What explains huge difference in HDD prices whereas SD card prices are comparable between US and India?

[arnprasad]

Hi

Was looking to add more storage both to my console and to my PC. the SD card prices, say for 128 GB is comparable between Amazon US and India sites. But when I look at 7200 rpm HDD, 2TB - It is 7600 INR vs 42 dollars!!. All of these imported anyways and even if HDD is more costlier to ship - usual suspects like FX, Taxes...etc dont seem to explain this wide gap in prices.

Seagate Store Barracuda Internal Hard Drive 2TB SATA: Amazon.in: Electronics

Seagate Store Barracuda Internal Hard Drive 2TB SATA: Amazon.in: Electronics

www.amazon.in

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-Internal-Drive-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H2RR55Q/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ST2000DM008&qid=1603821242&sr=8-1&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-128GB-Class-Adapter-MB-MC128GA/dp/B06XFHQGB9/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=MB-MC128HA&qid=1603822269&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.in/Samsung-Plus-microSDXC-Adapter-MB-MC128HA/dp/B08D1HKWV9/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=128gb+sd+card&qid=1603822213&sr=8-3

 

[OM_2K19]

The retail price varies country to country based on the no of umits shipped by manufacturers. At any given point of time, the no of units shipped in US will be way more than what manufacturers ship in India. Thus higher retail price, on the top of it, you have shipping and import duty. At the end you almost end up paying double the amount. It's the same case with majority of the computer/network hardware.

 

[raghupb]

Sometimes HDDs (external) small capacity are similarly priced.
I guess it is geo based demand after all.
Same for AV gear. If volume goes up we will see competitive/comparable pricing.
Cheers,
Raghu

 

[arnprasad]

I am aware of that and I have been travelling to US and buying stuff from there for more than 20 years now. As time progresses.. I have seen the gap reduce and like I gave an example of SD cards.. We are cheaper on few and hence this difference in HDD is weird. Let's hope the gap reduces in die course

 

[sandeepsasi]

Even for SD cards, this is true only for those of capacity 128GB and below. I have been eyeing 512GB cards for more than a year and there is no sign of their prices going down anytime soon (price in India is ~1.75x that in US). Same is true about portable SSDs.

With regards,
Sandeep Sasi

 

[arnprasad]

Your example makes sense since sales volumes for such large capacity cards in india is limited and same goes for high end audio and video components and hence such premiums can be justified to some extent. But 2tb HDD should be high volume business in India too. I noticed something equally weird on the nintendo switch console..it s in high demand all over the world even today and since it is not sold officially in india by nintendo.. A 300 dollar console was being sold at 45k in flipkart for past couple of years. Surprisingly in the current flipkart sale. Its being sold at 30k post discounts!! .. .just one month back my friend bought it for 45k!!

 

[veekm]

don't look for prices on Amazon - use Mdcomputers or PrimeABGB or local. 2 TB costs 4.7K (5400 rpm seagate)

Indian vendors have a lot of wriggle room in terms of pricing - note the lower speed. If you look carefully at it's datasheet it'll probably have a smaller buffer or increased timing or it'll be SMR/shingled for bonus profit margin.

To understand why: rice costs 19/ Grade-A, medium/long grain at a PDS depot (minimum support price); It sells in retail for 42 (double the price). Exide battery 7Ah/chloride costs 950/ in Bangalore but there is one shop that sells it for 750 and I know the price is around 550 if you are important enough to Exide. Or take chemicals: I paid 1650/ for what costs 550/ (Calcium sulphate 500gm and Iron powder 1kg).

Every step off the process incurs a 100% profit margin.

So.. most products have a huge markup in the domestic market because we are at the end of a business cycle and your/INR currency is fscked. After the recession, when there is a impetus to manufacture, margins will fall and volumes will increase.

(Don't discount the fact that you are a insignificant nobody who needs from the great Indian trader who manufactures by tying up with foreign countries) [another way to evaluate is to add up the cost of sand/cpu+petroleum/plastics+power+water and wonder why your mobo costs X100 times.. generally the bigger the trader attitude, the greater the import margin]

[we don't make things in India so subsidy/tax/ etc is meant to screw you and feed traders/manufacturers - consider what happens in tillers and solar]

It's a utterly ridiculous system because they just buy London real estate! The main goal of a trader is to preserve his margin and convince you that you got a deal - only when you make it can you know what price to offer and negotiate as a matter of convenience.

(also, traders buy in bulk and the pricing can be targeted to country - abroad has a lot more discounts/offers so it's hard to work out the margin - power tools/differing part numbers same tool)

 

[arnprasad]

I am a chartered accountant with 20 years experience working with some of the worlds best companies - in all aspects of finance including supply chain finance 2 TB 5400 RPM is 4400 at Amazon post discounts. My point was specifically for the price difference in 7200 rpm model!! Anyways thanks for your long post

 

[veekm]

I am a chartered accountant with 20 years experience working with some of the worlds best companies - in all aspects of finance including supply chain finance 2 TB 5400 RPM is 4400 at Amazon post discounts. My point was specifically for the price difference in 7200 rpm model!! Anyways thanks for your long post

1. I don't suppose your extensive experience working for the worlds best companies will help us all get NE555's for INR5/ - they cost x10 domestically.
2. Link/Snapshot? Because the 7200 RPM costs 5.3k on MDComputers whereas on Amazon it's 7.7k
3. Do you thank everyone who makes a long post or just the ones you feel are stupid? I tend to thank when I mean it.

 

[arnprasad]

You seem to be new on the forum. Let me clarify few things. You also gotta learn to chill.

(i) I may have decent knowledge on few things. The reason I ask questions here is because there are people who have better/expert knowledge than me and hence I want to learn things I dont know or clarify on things I may have doubts on.
(ii) For example this question on storage - we all know things are expensive in India - but this kind of price difference is something very specific and hence my hope was that if we have members here who work for these storage companies or ecommerce sites in supply chain - they might throw some knowledge on hard drive pricing I am not aware about
(iii) I thanked you because you did take time to write a long post. Whether that post helped me or not is not the question
(iv) I do understand your point of view of comparing rice and tomatoes between countries - but I wanted a specific answer not a generic one as indicated in my question itself

Hope this clarifies!