If you need RAM, now's the time to pull the trigger...

[Bitter]

7 hours ago, Dr. Historic Low said:

You overpaid by $15.00 - $20.00. Unless you got it brand new, in which it's then right around $50.00 - $55.00. Of course these are the lows though. And yes, I'm including shipping.

Appeared new in package, sale page stated it was a like new customer return. I looked hard for a better price and anything cheaper was crappy RAM (runs rated speed but only above 1.5V) or looked like it had been through a flood or China RAM of dubious quality or "brand name" from China which is probably counterfeit. There's a suspicious amount of HyperX ram for sale as new from China, if you go on Alibaba there's an endless supply of heat spreaders that are HyperX heat spreaders for extremely cheap. I won't buy HyperX memory anywhere except new from a good retailer that I know will take it back if it's fake.

G.SKILL F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL was the part I bought, where is it $15-$20 cheaper cause I'll grab another 16GB of it!

[Paul Rudd]

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

Appeared new in package, sale page stated it was a like new customer return.

Pre-owned, not new in any way. Also may have been in someone elses PC. And they returned it for a reason. I dunno about you, but I'm not exactly returning RAM that I buy if it works. I'm returning it because it doesn't work. Or maybe you're in luck and someone returned it because it wasn't compatible with their motherboard.

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

I looked hard for a better price and anything cheaper was crappy RAM (runs rated speed but only above 1.5V) or looked like it had been through a flood or China RAM of dubious quality or "brand name" from China which is probably counterfeit.

You're not looking hard enough. Deals come and go every hour of the day on eBay. In order to find and buy them, you have to constantly visit eBay for that particular item. You also have to put your mind and time to it. Oh and items listed with best offers are items open to negotiation(the super deals).

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

There's a suspicious amount of HyperX ram for sale as new from China, if you go on Alibaba there's an endless supply of heat spreaders that are HyperX heat spreaders for extremely cheap. I won't buy HyperX memory anywhere except new from a good retailer that I know will take it back if it's fake.

Wise observations and wise decisions right there. If you have to think about it, it's most likely not what you're looking for. But at the same time, it's possible that it is what you're looking for. The secret is communication. Without it, there will always be the unknown. With it, there is information. Information can be researched. Research can lead to facts.

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

G.SKILL F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL was the part I bought, where is it $15-$20 cheaper cause I'll grab another 16GB of it!

eBay. The numbers I mentioned are the lowest it's sold for in the past 6 months. Sold by US sellers only. However, these sellers don't exactly sell RAM over and over. To obtain the same deal, as I mentioned above, you have to be on eBay constantly. You also best make sure to get response from the seller of which you are buying from. Ask anything and everything you want. At whatever pace you wish. Response will tell you everything you need to know. It will feel right or it will feel sketchy. Know what I mean?

 

The best sellers you won't have many questions to ask because they already display and describe just about everything you want to know. Still wise to communicate.

 

Lets say you buy RAM that shows up as fake on your PC. Something someone listed as something like Hyper X Fury yet your PC shows it's Patriot or something. You do know you can get all your money back right? It's guaranteed. The item has to be as described.

[Bitter]

I'd rather not mess with sending stuff back and forth, I usually only buy from higher rated sellers and actually check that feedback to mskr sure it doesn't look faked. As for scouring eBay constantly, I just don't have time for that. $55 shipped for that SKU was ok enough and the lowest I found it over a week of looking. I couldn't even see marks where the RAM contacts had been socketed, still had the case badge, and the package snapped open firmly, it looked like it was a new return. I buy used stuff and have no qualms as long as it works right.

I was asking for a specific retailer or seller that was regularly selling it, a lot of listings on that SKU are single sticks from the pair so it's $20-30 for 8GB and you still need to go find a matching stick for another $20-30. Some sellers don't even understand that it's a pair with that number and list single sticks as 16GB. I think maybe that's muddying the pricing history.

[Paul Rudd]

33 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I'd rather not mess with sending stuff back and forth

Me either, but it's worth noting that it's actually a very simple process and almost always favors the buyer. When an item is not as described, you get all your money back 100% of the time. You also don't have to pay a dime to send it back. The seller has to pay for return shipping. You can even use the same packaging it arrived to your house in to avoid any additional packaging fees. Something to remember next time you receive a package. I have dozens of empty packages ready to reship in my possession. I even take the time to meticulously take off stickers and address labels to make things much easier in the future.

33 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I usually only buy from higher rated sellers and actually check that feedback to mskr sure it doesn't look faked.

Wise decision. Also wise to avoid no star or yellow star sellers. Clear indicators of new account holders. Blue star sellers are a bit of a tossup. Communication is key when choosing to deal with these sellers.

33 minutes ago, Bitter said:

As for scouring eBay constantly, I just don't have time for that. $55 shipped for that SKU was ok enough and the lowest I found it over a week of looking.

$55.00, while overpaying, this doesn't mean it's not a decent deal. I mean, you do have it. And it only took a week for it to be in your possession. At least you didn't pay the max(highs) of what it sells for. In the $100 range. People actually do that. People with no time at all and lots of money to spend.

33 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I couldn't even see marks where the RAM contacts had been socketed, still had the case badge, and the package snapped open firmly, it looked like it was a new return. I buy used stuff and have no qualms as long as it works right.

This is great news. You got what you were looking for at a price you were willing to pay. It functions as expected, looks new and may very well be in like new condition. I'd say that's not only a decent deal, it's a good deal if you ask me. I mean, you're no longer searching for a great or best deal, now are ya'? Like I said, $50.00 - $55.00 in brand new condition. That's exactly what you paid. This is as close as it gets to meeting the lowest price in the newest condition for this particular item.

33 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I was asking for a specific retailer or seller that was regularly selling it, a lot of listings on that SKU are single sticks from the pair so it's $20-30 for 8GB and you still need to go find a matching stick for another $20-30. Some sellers don't even understand that it's a pair with that number and list single sticks as 16GB. I think maybe that's muddying the pricing history.

Oh most definitely. Sellers ul' do anything they can for their items to sell, like involving the 16GB in their title. But then in their description, most of the time they clearly describe it as 8GB so if a claim is filed, they clearly described it as 8GB. A price history you have to thoroughly sift through in order to get actual numbers that indeed hold to be true. Like the numbers I came up with above. You'll notice I didn't come up with just one number, I came up with a range of numbers.

[Bitter]

True, for now. Were you using pcpartpicker for pricing history and data? When I checked that exact part number on there I saw much higher prices than I was paying on eBay, am I filtering or sorting something incorrectly?

[Paul Rudd]

21 minutes ago, Bitter said:

True, for now. Were you using pcpartpicker for pricing history and data? When I checked that exact part number on there I saw much higher prices than I was paying on eBay, am I filtering or sorting something incorrectly?

No, I wasn't using PCPP at all because they have nothing to do with eBay. For obvious reasons.

 

You saw much higher prices on PCPP because those are for brand spanking new products at retail prices from retail sellers. I think Amazon is the one exception. Which is why you usually see the words "new or used from" in their links. And the used links can be even higher than the new links because they are coming from random sellers on Amazon. As shown here...

 

And as you can clearly see below(kind of, tiny font), that $78.99 isn't actually $78.99, because it's a random seller, like I said. The $74.99 is actually $74.99 because it's packaged and sold by Amazon themselves, not some random seller.