Scalpers are selling RTX 3080 cards on eBay for thousands of dollars, Nvidia taking action

[midian182]

A hot potato: While we were all worried about the coronavirus causing shortages of Nvidia’s RTX 3080, the real reason you can’t get your hands on one is old-fashioned greed. The card was sold out across all online stores and most physical stores in the US within minutes of going on sale yesterday, and it seems a lot of the blame can be placed on bots used by scalpers who are now selling them on eBay for massively inflated prices, something Nvidia says it’s trying to address.

The RTX 3080 received glowing reviews once its embargo lifted—we gave it a score of 90 and praised the performance and price point. That no doubt fuelled the rush when the card went on sale yesterday, but the speed at which they disappeared was shocking.

PCMag reports that in many cases, an automated bot capable of instantly ordering dozens of RTX 3080s from Nvidia’s website was utilized. Some scalpers have been using social media to thank its creator, Bounce Alerts, a group that helps members grab high-demand products at launch so they can be resold at a much higher price. One reseller used the bot to buy 42 cards from Nvidia’s site before they ran out.

1) Not a single partner who had notifications for launch of the product sent one (that includes your own stores)
2) the nVidia shop went from Notify to sold out in 1.2 seconds
3) You didn't work with retailers to prevent scalpers

So you want us to buy AMD Cards?

— NotTheOnlyRobert (@rleiper84) September 17, 2020

It’s estimated that Bounce Alerts’ bot alone was used by over 100 people to grab cards from Nvidia’s site.

eBay is currently flooded with RTX 3080 units, which has an MSRP of $699. Many of these are around the $2,000 mark, and numerous sellers don’t even have them in hand—they’re just confirmation of an online order with no exact shipping date. One person who apparently owns an EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra has put the starting bid at $25,000, and while there are several auctions that have passed the $10,000 mark, many of these bidders could (hopefully) have no intention of paying—a way of getting revenge on scalpers.

Nvidia responded to the situation with a statement on its website.

This morning we saw unprecedented demand for the GeForce RTX 3080 at global retailers, including the NVIDIA online store. At 6 a.m. pacific we attempted to push the NVIDIA store live. Despite preparation, the NVIDIA store was inundated with traffic and encountered an error. We were able to resolve the issues and sales began registering normally.

To stop bots and scalpers on the NVIDIA store, we’re doing everything humanly possible, including manually reviewing orders, to get these cards in the hands of legitimate customers.

Over 50 major global retailers had inventory at 6 a.m. pacific. Our NVIDIA team and partners are shipping more RTX 3080 cards every day to retailers.

We apologize to our customers for this morning’s experience.

It seems the same problems are plaguing the PlayStation 5. The console was marked as sold out moments after appearing online, and hundreds of confirmed pre-orders are now selling on eBay for several thousand dollars.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/86800-scalpers-selling-rtx-3080-cards-ebay-thousands-dollars.html

 

[Irata]

So scalpers must be sitting on tens of thousands of cards then - impressive.

To find out who they are just follow the tractor trailers to their warehouse complexes.

/s

 

[Irata]

A quick search on eBay.com gives 658 results but that includes 'paper edition' cards and 2080 Ti.

Ebay Germany lists 60 results.

Flooding you say?

 

[Draconian]

"+$1,500 shipping"

 

[Nobina]

When Nvidia ramps the prices up then it's fine.

 

[R00sT3R]

I can't help but feel the real problem here aren't the scalpers but the moronic PC Gamers with no patience or self control who are willing to pay $$$ over the MSRP, just because they can't wait a few weeks.

Let the stupid fish swim to the sharks, I say.

 

[brucek]

No, the real reason you can't get your hands on one is there were next to none to begin with.

Oh, I believe the bots/scalping happened, but when the dozens of units that Bounce Alerts claims to have helped buy, or even all 658 listings on eBay, is anything but a rounding error of a rounding error, then total supply wasn't close to being in the ballpark to begin with.

Meanwhile I hope the scalpers lose their skins. The consensus of most reviews I read was that the 3080 was probably a reasonable buy at $699, but certainly no incredible bargain, and buyers would be smart to investigate future options before pulling the trigger. Supply may be limited for the moment but Nvidia and AMD will eventually be able to make as many cards as the market will take.

 

[R00sT3R]

No, the real reason you can't get your hands on one is there were next to none to begin with.

I'd say it was a case of tens of thousands of cards being chased by hundreds of thousands of buyers.

 

[brucek]

I'd say it was a case of tens of thousands of cards being chased by hundreds of thousands of buyers.

I think the ratio is way worse than 1:10. I've seen a bunch of discussion threads on this issue today, and where you'd usually expect a give-take of "I lost out" to "I got mine", the "I got mines" were all but non-existent.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I'd say it was a case of tens of thousands of cards being chased by hundreds of thousands of buyers.

Best Buy‘s website suggested that they would have a variety of these cards and I believe a lot of people lined up at Best Buy thinking that they’d be able to get one there. It turned out that only Micro Center actually had a majority of these cards and it also turned out that Nvidia didn’t send them any founders additions or at least sent them very very few of them. Micro Center ended up with a VGA and MSI models but nothing else. Normally you would see igabyte models, Asus or Zotac but I saw none

...and because I had an insider working in the store I knew exactly what the quantities were for the three micro centers in my area.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I am very disappointed with both Best Buy and micro Center.

One of the microcenters that I got a 3080 card from was giving out vouchers and that is the way it should’ve been done in the first place.

However in order to avoid social distancing line what they should have been doing was taking pre-orders.

