# Price increases of magnetic storage



## The Von Matrices (Oct 22, 2011)

Has anyone else recently noticed that the price of hard drives has increased by 50% in the last week?  I guess the shortage of rare earth metals and the Thai flooding have really had an impact on supply.  You cant find a 2TB hard drive on Newegg for less than $99.99 whereas the exact same models were selling at $59.99 after rebate only a few weeks ago.  I guess I'm not upgrading my array any time soon.


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## Neuromancer (Oct 22, 2011)

Ironically SSD prices are dropping.

This is the time of year prices usually go up though isn't it?


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## timta2 (Oct 22, 2011)

> I guess the shortage of rare earth metals and the Taiwanese flooding have really had an impact on supply.



From what I've read it has a lot more to do with the flooding in Thailand that it does with the rare earth materials.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/hard-dri...rive-shortage-and-possible-price-hikes-176453

(and the thread where I found that link is here: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merged-hard-drive-price-increases-1094978/

We were warned earlier in the week but I guess we were't paying enough attention, at least speaking for myself. I've been waiting for a good deal on a 2TB drive. I guess hindsight is 20/20, like they say and I should have bought it yesterday!


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## The Von Matrices (Oct 22, 2011)

timta2 said:


> From what I've read it has a lot more to do with the flooding in Thailand that it does with either of the two you mentioned.
> 
> http://www.infoworld.com/t/hard-dri...rive-shortage-and-possible-price-hikes-176453
> 
> We were warned earlier in the week but I guess we were't paying enough attention, at least speaking for myself. I've been waiting for a good deal on a 2TB drive. I guess hindsight is 20/20 like they say.



Yeah, I realized that it was Thai flooding instead of Taiwanese just after I posted.  I got confused because I'm used to everything else inside a computer being designed in Taiwan.


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## timta2 (Oct 22, 2011)

The Von Matrices said:


> Yeah, I realized that it was Thai flooding instead of Taiwanese just after I posted.  I got confused because I'm used to everything else inside a computer being designed in Taiwan.



Oh, I hear ya, it's hard to keep it straight where anything is made anymore.


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## Polarman (Oct 22, 2011)

Wow i see.

I got a WD RE4 500GB last week from newegg for 65$. Now there 105$.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 22, 2011)

Was posted in the news section a little over a week ago: WD Reports Impact on HDD Production Due to Severe Flooding in Thailand

Sucks, but what can we do about it?


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## N-Gen (Oct 22, 2011)

We'll just have to wait. I had a shocking call this morning from a local part supplier that the prices had shot up by a staggering amount. Unfortunately I had a pc to repair for someone with a dead HDD, so I had to quickly call him and get him to get one from his usual store. Luckily he managed to find good stock and is getting one for a decent price.

On the other hand, I'm glad I ordered my next drives 2 weeks ago, just didn't pick them up. Guess I'll have to cut down on data for the next few weeks/months.


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## The Von Matrices (Nov 3, 2011)

2TB prices now start at $149.99 with the average around $229.99, about 3 times what they were a month ago.


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## yogurt_21 (Nov 3, 2011)

Neuromancer said:


> Ironically SSD prices are dropping.
> 
> This is the time of year prices usually go up though isn't it?



I smell a conspiracy lol


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## claylomax (Nov 3, 2011)

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2422771&postcount=2  I guess btanrur spoke too soon.


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## stefanels (Nov 4, 2011)

WOW... your right... the past week i just buy'd a 1Tb Samsung HD103SJ for 55 Euros, and now it's selling for 105 Euros... LOL


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## FordGT90Concept (Nov 4, 2011)

I looked up my last HDD purchase.  I bought this drive on 7/23/2010 for *$89.99*:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 R...

As you can see, the exact same drive, from the same store, now sales for *$219.99*--an increase of *144%*.  The drive was probably even cheaper than $89.99 before the prices skyrocketed.

This blows.


