In reply to:
I've actually read somewhere that the oem labelled, but brand name products, get their oem labels b/c they don't quite meet the standards of the brand name company. However, since most of the oem stamped products will work most of the time anyway, the parent company can afford to sell them at slightly cheaper prices to get rid of them (hence why oem is often less expensive than retail versions) and still make profit even with a slightly increased RMA rate.
Any truth to this?
Not a bit. OEM products are what they sell to the computer assemblers like Dell, Compaq, Gateway, etc. They're cheaper because they're bought in bulk and often rely on the seller or assembler to provide the final customer with the warranty. When regular consumers like us buy them, they've simply been sold to the "gray market". Essencially, sites like newegg buy in bulk as if they're making whole computers and then sell the individual drives with a lower mark up than the retail version.
Thankfully, OEM HDD's carry the full manufacturer's warranty but this is not the case with all products and it pays to do your research.
