studio’s $1 offer for a 50mm x 50mm design plus DHL shipping to Wisconsin, USA with other PCB fab houses. Here’s what I found:
| Company | Number boards | PCB Cost | Shipping Cost | Per Board | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seeed Studio | 3 | $1.00 | $17.85 | $6.28 | $18.85 |
| OshPark | 3 | $19.35 | $0.00 | $6.45 | $19.35 |
| PCBWay | 10 | $5.00 | $16.00 | $2.10 | $21.00 |
| JLCPCB | 10 | $2.00 | $19.94 | $2.19 | $21.94 |
| Elecrow | 10 | $4.90 | $17.99 | $2.29 | $22.89 |
| DirtyPCBs | 10 | $11.95 | $21.00 | $3.26 | $32.95 |
Conclusion
Seeed’s $1 deal is meant for prototyping runs when you know you’ll only assemble one or two boards. You don’t need 10, so there’s no point in ordering them. Even though per board Seeed is near the most expensive, the total price from Seeed is lowest!
As you can see, Seeed Studio’s $1 Fusion service is a pretty good deal for one-off prototype orders. :)
Real Reason?
I think the real reason they are doing this offer is to hook people into their services so that later on, you’ll go and buy thousands of boards from them. Even if this is true, you don’t have to do that eventually! I plan on just stopping with the $1 boards!
Expires Soon!!
According to their website, the offer ends September 21st, 2018, so you don’t have much time to capitalize on this! Act now :)
