128 MB SD Card for $14 USD [Archive]

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Jason Dunn

11-18-2003, 04:20 AM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=214779' target='_blank'>http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/det...asp?dpno=214779</a><br /><br /></div>Robery Levy posted this over at <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com">Smartphone Thoughts</a>, and it seemed like a good deal worth passing along:<br /><br /><img src="http://image1.cc-inc.com/prod/214000/214779_lg.jpg" /><br /><br />"If you're a new Smartphone owner, you'll want to get a big memory card to load up with software, music, and videos. eCOST is running special right now where you can get a 128 MB Kingston SD card for $39 dollars and then get $25 dollars back from rebates. That brings the price down to just $14. To make the deal even sweeter, eCOST has free ground shipping."

Pat Logsdon

11-18-2003, 04:54 AM

eCost flag-waving removed due to customer annoyance. :evil:

Godsongz

11-18-2003, 05:03 AM

I got one too, and at the time of this writing they're down to a quantity of 69.

jeasher

11-18-2003, 05:05 AM

Buyer beware: I've been denied rebates from eCost before. They had the nerve to mail me a notice saying my address wasn't current. Whatever.

bdegroodt

11-18-2003, 05:35 AM

Got mine, too. I can never figure eCost and their "handling" fees. Sometimes they charge and sometimes they don't. Pretty happy with them over the last year though.

Costjim

11-18-2003, 06:29 AM

Hi

Does anyone know if the mail in rebates are available to Canadian residence?

toxostoma

11-18-2003, 06:41 AM

I picked one up, and there are only 83 left as I type this, down from 120 a mere 10 minutes ago. If you want one, hurry! 8O

eCost isn't honest with those numbers at all! For example, they sell the iPAQ 2215 for $349.99. But previously, they had it on a bargain deal for $349.99, with a count down for the number of units remaining. It would go from 20 to 18, to 15, to 8, etc. and then it would reset itself at 20 or so. As I type this (11:39 CST), eCost is showing 447 of these SD cards left. They do the same thing with the time. It'll say so long left, but it'll keep changing to add more time.

A pretty lousy, dishonest way of tricking people into buying quickly because they think they'll miss out on a good price...

Pat Logsdon

11-18-2003, 07:44 AM

A pretty lousy, dishonest way of tricking people into buying quickly because they think they'll miss out on a good price...
:oops: Yeah, I just saw that they're now showing "344" units left. I agree - pretty shady and not-cool.

Dear eCost: Making your customers feel like idiots does not lead to repeat business. :roll:

xengren

11-18-2003, 10:38 AM

toxostoma

11-18-2003, 01:30 PM

Not to rain on your X-Files-type conspiracy theories, but could it be that they got more stock in? Stores do that you know. :)

No, it can not be. Stores do not get shipments of items 25 times a day. When a company is constanting up-ing the number of units left AND reseting the count-down timer so that time won't run out, they're doing it to make buyers feel like they have to act quick or they'll miss out.

Godsongz

11-18-2003, 01:45 PM

Tricky tactics aside, its still a pretty good deal (as long as they honor the mail-in rebate)

The Yaz

11-18-2003, 08:27 PM

While a 128 SD card is too good to pass up at that price, I also noticed that ecost is also offering $15 off their Kingston 512 SD card which is cheaply priced at $135US before rebate.

Now that's the kind of storage that I'm looking for. (Until I can save up enough to replace my CF cards with a 4gig microdrive...)

Steve 8)

JackTheTripper

11-18-2003, 08:35 PM

It's called "Urgency marketing." Same thing car dealers do to get you to buy a car. "I can give you this price today only. Tomorrow I can't say what price you'll get." Fact is if yoiu came back tomorrow it would probably be the same or lower. They just don't want you to leave the lot and realize you can get a better price someplace else.

Same thing here. If there is only 20 minutes left and they only have 8 in stock you're more likely to click that "buy" button now rather than start googling for a better price.

11-18-2003, 10:47 PM

40-25=15 not 14

I picked one up thanks for the tip. Although they added a $4 dollar handling fee. So now it is $19. Great deal still.

I did notice the whole fast inventory. I was going to buy one anyway but it was funny how it was around 20 something then after I ordered one it was 494.

Scott R

11-19-2003, 06:42 PM

Anyone know what brand of card Kingston rebrands? I'm guessing SanDisk, but if it's a Panasonic, I'd jump on it.

Scott

bdegroodt

11-19-2003, 06:45 PM

I could be wrong, but I think Kingston is a manufacturer.

Scott R

11-19-2003, 06:49 PM

AFAIK, the only manufacturers of SD memory are Panasonic, Toshiba, and SanDisk. If Kingston makes their own, I'd love to hear some folks do some speed tests on theirs when they get them.

Scott

Godsongz

11-21-2003, 08:35 PM

bdegroodt

11-22-2003, 12:21 AM

Received mine today, not a bad turnaround at all for free shipping.

NOTE: The rebate forms are pdf files on ecost's website, they are NOT mailed with the card, and they require that the rebate forms are postmarked within 15 days of invoice, so turn them around quickly if you want your money!

Same here and no issues at all. I echo the comments above about rebate forms. I had to dig through the trash because I tossed the plastic pack it came in by carelessness and you need it for the rebate.

