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by hdhrnnrkrkf 1880 days ago
Burning your regular customers is terrible business practice. It's not always about the money.

Also, remember when Martin Shkreli increased the price of an anti-parasitic drug by 5000%? That upset a lot of people, and arguably it's what put him in jail. Of course, HDDs are not quite the same as vital medicine.

1 comments

An auction is not an arbitrary increase just because you can. It’s the exact opposite- a natural market where supply and demand reach the optimal price.

Yeah it’s bad for regular customers, but if there’s no supply then what would they be able to get anyway?

Regular customers usually have long-term contracts and preferential treatment. Nobody in their right mind is going to show them the middle finger.

But for them, availability will also be limited, and next-term prices will get higher.

Also, increasing production of a highly-demanded item is not unheard of! But it will take months.