Why are so many PC components impossible to order?

[The Friendly Bear]

Hey there and good afternoon to whomever reads this.

 

Maybe what I'm telling here is a very local issue for people who, like myself, live on a small island region or maybe it's recently become a global problem that simply isn't affecting nations that are home to "Titans of the Industry" as much, if at all (I think of the USA, Canada, Germany, etc. for said "Titan homes"):

 

I've wanted to replace my current PC (+10 years old) for several months now, I requested advice on which parts to buy and checked multiple reviews before choosing things by my own preferences (I try to buy for it to last for as long as possible as I can't change parts often) -> I finally had the parts list complete and went to the largest IT hardware store around here, I was okay with changing one or two things, albeit, for some parts I really didn't want to go look for an "alternative solution".

 

I was told by the store that they had multiple distributors, suppliers to talk with and request parts for me and that any branded part would be accessible so long as it wasn't a "strange, generic Chinese component". I emailed them recently the list of parts with links to the brand's product page for reference n°s, pictures, etc. and links to a German IT hardware supplier for pricing basis, etc.

 

I received their reply yesterday saying they couldn't request the RAM and Case as those were out of stock and, the worst aspect, they couldn't request the PSU and MOBO I listed as none of their sources could supply them (ASRock and FSP aren't "strange, generic Chinese brands", right?) -> I seriously believed they could procure any consumer hardware for current gen. CPUs and GPUs but it seems that's not true, plus that which they can procure would need 2~4 weeks to arrive by transport boat from mainland Europe: Universe forbid I were to receive a faulty part, have to return it to the store and then wait 4~8 weeks for it to arrive after being fixed or replaced!

 

Has anyone in here ever had to deal with similar difficulties, wanting to get a specific part and being told you can't have it because of XYZ reasons?

Edited January 23 by The Friendly Bear

[seanondemand]

Small shops in small regions deal with small distributors, who don’t deal every part the manufacturers make. Apart from ordering the part from continental sellers who will ship to you (which I assume is expensive), I would start with the shop to find out what they can get, and put together the build from there. When availability is limited, you can’t always get what you want. 

[The Friendly Bear]

It's a pretty significant let down for me to be told to choose a different part (I know I wanted the "unavailable parts" because there're no similar alternatives to them at their price range) as everything is already so expensive and it takes so very long to get the parts together, not to mention that there seems to be a lot of businesses (if not most of them) not interested in shipping items to this place unless I used a package forwarder (which I've never used before) and I'm not sure how trustworthy they truly are .

 

I checked the online store pages of some of the larger IT hardware stores in mainland Portugal and they don't have the FSP PSU or the ASRock MOBO I wanted listed for sale -> maybe they have a source to procure them, guess time to email and/or call them? Sigh, it's just far more difficult to interact with them and to take care of any returns, repairs, replacements and/or refunds.

 

Portugal doesn't appear to be very attractive to consumer technology (more like actively repelling it?), very few choices are actually available and I'd be so very interested to learn & known why that is the case.

[seanondemand]

I did some buying in a relatively small market (Canada) in a different consumer good but the same principles apply. If i’m the owner of Portugal’s primary asrock distributor, this year asrock’s going to show me the 2025 catalogue and I have to decide how many of which SKU I’m going to buy from asrock, so they can manufacture them. I’m not going to buy everything - I’m in a small market and I don’t want a bunch of niche items collecting dust in a corner of my warehouse, that I’ll have to either sell at an extreme discount, or scrap. So small markets get stuck with the most popular of a manufacturer’s SKUs, and none of the really cool and cutting edge, but ultimately niche items. 

[thrasher_565]

hmm lests see. oh a war in the red sea.... oh the cannal is shut down do to low water. the sell off and scraping ships... ships no longer fitting down some cannals... and you can pay to get in front of the line. so pay to win shipping.

what els.

truckers lost there jobs. the eu shutdown.

Edited January 25 by thrasher_565

[The Friendly Bear]

10 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

hmm lests see. oh a war in the red sea.... oh the cannal is shut down do to low water. the sell off and scraping ships... ships no longer fitting down some cannals... and you can pay to get in front of the line. so pay to win shipping.

what els.

truckers lost there jobs. the eu shutdown.

I concur that recent, localized events have likely had an especially painful effect on areas that rely more on their imports than their exports (such as my small island, that currently serves tourists and property investors the most over just about anything else -> really sad times these days around here, especially if you're an "enthusiast" of anything not related to them).

 

Since the IT hardware store on the island said his sources couldn't have the items I requested shipped to them, even though their sources are meant to be located in Spain and Germany, maybe they're buying existing stock from 1~2 small IT hardware stores in those two countries and that would explain why they'd have such a small catalogue of goods for sale as a re-vendor of sorts (the intermediary of the intermediaries!?)?

 

It's funny that the local IT store can sell an ASRock Taichi Carrara X670E MOBO for 750€+ (200€ more than in Germany and for a very niche product with "carrara marble" looks) but not even a B650E Steel Legend MOBO can they procure and sell :(, the way they're managing their hardware stocks really makes no sense to me.

Edited January 25 by The Friendly Bear

[thrasher_565]

4 hours ago, The Friendly Bear said:

I concur that recent, localized events have likely had an especially painful effect on areas that rely more on their imports than their exports (such as my small island, that currently serves tourists and property investors the most over just about anything else -> really sad times these days around here, especially if you're an "enthusiast" of anything not related to them).

 

Since the IT hardware store on the island said his sources couldn't have the items I requested shipped to them, even though their sources are meant to be located in Spain and Germany, maybe they're buying existing stock from 1~2 small IT hardware stores in those two countries and that would explain why they'd have such a small catalogue of goods for sale as a re-vendor of sorts (the intermediary of the intermediaries!?)?

 

It's funny that the local IT store can sell an ASRock Taichi Carrara X670E MOBO for 750€+ (200€ more than in Germany and for a very niche product with "carrara marble" looks) but not even a B650E Steel Legend MOBO can they procure and sell :(, the way they're managing their hardware stocks really makes no sense to me.

i dont no about the rest of the world but in Canada and us hi cost and out of stock are a thing. i no in the east things are much worse... rusha with stations no longer get any imports from anyone other then probably china. people in inda will just make there own shit for cheaper.

 

its posable that the expensiveness stuff is in stock because no one will pay it or the seller makes more moeny selling it vs the cheap stuff. i dont realty no just guessing.