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This seems all Amazon links only (with affiliate codes). Given their known counterfeit problems and fake reviews, I would recommend avoiding it for important th

by theamk 7y ago

This seems all Amazon links only (with affiliate codes). Given their known counterfeit problems and fake reviews, I would recommend avoiding it for important things like disk drives. Plus, they are not guaranteed to be the cheapest anyway. If you need to buy a drive, I would recommend local brick and mortar store first, and some sort of proper aggregator (which looks at multiple sites, not just Amazon) second.

rasz 7y ago
While nobody counterfeits mechanical drives, you can still get screwed buying "refurbs"/"tested only, like new" and similar "deals". SMART data can, and is often reset, making 3 year old >30K hour drives pulled from storage racks report mere couple power on counts and less than hour total lifetime run time.
- empyrical 7y ago
  Sometimes you can also run into situations where someone returned an external hard drive, but they swapped the drive inside with a cheap low capacity drive (like a 500gb drive put into an 8tb drive enclosure)
  - _Nat_ 7y ago
    That's not a particularly scary scenario when buying from, e.g., Amazon.com, as it'd seem like the unit could just be returned for not being the advertised product. I'm curious, though, why would anyone bother with a scam like that? I mean, it'd seem like someone with the necessary technical skills could make a larger, steadier income through honest means. So why would they waste their time/effort on something that can backfire when noticed by the returns center or the next buyer? It certainly wouldn't surprise me if people've done this a few times -- I mean, people do all sorts of weird things -- but is it something that's happened enough to be notable?
    - judge2020 7y ago
      This was done a bit with microsd cards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-D6tYBX8vE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-D6tYBX8vE
    - rasz 7y ago
      https://www.newsweek.com/22-year-old-allegedly-scammed-amazon-out-370k-return-shipments-filled-dirt-1452452 https://www.newsweek.com/22-year-old-allegedly-scammed-amazo... Thats a lot of zeroes for not much effort.
- jjeaff 7y ago
  You can also get screwed for "new" drives. It depends on whether Amazon gates "new" sales of hard drives and even then, there are likely people gaming the system to get un-gated to sell them. All it takes is the original box and some shrink wrap to make a refurbished drive "new".
gjs278 7y ago
why would anyone go to a store when you can buy it online? total nonsense. the shipping to the store puts it at just as much risk.
paxys 7y ago
Disagree about the local stores part, but yeah for specific areas like electronics I always go for a more trustworthy site (like NewEgg, Jet or sometimes Best Buy). Prices are usually the same as Amazon, and if not they will almost always price match.
- jldugger 7y ago
  IDK, I suspect newegg reviews are equally gamed. Fundamentally, I think we need to come to terms with the fact that product reviews are worth the price the consumer paid for them: typically zero.
  - jraby3 7y ago
    At least there’s no counterfeit products.
    - boring_twenties 7y ago
      There are near-death drives being sold as new by third-party sellers on Newegg and all they'll do is step in and fix your order if you complain.
  - paxys 7y ago
    For electronics at least I can't remember the last time user reviews drove my purchase. I always look at specs/benchmarks, reviews on tech sites etc., and then go to the vendor with a fair idea of what I want.
all_blue_chucks 7y ago
Have you ever tried to buy tech at a B&M store? They will have obsolete products that have been on the shelves for years listed at the original MSRP. I'm sure there are exceptions but this is generally terrible advice.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  BestBuy will price match Amazon. So getting the real deal sounds better.
  - paxys 7y ago
    You local Best Buy will also probably have 5 hard disks total. The chances of getting exactly what you want (looking at the list in the linked site) is minimal.
    - giancarlostoro 7y ago
      Hard Disks sure, but I've gotten a reasonable choice of SSD's even one that was faster than any SSD I've owned thus far.
      - wtallis 7y ago
        It's really easy for Best Buy to stock Samsung SSDs and therefore offer you something faster than anything else you've ever owned. But that doesn't mean you aren't overpaying by at least $40/TB compared to a good Amazon or Newegg price on an almost-as-fast drive from a smaller brand.
        giancarlostoro 7y ago
        It wasn't a Samsung SSD, I don't really buy Samsung since it seems overpriced and overhyped most of the time, unless I catch a sweet deal. I had bought a Sandisk that was actually more performant than I anticipated, it was noticeable immediately after installing Linux on it.
wtallis 7y ago
Buying an internal hard drive from Amazon is extremely fraught, but I'm not aware of similar problems for internal SSDs. And they are definitely one of the most reliable places to get good prices for consumer retail SSD models.
- numpad0 7y ago
  I guess SSDs are less sensitive to environments
tartoran 7y ago
I’d buy a lot of things used but never a harddrive or any storage/backup media. Not sure if these are countereit though, I’ve never seen any bootlegs sold as used ever..
- climb_stealth 7y ago
  I probably wouldn't do it either. Though I recently sold my WD Red NAS HD on ebay. Someone made a really good purchase with it. They got it for half price with the original purchase receipt and 1.5 years warranty left. Every now and then you find someone with a conscience selling things on ebay and it is just a pleasant experience and restores some faith in humanity. That is what inspired me to sell it instead of having it collect dust in a drawer for 10 years.

