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Decided to fly to the US to buy some hard drives
- lysace 8mo agoIn the 80s it was a thing to fly from Europe to the US to buy PC hardware and software. The price differences paid for the (expensive) flight costs and then some.
- NitpickLawyer 8mo ago~2012 was the same thing. The usd was very low compared to eur, but the apple store sold things in ~same value in eur + tax. So you could legit buy an airplane ticket (not even a low cost, regular line was ok), visit NY for a weekend and buy a macbook, come back, and end up paying the same amount.
- vladvasiliu 8mo agoNot just Apple. Around 2010, I bought a tripod and head from the US. Had it delivered to France, paid all import duties and taxes and VAT (I single out VAT because, since taxing is the national sport, it's levied on top of the other taxes, which are also levied on shipping a big hunk of metal). It was around 25% cheaper than buying from a local store. Here's the kicker: the tripod and head were both produced in Italy. So it was somehow cheaper to ship them halfway around the world and pay import duties twice than to buy locally with no import duty (since it's the EU).
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- Markoff 8mo agoyeah, this applied to any pricier laptop or DSLR, though warranty could be a problem
- bombcar 8mo agoIt's been true (maybe still is? Haven't checked) for quite awhile; people I know would always hit up the Apple Store when visiting the USA and return bearing gifts, because the price savings was quite noticeable.
- WalterBright 8mo agoIn the 1980s, a friend got his start by buying packaged software in bulk from the US and reselling it in Europe. The retail price differences were large enough he made bank on it. It's called arbitrage. Eventually, other people figured it out and the prices leveled out. Arbitrage opportunities crop up all the time.
- 1-more 8mo agoI remember when Adobe Creative Suite came out (I think?) and Australian said that a first class flight to Los Angeles and the American price were less than the Australian price. Hoping Bruce or Sheila [1] Cunningham [2] can chime in [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNBy1D1Y0h4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNBy1D1Y0h4 damn I was only familiar with the audio; this aged extremely poorly. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham#Cunningham's_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham#Cunningham's_L...
- bgmeister 8mo agoThe trip was worth considering for a few years. IIRC a first class ticket would have cost too much though. https://www.smh.com.au/technology/adobe-chief-dodges-questions-over-pricing-20130214-2eetr.html https://www.smh.com.au/technology/adobe-chief-dodges-questio...
- rock_artist 8mo agoNothing fancy here, just difference of prices/taxes in markets. Same as any YouTube video showing "I flew to Korea and got iPhone 17 Pro Max for cheaper". So there are individuals who do that and it makes sense (if you enjoy the flying / traveling) and it's not considered "time is money" There are also common parallel importing in many countries who find a dealer at some country that has the same product in lower local currency, buy bulk and get some discount, then resell it in the country where the official distribution is expensive. That's why it is possible to find no eSIM/NFC iPhones in some stores (imported from China) or eSIM only ones in regions where you'd expect them to have also physical sim tray.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- bobthepanda 8mo agoPeople have been doing this forever. What’s more interesting was when people were doing this with software sold physically; IIRC Adobe creative suite was so expensive in Australia that it was cheaper to fly to the US and buy it
- nathancahill 8mo agoThe secret ingredient is.. crime.
- arccy 8mo agonot really, they paid import duty
- abetancort 8mo ago[dead]
- kps 8mo agoNo duty, only VAT. https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/8471705000 https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/84717050...
- somat 8mo agoNow I am curious, Understand that I am from the states, and consequently have zero intuition as to what a VAT is. But... the hard drive importer is directly using the HDDs and as such is not adding any value to the item, why are they paying a value added tax? If I had to guess it is probably on the value that could have been added to the item.
- ornornor 8mo agoIt’s just the name for sales tax. Why is there a tax on sales, isn’t a sale a discount? Then is the sales tax negative because it’s the tax on the difference between the full price and the discounted price? You’d probably end up with a refund for buying the thing, unless your state has no sales tax.
- abujazar 8mo agoSales tax is actually very different beacuse it is usually either cumulative and added to each part of the chain, or only the last one; whereas VAT is deducted in all but the last part of the chain.
- direwolf20 8mo agoFlying to the USA is a bit risky right now. It would be better for someone already in the USA to mail them to you, right?
- diordiderot 8mo ago> Flying to the USA is a bit risky right now. Please be serious.
- queenkjuul 8mo agoPlease read this https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton...
