Best place to buy a SD flashcards and a card reader?

[Soupermom]

I think my SD cards have worn out...does that happen? I just know my computer is having a hard time reading the cards, so I thought I'd buy some new and a new card reader. Does anyone know of some good deals online or maybe in the stores?

 

[Frantasmic]

I've gotten great deals just watching Amazon.

I've also been lucky with www.woot.com and www.supermediastore.com

 

[charles.headlee]

What specifically do you mean by having a hard time reading the cards? These things rarely wear out, although they can fail. If they do fail, they would likely not work at all. If this is happening with more than one card at
the same time, it's probably something other than the card.

Make sure it is not the computer. Reboot and see if things work better. Try another computer. If the problem does seem to stem from the computer, are you running some form of antivirus (with current definitions)? Rule out the reader if you can, by borrowing someone elses. I have seen issues where cheap readers will work sporadically.

Counterfeit cards show up on reputable sites like Amazon from time to time. It's not the fault of Amazon or E-bay, it's the disreputable vendor. Most of their cards will work, some will work inconsistently.

Where did you get the cards you have? If they came with the camera, or from a nationwide department store, or online and you paid fair market value, they are probably genuine cards.

Having spare cards/readers is never a bad thing, but if it doesn't solve your problem, it's not a good thing either.

 

[ukcatfan]

I agree that it could be your computer, but I prefer Newegg for my card purchases.

 

[boBQuincy]

Name-brand cards are not likely to wear out, most are good for 100,000 uses. If your computer is having trouble reading the cards a low-level format may help.

Sandisk often has some really good deals at places like Adorama and B&H (but not Amazon).

 

[Soupermom]

They are Kingston and Sandisks I believe. I've used them four about 4 years on many trips and have taken 1000's of photos. When I put the card reader in, sometimes it be recognized, sometimes it won't. Some of the photos on the card have been filtered and saved in a "filtered" file on the card...would that cause a problem. I was able to finally read some last night and burn a disc, but I am still having problems with one card. It worked for a while last night and while I was filtering the photos I had a problem and had to stop. When I tried again later the card couldn't be read. I do try to format them (low) every time I empty them and put them fresh in my Canon 3SIS

 

[Groucho]

I have a couple cheapie made-in-China SDHC card readers that work very well. I bought from Supermediastore but they don't seem to have them now - Meritline has them for $5 shipped right now... hard to beat that!

If you subscribe to Meritline's email newsletter, you can find even better deals - they recently had a two-pack of USB card readers (SDHC plus Compactflash and Memory Stick) for $4 shipped! Some of the stuff is ridiculously cheap, and most is shipped straight from China. I've even bought something from them that was 99 cents including shipping - I feel a little guilty that whoever is making the stuff must be slaving away for virtually no profit, but it's hard to argue with the value.