Any ideas when hard drive prices will even out?

Archer said:
So are you confirming, or denying that prices of HDDs have dropped since December?
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No, I'm not denying they have dropped slightly since December. But I do not believe we will see the same pricing as we did before the floods again.
 
Archer said:
I really cant believe that some people think that this will happen in a free market
Go onto sites that actually track price changes, throw in some HDDs and guess what you'll see? Many HDDs have fallen to within 10% of pre flood pricing. That to me is in line with the backlog of demand being cleared
Yes, some drives are still priced sky high, but on the whole the trend is very clear
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Nothing to do with tinfoil hats. I'm not saying some great conspiracy planned it all with the help of the lizard people, just that it was a fortunate event for them. And it's precisely because of a free market economy that prices are still high, as I explained. The demand for drives has proven to be quite inelastic, people keep buying them as before despite the massive price increases. In a free market economy, if there is no real competition due to everyone else's prices being equally high, and your demand hasn't decreased even though prices have increased, you'd just have no reason to lower your prices if you can sell them for more. Why sell 50 drives at R400 each instead of 50 drives at R1000 each? Makes no business sense.

If people stopped buying en masse, they'd have been forced to lower prices again, to the point where volumes vs unit price reached higher return. No point in selling 50 drives at 1000 if only 10 are actually getting sold, where as if they're R400 they might sell 100 drives. Extreme example I know, just used as illustration.
 
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Ugh...
So you say HDD market is free correct? So then you have to admit, its because of the free market that prices are dropping currently, albeit not to levels as low as Oct 2010. So all things being equal, tell me why prices wont continue dropping in the exact fashion that they are currently doing?

And your counter to what I assume is my high volume/low margins argument is totally flawed case you kept the same volume each time... :confused: Unless you are referring to the static nature of the supply chain currently (since demand > supply right now). Which, again, you can clearly see, is busy clearing the backlog in demand, hence prices are lowering, since supply is nearing demand now (unlike Oct 2010 where it was totally out of whack)
 
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Archer said:
Ugh...
So you say HDD market is free correct? So then you have to admit, its because of the free market that prices are dropping currently, albeit not to levels as low as Oct 2010. So all things being equal, tell me why prices wont continue dropping in the exact fashion that they are currently doing?

And your counter to what I assume is my high volume/low margins argument is totally flawed case you kept the same volume each time... :confused: Unless you are referring to the static nature of the supply chain currently (since demand > supply right now). Which, again, you can clearly see, is busy clearing the backlog in demand, hence prices are lowering, since supply is nearing demand now (unlike Oct 2010 where it was totally out of whack)
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Read again.. I said demand stayed fairly constant, not supply. Of course initially the supply went down, that's what caused the prices to go up. What kept them up is the fact that people kept buying, so even after the supply was restored, there is no imperative for prices to be lowered immediately.

Of course, eventually, the same forces that brought them down the first time will eventually, gradually bring them down again, but even if they were within 10% of pre-flood levels currently as you claim (which is definitely not my experience after a bit of searching on the online shops I normally use), the fact is that without the floods they would have been significantly lower by now, especially with the introduction of 4TB drives.

So before floods say the price was X. Trend was downwards so if there was no flood they would now be at X-Y, with Y increasing as time goes on.
However now, they're X+10% (which I can't see anywhere anyway but let's assume).

Thus as long as X and Y are positive (which they would be of course), X+10% > X-Y. Until they reach the price of X-Y at that particular time, we can't really say that they've reached pre-flood levels.

I'm not saying it won't happen eventually, just that there's no real reason for manufacturers to lower prices immediately.
 
Speak of the devil. I just got an email advertising a 500GB drive "on special" for the same price a 2TB cost 8 months ago :(
 
TJ99 said:
I'm not saying it won't happen eventually, just that there's no real reason for manufacturers to lower prices immediately.
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Only thing I don't agree with its probably not the manufacturers keeping prices high but the middlemen.
Buy low sell high, and what better excuse than a natural disaster to exploit.
 
TJ99 said:
I'm not saying it won't happen eventually, just that there's no real reason for manufacturers to lower prices immediately.
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Good thing I didnt say immediately then :confused:
I'm literally saying three things
1) Prices have dropped post flood
2) Prices will continue to drop (at what pace, I have no clue)
3) There is no conspiracy, I still see supply/demand based pricing
The end. You're not arguing any of those points so... :confused:
 
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evilstebunny said:
Only thing I don't agree with its probably not the manufacturers keeping prices high but the middlemen.
Buy low sell high, and what better excuse than a natural disaster to exploit.
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Then you (or I) dont understand basic economics. The only scenario where the above is plausible is one in which there is agreed upon price fixing between competitors.
 
I don't understand how they will make more money if a lot less people buy? You know, as the usual cycle goes, you upgrade your hdd's a few times a year, but since the huge escalation last year, me and all my colleagues, friends and family have been waiting for the prices to drop again before upgrading - I just rather delete stuff I've watched/finished using.

OK, there is still a huge market for people whose drives fail, and companies, but I believe the financial gain of ridiculous prices would be offset by the above, no?
 
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