Hardrive prices set to increase do to flooding in Thailand

[Waco]

Can you give some examples? I work with people and businesses that need computers, and they don't mind the hard drives being used.

Try getting any large corporation or government entity to buy used HDDs...it's not gonna happen.

[Black64]

Has anyone here heard of recycling? Hard drive manufacturers are not the only ones selling hard drives, they can have all the scarce resources they want, but as long as there are people selling their used hard drives for cheaper, there isn't a lot of reason to go with a brand new drive.

 

Honestly, the only advantage a brand new drive presents is a warranty, which is pretty useless in the field of hard drives because you lose that data whether the physical part has a warranty or not.

 

I don't think anyone is "hacked off"

 

Pretty sure most people have a fine understanding that they aren't being forced to buy hard drives at these kind of prices, and so they choose not to, as is their right.

 

You talk about evidence unsupported but really, where is your evidence that demand isn't going down? I don't have a fancy spreadsheet or anything like that, but anyone that's been watching this thread or discussing this topic with other people would know there is definitely a decrease in demand right now. Just as some examples and a little bit of support I've gathered a few posts from this thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From what I can tell, majority of people will probably wait this storm out as long as they can. I know that the demand is still there, I'm not saying it's disappeared, I believe it's still high enough to where price increase is acceptable, but to triple the prices on hard drives is simply going to alienate a lot of people from the hard drive market.

 

Also, you said it yourself in an earlier post, the hard drive manufacturers can't pass this stuff onto the big distributors either, they have set prices.

 

Honestly though, I just want to say this now, it's thanks to the understanding customers like yourself, that the rest of us can ride this storm out and that the hard drive companies can stay in business. If everyone simply stopped buying hard drives during this time like I have, well it probably wouldn't be a pretty situation for anyone in the end. So, thank you, for keeping the situation alive. (we need like a saluting smiley or something, that's what I would have put there but there isn't anything like that so you can have that one instead)

 

I would agree

[Deathmineral]

Try getting any large corporation or government entity to buy used HDDs...it's not gonna happen.

Well again, I'm not sure who you mean by large corporation, when you say that I think of companies like Dell and HP, and I'm just not convinced that they're paying newegg prices.

 

Not terribly sure who you refer to for government entity, but I can tell you that the local police and DEA seems quite okay with their used computers.

 

Now if you're talking about the president of the united states, well he doesn't really have a lot of reason to cut back on hard drive spending so ya, you're right he probably buys brand new hard drives.

[Waco]

Well again, I'm not sure who you mean by large corporation, when you say that I think of companies like Dell and HP, and I'm just not convinced that they're paying newegg prices.

Dell and HP probably have contracts that include some sort of fixed pricing. When I say large corporations I mean any large company with an IT infrastructure. There are thousands and thousands of them.

 

Government includes schools, government labs, local/state/federal government, etc.

 

 

The demand just isn't very elastic. Sure, people are going to cut back on discretionary upgrades for a bit, but there's a huge baseline demand all over the world. Remember, the US doesn't even come close to consuming the majority of HDDs in the world.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Waco

[Deathmineral]

Dell and HP probably have contracts that include some sort of fixed pricing. When I say large corporations I mean any large company with an IT infrastructure. There are thousands and thousands of them.

 

Government includes schools, government labs, local/state/federal government, etc.

 

 

The demand just isn't very elastic. Sure, people are going to cut back on discretionary upgrades for a bit, but there's a huge baseline demand all over the world. Remember, the US doesn't even come close to consuming the majority of HDDs in the world.

Well I can definitely see schools going brand new but I'm not entirely sure this affects them as many schools get their computers in package deals from companies like Dell, who wouldn't need to pass on a raised price, not saying Dell wouldn't but just that they don't need to. Government labs I have no idea, but I would guess you're right about them, I can see where they would want newer hardware often, regardless of whether they need it or not. Local government, I'm not sure, in my own town, most of our local government probably buys used, but I live is a relatively small or medium town as well. Local government for big cities probably buy all new.

 

You're completely right about the US being a small percentage of consumption, but I also think you have to consider that the US probably spends a lot more money than the average country, the US isn't really frugal, and I don't just mean the government, the US as a whole likes to spend money. I think many other countries are very different in this aspect though, many asian and european countries are very careful money wise, obviously not all of them, Greece seems to be having a bit of trouble and all.

 

I don't know though, I might look that one up, I haven't even really got a good guess as to how much the US consumes hard drives on a global scale.

[Silverfox]

My lord, we are going around in circles. Read my first post in this thread.

 

Otherwise, read up on a bit of micro/macro economics to avoid any facepalm moments. Unless that's your ticket.

[SpeedCrazy]

Even with this mess WD finally processed my RMA!

Going back tomorrow. And the customs form they gave me(why idk as i am in the us) stated $40 value despite the newegg price of $139.

Edited November 10, 2011 by SpeedCrazy

[OrangeJuice]

I feel bad for all the people at WD who lost their jobs and homes.

[Deathmineral]

I feel bad for all the people at WD who lost their jobs and homes.

I was actually talking about that sort of thing with someone yesterday.

 

It's kind of funny, hundreds of people are killed by this flood, we're sitting here worried about hard drive prices, it's pretty sad really.

[CowKing]

I feel bad for all the people at WD who lost their jobs and homes.

They only lost their jobs temporarily. WD prepared its factories before this happened, so there would be as little downtime as possible.

[Speedway]

Remember, the US doesn't even come close to consuming the majority of HDDs in the world.

 

I have been trying to find some hard facts about HDD market share by country, but can't seem to find anything. Could you post a link with any info? I would just think with many of the big R(e)tailers and computer manufacturers being located in the states, that we should be relatively high on the list for consuption! So now I am very curious how we actually rank

[Waco]

I have been trying to find some hard facts about HDD market share by country, but can't seem to find anything. Could you post a link with any info? I would just think with many of the big R(e)tailers and computer manufacturers being located in the states, that we should be relatively high on the list for consuption! So now I am very curious how we actually rank

You know - after posting that I tried to find a list too....but I was unsuccessful. I swear I heard that factoid from a marketing guy from Hitachi...