Eric Crown - Hard Drives International

Hard Drives International

In 1986, Eric Crown and his brother Tim Crown obtained a $2,000 advance on a credit card, enabling them to place a single advertisement in Computer Shopper, a computer parts magazine. The brothers wrote an advertisement and sent it to Computer Shopper for them to publish in their next magazine issue. At the time that the brothers wrote the advertisement, they were advertising a hard drive for a sales price that was less than the cost of purchasing the hard drive from a supplier. They were gambling that, in the 20 days it would take to publish the magazine issue, the cost of a hard drive from a supplier would decrease so that it would be less than the selling price that they wrote in the advertisement. The gamble succeeded, as prices fell below the advertised price, and Hard Drives International became well known for having the lowest prices on hard drives.