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## yogurt_21 (Nov 4, 2011)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I looked up my last HDD purchase.  I bought this drive on 7/23/2010 for *$89.99*:
> Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 R...
> 
> As you can see, the exact same drive, from the same store, now sales for *$219.99*--an increase of *144%*.  The drive was probably even cheaper than $89.99 before the prices skyrocketed.
> ...



at that price you might as well get a ssd lol. I'm glad I got mine when I did then
Going from 9 cents a gig to 22 cents a gig isn't what I call forward progress. Wonder if anyone's buying.


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## Jstn7477 (Nov 4, 2011)

I bought my Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 5900RPM SATA 6GB/s drive from Newegg on 10/18/11 for $79. It is now $229 on Newegg. Sure glad I bought my new rig that week, holy crap.


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## Maelstrom (Nov 10, 2011)

Prices are still ridiculously high. Some 2 TB drives are over $400 (US) on Newegg. I wonder how long before Thailand recovers and the prices start going down? Looks like I won't be buying any drives for a while .


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## newtekie1 (Nov 10, 2011)

Maelstrom said:


> Prices are still ridiculously high. Some 2 TB drives are over $400 (US) on Newegg. I wonder how long before Thailand recovers and the prices start going down? Looks like I won't be buying any drives for a while .



Well don't hold your breath, because the shortage is expected to last until March.


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## stefanels (Nov 10, 2011)

I don't understand why did they rise the price even for the drives in stocks? I have one friend that have a PC store in my town and he didn't sold a HDD for a couple of months but he also raised the price for the HDD's that he got in stock for a long time.... STRANGE


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## newtekie1 (Nov 10, 2011)

stefanels said:


> I don't understand why did they rise the price even for the drives in stocks? I have one friend that have a PC store in my town and he didn't sold a HDD for a couple of months but he also raised the price for the HDD's that he got in stock for a long time.... STRANGE



It is a standard business move.  If your supplier tells you your next shipment will cost double, you raise the prices on your current stock to reflect the price increase.  This is so that selling a drive and re-ording a replacement doesn't put you in the negative.


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## Andrei23 (Nov 10, 2011)

It's really annoying this. I wanted to buy an external hdd but the prices are damn right extortionate and I just cannot justify spending so much when a couple of weeks ago they were so cheap.


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## Maelstrom (Nov 11, 2011)

newtekie1 said:


> Well don't hold your breath, because the shortage is expected to last until March.



Damn, that sucks. Thanks for the info though!


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## wahdangun (Nov 12, 2011)

WTF with this price i mean 500GB for $100???????


damm, how could this happen when just i want to buy new HDD


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 12, 2011)

wahdangun said:


> WTF with this price i mean 500GB for $100???????
> 
> 
> damm, how could this happen when just i want to buy new HDD



God moves in mysterious ways*


*(Bruce Almighty, The Man who Sued God - Go figure.)


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## Crap Daddy (Nov 12, 2011)

Yesterday I wanted to see how much is a spinpoint F3 since I wanted to add one. It's the equivalent of 102 Euros. 3 months ago I bought one for 50. It's insane.


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## wahdangun (Nov 13, 2011)

yeah its really insane, its even not funny anymore.


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 13, 2011)

Crap Daddy said:


> Yesterday I wanted to see how much is a spinpoint F3 since I wanted to add one. It's the equivalent of 102 Euros. 3 months ago I bought one for 50. It's insane.



a 1Tb F3 used to be £40 on the dot. now its something like £212 - more then double its original price. shadedshu:shadedshu

----

I understand that the manufacturer has probably raised the costs due to the drives being in limited supply as there probably aint a factory in production thats capable of supplying every single retailer, or OEM across the globe, but these prices are just insane. An extra £20-30 ontop and I would have been like "me'h -fair enough...you gotta do what you gotta do" but this is madness. no-one in their right mind is going to purchase a hard drive at these prices unless it was a matter of life and death.


:EDIT:

Just to add to this.... Not only does buying a hard drive hurt, but it also hurts PC and hardware sales in general.

People will be less reluctant build a new PC because of the hard drive prices. SSDs are nice given the current prices but they are no substitute for massive storage. unless youre happy running with nothing but a 128Gb SSD.


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