Cheap External Data

[Polarthief]

Edit: This is resolved and I have already ordered, so coming here with suggestions are appreciated but will not be looked at. Thank you Chazus and Tielknight below for your assistance!


My family has been recently using flash drives and SD cards more and more (woo, so proud of them! ), but the problem we have is they keep losing them, resulting in me having to hand people my fairly valuable (to me) 32GB SD card that I NEVER use unless I have no other options because it's for my 3DS, so losing that would be, well, let's just say quite devastating to me.

So, I'm looking for deals on a pack of cheap/low-data (2GB absolute max; less is better) SD cards or USB flash drives. Best I've found is like $20 for a pack of 3 flash drives (2GB), but I feel like I could get a lot more for that. Amazon keeps messing up my search (I'll search for 2GB and suddenly 128GB sticks start showing up), so I'm not exactly sure where to look now. Don't want to spend any more than $20-$30 and hoping to get at least 5 flash drives, and if at all is left over, SD cards, because they will just be in a dish somewhere that anyone in the family can have access to (and will most likely lose in a week or so >_>)

Any ideas?

[chazus]

2-4gb Flash Drives don't come much cheaper than about $7 a pop, so getting 5 will run you about $35-40. Same goes for SD cards, really.

[Polarthief]

2-4gb Flash Drives don't come much cheaper than about $7 a pop, so getting 5 will run you about $35-40. Same goes for SD cards, really.

Nonono, 2GB is the absolute MAX size I'd consider while smaller ones are preferred. Also, they don't even have to be all that durable or long lasting; they aren't meant to be storing anything of extreme importance.

For once in my life, quantity is more vital than quality in this case

[tielknight]

If you have a local Office Depot/Office Max or any similar kind of store, try checking there. I frequently see 4GB flash drives for about $2-5 in their little bins near the checkout. They are about $6 online from what I can see.

If you don't mind buying from Ebay, there are some you can find on there from some of the stores and whatnot.
5-pack of 2GB flash drives for $22 and $21

Different shipping location is pretty much the only difference(the $22 ones are in the US, the others come from China and take a bit longer, but cost $1 less).

[Polarthief]

If you have a local Office Depot/Office Max or any similar kind of store, try checking there. I frequently see 4GB flash drives for about $2-5 in their little bins near the checkout. They are about $6 online from what I can see.

If you don't mind buying from Ebay, there are some you can find on there from some of the stores and whatnot.
5-pack of 2GB flash drives for $22 and $21

Different shipping location is pretty much the only difference(the $22 ones are in the US, the others come from China and take a bit longer, but cost $1 less).

I actually just came back from an OfficeMax as a family member needed to print something; saw a 3 pack of 4GB for $25 which I found ridiculous because I can get a 32GB for that kind of price.

Bleh. I'd prefer almost anything over eBay TBH (including paying more). Gonna keep checking around Amazon I suppose ><

I might just go really cheap and buy a large quantity of 256MB or even 128MB XD

[chazus]

The thing is, there's a minimum cost to those, no matter the size.. and 2-4gb is about as small as you can get anymore retail, and like $5 is about the smallest cost you can get outside a sale

[Polarthief]

The thing is, there's a minimum cost to those, no matter the size.. and 2-4gb is about as small as you can get anymore retail, and like $5 is about the smallest cost you can get outside a sale

Whelp, I guess I know what I'm going with then. Found a few that are $4-5 ea so I might just pick up a few of those, thanks

One last question though (and it being the absolute opposite of what I was originally looking for XD); as I'm going through these and I keep seeing the bigger ones pop up, I noticed that I actually don't have my old flash drive anymore and I might just splurge a bit more a buy a pure-opposite-of-what-I-was-originally-looking-for one. Would you happen to know of/recommend of any (virtually/digitally) long-lasting ~32GB drives? I keep going through tons of manufacturers but keep seeing a plethora of comments about how it dies within a month or is flimsy and easily breakable (physically) [Both qualities of which don't matter for the 2GB ones I plan on buying a bunch of, haha]

[tielknight]

There really is nothing wrong with ebay as long as you buy from a decent seller. They have pretty much the same rules as Amazon, your just allowed to bid on things as well as straight-up buy them. It's probably safer than Amazon due to how aggressive Paypal is when a buyer wants a refund for a item(i'm lucky i've never had to deal with them when I sold things on there).

