TTL Rightfully Calling Out Retailers Price Gouging

[handyandy24]

The entire situation is out of control.

This is really fueled by the fact that graphics cards have long been a badge that gamers wear. I mean everyone brags about what graphics card they have. A shortage, caused by various factors, has made a graphics card even more desirable to the gamer, like owning a rare sports car or something, prompting them to spend way more than they should. I mean if CPU's quadrupled in price would you buy one or wait? You would wait. People do not get hyped up about a CPU but they get hysterical about graphics cards.
So I dunno. As long as people are all hyped up and prepared to pay way over the odds, it is difficult to see where this is going. The bulk of people know this is utterly ridiculous and will not bow down to all this gouging, but long term that has to be damaging gaming. Not that the manufacturers care about the future. NVIDIA will never blame themselves for any downturn in the market. But I think that people have very clearly shown that they are prepared to pay over the top for a graphics card, even if not four times the RRP, and that is going to have a lasting effect on the market. I can't see the 4080 being launched at £600. More like £800 or even £900. In the long term that must damage gaming. Fact is that gamers are actually seeing performance per £ falling, because they are so intent on buying the latest model

Agree its like a badge and id add we are part of the problem. When gamers themselves already have a 3090, take the opportunity to pick up a 3080ti then sell on the 90 on ebay at scalper prices. We cant.moan too hard about the situation when we are doing that

 

[random_matt]

In a blink of an eye all cards delisted.

 

[random_matt]

Looking at the longer time frame the question is where does this go? game and application developers tend to put the most effort into catering for their biggest audience if these increasing prices push more and more gamers to low end hardware and APUs, etc. the value of putting effort into more advanced graphic features may take a serious backseat over optimising around lower end hardware making it less and less worthwhile having a higher end GPU when there are no ultra graphics features, etc. to enable and there is little value past a certain point in pushing ever higher frame rates.

Precisely why I think Sony/MS will not need a mid gen refresh, wouldn't be surprised if Sony creates the best looking games.

 

[Hedge]

Kinda hard for us to get preachy when a whole load of us sold our 70s 80sand 90s to high street exchange shop to take advantage of the very same market.

A shops job is to make money. If they scalp then eventually people will use them less so they need to find a right balance. Right now all of them are learning what they can get away with.

 

[Jono8]

Everyone scalps, everyone wants more money, even oc uk, Ferrari's don't pay for themselves ya know

Indeed. The fact that a fair few of the ocuk staff seem to have supercars should highlight how much money their making, even without current gpu prices.

But now, because gpus are in demand, suddenly people don't like them making lots of money from their customers?

Who is the profit police? How much profit is deemed acceptable for OCUK to make? Should we all ask Gibbo what he bought stock for before we buy anything to make sure they aren't taking too much profit?

It's **** but it's how capitalism/the free market works. People get so hung up on RRP, but in reality an rrp means very little. It's just what the manufacturer thought it would be worth at a certain point in time.

 

[dodmaster]

I think there might be a bit of doomposting about the GPU market affecting the PC games industry, across some forums. However, I need a new GPU myself and am holding off buying an entirely new setup until I can see what the AMD APUs look like in August. That means less sales for the rest of the hardware market as a result, for people like me. The hardware market will definitely be affected until demand can be met after two years until more foundries come online. The games industry will hopefully be fine in the medium term, because it can just revert to console ports.

Unless of course, Nvidia totally abandon the mid range permanently. Which would be a monumentally stupid decision, given 70% of the GPU market is the £200-350 sale and AMD would be just as stupid not to mop those up.

 

[eddiew]

If people stopped paying stupid money, retailers would not be able to charge whatever they liked in this free market world...

whilst this is absolutely true, its no excuse. two wrongs don't make a right and all that

Tbf, saying "no, I won't pay that much for this item" doesn't feel like a wrong, more like a valuable life skill

But I think miners feel they can turn a profit on any price, so they can just keep hoovering them up immediately without worrying what they cost.

 

[The Old School Gamer]

It's real easy.

You simply buy from the place that A) has stock and B) has the best price.
And if not you wait (...and wait) until one or both of these things occur.

I make no secret of it, I'll check half a dozen sites everyday.
And I really couldn't care-a-less which one I end up using and abusing.

