Zen 3 scalpers made almost $1 million profit from 8,720 eBay sales

[midian182]

A hot potato: The runup to last year’s holiday season shone a spotlight on scalping like never before. Everything from the new generation of consoles, to graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia, to the Ryzen 5000 processors were (and still are) disappearing as soon as they went on sale and landing on eBay for obscene prices. In the case of AMD’s latest CPUs, scalpers have made almost one million dollars in profit.

The revelation comes from Michael Driscoll, whose data-scraping scripts previously showed how scalpers generated nearly $40 million in profit from the newest tech products during the last holiday season. He’s now providing an update on how these goods’ eBay prices have changed over the last month, starting with the Zen 3 processors.

Summarizing, Driscoll writes that 8,720 Ryzen 5000 CPUs have been sold on eBay. That works out at $5.88 million in sales, with scalpers walking away with $946,000 in profit. Sellers weren’t the only ones to benefit; eBay and PayPal made $625,665 from the transactions.

Looking at individual processors, the Ryzen 5 5600X was the most popular with 3,204 units sold at a median price of $405—the CPU has a $299 MSRP. Meanwhile, the flagship Ryzen 9 5950X has a median price of $1,187 (MSRP $799) with 1,437 units sold.

A depressingly familiar sight

Zen 3 prices on eBay have stabilized over the last month at 25 – 40 percent over MSRP. In mid-November, the Ryzen 9 5950X was going for 240 percent of its recommended price. Now, it’s around 40 percent more ($1,187).

Driscoll also examined Zen 3 sales on StockX, which takes a 3 percent cut of selling fees, ten percent less than eBay’s share. The more generous terms for sellers are likely factors behind the processors’ lower prices on the platform (below).

StockX prices

If you’re hoping to buy a Zen 3 processor from an official retailer anytime soon, don't hold your breath. AMD recently said supply of its CPUs and GPUs would be tight during the first half of 2021.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/88432-zen-3-scalpers-made-almost-1-million-profit.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

“This is why they're sold out everywhere“

Well, not really. Mindfactory sold 40,000 and processors in the same time frame. If scalpers only sold 8000, that would indicate a severe shortage of parts, and scalpers only make up a small number of total sales.

 

[SirDigby]

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until they no longer exist - scalpers are scum of the earth, taking items that aren't really all that affordable, and selling them to those with more sense than money.

Reverse Robin Hoods.

Ars*hles.

And retailers need to do more to stop them.

 

[flee2020]

Scalpers contribute nothing to the IT industry - AMD does not make a single cent more nor do any of the wholesalers. I refused to buy anything that is more than MSRP and used Intel products in 2020 as they were more reasonably priced.

 

[R00sT3R]

I really do despair of these *****s who pay such prices, just because they have no self control or patience.

..and for what?

Just so they can get an extra few hundred points in Cinebench and/or an extra 20fps in a stupid, mindless video-game.

I really do hate the mentality of the PC gaming crowd sometimes.

 

[Uncle Al]

If they are dumb enough to pay those kinds of prices, so be it but I would like to see more laws on the books to prevent scalping and very heavy fines to discourage them ... or at least be used to finance going after more of them!

 

[Achaios]

Don't blv everything you read.

Here in Greece, the party with Ryzen 5600X is definitely over.

At the time of writing, I can buy a Ryzen 5 5600X in over 20 different computer stores for 335 Euros, about 25 euros over MSRP.

This price is more or less normal, is the price a 4770K Haswell used to cost back in 2013.

On the other hand, 3080 & 3060 ti are out of stock everywhere in the country. Ditto for Radeon 6k GPUs. The only GPU in relative abudance is the 3090 that sells for around 2300 euros from retailers.

 

[Lionvibez]

I just picked up a 5800X for $650 CAD this morning from a store.

Going to sell my 3800X for $400 so cost to upgrade about $250.

