Why are 3" floppies so expensive?

[salvogendut]

I recently purchased a CPC6128 with an internal disk drive on Ebay. But I don't have any disks to try on it. Just by looking around on Ebay I see that these floppies are damn expensive. 170 Euros for a box of 10? 17 Euro for a single disk? 

[Brocky]

the 3in disks are rare, they havent made new ones in decades..

its cheaper to run a external 3.5in drive..

[Bryce]

That's over the top. You can find original disks with games for that price. You should be able to find blank disks for under €10.

Bryce.

[eto]

. Just by looking around on Ebay I see that these floppies are damn expensive. 170 Euros for a box of 10? 17 Euro for a single disk? 

Unfortunately a few scalpers seem to dominate the market. I've seen a few examples where good deals were sold very fast just to turn up again in parts for (in sum) several times the price of the original deal. (I wouldn't even be mad if there would be an additional service but they don't care about anything and sell exactly like it is, just for 3x the price. )

This has driven the prices up again. A year ago the more normal price for a disk was around 2-5€ per piece, depending on the quantity sold. 10 disks for around 30€ was typical. With the scalpers being present these opportunities are more rare and it's more in the 50€ range for 10 disks (if sold by a private person). 

[eto]

You should be able to find blank disks for under €10.

Generally speaking I agree but it's not easy to find disks on short notice. You need to be very patient. 

In the past every now and then there was an acceptable offer but that's really rare today. In the last 30 days across Europe these is a single sold offer where you could get 10 disks for around 50€. Everything else were single disks für 8-25€ per piece. Absolutely crazy.

[GUNHED]

I recently purchased a CPC6128 with an internal disk drive on Ebay. But I don't have any disks to try on it. Just by looking around on Ebay I see that these floppies are damn expensive. 170 Euros for a box of 10? 17 Euro for a single disk? 

Sometimes they get sold on ebay.de for 5 Euros or less per piece.

Reasons for being expansive:
- Fewer 3" discs were produced compared to 3,5" or 5.25" discs
- They are more stable and have better quality
- Production stopped quite a long time ago

On the other hand, lots of users switch to floppy emulators, then they often sell their disc and then you can get them cheap. 

[eto]

A year or two ago Roland Perry mentioned on Facebook  that he expects that large quantities of 3" disks must be hidden in storage of companies that used the PCW. While I think that most of that was disposed 20 years ago he might not be totally wrong with it - at least for the UK. The PCW sold in the 8 millions and most of those PCWs needed a lot of 3" disks, probably more than the average "games collector" needed on a CPC 6128. I wouldn't be surprised if there could be a few thousand 3" disk waiting for us to be discovered.

[norecess464]

Imagine you have just gotten a brand new box of 3" floppy disks.

Would you really trust them to store "important" data?

IMO These days, relying on 3" floppy disks seems far too risky (and the same goes for any type of floppy disk, actually).

[ZorrO]

How much more do they have to become more expensive to make it worth making your own?

[rexbeng]

I am happily waiting for when 3'' floppies replace the USD as the world's reserved currency. I think I have a few dozens but not sure where they are stored... 

[norecess464]

BTW, on top of my previous post: it's similar to tapes, I'm very nostalgic for the format. The tactile experience of inserting a tape or floppy disk is something our modern Gotek or mass storage devices will never replicate...

I still own a few disks and tapes only for that specific reason, but I expect read failures on them.

I understand easily why people still try to buy them.

[Bryce]

I am happily waiting for when 3'' floppies replace the USD as the world's reserved currency. I think I have a few dozens but not sure where they are stored...

OPEC may already be considering trading oil in 3in Floppy rates?

Bryce.

[abalore]

Imagine you have just gotten a brand new box of 3" floppy disks.

Would you really trust them to store "important" data?

IMO These days, relying on 3" floppy disks seems far too risky (and the same goes for any type of floppy disk, actually).

Well, mostly true but not for 5 1/4 discs, all my 5 1/4 discs still work perfectly. They are super reliable. 

[eto]

I still own a few disks and tapes only for that specific reason, but I expect read failures on them.

I understand easily why people still try to buy them.

That's the point. Most people probably don't need disks but having at least a few ones to enjoy the feel and sound is part of the magic. 

[Prodatron]

it's similar to tapes [...] I still own a few disks and tapes only for that specific reason, but I expect read failures on them.

Earlier this year, I tried out a 464 for the first time (because I wanted to test a new app), which I'd gotten from a friend in the late 90s. It still had a tape in it (from 30 years ago), and I was able to load and play Cauldron from it 

The same goes for all the 3" discs I've tried. They work perfectly.


It's a big difference with 3,5" discs and burned DVDs, many of them are scrap today.

[dodogildo]

Well, mostly true but not for 5 1/4 discs, all my 5 1/4 discs still work perfectly. They are super reliable.

I totally agree. My family's Amstrad PC 1512's 5" 1/4 floppies were never failed us back in the day. We used to take daily backups on same floppies for years and they always hold intact. I can hardly say the same for my 3" discs. It's the format or the drive itself, not sure. But they keep having bad sectors nonstop.

[Bryce]

Well, mostly true but not for 5 1/4 discs, all my 5 1/4 discs still work perfectly. They are super reliable.

I totally agree. My family's Amstrad PC 1512's 5" 1/4 floppies were never failed us back in the day. We used to take daily backups on same floppies for years and they always hold intact. I can hardly say the same for my 3" discs. It's the format or the drive itself, not sure. But they keep having bad sectors nonstop.

Like most things, companies always start "optimising" technologies over time. I'd guess that the quality (layer thickness, materials, chemicals, etc) of the magnetic carrier were reduced to a minimum over time to save money / increase profit. So I would expect 8in / 5.25in disks to be more reliable than the later products.
If you look at the very first CD's that came out, they were almost twice as thick and twice the weight of the CD's at the end of the CD era. The plastic used changed (If you bend them, the old ones splinter and later ones just bend with fracture lines) and the thickness of the aluminium layer was halved. Later CD's have much more read errors compared to the older ones.

Bryce.

[BSC]

I have a few Maxell disks which are still shrink-wrapped and in 100% mint condition. Might sell them for a completely excessive price 

[villain]

I have a few Maxell disks which are still shrink-wrapped and in 100% mint condition. Might sell them for a completely excessive price 

10 of them boxed, original. Perhaps I would swap for a Porsche 959. :-)