UK buyer flies to the US to buy 28TB drives
Source: Reddit
User cgtechuk on Reddit’s r/DataHoarder says UK pricing for high-capacity hard drives has gotten so inflated that flying to New York City made more sense than buying locally. He bought ten 28TB drives in the US and carried them back to the UK.
He says it was not possible to buy more than five drives per store, so he split the purchase across two US retailers. To avoid getting stuck with a swapped drive or the wrong capacity, he recorded serial numbers at pickup and tested each unit in the hotel with diagnostic tools and file copies. He also says the foam inserts helped pack the bare drives into carry-on luggage for the flight home.
“TLDR: UK prices for 28TB drives was so bad it was cheaper to fly to the US, Buy them and bring them home.”
In a follow-up comment, he claims he paid “£244 each plus 20% import VAT.” He also claims the same retail product in the UK was around “£568,” with “server recerts” listed around “£420 to £450.” He adds that he declared the items and paid the required charges using invoices.
The math shows why he went through with it. If the per-drive gap is over $370, ten drives can clear roughly $3,700 in gross savings, leaving room to cover flights, a budget hotel, and basic trip costs, while still coming out ahead. His approach also shows the risks he assumed, filming pickups, logging serial numbers, and stress testing each drive before flying home with the drives in carry-on and the packaging checked.
The Redditor says he still came out about $2,000 ahead after factoring in the trip. Well, at least he now has enough space to save this memory for long time.
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