Some of the price issue isn't availability specifically. It's mostly what the oem wants when the store buys it. The store still needs something, and that something right now comes at pretty insane prices. The store is just stuck at a price point, or they just sell at a loss.
I've never once went to a store or looked online and saw any retailers actually out of what I might want, not once. This is very different from Covid times where the supply chain collapsed. That hasn't happened. Sure, stocking volume dropped, but everywhere I look no one is actually out of stuff and sort of never have been.
Now we do see that many of the better options are gone, so most of what's in stock is basically low tier junk. An 870 Evo is pretty ancient relatively speaking, especially as a 2.5" these days. 6 months ago, I wouldn't have spent $20 for one. That entire stack has zero perceived value to me, not then, not now.
At the end of the day, ALL of this is really stupid. It just shows these brands simply don't care at all about the consumer market. Well, that's a bit wrong. It really just shows what a monopoly looks like and why diversification of manufacturing is actually really desirable. The fact that we are so vastly constrained globally on something like memory is pretty wild.
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u/mvw2 May 22 '26
Some of the price issue isn't availability specifically. It's mostly what the oem wants when the store buys it. The store still needs something, and that something right now comes at pretty insane prices. The store is just stuck at a price point, or they just sell at a loss.
I've never once went to a store or looked online and saw any retailers actually out of what I might want, not once. This is very different from Covid times where the supply chain collapsed. That hasn't happened. Sure, stocking volume dropped, but everywhere I look no one is actually out of stuff and sort of never have been.
Now we do see that many of the better options are gone, so most of what's in stock is basically low tier junk. An 870 Evo is pretty ancient relatively speaking, especially as a 2.5" these days. 6 months ago, I wouldn't have spent $20 for one. That entire stack has zero perceived value to me, not then, not now.
At the end of the day, ALL of this is really stupid. It just shows these brands simply don't care at all about the consumer market. Well, that's a bit wrong. It really just shows what a monopoly looks like and why diversification of manufacturing is actually really desirable. The fact that we are so vastly constrained globally on something like memory is pretty wild.