The topic This Raspberry Pi price tracker is shutting down next month because retailers… is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
Raspberry Pis were once the bastion of cheap hobby hardware, but after recent price hikes, they don’t look so affordable anymore. It’s a huge shame, but some people have taken it upon themselves to scout out and report any price dips in the market so that people don’t break the bank buying a Pi.
Unfortunately, it seems that one such asset is closing down very soon, as websites are beginning to close their doors to price-checking bots. And while you can still get some use out of it, it won’t be long until finding a good deal on Raspberry Pis gets a little bit harder.
As spotted by Hackaday, the RPI Locator website is closing its doors in July. If you have never used it before, RPI Locator gives the community a live feed of pricing from hobby stores around the world. If you ever want to purchase a specific Pi board, you can filter the selection by country and model using the drop-down menus at the top of the website. You’ll then be presented with a list of every confirmed store, their pricing for your specific board, and whether or not it’s currently in stock.
Unfortunately, as confirmed by the website’s owner on Bluesky, it turns out that the bot they used to scrape price data is getting blocked by sellers. The owner says they’ve tried many different workarounds, but they stop working after a little while. As such, they don’t have the time or the patience to contact everyone to ask them to give the bot access, so they’re unfortunately winding down the site in July.
You have a few more days to visit the website and find some cheap hardware, but don’t get too used to it. Once July 1st comes around, the website will likely go down for good at any time.