What's happened to DDR prices?

[VirtualLarry]

A month ago, I was pricing out some top-end Kingston HyperX CAS2 DDR-400 1GB sticks, and they were only $21 or $23 each. Now they aren't even available anymore, and the cheapest DDR-400 1GB stick at NewEgg is over $30. I don't understand, what with the falling economy, why the price of DDR is going up. It's not like there is increased demand for it, certainly not.

Is it just the usual tech pricing cycle, where prices increase for the Christmas season, and then it takes a month or so for them to decline back to what they were at?

Or did a pricing mgr at NewEgg decide that their DDR prices were too low across the board.

Edit: HyperX CAS2 2x1GB kit still available for $70, here

 

[bailw]

Frys.com, tons of DDR2 rams for cheap.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: bailw
Frys.com, tons of DDR2 rams for cheap.

Uhm, I'm talking about DDR, not DDR2.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

DDR prices have been unpredictable since DDR2 came out, IMO

 

[corkyg]

As the supply diminishes, the unit cost rises as long as the demand is there. Chip makers are curtailing production based on current economic factors.

Same reason the price of gasoline has gone up about 30 cents in the past 3 weeks.

 

[Slugbait]

Saw the same thing happen with 30-pin. Then saw it happen again with 72-pin.

You'll pay $32 for only a half-gig of PC-133. Or $40 for a half-gig of PC-100.

DDR3 prices have been dropping considerably, so more people will start moving up, leaving somewhat underpowered machines to whomever picks them up, and many will want to upgrade the RAM (cuz back in DDR's heyday, a half-gig was considered to be a LOT).

So if you need it, buy it now. The price is only going to continue going up.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: corkyg
As the supply diminishes, the unit cost rises as long as the demand is there. Chip makers are curtailing production based on current economic factors.

I was following "DDR" prices because I have several 1 GB DDR chips that I will want to sell. Last Spring, DDR2 was well established and DDR prices were starting to rise from their all-time low. Name-brand DDR 1 GB modules had gone up to $35 on eBay. Then Crucial started dumping them for about $12 each at Fry's. That brought them down for a while. Then they started rising again.

Historically, prices of the last-generation memory modules fall to an all-time low and then start going up. If you buy a bunch of the largest modules at the all-time low, you can usually make money reselling them over the next year as prices go up. For some reason, there was a glitch in pricing this time and they went back down for six months. Maybe somebody decided to dump their inventory.

I doubt that anybody is making the DDR chips anymore. So I'd expect the prices to go back up to the point where many people won't buy them anymore because it makes more sense to upgrade to new motherboards rather than buy more memory.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Slugbait
Saw the same thing happen with 30-pin. Then saw it happen again with 72-pin.

You'll pay $32 for only a half-gig of PC-133. Or $40 for a half-gig of PC-100.

I was unaware that it happened with PC133. You still see dealers selling low-density Pc133 on ebay for $13 for 512MB. I saw 256MB online on a reputed web-store for $7 ea. link

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I was unaware that it happened with PC133. You still see dealers selling low-density Pc133 on ebay for $13 for 512MB. I saw 256MB online on a reputed web-store for $7 ea. link

I doubled my money by buying 512MB PC133 Crucial memory from Dell at the right time, and selling it used on eBay about a year later after prices had gone up. Obviously, it all depends on timing.

Eventually, demand goes away for older-style modules and prices fall again. That takes a couple of years. I still have some much-older-style modules and those now have zero value.