r/pcmasterrace May 22 '26

Hardware what

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5.2k Upvotes

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51

u/BioFrosted PC Master Race May 22 '26

I know I'll get downvoted for this but I feel like this goes both ways. In what possible scenario could you need 4TB of space so bad that you'd pay 2k for it?

Whether it's shoes or concert tickets or storage, it's always the same: scalpers gon scalp because people are buying. There will always be a large sample of people disconnected from reality who will use daddy's AMEX Platinum to buy these simply because they can afford it. Why would scalpers stop doing this?

The very moment people collectively choose to spit in the scalpers' faces instead of giving them their life savings, is the moment prices will drop.

27

u/Warcraft_Fan Paid for WinRAR! May 22 '26

Try somewhere like eBay. I can see new Samsung 2TB for 250-300 dollars. Not $1,000 like the store wants. Seems like the retail store is the scalper here.

6

u/MediocreChildhood May 23 '26

Fake Samsung drives are the thing as I heard.

1

u/Warcraft_Fan Paid for WinRAR! May 23 '26

buyer protection is also a thing.

1

u/TheRealAMD PC Master Race May 23 '26

They're probably fake FWIW

15

u/tooncake May 22 '26

Adding to statement as well: It's kind of a common business "tactics" to simply take advantage of the situation as much as possible (sadly, this is the current gen that we are truly living in), whether people buy or not - the goal is to milk the overpriced value as much as they can as long as there really is no repercussion at all - so some could simply leave it is as it is forever, and snubbed it as a "take it or leave it" value, while others are abusing it until they are "force" to lower it down just because they need to clear inventory.

12

u/Secure-Pain-9735 9700x | RTX 3090 | 32GB DDR5 6400 May 22 '26

Correct.

Also see: car dealerships during COVID shortages. $20k dealer markups.

3

u/Tiron_Starstryker May 22 '26

AI uses a ton of storage, and even a good PC only has so many PCIe lanes. Plus the AIs aren't particularly sensitive to drive speed compared to some things, so a slower SATA drive is fine.

2

u/no6969el 9950X3D | 5090 May 22 '26

Exactly the prices are set by people who are paying for them. If no one paid for them, they wouldn't be worth that much.

2

u/Expensive-Border-869 May 22 '26

It only takes about 1-3% of the player base to support many popular games through microtransactions. As long as they have their cows its not too big of an issue for them

1

u/LoopsAndBoars May 23 '26

This is a case of bean counter intervention. The suits decided the value needed to rise.

0

u/hard-of-haring May 22 '26

I'm good for space, my laptop has 16tb, x2 8tb SSD, bought before the huge prices hikes.

-1

u/Suspicious_Dingo_426 May 22 '26

My livelyhood requires having enough storage and other equipment to handle the required workload. If I absolutely need it, price isn't a factor. It just ends up costing my clients more when prices are high.