 

[Scshadow]

I'm beginning to think we need to treat other sectors in the market like servers. Huge demand for high performance and short life cycles for the primary target users. Hand me down server resales means there is generation old servers that are available providing large amounts of processing for a fraction of original price. Maybe in a couple of product generations we'll see CPUs, graphics cards hit this paradigm. Still could use for production to recover from pandemic supply issues. I'm just not sure what solutions there are in the interim.

 

[Namtrooper]

If they are dumb enough to pay those kinds of prices, so be it but I would like to see more laws on the books to prevent scalping and very heavy fines to discourage them ... or at least be used to finance going after more of them!

I really do despair of these *****s who pay such prices, just because they have no self control or patience.

..and for what?

Just so they can get an extra few hundred points in Cinebench and/or an extra 20fps in a stupid, mindless video-game.

I really do hate the mentality of the PC gaming crowd sometimes.

This does seem a little narrow minded to me. It is similar to saying people that pay 5 grand more for a cpu that shaves off 10 second off a render is silly. To each his own. We are sensible people clever enough not to feed scalpers. But to damn people for mindlessly blowing their money seems a little... I don't know the term exactly. Condescending? Maybe my analogy is poor? Maybe it's similar to calling fishermen silly for spending large amounts of money on fishing gear? I've had a few whiskeys so I might be rambling a bit.

 

[brucek]

If you believe the recent allocation rumors, the 5600 and 5800 are already relatively obtainable, and supply is going to improve. Unfortunately the 5900 and 5950x are barely in production at all through Q1. Scalpers may get a disproportionate share of the few that are made, but it'd still be winning the lottery to get one even without them. I guess maybe these two were mostly a marketing stunt to further move the performance halo in their direction?

 

[defaultluser]

“This is why they're sold out everywhere“

Well, not really. Mindfactory sold 40,000 and processors in the same time frame. If scalpers only sold 8000, that would indicate a severe shortage of parts, and scalpers only make up a small number of total sales.

You're assuming that Ebay is the only third-party market in existence.

Look at all them there "See Buying Options" with 50% markup!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/GeFor...IES/page/CFF83A4D-9DEC-4003-AC7E-96DF4170CED0

There are also 10 different resellers currently selling a 5950X on Amazon for over $1200!

Amazon.com: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core, 32-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor: Computers & Accessories

Buy AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core, 32-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor: CPU Processors - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

And 22 offerings of 5900x over $820!

Amazon.com: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core, 24-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor Without Cooler: Computers & Accessories

Buy AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core, 24-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor Without Cooler: CPU Processors - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Now consider that every different Amazon site offers it's own set of third-party-sellers:

Here UK site has 10 resellers for thwe 5800x:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Ryzen-5800X-Processor-Cache/dp/B0815XFSGK/ref=pd_vtp_1?pd_rd_w=OkWNc&pf_rd_p=144cd18e-a2ad-4c27-86bf-edde60b7ae58&pf_rd_r=0S6ZA1RHGRY1E5MBX3NT&pd_rd_r=21b3496f-35c9-4ffa-b87d-807759983e10&pd_rd_wg=eTdqw&pd_rd_i=B0815XFSGK&psc=1

Then add in other biggies like Newegg, Craigslist, and various other smaller forums all deal in overpriced ****. When you move around 10k on each of the larger platforms (plus a few thousand on each of the smaller sites), then the reseller bum-rush is more like 30-40% of the market demand!

The reason people just assume it's a small part of demand is because nobody actually cares enough about the problem to do the research; and, there will always be stupid people willing to pay the markup to be "first"when it launched back in November

 

[Mr Majestyk]

If you believe the recent allocation rumors, the 5600 and 5800 are already relatively obtainable, and supply is going to improve. Unfortunately the 5900 and 5950x are barely in production at all through Q1. Scalpers may get a disproportionate share of the few that are made, but it'd still be winning the lottery to get one even without them. I guess maybe these two were mostly a marketing stunt to further move the performance halo in their direction?