- returningfory2 8mo agoThese stories usually have some non-trivial factor that is missing in the article. In this case there's a small visible red flag: the two tourists are British but traveling on B visas, rather than using the visa waiver program. Why? Well according the DHS they both have multi-year overstays in the US. This doesn't justify the detention they went through. But it also means the lesson of the story is not "random tourists are being detained".
- Symbiote 8mo agoThe article clearly says only Bill had overstayed, not Karen. "Bill’s US visa had expired; Karen’s had not.". The B2 visa seems to be because the length of the trip exceeded the ESTA limit, "over two months", perhaps the original plan had been for a longer trip.
- returningfory2 8mo agoNo, Karen overstayed previously by 4 years when visiting Bill, that's why she had B-2.
- queenkjuul 8mo agoMeanwhile here in the US the drives are double what i paid in 2024 and I'm trying to see which country i can fly to lol
- rkagerer 8mo agoThere are small suppliers in Hong Kong who sell refurb enterprise drives at less-exorbitant prices. I've had good luck with this over the years. I stuck with reliable, well-known models like the 4TB HGST, 16TB Seagate Exos (X16), etc. I used to get them with a year or so of warranty remaining, though last order I got units that must have been from a bulk OEM purchase and weren't warrantied through the manufacturer. Regardless, I've had good luck this way and failure rates have been within expectations. I started with a few different suppliers to mix inventory in case one source turned out to be a dud, then eventually consolidated on a single supplier who does a great job and has consistently delivered good drives. This method has worked for me for over a decade. Definitely easier than flying around countries, and in my case cheaper than if I'd physically gone to the US like this guy.
- ecshafer 8mo agoI am surprised they aren't Brazillian. Some Brazillian friends from school did that, they would fly to Miami to go shopping, buy game consoles, etc.
- lazide 8mo agoBrazilian customs figured this out awhile ago, be too obvious and you’ll get one hell of a fine.
- rescbr 8mo agoIf shipping then yes, customs got stricter thanks to Shein. If flying then you can bring up to 1000 USD of stuff tax-free every 30 days. On top of a personal phone and watch. Plus 1000 USD of stuff you can purchase at the duty-free shop once you land.
- lazide 8mo agoIf you left with a phone (pretty mic required), you can’t come back with an extra iPhone - since those are typically > $1000. Of course, people will. It’s mostly the folks bringing back 5 new phones or whatever that get nailed. But mostly they only care if you’re obviously Brazilian of course hah
- rescbr 8mo agoYeah, this is more pronounced with watches.
- fred_is_fred 8mo agoA brazilian coworker bought a suitcase on his trip here (circa 15 years ago) and then bought a playstation and an xbox to bring back.
- rappatic 8mo agoThere's no real arbitrage opportunity because he booked the hotel and flights on points. It likely would've been considerably more expensive overall if he'd booked in cash.
- ghaff 8mo agoWell, that's assuming he wouldn't have used the points for a different trip otherwise.
- binarysolo 8mo agoPractically speaking, in 2026, are there any big ticket items an American could buy abroad and have the travel economics work out to their favor? The big one I do is medical tourism, though I have family in Taiwan. I've done a bit of dental works where the cost in the US is $3k-$5k after insurance, and at Taiwan is maybe $300-$500 (10x diff) cash pay. I've also done scan-all-the-things health spas in a Taiwan hospital for $300-$500, where American equivalents are again 10x.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- kotaKat 8mo agoWeirdly for me: IKEA. I’m within ~240 miles of an IKEA in Canada and an IKEA in the US. While they’ve started to inflate some items to meet currency conversion rates, some items are still cheaper for me to purchase in Canada directly and bring back to the US. For instance, even at small scale: one BILLY bookcase, article number 205.220.46, is $90 CAD (~$65.70 US) at IKEA CA and $79 USD at IKEA US. YMMV coming back across the border but in my experience I just got waived through the border every time I told them I was “just coming back with some cheap crap from IKEA”.
- BizarroLand 8mo agoTravelling to a no sales tax state for large purchases. Sales tax is roughly 10%, state with no sales tax is 150 miles away for me. Doing the math, 300 miles round trip, 30 miles per gallon, $4/gallon for gas, if I'm buying something that costs more than $400 I get a free trip to other state. Downside is that you're only breaking even for the time, but if you're making a $1,000+ purchase then it's definitely worth the time for me to make the trip.
- shagie 8mo agoSome states have that as a "you should/need to declare that as a use tax." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax It's likely poorly enforced, but it's on the books and it's a complicated one to track. It was more of a concern when internet sales didn't collect state sales. There's also Simplified Sellers Use Tax lawsuit that was recently in the courts.
