Note : Pi 2 Zero W Now RIP-OFF Price on Amazon

Perhaps the Dutch are more ethical. Obama's election triggered panic buying of ammunition that resulted in bare shelves. Many vendors maintained the current price but quickly exhausted their stock. One vendors which had been known as a cheap source had stock but raised prices almost hourly. When the market normalized many remembered the vendor who used the 'whatever the market will bear' philosophy.

The extremely overpriced vendors on Amazon have an advantage. Next year they can return with a brand new name. I did note a new Amazon feature, a 'high price alert' that suggested you might search a little further. The 'price history' graph is also useful.

The tax man must have missed your collection. I returned from a Canadian site where I'd been setting up a system and had my toolbox, including a few octal relays in case I had to replace any. The relays were Japanese and I did not have proof that they had been purchased in the US so they charged me the import duty.

The customs officers were being pricks. US and Canadian relations have been mixed far before Trump. When the countries are in a pissing contest citizens crossing the borer bear the brunt. I was next to a guy clearing the Canadian side. He was a shoe salesman with his sample case. They nailed him for the duty even though he pointed out they were all left foot shoes.

As I mentioned in a previous post US and Canadian customs can be unpredictable. 1000 Zeroes probably would get you special processing. Bringing in Chinese tech might get you very special processing.

No. Unobtanium is a substance that does NOT exist. But would solve massive problems if it did.

right now pi zeros do not actually exist in vendor stock.

But you live in the land of 'Big Bootiful Tariffs' The nation that thinks the rest of the world does not exist, or is a third world s*it hole

I remember flying in from Toronto to New York very early in the morning and the customs officer being very suspicious of my tooth powder...

If the "all left foot shoes" trick had worked, duty dodgers could arrange for one person to take through a bunch of left foot shoes and someone else to take through a bunch of right foot shoes. The people meet up and make pairs again. 1/2 :-)

That episode would have been around 1972. They also checked to make sure I wasn't a draft dodger sneaking home. The relationshi p was strange even before NAFTA.

The funniest adventure was when a friend and sailed a International 500 yawl from Kittery ME up the coast to St. John NB. We'd been to Grand Manan which is also NB but doesn't have a customs office so we cleared at the St. John harbor. We were low on vital supplies so we asked the nice customs lady where the nearest liquor store was. "You guys just came from the States? You're supposed to smuggle booze into Canada, not buy it here!"

I will admit to some smuggling. When setting up a system in Trois Rivieres they'd assigned me a minder since most of the people couldn't speak English and I have no French. He went above and beyond, taking me around town after work so I asked if there was any way I could return the favor. He was fond of Prince Albert which is a US brand despite the name and not available or expensive in Canada. He got his Prince Albert in a can to echo the popular prank call.

Canada was always bitchy about tobacco. They confiscated my father's Lucky Strikes on one trip. I didn't smoke until I was in my 20s and strange enough started with Exports in Ontario but in the US reverted to Luckies.

Once again, I speak American.

I managed to score two of them, 2Ws, but the price went up $25 USD between buying the first and second - just a few weeks diff.

Don't even see the one with the pre-soldered pins anymore. The more expensive one CAME with pins, but you have to solder them on yourself.

Today - "CanaKit" Pi5 at $259. Was less than half that 18 months ago. "Kit" (box + a few options) from various makers running $354 to $209. The higher RAM versions seem especially affected since basically all memory-makers shifted production to "AI"-friendly stuff.

How are we supposed to use "AI" when we can't even afford, FIND, laptops and such because there's no damned MEMORY ???

The tariff s*it is PARTIALLY responsible, but frankly the "AI" angle seems even WORSE.

Two years ago I was able to buy complete mini-box PCs (BeeLink, BMax) for $250 and they had good specs. Have several in various roles. But NOW ...

Note PI4 kits ... which in some respects I like better (max speed and gizmos ain't everything) ... are about $100 less. So, if you want PI, consider the 4s right now. They're good enough to stream 2k, sometimes 4k, video.

"Bare" - Amazon has a an 2gb Pi4 for $86. Alas the 4gb are hardly seen and 8gb ones not at all.

Folks, this is A PROBLEM.

Once again, I speak universal usage. Look it up

"Unobtainium is a humorous engineering and fictional term for a hypothetical material that has the ideal, perfect properties for a specific application, but is impossible to get or does not actually exist. It combines the word "unattainable" with the chemical suffix "-ium

Engineering Jargon: Aerospace engineers used the term starting in the late 1940s and 1950s to joke about missing materials that could withstand extreme conditions like high heat or intense stress.

Real-World Scarcity: It is *sometimes* applied to real materials that are severely restricted, incredibly expensive, or hard to source.

Fictional Tropes: In storytelling, it describes a rare substance that powers key technologies or drives the main plot. "

Stating the obvious, here, but that should say "unobtainable" not "unattainable" ... I've never heard of "Unattainium", but it sounds like it should be a hypothetical element that exists but can't be extracted ... a bit like potassium was before Humphrey Davy and electrolysis.

I might also mention "Handwavium", which means, you know ...

... and "Chinesium" which so many cheap imported goods are made from.

that is new to me.,..

...That isn't!

A late friend had a similar word for pot metal. [Zinc alloy casting]. Can't remember what it was.

I had a friend who used to call that "Muckite".

That's the Bunny!

Don't know about that one. I want to know where to buy "scratch", there are so many things that can be made...

CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kit PRO - Turbine Black (128GB Edition) (8GB RAM) Order placed October 9, 2024 $135.99

'Buy it again' is indeed $259.95. I don't think so.

amazon.com/BOSGAME-E5-Ryzen-Business-Office/dp/B0GQ43833C/ Ryzen 5300U 4C/ 8T, 8GB DDR4 256GB M.2 2280 SSD, $259.99

The price history is interesting. The low for the last 30 days was $227.98 but there was a spike to $359.59 around the end of July before falling back to $259.95.

I've heard of a place called "Theory". I want to move there, because so many things work in Theory.

Sometimes our winter-time weather forecasts says the roads are icy in the town of Spots. I'm glad I don't live there. :-)

My grandfather used to feed "scratch" to his chickens. I'm not sure what could be made with it. :-)