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Just For Discussion ... This USB Flash Drive Ad Can't Be Right ?


Monroe

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Either I'm missing something or prices have dropped !  ... The people in the reviews keep talking about a GB flash drive yet the ad says something else ... 128 GB Flash Drive for $10.79 with Free Shipping.

 

What am I not reading correctly?

 

MECO 128GB Swivel USB 2.0 Flash Drive Memory Thumb Stick Pen Storage U-Disk Gift

 

Price:    $10.79   & FREE Shipping 

 

http://www.amazon.com/128GB-Swivel-Memory-Storage-U-Disk/dp/B00LEG6580/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1405894258&sr=8-10&keywords=flash+drive

...

 

I just came across this ad for a 256 GB Flash for $25.00 ... I haven't looked at flash drives for awhile, prices seem to have dropped.

 

USB 2.0 Flash Drive 256gb Memory Stick Pen Drive (Color Varies)

 

4 new from $25.00

 

http://www.amazon.com/USB-2-0-Flash-Memory-Varies/dp/B00B4W34T2/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1405894258&sr=8-15&keywords=flash+drive

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Just like last summer for a "Going Back to School" sale ... Walmart has these 8 GB SanDisk Flash Drives on sale for $4.97 ... they are at the Walmart close to me as you walk in the door with all the bins of Back to School stuff ... pens, notebooks, glue and such.

 

They are $4.99 at Amazon ...

 

SanDisk Cruzer Blade 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive

 

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Blade-Drive--SDCZ50-008G-B35/dp/B002U28LZC/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1405898442&sr=8-23&keywords=flash+drive

 

As I said, they are $4.97 but not sure if all Walmart stores have the same price.

Edited by monroe
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As far as I know, I'd avoid the 256 GB capacity flash drives that are worth just $25 and do not work reliably.

 

I'm getting a lot of negative reviews regarding the flash drive that you mentioned. One person called it a scam...a actual "8 GB flash drive with properties hacked"...aka counterfeit 256 GB flash drives that only show up as 8 GB. Seriously, I think that Amazon needs to ban the seller for selling defective products.

 

The fixed price for a new 256 GB flash drive right now is at least $150. A product with the highest review score on Google would go for at least $180.

Edited by ppgrainbow
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Those 128 GB and 256 GB pendrives at such incredible low prices are either scams (most probably) or made from worse than product-line-reject parts (much less probable) and, as such, totally unreliable.

OTOH, SanDisk Cruzer Blade 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive for ca. US$5 seems about right.

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Interesting replies ... I was sure something couldn't be right, but then Amazon has the product for sale on their site. So it's probably inferior or junk parts ... reminds me years back when I worked with a smoker (cigarettes) ... he smoked a "generic off-name" brand. They were cheaper, he said "they were probably made from the scraps of tobacco that fell on the floor when they made the better cigarettes".

 

Could well be the case, maybe the same for these flash drives, in a way. However, you wonder why Amazon would even allow them to be sold, if they are defective or have a short life. They don't cost all that much so the commission to Amazon for a sale would be very low anyway.

 

Doesn't make much sense.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Flash memory has arrived and is here to stay.  Economies of scale are influencing production. 

 

Consider that inside that memory stick there's not room to put very much hardware.  How much could it cost to make?

 

SSDs for computers are overpriced, because it's what the market will bear.  It won't be long before there just won't be any more electromechanical disk drives.

 

Note that the price of computer SSDs recently dropped to new lows of something like 40 cents per gigabyte for top-performing drives, such as the Crucial MX100.  Because there is competition they will continue to go down and capacities and performance will continue to go up.

 

-Noel

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Well to be honest I don't really care about which brand I purchase from anymore. Especially with FLASH. So far I learned that SAMSUNG is leading the storage and HD boom in Japan ahead of SONY. But their chips are used is smaller sellers. The smaller sellers actually cost less then the actual product.

A 256GB drive is actually possible. In fact I see some 1TB and 2TB small devices already. So it is possible.

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Note that the price of computer SSDs recently dropped to new lows of something like 40 cents per gigabyte for top-performing drives, such as the Crucial MX100.  Because there is competition they will continue to go down and capacities and performance will continue to go up.

Yep. :yes:

But be aware that predictions are slippery business :w00t:, see what the analyst Jim Handy predicted in the far past ;) January 2014: 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2087480/ssd-prices-face-uncertain-future-in-2014.html 

 

The slow pace of change in the flash-manufacturing industry means that prices of SSDs will likely hold steady compared to 2013, but price hikes could be in the offing.

In short, expect to spend about 75 cents per gigabyte (GB) on an SSD in 2014, according to Jim Handy, an analyst with Objective Analysis. The average capacity drive that makers produce should be about 200GB—relatively tiny as far as consumer storage goes, but in line with corporate policies that call for keeping data on corporate servers where it can be managed.

 

With all due respect to the guy (and to PC world that published the main results of his analysis) a price prediction for a whole year proved wrong in 6 months or less and off by 43% :w00t: should tell us something about analysts... :whistle:

 

jaclaz

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...should tell us something about analysts...

 

Paid writers do not have honest opinions.  Most often their intent is to influence investment in the company of those who are paying them.

 

  • An analyst predicting flat pricing is likely trying to influence potential high tech product buyers into spending money now, rather than to wait for the inevitable big price breaks.

     

  • A potential high tech product buyer will likely always save money and get higher capacity hardware by waiting, but at the expense of not having access to the technology for the waiting period.

 

Choosing to buy high tech gear is always tantamount to throwing one's money away.  The thing to do is to stop looking at products for a time after buying, and instead enjoy the gear without fretting over missing the next big thing for a lower price.

 

-Noel

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Paid writers do not have honest opinions.  

 

Well, to be picky (as I am) they may have them, only they won't publish them ;), unless the ones paying the money actually like them. 

 

But, the issue I was raising was not about honesty of opinions, but rather on accuracy of predictions.

 

If - by trade - you are supposed to make predictions, you are expected to have them being noticeably more accurate than what anyone can get through flipism, then at the second wrong prediction you should be demoted to the role of "the guy that shovels elephant poo on trucks", or at least been prevented to publish any prediction for at least ten years. :whistle:

 

jaclaz

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1.  Dishonesty and ulterior motives almost never lead to an increase in accuracy, though accidents do happen.  Marketing people prefer to think of those accidents as their having influenced the industry, but their heads are up their asses.

 

2.  That you feel people paid to make predictions are expected to be accurate by hapless readers is the crux of the problem, now isn't it?

 

I've always hated the phrase "perception is reality".  It's going to be the undoing of modern society.

 

-Noel

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Just an update on my first post of this topic. I see those "cheap" flash drives are no longer for sale at Amazon ... the first one no longer has a page listing and the other says ... Currently Unavailable.

 

Now the SanDisk flash drive ... SanDisk Cruzer Blade 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive. That was $4.99 at Amazon when I started this topic but today I see the price is now $5.95. Walmart still has them for $4.97 for a few more weeks.

 

I remember last year when they took away all the school stuff bins as you walk in the door, the $4.97 price also goes away. They sell for $9.97 in the Camera Department when the "Back to School Sale" is over, at least that's what happened last year. Last year, even though the price is $9.97 in the camera area, the drives still scanned for $4.97 but that price was never advertised in that area, only at the school bin area ... so if the Flash Drive School Bin is empty or sold out, scan the SanDisk Cruzer Blade 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive back in the Camera department, it may be $4.97 for a few more weeks.

...

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