- adrian_b 8mo agoFrom what the poster says, it appears that the HDD prices vary extremely inside USA, so you must be careful from where you buy. The poster says that the 28 TB Seagate HDDs have been bought from Best Buy and B&H for around USD 330. If I look right now at Amazon USA and Newegg, I see much higher prices, in the range of $600 to $700, so buying from there would be a mistake. However, the reported price seems too good to be true, because looking now at both the B&H & Best Buy online shops I see prices double in comparison with the claimed $330, and which are in line with Newegg and Amazon USA. So perhaps the poster was extremely lucky and has succeeded to take advantage of some price that was so low only for a short time. For comparison, last week I have also bought a 28 TB Seagate Expansion HDD, but in the European Union, for USD 550, which is much lower in comparison with the UK price of almost $770 quoted by the Reddit poster, and also much lower than the prices that are listed today on Amazon USA, Newegg, B&H and Best Buy, which are higher by about 10% than what I paid. On the other hand the Reddit poster has succeeded to buy 10 such HDDs for a price of only 60% of mine, raised after that to about 74% by the import VAT. Good for him, but taking into account the prices that I see today at 4 US online shops and the continuous price increases in HDDs, it seems that not many, if anyone, will repeat soon such an achievement.
- Aurornis 8mo agoHDD prices spiked in the past few days: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1r8swim/holy_hell_seagate_expansion_drive_prices_have/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1r8swim/holy_h... 2026 production from many of the big manufacturers is already completely sold.
- adrian_b 8mo agoYes, this explains it. I have also been triggered to buy the 28 TB HDD last week, even if I do not need it yet, but I will need it later this year, after reading the reports that both WD and Seagate have sold out their yearly production. The price that I paid was already much higher than some time ago.
- Aurornis 8mo ago
- dec0dedab0de 8mo agoA long time ago I was in a band, and we opened for a band from Australia that came without any gear and bought it all here. They said it was so much cheaper to buy here that they loved touring in the US just for that reason. They were using vintage collector type stuff that was just harder to find there, but they told me it was the same for new stuff too.
- jtwaleson 8mo agoOh this brings back memories. Back in 2007 my dad needed a new Thinkpad which was like 2.5k EUR in NL vs 1k USD in the USA. He also wanted to push his kids to do something adventurous. So he bought me (19) and little brother (16) tickets to fly from Amsterdam to New York (2x350) and get a cheap hotel for 2 nights (2x100). All to get a Thinkpad W500(?). We had a great time. Got chased by a wild homeless person on Staten Island who followed us onto the ferry and we were scared stiff. Also walked all over Manhattan. Went to the Bronx but got stared at a lot so quickly went back to the subway. I can still hear the iconic "Stand clear of the Closing Doors" in my head. Too bad the America from those days is gone.
- pjam 8mo agoWhich part is gone?
- DANmode 8mo agoI was going to say, pretty sure this story could have happened last week.
- jtwaleson 8mo agoHah, indeed, the story could have happened yesterday. Except maybe thinkpad prices in europe have normalized a bit ;) What I didn't write is that my feelings towards the USA were 95% positive back then. A bit less after the chase and the Bronx visit, but still. Obama made everything feel hopeful. The current situation is just depressing.
- Havoc 8mo agoKinda wild to me that people wait till record prices and then go hmm...now is the moment I need a 280TB NAS...
- sakex 8mo agoI also bought a laptop with an RTX 5090 (mobile) in New York last month. I paid half what I would have paid in my country. Especially when you consider how low the USD is trading at.
- locusm 8mo agoFor some weird reason this story reminded me of Johnny Mnemonic.
- globular-toast 8mo agoAs someone who runs home NAS with 5+ year old drives in it, this situation sucks. I only have 4TB drives but just to replace them, not even upgrade the storage, would cost over £1000 at £170 each. I have a couple of cold backup drives, one of which I bought for £100 in March 2025 and the other for £85 in July, so literally half the price! If I wanted to increase the storage which, to be fair, I don't actually need, I'd be looking at closer to 2k. Guess I'll be hoping these drives last a bit longer and don't all fail at once... This sucks more because hosting at home is the main way out of cloud lock in. I feel like something should be done to make sure regular consumers are able to buy this stuff and not just mega corps.
- garte 8mo agoso fossil fuel is too fucking cheap. this is arbitrage with our environment, it fucks me up.