Best Buy Locks Ability to Purchase NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs behind $200 Totaltech Paywall

Enthusiasts who are planning to score a GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics card from Best Buy will need to add $199.99 to the cost going forward, as the retailer has taken the clever and greedy route of increasing its margins by adding a paywall to these hot-selling products. As initially highlighted by @CameronRitz, both Founders Editions and AIB GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs have been locked behind Best Buy’s Totaltech membership, a program that grants customers around-the-clock tech support, extended return windows, and other perks for $199.99 a year. The latest benefit is exclusive access to NVIDIA’s latest graphics cards, a tactic that many say is directly comparable to scalping.

Founder editions say exclusive access event and we know what that means.

Everyone’s favorite subscription model Total Tech

Sign up here:https://t.co/0MEqyjgMtq https://t.co/vwGZjkexrN

— KillerCam1020🎮 (@CameronRitz) February 10, 2022

Best Buy puts chance at Founders Edition cards behind $200 paywall (r/nvidia)

• Must be nice to be the exclusive source for the FE cards. This is Best Buy’s way of scalping while trying to pretend they’re not scalping.
• F*ck Nvidia for giving giving Best Buy exclusive control of Founders Edition cards in the US. They need to yank this.
• Instead of asking “how do we stop scalpers”, they asked “how can we profit off of scalpers?”

Best Buy Locks Nvidia RTX GPUs Behind Obscene $200 Paywall (Tom’s Hardware)

• The full GeForce RTX 30 range was available to purchase this afternoon (including the flagship GeForce RTX 3090) at Best Buy, but the retailer limited those sales to customers that paid an extra $199 for a Totaltech membership.
• The yearly membership fee entitles you to such perks as free Geek Squad tech support, free 2-day shipping, 60-day returns, and 24 months of product protection (among other benefits). One other benefit is “Access to exclusive Totaltech member prices,” which is apparently what went down with this most recent GeForce RTX 30 drop.
• […] if Best Buy is confident enough to throw GPUs behind its $200 Totaltech paywall, nothing’s stopping the company from doing the same with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X during future stock drops.