To your first paragraph: Panasonic sadly stopped production this February (which is why around that time prices for all the remaining stock of their discs basically doubled). I’m still picking up some leftovers here and there. Sony I think is now only still producing the 128GB. All their 25 and 50 GB discs I’ve bought over the last two years or so were RITEK.BR3 and VERBAT.IMf.
Huh that definitely looks less than reassuring. Is this superficial or inside the polycarbonate?
I’d actually seen that offer because this whole thread made me check Amazon.co.jp again myself and I saw that the 128 GB Sonys were also now cheaper than last time I ordered (though not in the BF sale) so I decided to order more. ;-) But I also looked around some more and saw this offer — I was close to giving them a try, but ultimately didn’t. Your story would seem to confirm it was the right call.
The eBay ones with the specks came from Japan as well, or were they for another market?
Funny you should ask. This is what's wrong with them... (yes, that's my own review.)
I couldn't believe it when I saw this on the first disc I took out, thought that must be an outlier, but one was worse than the next. The holes you see in the pictures were literal holes in the reflective layer, pinhole sized, totally see-through. I thought ok maybe it'll work anyway and burned one, but of course it failed.
So that's those. At the same time I also tried the ones that are branded as M-Disc. I you think at almost twice the price per disc those surely must be better, think again – they're even worse. Again, it took my breath away when I noticed how the inner part of those discs looked. (And as I wrote in the review, those are _not_ scratches on the surface, this is all _inside_ the polycarbonate.
It's possible that both of those were intermittent issues, maybe a new fab they brought online, or some change in production methods, or whatever, but for archival purposes it's unthinkable for me to ever ever ever again trust anything from Verbatim, at least as sold here in Germany.
I _have_ been considering giving the Mitshubishi/Verbatim media sold in Japan a try, as it wouldn't surprise me if they sold completely different stuff there. Especially now that Panasonic has stopped producing (Feb 2023), it may be worth a try. Not sure yet.
Those are the exact ones. And I always paid between 7000 and 9000 ¥ (last order earlier this year was 8800¥) so this is the normal price. But your math is off, this is a 10-pack for 50€ (without delivery).
Optical media are crazy expensive in Germany, especially the multi-layer ones. They are also getting harder and harder to come by, and horrible quality. Buy from Japan: they have a larger selection (though it’s also been getting less, recently), at lower prices (even after adding delivery and tax), and better quality. Try to get the ones made in Japan, the Indian stuff can also be sketchy (MAGBA*, VERBATIMf) though for some reason not as terrible as the crap being sold in Germany. Good choices in my experience are Panasonic for 25 and 50 GB (MEI.RA1, MEI.RB1) and the quad layer SONY.NQ1 (128 GB). They’re super easy to order from Amazon.co.jp, they’ll calculate the total price for you including anything payable at customs, so no bad awakening due to having to pay extra once it arrives. Not all JP sellers will ship to Germany, but most do.
I've done this for years now and can't recommend it enough.
Good luck!