A UK redditor flew to New York City to buy 280 TBs worth of HDDs to avoid 'literally ridiculous' pricing, declares it was 'worth it in the end'

Computer hard disks, electronic scrap, collected inside a bin — (Image credit: Manfred Rutz via Getty Images)

The good folks over at the r/DataHoarder subreddit take storage seriously. This, I would imagine, is obvious. One user, however, took their desire for silly amounts of hard drive space to the extreme when they flew from the UK to New York City in order to purchase ten 28 TB external hard drives, all in an effort to avoid inflated prices (via Videocardz).

Redditor cgtechuk recounted their adventure to the group over the weekend, and while the lengths they went to to get their hands on such mega-sized drives seems excessive, it looks like their experience was a remarkably positive one.

Decided to fly to the US to buy some hard drives from r/DataHoarder

"Having been watching the prices of 28 TB drives go literally ridiculous in the UK, I decided to book a short trip to New York just after new year to stock up on some 28 TBs," says our intrepid storage explorer. "And given that the prices were only going up I decided to buy 10 of them."

"The 2 main issues were that they were in and out of stock in both Best Buy and B&H Photo and [I] didn't want to risk getting orders cancelled by ordering 2 x 5 drives from the same place as they both have a max purchase limit of 5. So [I] found a day when they were in stock in both places."

After arriving in the US, cgtechuk says they were worried about "being scammed", so they recorded "every part of picking up the drives", and filmed the opening and testing of the HDDs in their hotel room for good measure. This involved running several software programs and performing file copies to confirm that the drives were 28 TB units, and not smaller, swapped out drives.

Hard Disk Drive — (Image credit: Pixabay)

However, getting the HDDs back into the UK presented some luggage-based issues:

"Turns out 10 drives was a mistake, [I] should have picked 8 as that would have been much easier logistically. It took up pretty much all of my hand luggage space, however I must admit the foam inserts from inside the retail boxes helped the drives fit better," says cgtechuk.

"I ended up packing all the cardboard and powerpacks in a full size suitcase in case I had to warranty anything but I got the actual 28s home in my hand luggage to the UK with minimal fuss."

The real question is, did our storage survivor end up saving any money? Well, according to them, the answer is a resounding yes:

"[The] drives were £244 per drive when purchased plus 20% Import VAT to the UK so after taxes its around £300 per drive. The exact same expansion drive is for sale on Amazon UK for £568 and there are recertified 28 TB drives on eBay UK for £420."

Cities Skylines Airport DLC — (Image credit: Colossal Order)

Assuming a £268 saving per brand new drive, that would leave £2,680 spare for flights, accommodation, and extras. However, cgtechuk says the trip was more cost effective for them, as "I used points to book both the hotel and the flights, so without that the saving would not be as great as the expenses would be higher."

Fair enough, and may I say, masterful work. Assuming you had a burning, ever-present desire for 280 TB of storage that simply couldn't be satiated any other way, this method would mean that not only do you get your HDD kicks, but a trip to one of the world's premier tourist destinations factored into the costs—with potentially some money left over to boot.

Although I don't relish the thought of making my way through airport security with my luggage full of hard drives, but for our redditor, it appears to have gone very smoothly: "I have TSA pre and they didn't even get secondary just straight through with no issues."

"They did get stopped and swabbed in the UK which is to be expected given its large metal objects in a suitcase. But all in all no real issues."

"Anyway it can be done," says cgtechUK. "Bit of a crazy idea tying up so much money in external drives but was worth it in the end."

You do you, my friend. You do you.

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Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't—and he hasn't stopped since. Now working as a hardware writer for PC Gamer, Andy spends his time jumping around the world attending product launches and trade shows, all the while reviewing every bit of PC gaming hardware he can get his hands on. You name it, if it's interesting hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything.

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