I don't doubt you found a deal somewhere, but here's what I'm seeing:

$229 for 12TB used SAS: https://diskprices.com/?locale=us&condition=new%2Cused&capacity=12-12&disk_types=external_hdd%2Cexternal_hdd25%2Cinternal_hdd%2Cinternal_hdd25%2Cinternal_sshd%2Cinternal_sas%2Cexternal_ssd%2Cinternal_ssd%2Cm2_ssd%2Cm2_nvme%2Cu2

That's admittedly better than $26/TB, but I also had been looking at 20-24TB drives. That's the other change - the lowest-$/TB (highest value) TB size is has decreased substantially (from around 20-24 in late 2025, to 10-12 now).