Scalpers returned on the launch day of the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 to snatch up the latest graphics card and wasted no time in putting them up for sale. From Founders Edition models to partner versions, the cards have been spotted going for up to three times their MSRP. They are popping up in the usual spots, eBay and Amazon, and one reportedly even reached $9999, plus shipping, at auction on eBay but it is not known if that sale was completed.
Scalping took center stage for the last few years following a combination of supply chain issues coupled with a historic surge of bitcoin. Many had hoped that with a severe drop in the crypto market, and much of the planet recovering from the pandemic, as well as ETH 2.0, The Merge, it would largely be a thing of the past. It seems that as high priced as these cards are out of the gate that there are still plenty of those willing to pay more for them. According to the Terapeak tool for eBay, there were over 135 cards sold for an average of $2,524 on October 12. One person has even taken to Discord to brag about all the cards they successfully grabbed by showing the dozens of confirmation emails sent from BestBuy.
Consumers have been pushing for better sale procedures to prevent scalpers from exploiting portals. Although some managed to enact their own processes such as the Newegg Shuffle and the EVGA Queue system, it appears that major retailers either opted out for launch day or were outsmarted once again by bots for the highly anticipated RTX 4090 launch day. Some frustrated folks, with a sense of humor, have even gone so far as to create a Reddit page with a sort of how-to guide to attempt to derail scalpers by placing completely unrealistic bids. Most scalped listings have indicated that the cards will ship to customers once they have received them but some seemed to have had their own sources and actually had them in hand, ready to ship, at the time of sale. This too is a disheartening detail for consumers who were never even able to purchase one.
Sources: PC Mag, HotHardware
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →It honestly takes the fun out of launch day for new graphic cards.
Well... I mean.... not for the scalpers.
but why, the mining craze is over
My theory....and it's just a guess.....there is always limited initial inventory, either just because or on purpose, to heighten the hype. Small amount that always sells out in seconds.
The major retailers don't care about bots, even though they say they do. A sale is a sale.
So, bam....mining or not, you have all the cards in the hands of a few who then sell them on ebay.
These folks are ruthless. I'd say for the next month, because there is only the 4090, a normal customer doesn't stand a chance unless they can go to a Microcenter in person.
After the 4080 comes out, maybe the 4090, because of price, will settle down.
But then the "cheaper" 4080 will be impossible to get for the same reason.
Things will open back up after Christmas, but until then....good luck. I hope you don't pay these stupid scalper prices.
Why buy for even more money, an already high GPU. Buy whatever. I hope they eat them.
I suspect that they are betting on limited capacity. Where as this is not a Nike shoe or something like that. Nvidia will produce as long as there is demand and this is the current model and they are selling.
With a lot of products there are limited runs of the items that will build value. These should not be like that. Short of continued supply chain constraints the availability should level off. I personally hope to see stock on shelves as stated after Christmas. (they will have a spike in demand again around tax return season.).