by theamk 7y ago

rasz 7y ago

While nobody counterfeits mechanical drives, you can still get screwed buying "refurbs"/"tested only, like new" and similar "deals". SMART data can, and is often reset, making 3 year old >30K hour drives pulled from storage racks report mere couple power on counts and less than hour total lifetime run time.

empyrical 7y ago
Sometimes you can also run into situations where someone returned an external hard drive, but they swapped the drive inside with a cheap low capacity drive (like a 500gb drive put into an 8tb drive enclosure)
- _Nat_ 7y ago
  That's not a particularly scary scenario when buying from, e.g., Amazon.com, as it'd seem like the unit could just be returned for not being the advertised product. I'm curious, though, why would anyone bother with a scam like that? I mean, it'd seem like someone with the necessary technical skills could make a larger, steadier income through honest means. So why would they waste their time/effort on something that can backfire when noticed by the returns center or the next buyer? It certainly wouldn't surprise me if people've done this a few times -- I mean, people do all sorts of weird things -- but is it something that's happened enough to be notable?
  - judge2020 7y ago
    This was done a bit with microsd cards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-D6tYBX8vE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-D6tYBX8vE
  - rasz 7y ago
    https://www.newsweek.com/22-year-old-allegedly-scammed-amazon-out-370k-return-shipments-filled-dirt-1452452 https://www.newsweek.com/22-year-old-allegedly-scammed-amazo... Thats a lot of zeroes for not much effort.
jjeaff 7y ago
You can also get screwed for "new" drives. It depends on whether Amazon gates "new" sales of hard drives and even then, there are likely people gaming the system to get un-gated to sell them. All it takes is the original box and some shrink wrap to make a refurbished drive "new".

gjs278 7y ago

why would anyone go to a store when you can buy it online? total nonsense. the shipping to the store puts it at just as much risk.

paxys 7y ago

Disagree about the local stores part, but yeah for specific areas like electronics I always go for a more trustworthy site (like NewEgg, Jet or sometimes Best Buy). Prices are usually the same as Amazon, and if not they will almost always price match.

jldugger 7y ago
IDK, I suspect newegg reviews are equally gamed. Fundamentally, I think we need to come to terms with the fact that product reviews are worth the price the consumer paid for them: typically zero.
- jraby3 7y ago
  At least there’s no counterfeit products.
  - boring_twenties 7y ago
    There are near-death drives being sold as new by third-party sellers on Newegg and all they'll do is step in and fix your order if you complain.
- paxys 7y ago
  For electronics at least I can't remember the last time user reviews drove my purchase. I always look at specs/benchmarks, reviews on tech sites etc., and then go to the vendor with a fair idea of what I want.

all_blue_chucks 7y ago

Have you ever tried to buy tech at a B&M store? They will have obsolete products that have been on the shelves for years listed at the original MSRP. I'm sure there are exceptions but this is generally terrible advice.

giancarlostoro 7y ago
BestBuy will price match Amazon. So getting the real deal sounds better.
- paxys 7y ago
  You local Best Buy will also probably have 5 hard disks total. The chances of getting exactly what you want (looking at the list in the linked site) is minimal.
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    Hard Disks sure, but I've gotten a reasonable choice of SSD's even one that was faster than any SSD I've owned thus far.
    - wtallis 7y ago
      It's really easy for Best Buy to stock Samsung SSDs and therefore offer you something faster than anything else you've ever owned. But that doesn't mean you aren't overpaying by at least $40/TB compared to a good Amazon or Newegg price on an almost-as-fast drive from a smaller brand.
      - giancarlostoro 7y ago
        It wasn't a Samsung SSD, I don't really buy Samsung since it seems overpriced and overhyped most of the time, unless I catch a sweet deal. I had bought a Sandisk that was actually more performant than I anticipated, it was noticeable immediately after installing Linux on it.

wtallis 7y ago

Buying an internal hard drive from Amazon is extremely fraught, but I'm not aware of similar problems for internal SSDs. And they are definitely one of the most reliable places to get good prices for consumer retail SSD models.

numpad0 7y ago
I guess SSDs are less sensitive to environments

tartoran 7y ago

I’d buy a lot of things used but never a harddrive or any storage/backup media. Not sure if these are countereit though, I’ve never seen any bootlegs sold as used ever..

climb_stealth 7y ago
I probably wouldn't do it either. Though I recently sold my WD Red NAS HD on ebay. Someone made a really good purchase with it. They got it for half price with the original purchase receipt and 1.5 years warranty left. Every now and then you find someone with a conscience selling things on ebay and it is just a pleasant experience and restores some faith in humanity. That is what inspired me to sell it instead of having it collect dust in a drawer for 10 years.