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Apple Store External Storage Prices Spike Amid AI-Driven Shortage

DEMinSoCAL said:
Here's an example:

SanDisk - PRO-G40 SSD 2TB​


Apple Store price is $750. Best Buy price is $409.

Is Apple waiting for the shelves to empty of lower priced old stock before raising the price or are they price gouging the old stock they paid lower prices for?

No one is arguing prices have gone up, but some of the pricing is clearly for pure profit and making this crisis even worse.
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I have found Apple Stores to be notoriously overpriced for the same product elsewhere. Sometimes the packaging references 'formatted for Apple' (or Mac), as if that rationalizes the hike - and I guess for consumers who may not be familiar with / comfortable with formatting via Disk Utility would see that pre-formatted drive as a draw.
Well that and they are used to be gouged for products at the store.

But now seems to be an issue everywhere.
 
Bazza1 said:
I have found Apple Stores to be notoriously overpriced for the same product elsewhere. Sometimes the packaging references 'formatted for Apple' (or Mac), as if that rationalizes the hike - and I guess for consumers who may not be familiar with / comfortable with formatting via Disk Utility would see that pre-formatted drive as a draw.
Well that and they are used to be gouged for products at the store.

But now seems to be an issue everywhere.
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Was going to say... prices have been going up everywhere. My wife had to buy a 2TB SSD for her work a month ago and wow, that was an eye watering price.

For example - Amazon:
1774280473575.jpeg
 
Was looking at a LaCie SSD last year. Launched at $500. It’s not $1,349.

I slept on it and figured I’d consider if after the holidays.

Whoops! I don’t need more storage that badly so I’ll just delete some of my current used space.
 
840quadra said:
Meanwhile rotating storage is still a reasonable price.

I keep my M.2 externals mostly clear and stick to using them for fast IO needs. For the price I can buy multiple 2.5 drives and have redundancy in storage as compared to a single 4TB M.2 or other external option.
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Considering that Western Digital has no stock of HDDs for all of 2026 because they've sold them all to AI companies, I doubt "reasonable" hdd prices will last long. They're already starting to rise in price
 
DocMultimedia said:
I bought a Samsung SSD the other day and couldn't believe how far things have jumped. Pretty much everything is rapidly heading up.
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Back in early February I was looking an external SSD to help someone migrate to a new Mac. Even then external SSD prices were much higher than a year ago. I ended giving them a mechanical USB drive that was no longer being used.
 
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erthquake said:
Back in early February I was looking an external SSD to help someone migrate to a new Mac. Even then external SSD prices were much higher than a year ago. I ended giving them a mechanical USB drive that was no longer being used.
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Sometimes it's way cheaper just to buy a USB-C NVMe enclosure and search out a NVMe SSD deal for cheap and make your own, instead of paying these pre-made prices.
 
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I finagled a Crucial 8TB portable SSD back in November for $150 during a sale and a $250 cash bonus for opening a Prime cc. Would like another, but I weep seeing it at about $790 on Amazon today.
 
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wadek said:
I finagled a Crucial 8TB portable SSD back in November for $150 during a sale and a $250 cash bonus for opening a Prime cc. Would like another, but I weep seeing it at about $790 on Amazon today.
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Wait…are you saying you only paid a net of $150 for it because you applied the $250 gift card? I remember the $380 deal for that SSD. I WANTED to get one because it was such a great deal. Didn’t get it because I didn’t need it. Feel vaguely regretful now 🤣
 
Mr. Bear said:
Wait…are you saying you only paid a net of $150 for it because you applied the $250 gift card? I remember the $380 deal for that SSD. I WANTED to get one because it was such a great deal. Didn’t get it because I didn’t need it. Feel vaguely regretful now 🤣
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Exactly. Got an ad for a $250 gift card to open a credit card, which was applied to my account like 2 minutes after being approved. I was flabbergasted. I suppose I'm not even counting the 5% cashback for using that card at Amazon.
 
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vinegarshots said:
Considering that Western Digital has no stock of HDDs for all of 2026 because they've sold them all to AI companies, I doubt "reasonable" hdd prices will last long. They're already starting to rise in price
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Potentially, but I am talking here and now, and thankfully I am a Seagate guy!
 
Nothing like hiking the prices of items that have been stuck on shelves and inventory for ages. That'll shift em.
 
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