A UK redditor flew to New York to buy ten hard drives and saved nearly £3,000

A Reddit user going by cgtechuk did something that sounds absurd on paper: flew from the UK to New York City specifically to buy ten 28 TB external hard drives. The reason was a stark price gap between the US and UK markets.

"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," cgtechuk wrote. "And given that the prices were only going up I decided to buy 10 of them."

Stock availability made things complicated. Both Best Buy and B&H Photo had the drives going in and out of stock, and each retailer caps purchases at five units. To avoid order cancellations, cgtechuk had to find a single day when both stores had inventory and split the order between them.

Arriving in the US, cgtechuk was worried about being scammed, so they recorded the entire pickup process on video. Back at the hotel, they filmed the unboxing and ran software tests along with file copies on each drive to confirm they were genuine 28 TB units and not smaller drives swapped into the packaging.

Getting everything home to the UK was its own logistical puzzle.

"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."

The cardboard boxes and power adapters went into a full-size checked suitcase, while the drives themselves traveled as carry-on. US security was a non-event thanks to TSA PreCheck – no secondary screening. In the UK, the bags were stopped and swabbed, which cgtechuk expected given the large metal objects involved, but there were no real issues.

As for whether the math worked out – each drive came to £244 plus 20% import VAT, landing at roughly £300 per unit after taxes. The same drive sells on Amazon UK for £568, and recertified 28 TB models on eBay UK go for £420.

At £268 saved per drive, the total came to £2,680 across all ten – enough to cover flights and accommodation. cgtechuk also noted that both the hotel and flights were booked using points, which made the whole trip even more economical. "Bit of a crazy idea tying up so much money in external drives but was worth it in the end."