Scalpers are struggling to sell the RTX 4080 above MSRP, but retailers won't let them...

midian182

Posts: 9,734   +121
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Facepalm: It's no secret that the RTX 4080 has not been selling particularly well, primarily due to its $1,200 price tag, which most people feel is far too expensive. The situation has even impacted scalpers, with many now having to resell their cards at MSRP or even less in some cases. A few second-hand sellers have tried returning them, which seems to have prompted certain retailers to stop offering refunds for the RTX 4080.

We're used to seeing graphics cards arrive with such high demand that they're quickly bought in bulk by scalpers and sold on auction sites at hugely inflated prices. But the MSRP of the RTX 4080 (and RTX 4090) has led to memes calling Nvidia the scalpers.

Our investigation last month showed that the RTX 4080 isn't selling that well—most retailers have plenty in stock. But it seems plenty of scalpers assumed the Lovelace card would be hard to find, so they decided to purchase units for resale.

That lack of demand and abundance of stock is evident on eBay, where many RTX 4080 cards are selling for around or just over their official store prices, a far cry from the bad times when GPUs were being scalped for three or four times their MSRP.

VideoCardz reports that one scalper is offering six RTX 4080s from various manufacturers for MSRP. The seller writes that the "Market isn't what I thought."

It appears that being unable to sell the RTX 4080 cards has caused several resellers to return them for their money back—where allowed. YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead spotted that Newegg is not letting buyers return the cards for refunds, possibly in response to so many scalpers trying to cut their losses.

Things aren't going to improve for RTX 4080 sellers looking to make a quick buck. There are more cards from different AIB partners arriving all the time, and the upcoming launch of AMD's cheaper Radeon RX 7900 series will likely make Nvidia's prices look even less appealing. Given what gamers went through over the last couple of years, it's hard to imagine people shedding any tears for the poor scalpers.

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Newegg Customer Service: Thank you for contacting customer service, how can I assist you?

Scalper: I want return some merchandise under the invoice number I sent you.

NCS: Could I inquire what the return is for, as I pull your order up?

Scalper: I don't need anything on this order. I just want to return them.

NCS: I see you have 8 RTX 4080 cards on this order. I have to inform you that we are not accepting returns on these cards. I'm sorry, but I can not assist you on a return.

Scalper: But I don't need any of them! I want to return them for a refund!

NCS:
 
Been waiting for this for a while now, what can I say better than this little guy here:

InfamousSnivelingBobcat-max-1mb.gif
 
"Unfortunately, the legal situation in Germany definitely prevents retailers from excluding returns."

Gov regulation creating problems? Who would have thought this could happen...
TBF, the retailer created their OWN problem here by allowing customers to purchase more then 1 card at a time. Restrict customers to 1 GPU per address per month or something, this isnt very hard...

For regular customers, the regulation works as intended.
 
I hope scalpers can't sell them for even half MSRP.
Actually that'd be grand tbh. If someone offered to sell me an RTX 4080 for around $600 I probably would not hesitate to get one. That's not too much more than how much I paid for my GTX 1080 back when it was hot off the fab and everyone wanted one.
 
Probably purchased in bulk by someone who couldn’t (ehr…wouldn’t) pay off their student loans waiting for a taxpayer bailout. Now they won’t be able to pay their credit card bills either. Stupid is as stupid does.
 
TBF, the retailer created their OWN problem here by allowing customers to purchase more then 1 card at a time. Restrict customers to 1 GPU per address per month or something, this isnt very hard...

For regular customers, the regulation works as intended.

To be fair, they're only following amazon's huge lead here by allowing nearly universal 30-day returns (and over Christmas up to 4 months)

if you bought a 4090 on launch day, you would still have two months to return it :mad:
 
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