[Polarthief]

There really is nothing wrong with ebay as long as you buy from a decent seller. They have pretty much the same rules as Amazon, your just allowed to bid on things as well as straight-up buy them. It's probably safer than Amazon due to how aggressive Paypal is when a buyer wants a refund for a item(i'm lucky i've never had to deal with them when I sold things on there).

It was more or less because I've had awful experiences on eBay, so it's probably bias, but I'll at least give them a search or two.

Edit: Searched around; actually found WORSE deals than Amazon

[tielknight]

It was more or less because I've had awful experiences on eBay, so it's probably bias, but I'll at least give them a search or two.

Edit: Searched around; actually found WORSE deals than Amazon

I linked 2 postings that are as cheap as you can get(5-pack of 2GB(10GB total) flash drives for $21[link]/$22[link], a bit over $4 for each drive and both from well-rated sellers) in a previous post

[Polarthief]

I linked 2 postings that are as cheap as you can get(5-pack of 2GB(10GB total) flash drives for $21[link]/$22[link], a bit over $4 for each drive and both from well-rated sellers) in a previous post

Whelp. Shows how bad I am at searching apparently. Shocked it didn't appear ANYWHERE D:

Well now that that's taken care of, now I just need to find the complete opposite for myself: A reliable (virtually sturdy), durable (physically sturdy), well made larger flash drive ~32GB. Keep seeing a lot of ones I think are good but get instantly put off by the negative reviews that mention it's flimsy or fails after a month or so

[tielknight]

Whelp. Shows how bad I am at searching apparently. Shocked it didn't appear ANYWHERE D:

Don't feel bad, I am VERY well versed in Ebay hunting, having been buying/selling off there for 5+ years.

Well now that that's taken care of, now I just need to find the complete opposite for myself: A reliable (virtually sturdy), durable (physically sturdy), well made larger flash drive ~32GB. Keep seeing a lot of ones I think are good but get instantly put off by the negative reviews that mention it's flimsy or fails after a month or so

Gimme a few minutes and i'll edit my post with what I find.

32GB for $14
64GB for $30 with a $5 mail-in-rebate

[Polarthief]

Don't feel bad, I am VERY well versed in Ebay hunting, having been buying/selling off there for 5+ years.

Yeah, online shopping is more or less still kinda new to me, despite me knowing pretty much everything about the Internet for, well, a good 10+ years now...

Gimme a few minutes and i'll edit my post with what I find.

Much appreciated!

[tielknight]

Yeah, online shopping is more or less still kinda new to me, despite me knowing pretty much everything about the Internet for, well, a good 10+ years now...



Much appreciated!

Check my post, it's got 2 decently-rated drives for pretty cheap. I did find a few on Ebay that were way too good to be true(128GB for under $20? pfft, yeah right), so those were outta the question.

Most of the 32GB sticks that are on ebay run about $13 and those might be a better option as they have free shipping unlike the ones from TG I posted earlier.

Here are a few that I found.

Link
Link
Link
The always awesome TRANSFORMER USB DRIVE!
And the fancy "leather" case drive!

Here's a bullet if your feeling dangerous or you can rip a teddy-bears head off everytime you want to use your USB drive

There are TONS of them available, check em out for yourself.

[Polarthief]

I already ordered but thanks much for going above and beyond

Went with a 32GB version of the ADATA 64GB you linked (purely because it's waterproof and shock resistant and I'm paranoid as hell, despite the price/data ratio being significantly worse XD) and a 2pack of ADATA 16GB because they were an incredible deal for price/data (16GBx2 for $14 is pretty nice, not to mention the quality of them ). If family loses those, I'm gonna wring their necks and tell them they can't use my shit anymore and to stop mooching off of me. As a last resort scenario, I'd buy a 5-pack of 2GB ones which should be more than enough.

I'm a sucker for good reviews I guess. Didn't see any real negativity towards the ADATA outside of one 3-star complainer because it "doesn't work in his car" -_-;

[tielknight]

I already ordered but thanks much for going above and beyond

Went with a 32GB version of the ADATA 64GB you linked (purely because it's waterproof and shock resistant and I'm paranoid as hell, despite the price/data ratio being significantly worse XD) and a 2pack of ADATA 16GB because they were an incredible deal for price/data (16GBx2 for $14 is pretty nice, not to mention the quality of them ). If family loses those, I'm gonna wring their necks and tell them they can't use my shit anymore and to stop mooching off of me.

I'm a sucker for good reviews I guess. Didn't see any real negativity towards the ADATA outside of one 3-star complainer because it "doesn't work in his car" -_-;

No problem, glad I could be of some help and hope they work out for ya.