The availability of RTX 3000 graphics cards is still very limited, many are still buying at high prices because they would like a new graphics card. Numbers now show how much scalpers have already earned with Nvidia’s expensive graphics cards.
The RTX 3000 graphics cards are in high demand, so the cards are practically sold out as soon as they hit the market. The lack of supply in stores then leads some to buy an RTX 3000 graphics card for a lot of money on eBay.
There are people who specifically buy as many graphics cards as possible to resell them at higher prices on eBay: they are called “scalpers”.
Nvidia wanted to take action against bots and scalpers, but availability is still severely limited. Now there are first numbers showing how much the scalpers have earned with their bots.
How do we know such accurate numbers? Data expert Michael Driscoll has written a script (via PCMag.com) that can track all sales of Nvidia graphics cards on eBay. In addition, there are data from the site StockX, where hardware is also sold.
- Overall, nearly 50,000 RTX 3000 graphics cards have been sold
- the scalpers have generated 61 million US dollars
- of which 15.2 million US dollars is the profit that people have made from it
Above all, around Christmas, the developer said, particularly many graphics cards were sold. Driscoll writes:
For all four RTX 30 series, there was a sharp increase in sales between Christmas and shortly after the New Year
Michael Driscoll, via PCMag.com
What are scalpers anyway? Scalpers are people who buy products like graphics cards at release to resell them at a high price afterwards. They are usually not interested in the product itself.
RTX 3080: Availability of graphics cards still limited
Did we suspect that this was coming? Even because of the corona pandemic, many suspected that the graphics cards would be very limited in availability. Shortly after the release of the RTX 3080, some resellers bragged about larger orders on Twitter and thanked a bot manufacturer.
For resellers, it is ultimately a very lucrative business because they know how in-demand the new graphics cards are.
That’s why everyone wants an RTX 3080: Testers and reviewers have given the new GeForce RTX 3080 very good performance ratings and a fair price-performance ratio. While not much has changed in terms of performance, one cannot speak of a fair price-performance ratio at this time, as the RTX 3000 series is currently not available anywhere at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
What can I do if I don’t want to pay over-inflated prices? On HardwareLuxx, you can find an availability ticker that lists shops where you can currently get an RTX graphics card. Here you can get the graphics cards cheaper than if you buy them from scalpers on eBay.
You can subscribe to the ticker and receive an immediate notification whenever there are new availabilities. You can find the ticker directly at HardwareLuxx.de.
Not only Nvidia is struggling with the availability of the new graphics cards. AMD is also facing huge interest in the new RX 6000 series. Many users want to buy an RX 6800 XT, but the demand is huge.
