Buying SD cards

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ufo22jim

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I am originally from the UK and used to buy a lot of stuff from eBay and Amazon sellers (both individuals and business sellers). Having relocated to Cape Town I cannot do this due to international sellers not wanting to ship to South Africa. :cry: I still get the odd thing on eBay that family or friends bring to SA when they fly back.

I was shocked at how expensive SD cards are here in Game etc and I was wondering if it would be worth my time importing some SD cards into SA. As I say I'm from the UK and used to buying on-line (both within the UK and internationally from USA, China, Hong Kong etc). I don't know how a typical South African feels about on-line shopping with things going missing in the post etc.

I have compiled a survey to get people's opinion of whether there is a market for me importing some SD cards to SA. I would be grateful if you would spare a few minutes of your time to complete this survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K2R7Q6X

I've only made the first few questions compulsory, but it would be good if you could complete as many questions as possible.

Any questions/comments/suggestions welcome. ;)
 
I've just bought some memory cards for myself on eBay in the UK, so I don't need any more. A friend of my wife is bringing them back to SA next week for me. Today I met a flight attendant for an international airline who regularly flies to the UK, China and the Middle East with her job. This gave me the idea of perhaps her bringing SD cards into SA and selling them on-line. These could either be branded devices from the UK/ME or perhaps unbranded devices directly from China. This is why I'm asking whether people would want branded SD cards or whether they would use unbranded SD cards if they were significantly cheaper than in the shops.
 
Just buy them from kalahari, wootware or rebeltech.

You'll take a hit on the shipping so maybe combined orders. Worst case scenario is like 100 bucks though...

I do not think its worthwhile doing DIY importing here tbh.

The physical shops are notorious for screwing people over on cables & sundry accessories. e.g. I was accompanying my tech-noob aunt on a shopping trip to incredible connection...the amount of bullsht they tried to feed her was insane....only stopped once I made it clear to the salesman that I know 10x more than he does about the products so quit bull****ting and start helping.
 
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I never saw a major price difference on flash storage between SA and other countries other than when Amazon had one of their sales. OP check online sites like Takealot
 
I find Takealot to be charging less than the local suppliers so maybe they are importing themselves at bulk.
 
For local shops that sells these you should try Makro. Just bought two 16GB transcend MicroSD's from them for our Galaxy phones and their pricing is great. :)

(PS. The sales people there won't harrass you unlike at Incredible Connection or HiFi Corporation.)
 
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Ryansr said:
For local shops that sells these you should try Makro. Just bought two 16GB transcend MicroSD's from them for our Galaxy phones and their pricing is great. :)

(PS. The sales people there won't harrass you unlike at Incredible Connection or HiFi Corporation.)
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I rather like sales people actually trying to do their jobs rather than Game and the likes where all the **** is locked up and you have to wait for MINUTES on end to get my grubby paws on the goods.
 
Got a couple on ebay from a reputable seller, unfortunately they never arrived, would have worked out about R135.00 including shipping and customs per 16gb mirco SD card. Compared to R450 odd you pay here.Might try another site and see if it arrives. :p
 
I dont know where you okes buy but I got my Apacer ones from Compusys for around R180. The phone keeps on killing them when you copy stuff over airdroid however. Only the Note 2. Still trying to resolve this issue with Samsung.
 
wizardofid said:
Got a couple on ebay from a reputable seller, unfortunately they never arrived, would have worked out about R135.00 including shipping and customs per 16gb mirco SD card. Compared to R450 odd you pay here.Might try another site and see if it arrives. :p
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That's the trouble with international shipping to SA. We have received 8 parcels out of 10. The delivery times also vary significantly too. A friend posted a parcel surface mail so we were expecting it after 4-6 weeks. We received it in around 10 days so they must have sent it via airmail by mistake. :D Another parcel sent airmail took around 1 month to come :wtf:

We are just glad to actually receive the items, as 2 parcels (containing baby/toddler clothes etc) disappeared without trace.

I'm surprised you found an eBay seller who would ship to SA - all the sellers of stuff I was interested in refused to send to Africa, hence I rely on friends or family bringing over items we buy on eBay or Amazon.

I was looking for a 4GB CF card for my camera (the camera can only read up to 4GB flash cards). I bought a new SanDisk Ultra 30Mb/s one for £6.25 inc UK P&P which is roughly R110. I had a quick on-line search in SA and found http://www.pricecheck.co.za/offers/47975445/SanDisk+Ultra+Compact+Flash+4GB+200x+Memory+Card/
http://www.comx-computers.co.za/SDCFH-004G-U46-Sandisk-Ultra-CF-4GB-30MB-s-Compact-Buy-p-88412.php
So it was well under half the SA price. Takealot didn't have the exact same product, but had a 4GB Lexar 30Mb/s CF for R179 + delivery so they do seem to be cheaper than the places that I checked initially.
 
ufo22jim said:
That's the trouble with international shipping to SA. We have received 8 parcels out of 10. The delivery times also vary significantly too. A friend posted a parcel surface mail so we were expecting it after 4-6 weeks. We received it in around 10 days so they must have sent it via airmail by mistake. :D Another parcel sent airmail took around 1 month to come :wtf:

We are just glad to actually receive the items, as 2 parcels (containing baby/toddler clothes etc) disappeared without trace.

I'm surprised you found an eBay seller who would ship to SA - all the sellers of stuff I was interested in refused to send to Africa, hence I rely on friends or family bringing over items we buy on eBay or Amazon.

I was looking for a 4GB CF card for my camera (the camera can only read up to 4GB flash cards). I bought a new SanDisk Ultra 30Mb/s one for £6.25 inc UK P&P which is roughly R110. I had a quick on-line search in SA and found http://www.pricecheck.co.za/offers/47975445/SanDisk+Ultra+Compact+Flash+4GB+200x+Memory+Card/
http://www.comx-computers.co.za/SDCFH-004G-U46-Sandisk-Ultra-CF-4GB-30MB-s-Compact-Buy-p-88412.php
So it was well under half the SA price. Takealot didn't have the exact same product, but had a 4GB Lexar 30Mb/s CF for R179 + delivery so they do seem to be cheaper than the places that I checked initially.
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Ordered a tablet/slash keyboard PU leather case, and a bunch of watches, USB wifi, mini HDMI cable among other stuff, from ebay, arrived with in a month, expected the watches to to incur the most custom, duties, R45.00 buck for 8 watches isn't bad.

Besides the SD cards that didn't arrive, went as soon as the exceeded estimated arrival date of over two months to log a dispute, the seller wasn't happy, told them politely just following proper channels to cover my ass, got a refund with the agreement should it magically arrive 3 months later I would pay him back.

Tempted to try DX.com shopping around for a GPU, also found a Ice cream machine for my store that won't break my bank balance, just a bit worried what custom duties will be on that, can source it from a local importer, however wants it twice what it would cost me to import.
 
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