Scott R

11-22-2003, 05:43 AM

Please let me know what brand of cards these really are. I sent Kingston an email asking them about this and about three days later they finally responded with this:
Hello Scott,

No that information is not made available to us or the public.

Best regards,
Chris Bodda
Technical Support
Kingston Technology CompanyHuh?

Scott

Scott R

11-25-2003, 02:22 AM

Bumping this thread...

So did any of you get yours yet and, if so, what brand of card is it really? Panasonic, Toshiba, or SanDisk?

Scott

Godsongz

11-25-2003, 03:25 AM

Well, it says Kingston on the label... other than that, how exactly could you tell?

ignar

11-25-2003, 03:31 AM

Mine is Toshiba. The easiest way to figure out the brand is plug it in the Palm and open Card Info.

bdegroodt

11-25-2003, 03:47 AM

Kingston label, but looking up the imprinted code from the card (sd-m128b1) reveals a lot of Toshiba hits in Google. I vote for Toshiba.

Scott R

11-25-2003, 03:44 PM

Thanks! ignar (and anyone else who may have a Palm), can you check out this thread on Tapland:
http://tapland.com/news_arc/?id=47

Then, download VFSMark (if you don't already have it) here: http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/vfsmark.shtml

Then, post your results in the thread attached to the post on Tapland. There's a very useful table (here: http://vorlon.cwru.edu/~ctp/SecureDigital.txt) which shows how the various cards compare speed-wise using Palm OS devices, but there isn't enough data about Toshiba card speeds to say for certain how they stack up. It seems that Panasonics are fastest, SanDisk slowest, and Toshiba somewhere in between, but the more data we can compile the better.

For those wondering why I'm asking to measure using the Palm OS, it's simply because there's a tool for this purpose (VFSMark) and the data compiled so far was using that tool, so it's the best measurement we've got right now (AFAIK). I would think it would be safe to say that the fastest cards on the Palm OS should be the fastest cards for the PPC OS.

Of course, the value of all of this data could be minimized now that SanDisk (and others) are releasing "high speed" cards.

Scott

bdegroodt

11-25-2003, 05:10 PM

What's the reason for all this testing Scott? What do we find out in the end and why wouldn't it be just as important (and more realistic) to just measure your actual experience with a card in a real use scenario (such as it takes 2 seconds extra to load a song or store an image)? I'm a little unclear on what the measuring tells us in the end.

ignar

11-25-2003, 05:19 PM

bdegroodt

11-25-2003, 05:22 PM

I think slow memory card will slow down the overall system performance of PocketPC if you often run programs installed on memory cards. Also, for high mega pixel digital cameras, fast writing speed is critical.

That makes sense. Are there any "high mega pixel" cameras that run on SD? My searches (because I'd love to have a good one) have turned up a pretty slim lot of SD based cameras. Most write to CF cards.

ignar

11-25-2003, 05:33 PM

There are few high mega pixel cameras using SD cards. But, even in my 3 mega Pentax Optio camera, I can notice the difference between an old Sandisk SD card and a Panasonic SD card.

Scott R

11-25-2003, 05:40 PM

I'm definitely in agreement that the best sorts of measurements are the realistic kind. But that takes more effort in terms of coming up with some standard criteria to test with (e.g. - a standard MP3 file of a certain size, etc.). This tool (VFSMark) is already out there, and even while the differences between a "pretty fast" card and a "very fast" card may be imperceptible in a common use situation, I tend to think that these speeds do equate to real world speeds as well. I seem to recall reading about someone navigating a route using Mapopolis reading map data from an SD card where they saw dramatically different speeds in route calculation.

The chart I linked to wasn't created by me, but it seems like a great place to start. I'm not sure if that person is still gathering this data, so I figured I could make use of it and add to it, with the plan of creating a new version of this data and posting it somewhere where anyone can get to it.

The bottom line is that there are (or at least were - as I mentioned, SanDisk now has a line of higher-speed cards) definite, perceptible speed differences between a 256MB SanDisk card and the same size card manufactured by Panasonic when used on a reasonably fast PDA. So I think this information can be valuable when someone is shopping for an SD card or sees a great deal on one. Depending on what you want to use it for (e.g. - MP3), it might not be a big deal if the card is slow if you can get it for cheap. But if you want to watch high-quality videos, you probably would want one of the faster cards.

Scott

Scott R

11-25-2003, 05:46 PM

Regarding cameras...More and more are going SD. If you want to swap the cards between an SD-only PPC and your CF camera, I think you can get an SD-to-CF adaptor.

One of the cameras that I like the looks of is the Pentax Optio S. This older model can be had for around $300. It's not super-high megapixel (the newer Optio S4 bumps up the megapixels a bit), but it's really small (can fit inside of an Altoids tin), has a 3x optical zoom, very good macro capabilities, and according to the sample photos taken in the review at dpreview (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxoptios/) it seems to be capable of very good photos.

Getting OT...I personally don't care about megapixels. I want something that can take good photos for the web, because I think that's the way things are going anyway. Eventually, I'll just direct friends and family to an online photo album rather than printing photos out "the old fashioned way." Plus, for updating my site on-the-road, I wouldn't want the image sizes to be too big, anyway, as it would just add to the upload times.

Scott