Also Hedge is spot on.
I sold one of my cards into the same inflated over the top market to drum up some cash for my next purchase.
And now I'm just going to sit on that cash until I can pick up what I want at a reasonable price (in no rush at all).

 

[XeNoNF50]

I think there might be a bit of doomposting about the GPU market affecting the PC games industry, across some forums. However, I need a new GPU myself and am holding off buying an entirely new setup until I can see what the AMD APUs look like in August. That means less sales for the rest of the hardware market as a result, for people like me. The hardware market will definitely be affected until demand can be met after two years until more foundries come online. The games industry will hopefully be fine in the medium term, because it can just revert to console ports.

Unless of course, Nvidia totally abandon the mid range permanently. Which would be a monumentally stupid decision, given 70% of the GPU market is the £200-350 sale and AMD would be just as stupid not to mop those up.

I can't recommend pc gaming to anyone. Everyone is better off with an Xbox series X or a ps5 no question. Console + 55cx oled is cheaper in price, a significantly better visual experience and sold at retailers much more worthy of your money than a scalped 3080 and basic 1440p high refresh monitor.

 

[PatBerry]

Supply and Demand. Everyone in the chain is making bank mark up because Demand > Supply. If you don't like the prices then don't buy it. If I had a 700 part and realised I could sell every single 700 part at 1200 instantly then I'd sell it at 1200.

The publicly traded corporation that is legally required to serve its Shareholders interests and maximise the money they take from you gives absolutely zero ***** about you. You should reciprocate.

Shareholders are wanting to maximise the money. But if you want repeat business then you need to not screw over the customer base. If prices are too expensive then as mentioned on other threads the PC gaming segment will go away and everyone who games will end up on a console or some streaming service.

 

[Dicehunter]

I can't recommend pc gaming to anyone. Everyone is better off with an Xbox series X or a ps5 no question. Console + 55cx oled is cheaper in price, a significantly better visual experience and sold at retailers much more worthy of your money than a scalped 3080 and basic 1440p high refresh monitor.

Having played the re-release of Spiderman on PS5 on an LG OLED recently I have to agree, I can no longer recommend PC gaming to anyone, It's become too cost prohibitive for a basic/decent experience.

 

[kitfit1]

I can't recommend pc gaming to anyone. Everyone is better off with an Xbox series X or a ps5 no question. Console + 55cx oled is cheaper in price, a significantly better visual experience and sold at retailers much more worthy of your money than a scalped 3080 and basic 1440p high refresh monitor.

There is a lot to agree with in this post. When you think about it, even now, most gaming isn't done on a pc. Most people don't even own a pc anymore, it's either a tablet, laptop or phone along with gaming on a console.
The market for self build pc's is very small as it is, the experience we have all had over the last year or so says to me that the pc market will now shrink very fast. Retailers like OCUK will end up with such a small market that those retailers will become an irrelevance and will go out of business.
Who's to blame ? The retailers and the manufacturers. All of them have failed to look after their "bread and butter" and have spent the last year milking that "bread and butter" for every penny they can grab NOW. Well, make the most of it now because the cash cow that is your customers are about to just walk away, for good.

 

[hyperseven]

There is a lot to agree with in this post. When you think about it, even now, most gaming isn't done on a pc. Most people don't even own a pc anymore, it's either a tablet, laptop or phone along with gaming on a console.
The market for self build pc's is very small as it is, the experience we have all had over the last year or so says to me that the pc market will now shrink very fast. Retailers like OCUK will end up with such a small market that those retailers will become an irrelevance and will go out of business.
Who's to blame ? The retailers and the manufacturers. All of them have failed to look after their "bread and butter" and have spent the last year milking that "bread and butter" for every penny they can grab NOW. Well, make the most of it now because the cash cow that is your customers are about to just walk away, for good.

'most people don't own a PC anymore', where are you getting this data from? News stories say the opposite

'it's either a tablet, laptop or phone along with gaming on a console', again where are you getting this from

 

[Five.Stars]

Sadly it's not just the shop mentioned in the video, It's basically every retailer you can think of, Minus OCUK as I've genuinely not ever seen bad prices.

You've never seen bad prices on overclockers?

I didn't actually think retailers had fan-boys!

Guess I was wrong!

