Did I Fall Asleep $$$$$$

[River Valley Computer]

We're not sure if we fell asleep and just woke up a year later.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO PC PARTS PRICES???

We always maintain what we think a good supply of parts for PC repair e.g. LCD screens, the more popular batteries, chargers, RAM, etc. Lately when we order something for a repair like a screen we might not have in stock or a motherboard from FleaBay, or a laptop back cover. We used to pay an average of $40-50 for screens - now $70-90. Laptop backs - $13-20 - now $40 and up, laptop bases $15-30 now $40-80, motherboards - $15-60, now $100 and up.

I'm guessing a lot of it is greed on the part of sellers and distributers to take advantage of the current situation where many students are at home on-line and many, many people are working from home and need their computers fixed quickly.

Maybe we need to give up repair and start parting out our old computers and sell for parts.

 

[britechguy]

Between the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on worldwide supply chains, coupled with the Trump trade war with China, this is utterly unsurprising.

I just hope that everything will "get back to normal" as soon as it possibly can. Next Tuesday will tell us whether chances of that occurring have improved or dropped precipitously.

 

[NJW]

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO PC PARTS PRICES???

It's not just parts prices. Anything remotely (pardon the pun) connected (oops, another one) to work-from-home now has a minimum 50% price premium and next-to-zero availability – laptops (new or refurb.), webcams, printers, you name it. Price and availability has affected me more than other virus-related restrictions.

We (France) are now at the beginning of another national lockdown until at least 1st December, so I don't expect things to change, for me, for some time. There are other threads on this board relating the state of the supply chain, with no new stock expected this side of 2021.