Tech Got Expensive - Revisiting My Order History
I’ve known the last few months that largely due to AI companies, RAM prices are skyrocketing. I also knew that this would trickle down: SSD prices would also be affected, which would eventually cause HDDs to also rise. Still, I was shocked (but not surprised :-( ) realizing just how bad it’s gotten even for devices like little mini PCs.
The Data
On a whim, I decided to comb through the last few years of my Amazon order history, looking at tech purchases and comparing the purchase price with the current listed price. Given that some of these purchases go back to 2021, I even adjusted the prices to today’s largely inflated dollars to make it appear like I know what I am doing (Inflation calculations done using the US Inflation Calculator).
That said, there is one big issue with this data to be aware of. My purchase prices are directly from my order history, which included tax and (sometimes) shipping. The current prices, however, are just what I found when clicking on the current listing, which does not include shipping or tax. So in practice, this table actually understates the change.
| Name | Purchase Date | Purchase Price | Inflation adj. | Current Price | Time (days) | Price Delta (adj) | Percent (adj) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung 860 EVO 2TB SSD | 2021-01-11 | $217.17 | $261.90 | $291.30 (used) | 1904 | $74.13 ($29.40) | +34% (11%) | link |
| Seagate IronWolf 4TB 3.5" NAS HDD | 2021-07-07 | $112.86 | $136.11 | $215.00 | 1727 | $102.14 ($78.89) | +90% (58%) | link |
| Micron 8GB DDR4 SDRAM Memory | 2021-07-21 | $58.32 | $70.33 | $78.81 | 1713 | $20.49 ($8.48) | +35% (12%) | link |
| Samsung EVO Plus 2TB NVMe | 2022-11-29 | $168.76 | $188.34 | $468.88 | 1217 | $300.12 ($280.54) | +178% (149%) | link |
| Silicon Power 2TB NVMe M.2 | 2024-11-12 | $97.81 | $101.89 | $279.97 | 503 | $182.16 ($178.08) | +186% (175%) | link |
| MeLE Fanless Mini PC 4C, N100 16GB RAM 512GB | 2025-03-27 | $197.42 | $200.49 | $469.99 | 368 | $272.57 ($269.50) | +138% (135%) | link |
| SanDisk 128GB microSDXC Memory Card | 2025-11-20 | $14.95 | $15.17 | $29.99 | 130 | $15.04 ($14.82) | +100% (97%) | link |
(Current prices collected on 2026-03-31)
The item that caught my attention (and prompted this post in the first place) was the MeLE Fanless Mini PC. I was so excited to get a device like that for under $200 roughly a year ago, and now, it’s $500 with tax.
There were a few items that I looked at but didn’t include in the chart. For example, the 2x12TB WD NAS HDD I bought last year didn’t really have a listing anymore, but similar models I found appeared to be double the price. I also didn’t include tech that doesn’t seem to be affected. Portable monitors, for instance, got cheaper.
Conclusion
So given all this data, what’s my big conclusion? I dunno. Mostly just that it sucks. I also find it unfortunate that at a time when so many people are feeling subscription fatigue, burned out by AI, and even returning pirating content, these prices make solutions like self-hosting even further out of reach for many. (This all feels conspiracy-worthy…)
While writing this draft, there have been a few reports that RAM prices have started to fall, but even so it will take quite some time before things truly stabilize again, if ever, across a very shaky global supply chain. Let’s hope for the best. Good luck everybody.