Decided to fly to the US to buy some hard drives

Source: Hacker News

Background

I’ve been building storage for over a decade, starting with 3 TB drives in a Supermicro SC846. In 2018, while on holiday in Hawaii, my wife and I bought a few 8 TB Easystores and flew them back to the UK. More recently, I upgraded to four 16 TB drives purchased from Amazon UK (2020), and now I’m running out of space again.

Why I Decided to Fly to the US

28 TB drives are extremely expensive in the UK. Prices were rising, so I booked a short trip to New York just after New Year to buy ten of them before they sold out. Both Best Buy and B&H Photo had limited stock and a maximum purchase limit of five units per customer, so I needed to split the order between the two stores.

Purchasing the Drives

• Best Buy: Required a billing address in Delaware for international cards. My UK cards were declined, so I used an Amex card and paid a foreign‑exchange fee. The order was set for in‑store pickup within five days.
• B&H Photo: The buying process was straightforward, and I also arranged in‑store pickup.

Travel and Pickup

I booked the flight and hotel using points, minimizing travel costs. While in New York, I recorded the entire pickup process at both stores, noting serial numbers and filming the unboxing. In the hotel I ran Seatools, CrystalDiskInfo, and file‑copy tests on each drive to confirm they were genuine 28 TB units.

Packing and Returning Home

The ten drives filled most of my hand‑luggage space, but the foam inserts inside the retail boxes helped them fit. I packed the cardboard boxes and power adapters in a full‑size suitcase as a precaution for warranty work, but the drives themselves traveled in my carry‑on. I arrived back in the UK with all ten drives intact and installed them in my NAS without incident.

Cost Breakdown

• Drive price: £244 + 20 % UK import VAT ≈ £300 per drive.
• UK retail price: Same 28 TB model listed on Amazon UK for £568.
• Recertified options: eBay UK listings around £420.

The trip was cost‑effective because I used points for flights and hotel; without that the savings would have been smaller. Shipping from the US was not viable: Best Buy does not ship internationally and cancels freight‑forwarder orders; B&H adds a third‑party handling fee on top of taxes and duties, making it more expensive than declaring the goods myself.

Current Setup

The drives are now installed in an eight‑bay self‑built NAS, configured as:

• 6 data drives
• 2 parity drives
• 2 spare drives

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much did each drive cost after tax?
A: Approximately £300 (including 20 % VAT).

Q: Would it have been cheaper to ship the drives?
A: No. Best Buy doesn’t ship internationally, and B&H’s third‑party fees plus taxes would have exceeded the cost of flying and bringing them back yourself.

Q: Why not buy fewer drives?
A: In hindsight, eight drives would have been easier to transport, but I purchased ten to maximize the price advantage while the stock was available.