The problem is they didn’t take pre-orders because they had no idea exactly how many cards were going to come in on the shipments or when the shipments were going to come in. Either the stores should have presold vouchers to first come-first serve or what they should have done was waited until these cars actually we’re on hand before advertising them.

I have only camped out for one product in my life: iPhone 6 Plus. That campout turned into a disaster by morning but I still waited in line and I still manage to walk away with exactly what I want: two iPhone 6 Plus 128 GB. That was the year that there were a number of Chinese scalpers sending the phones back to China in which case the PRC government confiscated those phones. Since then Apple has done their best to take pre-orders in order to avoid creating lines which could be a target for terrorist attacks (according to Apple)… And now that we have problems with coronavirus and social distancing we should never be forced to line up for anything like this again.

 

[Qrox]

Cards in South Africa sold out in about 2-3 minutes (AIB cards).
I managed to order one in time though.
Should be getting it at the start of October.

 

[jbc029]

GamersNexus got a statement from Nvidia saying the cards have been in production for just over one month. There never was high volume availability at launch.

 

[Irata]

GamersNexus got a statement from Nvidia saying the cards have been in production for just over one month. There never was high volume availability at launch.

Not sure if I‘ll make it that far. Have been watching him for several minutes blaming impatient customers / consumerism and repeatedly saying how there‘s no point in being upset.
Now he went over bots and how everyone does the same thing when launching products.

His wording is very nice when it‘s not directed at the customers.

Too many words....cannot take it anymore. Why is he talking so much ? It‘s Friday.

 

[Krackan]

I got one from Newegg wednesday night, some cards where available for a few hours in short spurts. Apparently because I got it the night before the "official" launch on the 17th it didn't qualify for the free Watch Dogs game which is a little suspect, but I'll take the card and buy the game when it's $5 in a year. I've got plenty of games to play coming up.

All feels very strange to me though. I got the exact card I wanted out of the 12+ that were on the site. Going to chalk it up to extreme luck and hope that the card isn't DOA.

 

[m4a4]

So, first come first serve is still screwing customers?
Isn't there a better way to do this by now. Maybe, preorders that have you limited to a set number? And then some checks are made to make sure that a location/address doesn't get more than a set amount (at least not first)?

I mean, in an increasingly digital world, you'd think there would be less of this by now...

 

[Xex360]

Why would you buy a card so overpriced, just wait a bit and you'll get a card for a normal price, and with 3090/3070/RDNA2 coming it'll push the prices down or at least to normal levels.

 

[Endymio]

From the article: >> " One person [with] an RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra has put the starting bid at $25,000....

You have to salute the sheer effrontery of this.

Isn't there a better way to do this by now...I mean, in an increasingly digital world, you'd think there would be less of this by now...

No matter how many people whine and complain, the law of supply and demand, like the law of gravity, is ineludible.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Bots/scalpers are just a scapegoat, Nvidia's plan was to make an underpriced irresistible FE offering and then have it go out of stock, forcing people to buy more expensive AIB's. They never intended for you to buy the FE, MooresLawIsDead predicted all this before the launch.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Since then Apple has done their best to take pre-orders in order to avoid creating lines which could be a target for terrorist attacks (according to Apple)

That's because the Boston Bombing happened right around then, and literally outside of the Apple store (less than a 100 meters) in Boston. They realized that while those crowds outside of their store looked good on camera for the evening news, neither did a mass casualty event outside of their stores either.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

That's because the Boston Bombing happened right around then, and literally outside of the Apple store (less than a 100 meters) in Boston. They realized that while those crowds outside of their store looked good on camera for the evening news, neither did a mass casualty event outside of their stores either.

Since the iPhone 6 Plus, Apple has been doing pre-orders online and deliveries in store on launch day.

That's how All high-demand, low-supply products should be.

I'm actually glad that they made this move because I've never had to wait on line for a delivery since that day. Camping out is an experience, but it's no fun having rain on you when you're laying on a parking spot at 3AM.

We've seen this during Black Fridays, but it's so cold here that the lines are pitiful.

The average cost of TV sets is so low that walmart can now sell an ONN 70" for less than $500. Last BF I got a Samsung 70" for $550 and there weren't even many people on line. the number of high-demand, low -supply items is actually falling.

 

[Adhmuz]

Honestly is anyone really surprised by any of this?

Nvidia dropped a 2080ti killer at almost half the price and with extremely limited quantities available. If it didn't sell out in less than a minute I would actually have been surprised.

 

[Kyruss55]

Why not take pre-orders for a few days with a limit of 1 per consumer and 1 per address; then lottery the pre orders on release day to give everyone a fair chance?

Maybe implement Captcha to prevent bots?

These are things I can think of within 30 seconds. Surely there are things that can be done.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Why not take pre-orders for a few days with a limit of 1 per consumer and 1 per address; then lottery the pre orders on release day to give everyone a fair chance?

Maybe implement Captcha to prevent bots?

These are things I can think of within 30 seconds. Surely there are things that can be done.

Or maybe they didn't want you to, they'd prefer you pay more for an AIB...

 

[Rayneofpayne]

NVidia could very well stop this by allowing a buying que, these aren't exactly ultra rare limited edition products, people sat on orders for a Valve index for 6 months, just except the damn preorder for who and however many people want to preorder and charge the customer and ship the item when in, if people cancel good next in line.
It's not as if the cards won't be in production for the next 2 years, wtf NVidia well educated people countering a simple problem with an overly complex solution, if there are multiple orders from 1 IP address simple put their order behind the first at the end of the que,...boom problem solved my cost is a 3090.