NVIDIA has just launched its Founders Edition GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards in China and as scalpers hijack some models they are replaced online with much higher prices. At a time when scalping has largely decreased around the world for the RTX 40 series, it appears as scalpers hijack models at MSRP in this market, that there’s no end to the much-loathed practice. VideoCardz reports (via IT Home) that the GeForce RTX 4070 has already been seen at up to 45% higher than MSRP following last week’s launch.
Per IT Home (machine translated):
“As shown in the picture above, the RTX 4070 graphics card, which is currently out of stock at an official price of 4799 yuan, can be bought at a third-party store for 6999 yuan.”
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders edition was available via NVIDIA’s store page for 4,799 RMB (~$668.40) but quickly disappeared only to resurface at a popular etailer site for 6,999 RMB (~$974.80). Additionally, the GeForce RTX 4090 is also listed as out of stock on the NVIDIA store but it was not originally said if scalpers had posted their own but a recent check of JD.com shows that they have. For the low price of 16,499 RMB (~2,297.95), those interested can purchase the flagship card which had been originally listed at NVIDIA’s store for 12,999 RMB (~$1810.47) before its inventory had been snatched up. It’s only about a $490 markup, ouch!
IT Home notes that some Founders Edition models are still available overseas at MSRP, ironically most likely meaning North America and Europe where they had previously seen similarly, and even higher, scalping prices at launch last fall.
“Overseas, except for the RTX 4090 graphics card, other models can be purchased at the original price.”
It is unfortunate that scalping still manages to hurt so many consumers around the globe.