The memory card market is entering one of the most volatile and unstable periods in recent history. We are experiencing rapid price surges for flash memory. SD cards, microSD cards, and USB flash drives are all being affected by a severe disruption that continues to deepen each week. For years, the broader memory industry has experienced natural cycles of surplus and shortage. But what is unfolding now is different from the patterns that businesses and consumers have grown accustomed to. The acceleration of AI infrastructure is placing extraordinary strain on the global supply of NAND flash. As a result, prices for memory cards and flash memory are climbing with a speed that does not follow anything the industry patterns.
AI data centers require staggering amounts of storage. The companies building these systems are consuming memory at a pace that traditional manufacturing capacity cannot support. Industry reports show that major producers have already raised contract pricing sharply. One example is SanDisk. Sandisk increased its NAND flash pricing by roughly fifty percent for November due to the immediate pressure on supply. Additional statements from leaders in the memory-controller and storage sectors confirm that NAND pricing has more than doubled in a matter of months. Some manufacturers have already sold out their production allocation through 2026! This leaves very little capacity for commodity memory products that businesses depend on for everyday operations and resale.
Price Increases for Flash Memory
Historically, increases of 5%-10% in a single week were considered severe. In the current climate, increases of 14%-25% are becoming routine. This past week alone (2025,w46), the average increase we observed reached 25%! This rapid escalation makes it extremely difficult for anyone who buys memory in bulk to maintain predictable margins. And it places stress on businesses that rely on stable cost structures to plan their resale strategies.
For BulkMemoryCards.com, the situation demands full transparency so our customers can make informed purchasing decisions. Our pricing is tied directly to the inventory we have in stock at the time of purchase. Once that inventory is depleted, any additional quantities must be requoted based on the newest supplier costs. If you place an order that exceeds what we physically have in our warehouse, we will contact you to review the updated pricing before processing the remainder of the order. It is essential to recognize that the price shown during checkout reflects only the units we can fulfill immediately. The remainder will follow the most current market pricing at the time of replenishment.
Other Memory Card and Flash Memory Market Issues
The challenges extend far beyond pricing. Production lead times are increasing. Supply allocations are becoming more restrictive. The availability of certain capacities or brands may fluctuate without warning. In some cases, suppliers are temporarily withholding quotes altogether due to extreme uncertainty in their own supply chains. Companies that resell memory cards or use them as components in their products must now plan ahead more aggressively than in previous years. The traditional expectation that memory prices will eventually dip or stabilize is no longer applicable in the short term. Projections from industry leaders indicate that the market will remain tight deep into 2026, and possibly longer.
Our 2025-2026 Sales
The timing of this disruption is especially impactful as we approach the big shopping holidays. Although we may run a promotion, the nature of any sale will differ from previous years due to the cost and availability pressures affecting every segment of the supply chain. Sale quantities will be limited and subject to the same inventory-based pricing rules as any recent standard order. Customers who plan to purchase in bulk should act quickly, because replenishment costs are rising so quickly that waiting could result in significantly higher prices. If we run our normal 5% off sale and prices go up in a week by more than 5.1%, your effective sale is more expensive than if you were to buy now. It is not crazy to buy before the sale if pricing keeps going up at this rate.
The best course of action for any business relying on memory cards is to secure needed inventory now, before the next wave of increases emerges. Rapid price changes make it risky to delay purchases, and the possibility that certain capacities will become temporarily unavailable is growing. Customers who anticipate strong first-quarter demand should consider stocking earlier than usual, building a buffer, or diversifying the capacities or brands they rely on to minimize risk.
Our Commitment to Our Customers
At Everything But Stromboli LLC, we remain committed to offering the lowest wholesale pricing possible within these constraints and to maintaining absolute clarity about how supply levels affect your final cost. For now, the most important message is simple: our website pricing applies only to the stock we currently have, and any order that exceeds those quantities will need to be requoted. With the market shifting each week, customers who need memory cards for resale or production should act promptly to secure inventory before further increases and stock limitations take hold.