Bulk USB drives? For cheap?

July 10, 2006 9:02 PM

Does anybody know where I can buy USB flash drives in bulk? I do not need them to be very large, 16 mb (or even smaller is such a thing exists) would be just fine. I just need them to be cheap, perhaps less than $5.00 each? Am I dreaming? I have searched, but I am having a hard time finding prices. I do not care if they are customizable or not.
posted by foxinthesnow to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

This thread, though somewhat different, might have some ideas and points to another thread with a similar question.
posted by jessamyn at 9:04 PM on July 10, 2006

Buy.com has a 16M 3-pack for $15 each. Dunno about bulk availability.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 9:11 PM on July 10, 2006

This Company
uses a system where a thumb drive must be inserted to use their software. So I bet their source will work well for your needs. They are very small and just come with the planease label on it. A call to them will most likely lead you in the right direction.

cheers
posted by crewshell at 9:17 PM on July 10, 2006

I recently attended a professional conference and got a promo USB flash drive. They were distributed to 500+ attendees from an org without much disposable income (I'm sure they were cheap).

Anyhow the product documentation shows they were distributed via "USBLINE".
posted by whatisish at 9:19 PM on July 10, 2006

... and it looks like they sell them in lots of 100 pieces.
posted by whatisish at 9:27 PM on July 10, 2006

I'm not sure what your use will be, but I recently tried buying and using 50+ USB drives. I started out with cheap ones, but they began failing after a few weeks. The overall failure rate was maybe 5-10%, but for me that was a big deal. I then went with SanDisk, and the failure rate dropped to 0.

We couldn't find any bulk distributors, but CDW and Dell will both swing a little discount if you buy more than 50.
posted by hammurderer at 10:00 PM on July 10, 2006

Not sure about prices, but if you want to import more than 100 of them I'd suggest checking out alibaba.com and globalsources.com.

Just search for USB flash drives and you'll see dozens of results.

Good Luck, submitter.
posted by ifranzen at 12:41 AM on July 11, 2006

Here's a company that sells them for:

"Our drives start at Only $8.99 each for Mini-USB 32MB minimum quantity orders. Larger quantities will be even further discounted."

Might be hovering around your $5 target, but I bet this store just imports them from an overseas source - like the ones you'll be able to do business directly with via alibaba or globalsources (See above).

GL, Let me know if this works out.
posted by ifranzen at 12:47 AM on July 11, 2006

I was going to suggest alibaba too. I've never used it, but I always wondered how it would work out. I'm fascinated by the online bazaar. If you do end up using it, please update us on the experience =).
posted by jefeweiss at 6:35 AM on July 11, 2006