CPU's aren't the problem, it's GPU's, there are none other than very few at extortionate prices even through official retailers. In Australia even if a GPU is available it's at 50%+ above RRP and our RRP is already much higher than USA's based on currency conversion.

 

[Dimitrios]

The rich get richer. I hope there is a hell and they burn for it.

 

[harm9963]

You have to lived down the street from a Micro center , check all the time, one day it happen, January 5 , check on line ,there was 24 5950X ! still need luck at the door to get in , there was only 2 left from 24 .
but now even Micro center is rising prices , just sad , my 1080Ti will do for a while .

 

[Shadowboxer]

The only way of getting rid of scalpers is with price increases. If AMD sold the 5950X for $1200 or whatever then scalpers wouldn’t bother and AMD would get all the profit.

We saw graphics cards go up in price recently, no doubt due to execs going “hang on a second, why are we giving scalpers all this money?”.

There is clearly a market for super expensive components that may only perform 10% faster than a reasonably priced item. But people are happy to pay these prices. We need product seperation, mountains of cheaper mid range parts and a select few high end expensive parts charged at ridiculous amounts for those who want to blow their wad.

 

[gabelogan1324]

I really do despair of these *****s who pay such prices, just because they have no self control or patience.

..and for what?

Just so they can get an extra few hundred points in Cinebench and/or an extra 20fps in a stupid, mindless video-game.

I really do hate the mentality of the PC gaming crowd sometimes.

for those people, this is part of their identity. it might be stupid to you, but it certaintly isnt to them.

 

[toooooot]

I just picked up a 5800X for $650 CAD this morning from a store.

Going to sell my 3800X for $400 so cost to upgrade about $250.

Best part about CPUs, no matter how much value they lose, at the end you can still sell middle or high end model for a good money, making next CPu purchase cheap.

 

[Gastec]

But Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X are available for sale in the usual online shops, not at MSRP of course but at the usual prices that new CPU's have always been sold, no need to buy from scalpers.

 

[Gastec]

I really do despair of these *****s who pay such prices, just because they have no self control or patience.

..and for what?

Just so they can get an extra few hundred points in Cinebench and/or an extra 20fps in a stupid, mindless video-game.

I really do hate the mentality of the PC gaming crowd sometimes.

I'm not so sure the ones paying are from the "PC gaming crowd". It smells like money laundering to me.

 

[Gastec]

The only way of getting rid of scalpers is with price increases. If AMD sold the 5950X for $1200 or whatever then scalpers wouldn’t bother and AMD would get all the profit.

We saw graphics cards go up in price recently, no doubt due to execs going “hang on a second, why are we giving scalpers all this money?”.

There is clearly a market for super expensive components that may only perform 10% faster than a reasonably priced item. But people are happy to pay these prices. We need product seperation, mountains of cheaper mid range parts and a select few high end expensive parts charged at ridiculous amounts for those who want to blow their wad.

The market is not that free as to give the producers liberty to set any price they want. Some of these corpoarations have already been fined multiple times for price fixing and monopolistic conduct. You want to live in a dystopic world where corporations have total freedom and don't answer to any government?

 

[Shadowboxer]

The market is not that free as to give the producers liberty to set any price they want. Some of these corpoarations have already been fined multiple times for price fixing and monopolistic conduct. You want to live in a dystopic world where corporations have total freedom and don't answer to any government?

I definitely want to live in a world where the government gets less involved.

Although in this case why should the government get involved? You dont have the right to own a graphics card, so why would they step in to help make sure you get one?

Also increasing prices is not “price fixing”. Price fixing is where you and a competitor agree to sell at a certain high price, usually typically higher than people want to pay. However in this instance people are happy to pay higher prices to scalpers. So there is no price fixing going on here.

 

[Avro Arrow]

It's because there are people out there whom I cannot accurately describe in polite company who are willing to pay the big bucks for these products.

"Stupid is as stupid does sir!"
- Forrest Gump, 1994