 

[kitfit1]

'most people don't own a PC anymore', where are you getting this data from? News stories say the opposite

'it's either a tablet, laptop or phone along with gaming on a console', again where are you getting this from

By PC, i meant the type of pc that most of us on here own. I am going by my own friends, family and work mates..............not anyone within my normal daily contact owns a pc. How many people do you know that owns and uses one ?

 

[xPETEZx]

You've never seen bad prices on overclockers?

I didn't actually think retailers had fan-boys!

Guess I was wrong!

I thought the same thing...

I think all the doom talk about PC gaming is even stranger now than it ever has been.
The reason the prices of these parts is so high is because demand is so high. Sure, some of that demand is mining. But enough of it is driven by people being at home, not having the usual activities to spend there money on. This also means they have more funds to spend than they otherwise would. (No commute costs, no buying lunches everyday, no holidays etc)

And another thing we often forget... you do not NEED the latest hardware to game on PC. I play every week with 3 people who are running GTX960s and a 1060.
Sure we cant play the latest CoD, but there is so many games we can play. GTA V, Borderlands 2 from the older side, but even recently released Outriders works fine.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I can't recommend pc gaming to anyone. Everyone is better off with an Xbox series X or a ps5 no question. Console + 55cx oled is cheaper in price, a significantly better visual experience and sold at retailers much more worthy of your money than a scalped 3080 and basic 1440p high refresh monitor.

Can the Xbox or PS5 run all the Windows apps I use outside of gaming?
Can they use all the peripherals, too?
Can they make use of the decent flight sim and driving sim kit?
Can they run top end VR headsets?

Serious questions, though I've already guessed at the answer.
I'm also curious to hear your views on the differences between KB&M vs controller, and why you'd think I'd be better off with the latter, especially in game types that use mouse so much, like strategy and MMO.
Sell me on this....

 

[Aretak]

There is a lot to agree with in this post. When you think about it, even now, most gaming isn't done on a pc. Most people don't even own a pc anymore, it's either a tablet, laptop or phone along with gaming on a console.
The market for self build pc's is very small as it is, the experience we have all had over the last year or so says to me that the pc market will now shrink very fast. Retailers like OCUK will end up with such a small market that those retailers will become an irrelevance and will go out of business.
Who's to blame ? The retailers and the manufacturers. All of them have failed to look after their "bread and butter" and have spent the last year milking that "bread and butter" for every penny they can grab NOW. Well, make the most of it now because the cash cow that is your customers are about to just walk away, for good.

PC gaming is bigger than it's ever been. Even Sony have finally relented and started releasing their exclusives on PC. Uncharted 4 is coming up next according to their investor presentation the other day, which also bragged about how much money the Horizon: Zero Dawn PC port had raked in for them. Not everybody cares about owning an RTX 3080 Ti or anything close to it. By far the most popular resolution is still 1080p. By far the most popular video card amongst Steam users is still the GTX 1060, followed by the GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1650. The RTX 2070 Super is the most powerful card to even break the top ten. Most people are quite happy to play at 1080p/60fps with a few settings turned down. It's hardly all about the latest AAA graphicsfest either. No console can even come close to matching the PC's library of games dating back decades, almost all of which are a few clicks away from being up and running on your modern system. And that's without even considering emulation, where almost every game ever made up to and including the PS3/Wii U/Xbox 360 generation is also available to play on a PC.

You'd think the doom and gloom merchants predicting the death of PC gaming would get bored after 20+ years of being proven wrong. The current troubles haven't been "the last year" either. In fact, a year ago people were talking about a boom period for PC gaming, with sales of prebuilts and components way up due to the pandemic and people being stuck at home bored. All those people using GTX 1060s didn't decide to go throw them in the bin and buy a console. They're still happily gaming away and completely uninterested in whether they can buy a £1000+ new card or not.

 

[hyperseven]

By PC, i meant the type of pc that most of us on here own. I am going by my own friends, family and work mates..............not anyone within my normal daily contact owns a pc. How many people do you know that owns and uses one ?

Quite a few, but that's the people in my social circle with similar interests and have known for years.

Just found it odd as the data suggests PC gaming is increasing in value YoY as well as PC sales.

 

[Danny75]

They count laptops as PCs don't they.