At 10 a.m. on the 21st at Costco Yangpyeong in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul. In a cold wave of minus 14 degrees, a long line had formed. When the doors opened at opening time, the people who had been waiting poured into the store all at once. Some even ran.
A 32-year-old office worker surnamed Park was among them. Park headed straight for the electronics aisle. The goal was a finished goods PC priced in the 1.3 million won range. Park said, "I heard that D-RAM prices have gone up so much that if you buy the parts separately and assemble them, it exceeds 2 million won," and added, "I heard Costco has a cost-effective PC, so I came to make it right at opening time."
But no finished goods PC was anywhere to be seen in the electronics aisle. A store employee said, "The (desktop computer) product is already sold out, and no additional restock schedule has been set." Leaving empty-handed, Park said, "Computer parts prices are rising 10% every week," adding, "At this rate, I may have to look into a secondhand transaction."
◇ As memory runs short, consumers shift to "used and refurbished"
As the shortage of memory semiconductors drags on, prices of IT devices such as desktops, laptops and smartphones are rising across the board.
Samsung Electronics' base Galaxy Book6 Pro, set to launch on Jan. 27, starts at 3.41 million won. Considering that the lowest price of the Galaxy Book5 Pro released last year was about 1.77 million won, the price has nearly doubled. This is the first time the list price for that product line has exceeded 3 million won. LG Electronics' "LG Gram Pro AI 2026" lineup has also generally risen by close to 500,000 won from last year.
With demand for the new year and new semester ahead, consumers who had planned to buy electronics are feeling burdened by the surging prices and are turning to used or refurbished products and to inventory that does not reflect the price hikes.
According to Joonggonara, a used transaction platform, on the 22nd, weekly transactions in the "laptops and PCs" category in the first week of this month rose 22.8% from the first week of December last year. Certified laptops that have gone through a refurbisher drew 6.7 times more views than items from individual sellers.
Secondhand transactions of standalone D-RAM are also on the rise. Samsung's DDR5 16GB RAM is trading at 270,000 won per unit, about 35% cheaper than a new product (400,000 won). An office worker surnamed Kwon, 45, said, "There's a strong perception that with RAM, 'the more, the better,' so rather than reducing capacity, I chose used RAM."
Many consumers are also looking for inventory of finished goods PCs. Generally, finished goods PCs are more expensive than custom-built PCs, but lately, finished goods PC inventory has become cheaper. That's because parts prices are reflected immediately in custom builds, while there is a lag before prices are reflected in finished goods PC inventory.
In fact, Costco sold desktop PC finished goods in the 1.3 million won range starting in late November last year. As of this month, buying the same-spec parts and assembling them costs over 2 million won. As word spread that "you can make a profit just by selling the CPU (central processing unit) and D-RAM," it led to the unusual phenomenon of an "electronics open run," and the products sold out at stores nationwide.
◇ D-RAM prices quintuple in six months… plus exchange rate pressure
Behind the rising prices of IT devices is a shortage of memory semiconductors. As chipmakers focus on producing high-value products such as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to meet artificial intelligence (AI) demand, supply of PC D-RAM has fallen. This has led to "memoryflation," a portmanteau of memory semiconductors and inflation, meaning a sharp price surge.
According to Naver Shopping, the consumer price of Samsung Electronics' 32GB DDR5 RAM for PCs jumped from 164,700 won last Aug. to 770,000 won on Jan. 20, about five times in six months. On top of that, with the won-dollar exchange rate hovering around 1,470 won, import cost pressures are growing.
For domestic corporations such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, prices are set in dollars for the global market and then domestic prices are determined considering the exchange rate. For U.S. consumers, price freezes or cuts may be expected, but for Korean consumers, price increases are inevitable.
Prices of other electronics that use semiconductors, including smartphones, are also expected to rise sharply. There are expectations that the list price of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S26 series, scheduled to be unveiled next month, will rise by about 100,000 to 150,000 won. Experts said that as used products and older finished goods gain popularity, prices of those products are also likely to rise.
Lee Jong-hwan, a professor in the Department of System Semiconductor Engineering at Sangmyung University, said, "In a situation where it is difficult to rapidly expand semiconductor production lines, the upward trend in prices across IT devices is likely to continue," adding, "There may be room for price adjustments only after 2027, when variables such as increased output appear."