Yesterday, a user on r/Hardware alleged that MSI was selling its own inventory of GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards on eBay at hyper-inflated prices under a subsidiary called Starlit Partner.
One listing shows four GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO 10G GPUs sold at $1,359, while another shows eleven GeForce RTX 3090 GAMING X TRIO 24G GPUs sold for $2,399. That’s quite a bit higher than what they’re going for at retailers such as Newegg, which has these cards listed for $759.99 and $1,589.99, respectively.
Following definitive proof that Starlit Partner is owned by MSI, the company has released a statement that seemingly confirms the allegations. MSI claims that there was an “error” in the inventory system, which gave its subsidiary access to product that it shouldn’t have.
“Starlit partner is an individual sales subsidiary working under MSI,” the company admitted. “They carry excess inventory and refurbished items and would not be given newly released products such as the GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards. As such, we have conducted an investigation and found that an error allowed them access to inventory they were not permitted to handle.”
“Starlit partner has been instructed to contact the individual customers who purchased these graphic card products and offer two options – return the product and receive a full refund, or a partial refund of the amount paid over MSI’s MSRP.”
“Moving forward, MSI will enforce a stricter policy to avoid situations like this happening again.”
According to users on r/Hardware, the listings began on the same day that the GeForce RTX 3090 launched. Yikes?
Regarding Starlit Partner/eBay: pic.twitter.com/QqRDBNRdVa
— MSI Gaming USA (@msiUSA) October 7, 2020