Re: BD25 Prices Continue Fall
Quote:
Originally Posted by
zot
I understand that it's a similar situation with optical disk manufacturers - and so many other things these days.
Not that I've heard of, and the prices haven't reflected it at all. It's all those HD plants in Thailand, India, and the like that are currently underwater or drying out. I haven't heard of any optical production plants in any of those countries, and the prices of my 'fav' (Ritek inkjet BD25's) stabilized for quite a while around $1.30-40/ea for about 3+ months there with a couple 'sales' at the ~$1 level.
If there were some plants affected, either it was for a very short period of time, folks aren't buying a any 'decent' rate, or they had a couple warehouse full of product (or a combination of those two). Right now, it looks like the $1.05 level may be here to stay.
Re: BD25 Prices Continue Fall
What I meant was the concentrated manufacturing base: that all the different brands of disks all coming out of a couple of Taiwanese" factories. (of all the CDs/DVDs I've ID'd, I don't think I've ever had one that was not made by Ritek.)
Also, with the money-saving 'just-in-time' business delivery strategy, any shortage can quickly snowball.
Re: BD25 Prices Continue Fall
Yep, the thing one has to watch out for on the Taiwanese sourced stuff is any big earthquake.
I appears that the price of right around $1.05 for hub printable BD25's is staying in place, no movement on anyone I 'monitor' for the last 2-3+ weeks. I have a nice stack (around 100) discs 'in the que' at present, so it will be awhile before I buy any more, especially as at 'full bore' processing 'stuff' I average about 3-4 discs per week.
Unless I hit something with wacky programmers that need to take (or re-take) a course in how to program navigation routines on BluRay discs.
So, I pull back a bit and get a running start again.
I wonder how many folks are putting off buying tera-byte HD's now, and what will happen when the prices start dropping once again; will folks wait until it way back down like $70 for a 2TB or 'just can't wait' when it gets down to like, around $100.
It will be interesting to see.
Re: BD25 Prices Continue Fall
Things are really upside down in the HDD market. Notebook drives are nearly the same price as desktops. And Fibre Channel Drives are absolutely dirt-cheap these days. It seems very strange when a 10K/15K RPM FC drive is selling for less than a 5400/7200 SATA drive.
Re: BD25 Prices Continue Fall
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beck38
I wonder how many folks are putting off buying tera-byte HD's now, and what will happen when the prices start dropping once again; will folks wait until it way back down like $70 for a 2TB or 'just can't wait' when it gets down to like, around $100.
It gets worse. Now manufacturers are slashing warranties. My take on this is that production at un-flooded factories probably has been ramped up to the breaking point to take advantage of the higher prices, that quality will be a low priority.
Code:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222760/Hard_drive_manufacturers_slash_warranty_periods
I was just at the shops, I noticed that the best value in "desktop" hard drives would apparently be to buy a 2.5" portable USB HDD (many good sales on these!) open it up and take out the bare drive (note: these are too fat to fit in many laptops due to the extra platter) and install it in a 2.5/3.5 mounting bracket ($3) in a desktop case. I understand that unlike IDE, the SATA connections are the same for both 3.5" and 2.5" drives, though I've not verified this yet.
Fortunately due to SSD drives, the 2.5" mounting brackets are widely available these days.
Or maybe not many people would see the value in a 750GB 2.5" USB drive selling for less than a 250MB 3.5" drive, since on a cost-per-gigabyte basis, a 4GB 3.5" is about equal, and no doubt will not go obsolete as quickly.
Re: BD25 Prices Continue Fall
Don't know how long this will 'last', but 'special' at Meritline:
http://www.meritline.com/ritek-ridat...--p-38017.aspx
or 80cents per disc, 19.99/25pack, white inkjet - lowest prices seen EVER, except the shipping isn't free unless you order enough 'eligible' items, so the total price jumps to $1.15/ea without. But keep a lookout for this 'base' price with free shipping, maybe shortly.
Gotta start thinking about these hitting 50cents/per at some point... this year?
.
Re: BD25 Prices Continue Fall
Been a long... long.. time since the last 'update'. But items in the sight of the thread (i.e., hub inkjet BD25's) have been VERY stanbel over the last x months. Meritline continues to sell Ritek's at $.80/ea (plus shipping, which if you buy 2 or more 25 packs gets the bottom line price to $.90/ea), but...
BD50 (again, hub inkjet Ritek's) are getting 'price soft', latest 'special' is again Meritline at $4/ea in 15-packs/4x speed (and again, plus shipping). Some of the 'off-brands are in the same price range, but are 6x. It looks as if Ritek may be discontinuing the 4x line for 6x in the near future, which is why the price drop.
50GB re-writables are still pretty dear, around $25+.
Gonna keep chugging away on BD25's for the foreseeable future. My biggest 'problem' is forcing myself to print up the things on the inkjet printer, as I 'produce' about a burned disc every couple of days. Now if the damn hard drive folks would get their you know what together and get the prices on that back down to what it was (although Seagate is doing just fine, no SE Asia production plants underwater, and still get 'green' 2TB drives for <$80 while other makes are almost double that).