Memory - so cheap all of a sudden?

[metalhead]

I was just shopping for another 512 MB module for my rig, and while perusing Crucial.com and eBay, I saw that the PC2100 memory that I need is around $80. When I bought the same exact module last November, it was around $150. What gives? Anyone know what accounted for the sudden, drastic price decrease for memory?

 

[damunzy]

Not sure what it is this time but many factors can lead to the change. One might be: newer type of RAM is pushing the 2100 out of market and the manufactures that are still geared up for 2100s are trying to make as much money as they can by producing more and selling for less than the new kind (kind of like the way oil prices go down when more is produced...kind of).

I have seen this happen many times and once bought at a bad time because I "needed" the RAM.

 

[cgannon64]

I guess they just had a breakthrough in a new way to manufacture it, or they just managed to cut costs, or they built more factories in Mexico.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

I think it is a supply and demand thing. Computer sales are at an all time low so the big memory buyers like Dell, Gateway, etc are not buying as much. With the surplus, prices drop.

 

[damunzy]

ohhh, good one Cracked.

 

[Pillager]

Yes, and memory fluctuates like no other component. Often, advertisements will not quote memory prices and ask you to call to confirm that month's/week's/day's price because the price is so volatile.

Remember that big fire in the Far East a while ago? That certainly pushed up prices