Facepalm: After its RTX 3080 cards disappeared from stock at a suspiciously fast rate, Nvidia said it would fight back against the scourge of bots using methods such as manually reviewing orders. That might have brought some level success with its own store but judging by the speed at which the RTX 3090s disappeared from other retailers, the bots were at it again.
Following the launch of the RTX 3080 last week, there were reports of scalpers using bots to bulk buy the cards within seconds of them going live---one reseller bought 42 from Nvidia's site before they sold out. Most of these are now selling on eBay for several thousand dollars.
Many of the scalpers were using Bounce Alerts, a group that charges members $75 per month for the use of bots that are usually put to work grabbing sneakers at launch for resale. Some subscribers thanked the company on Twitter for helping them buy RTX 3080 units.
Would you really pay this much for an RTX 3090?
"Our job at Bounce Alerts was to ensure our customers were able to purchase the product for their needs," the group said. "When given the chance, I'm sure most people would purchase more than 10+ units if they have the capital and look to make upwards of $25,000+ in one single day from [the] secondary market."
Nvidia apologized in advance for the RTX 3090 launch problems. The company said that since the $1,500 product was created for a unique group of users, like the Titan RTX, supply would be limited.
For a brief moment I saw one 3090 on newegg switch to "in stock" but the second I added to cart, it removed from cart and went back to out of stock. 3080 launch all over again which we kinda saw coming. lame
--- Kyle (@bitwitkyle) September 24, 2020
Unsurprisingly, the bots were at it again yesterday. Twitter was flooded with people---including Kyle from YouTube tech channel Bitwit---complaining that as soon as they added an RTX 3090 to their cart, it was removed by the retailer and shown as "out of stock."
There are now numerous listings for RTX 3090 cards on eBay, most of which add at least $1,000 to the MSRP---one auction for a Founders Edition pre-order went for $79,320, though it's unclear whether the winner actually paid. We've also seen the same thing happen with the PS5 and Xbox Series X (and possibly the One X).
Make sure to check out our review of the RTX 3090 right here.