Guy flies from UK to New York because hard drives are cheaper there

A Reddit user flew to New York and filled his luggage with hard drives after prices in the UK spiraled out of control.

If you’re wondering why anyone would fly abroad for hard drives, you might want to take a look at 2026 prices. The biggest manufacturers, Western Digital and Seagate, sold most of their supply to huge tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft.

That left far fewer drives for regular shoppers, as prices jumped 40% to 50% in months, with larger models rising even more. SSD prices surged too, which pushed even more demand onto traditional hard drives and made store stock harder to find.

Flying to New York to beat 28TB prices

A UK Reddit user revealed he flew to NYC to buy 10 discounted 28TB drives in person because it was cheaper than purchasing them at home.

He wrote that he had been “watching the prices of 28TB drives go literally ridiculous in the UK” and decided to “book a short trip to New York just after new year to stock up on some 28TBs.” With prices “only going up,” he said he chose to “buy 10 of them.”

Stock flickered in and out at Best Buy and B&H, both of which capped purchases at five drives per order. Best Buy rejected his UK cards unless he set a specific Delaware billing address, so he switched to Amex and absorbed the foreign exchange hit.

Once in New York, paranoia kicked in. He said “the paranoia of being scammed” led him to “record every part of picking up the drives including the serial numbers” and film “the whole opening every drive and testing in the hotel.” He ran Seatools, Crystal, and file copies to confirm they were “in fact 28TB drives and not rocks or a swapped out 500GB drive.”

Logistics quickly became the next challenge. “Turns out 10 drives was a mistake,” he admitted. He lamented that he “should have picked 8” because it “would have been much easier logistically.” He packed the drives into his hand luggage, stuffed boxes and power supplies into a checked suitcase, and flew back to the UK without issue.

The math explains the gamble. He paid £244 per drive plus 20% UK import VAT, landing at roughly £300 each. The same 28TB Expansion drive listed on Amazon UK for £568, with recertified models around £420. Against full retail, he saved about £268 per drive. Across 10 drives, that’s roughly £2,680.

As he summed it up: “UK prices for 28TB drives was so bad it was cheaper to fly to the US, buy them, and bring them home.”