Apologies for the very fine connection with the forum, SD - ship it out if you wish, but whilst I fully understand that mass production reduces prices, I just bought a 4GB SD card for US$5.99 - including courier 3 day shipping.

How do they do that?

How can they buy the components, pay staff to make it, pay staff to work out the pay for the staff that made it, run the factory that they made it in, box it up, deliver it to a ship, ship it from wherever to the USA, pay for customs, pay a driver to truck it to the distributor, stock it, run the building that it is stocked in, advertise it, process my order and ship it to my home within three days for $5.99?

To get closer to the forum, is this a rare deal, or is this standard now for storage media?

As an aside, I bought a DVD burner from the same company recently. $22 (same questions apply) but, on delivery, I realised I had mistakenly ordered an IDE version. I needed SATA, so called the company.

Was advised that I would have to pay return shipping and a 15% restocking fee. We both agreed that it wasn't worth the hassle.

When I ordered the correct item, sales lady (same conversation) said, "The SATA version is the same price, I'll credit your account with the $22 for the incorrect order, so there will be no charge for this item" - which included free shipping.

"Then I'll send you the other one back then", says I. "No", she says, "Not worth it, just keep it or give it away".

How?

Somehow I am not sure that would happen in the UK. For a start, you'd never get anyone on the phone empowered to make that sort of decision. Not in my experience in any case.

Unless, as Esther Rantzen used to say every Sunday night, you know different!

TN

It's because it's all being produced in China, I lived there for a short time and you wouldn't believe the prices, $0.30 for a can of beer from your local store! It was the life!

Out of curiosity, I weighed an SD card in my desk, inc. packaging - a tad over 7 gm, which works out at about 140,000 to the tonne. (only 1 gm without the packaging)

How many to a standard container, I wonder - and what's the cost to ship one chip from Hong Kong or Seoul? The best part of not very much, I'd guess. Cheap as chips?

At the moment, the cost of shipping is practically zero, as indicated by the collapse of the Baltic Dry Index (http://seekingalpha.com/article/114355-the-baltic-dry-index-collapse-a-tradeable-theme). According to a couple of reports I heard (though I can't find a link right now), shipping a container has sometimes been free, recently. That's how depressed the shipping market is at the moment - so a bulk load of SD cards gets a good deal.

We are shipping a B733 sim out of China right now (I am here enjoying the pre-Lunar New Year celebrations and fireworks) and the ocean freight cost of a 40ft high cube container to UK is roughly USD2150 excluding port charges and incidentals. It certainly isn't anywhere near free but costs have come down.

You can get a lot of chips in such a container (capacity about 76cbm).

Flippin heck, they wanted $9,000 for my single container from Essex to Texas. Stuff's still there 5,000 quid storage later:{


In Essex, I sometimes use a seaside flat while home. The horizon looks like a contiguous 'castellation' of metal. Horrible. Just what can be filling millions of cubic feet of containers out of the Essex/Suffolk docks?

Back to computers. Is the electronics kit up to the standard we used to 'enjoy' from Taiwan? I've been horrified at some of the engineering odds that I've bought. My SBC 2Wire modem failed the other day, so I got one from Best Buy and then found that because I'd been a good customer, SBC was willing to pay for a new one, despite mine being out of guarantee. I took the BB unit back today, fully prepared to pay the restocking fee of $16 since I'd had it 5 days. They waived all such fees, smiled, and bid me good day as I departed. We, the family, buy a fair amount of kit there, so I didn't feel a huge moral burden, but the lass that credited my card didn't know that.

Perhaps they're reeling from the shock of Circuit City's failure, and are just trying to go that extra mile. The brand new store that I went to is stunning, with a vast home theater area. If I owned it, I'd be quaking in my boots.

Some of the power tools coming out of China are just plain dreadful. Major names...they should hang their heads in collective shame. But right down to on the board circuitry, how are you'all finding the quality?

To get closer to the forum, is this a rare deal, or is this standard now for storage media?It's getting there: Redstore.com - Kingston 4GB Secure Digital High Capacity Card (SDHC) Class 4 (http://www.redstore.com/KINMEM52M)

That, B N, is the exact product.

I notice VAT brought it just above £5, any postage and handling on that?

The US$5.99 included all shipping and handling, no tax applicable as it came from "out of state"....that's about £4.20 (today) so, yes, very similar. Amazing.

They may as well get them printed and give them away as promotional key fobs.

You're right - bad example, on that site the shipping is more than the card! (Unless you get it as part of a larger order) Cheapest I can see over here is this with free shipping: SanDisk 4GB SDHC Secure Digital Card: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDHC-Secure-Digital-Card/dp/B000WQKOQM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1232571113&sr=8-2)

But yes, they are silly (low) prices now. Edit: Just searched a bit more and they've got an UltraII 4Gb card complete with tiny usb card reader for £7.50 inc.