Miners are currently flooding the market with graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 3080. These are even sold by the hundreds in live streams.
We have almost “gotten used to” paying double the MSRP for graphics cards if one wants to use current hardware. But now prices are dropping for computer hardware.
Now, miners with cheap graphics cards are suddenly flooding the market, but what exactly is behind this?
Suddenly, you can buy hundreds of graphics cards in live streams
What exactly is happening? Many images of live streams are being posted on the Chinese platform Baidu. Here, hundreds of graphics cards can be seen stacked on top of each other, and people can buy the cards directly from the stream. The images show both old models and brand new cards from AMD and Nvidia (via baidu.com)
The prices are below the recommended retail price of AMD and Nvidia. Right now, you can get a GeForce RTX 3080 in such a live stream for around 500 Euros. This may sound absurd to many, as currently, at many official retailers, you still pay at least 900 Euros for Nvidia’s high-end graphics card.
But this is not a phenomenon limited to China: In other countries as well, dozens of graphics cards are being offered. The magazine PC Gamer reports that in Australia, the RX 6700 XT is being sold for around 280 Euros each. In January 2022, one had to spend at least 900 Euros for an RX 6700 XT.
Bitcoin is losing value rapidly and miners are now selling off their valuable equipment
What is behind this? Bitcoin has been losing value significantly for weeks. Compared to the last 6 months, Bitcoin has lost more than 50% of its value. Many miners have invested a lot of money in their hardware to participate in the mining hype and especially to keep up.
Now, many are trying to at least contain their losses somewhat and are selling their equipment. The reactions in the comments are also not very friendly.
Should you buy graphics cards from miners? There are now first offers in Germany where miners are selling their graphics cards. But is it worth it or am I ultimately buying the so-called “cat in the sack”? MeinMMO explains the background:
