Why is Scalping still going on 4 moths later?

vapor matt · 17 Jan 2021 at 12:46

I have had a look around at both 3080 and 3090 NVidia cards and also AMD 6900xt cards and i see blatant scalping going on from a lot of etailers even 4 months later for the Nvidia cards. some of the 6900xt models up to £400 + over RRP

The only time you dont see it is for the Fe models unless at auction. can we still 4 months later have people buying these cards with such a mark up. It makes me wonder if the makers of said cards are supporting the lack of cards by dribbling supply's on purpose or etailer's just putting a few up at a time on purpose knowing that showing low stock makes people jump and purchase at higher prices.

Some even waiting months and months for pre order's, I can understand the pandemic side of things but where most of these cards are made far east china ect they haven't been on lock down for months now, yet we are still waiting for stock and this is not just the uk its world wide.

Its like being held to ransom with the current prices.

watercooledman · 17 Jan 2021 at 12:48

Must be the moths

FoxEye · 17 Jan 2021 at 12:53

On AMD's side they just aren't making them in sufficient quantities. I wouldn't be surprised if they've sold 10 nVidia cards for every 1 AMD card. Or more.

AMD GPUs are basically unicorns at this point.

Oh, I meant "Available Now"... Thanks, Lisa.

HRL · 17 Jan 2021 at 12:54

Well Frank got one so they must be available.

FoxEye · 17 Jan 2021 at 12:55

HRL said:
Well Frank got one so they must be available.

Quite selfish for him to take the entire North America stock allocation tho

varkanoid · 17 Jan 2021 at 13:36

Due to the 4 moths not producing cards quickly enough there is no stock. Hardly need a slide rule to work it out makes me wonder why the question is being asked.
Its not scalping anyway thats just a made up word from last year need to come up with a new one for 2021. Its basically price and demand, doesnt matter whether its toilet rolls, tomato sauce or GPU's. Low stock availability = high prices. Been like it since the dawn of time. This summer oil was in short supply due to a hold up in the supply chain for a couple of weeks right after petrol hit 99p a litre and price at the pumps went up to over £1.20 per litre. No different with GPU's at the moment, CPU's too to some extent with the 5xxx series.

vapor matt · 17 Jan 2021 at 14:00

varkanoid said:
Due to the 4 moths not producing cards quickly enough there is no stock. Hardly need a slide rule to work it out makes me wonder why the question is being asked.
Its not scalping anyway thats just a made up word from last year need to come up with a new one for 2021. Its basically price and demand, doesnt matter whether its toilet rolls, tomato sauce or GPU's. Low stock availability = high prices. Been like it since the dawn of time. This summer oil was in short supply due to a hold up in the supply chain for a couple of weeks right after petrol hit 99p a litre and price at the pumps went up to over £1.20 per litre. No different with GPU's at the moment, CPU's too to some extent with the 5xxx series.

Still no excuse to rip customers off, my loyalty is to my wallet from now on and not to rip off etailers any more. some prices are plain greedy. and to be remembered when stock levels return to normal.

Perfect_Chaos · 17 Jan 2021 at 14:03

They need to hire more caterpillars

rallyslag · 17 Jan 2021 at 14:10

I used to buy all my pc hardware from OKUK. I even drove from London once to there old place about 12 years ago :eek:

. Now i use them less and less. I have always accepted they might be slightly pricier than competitors because of there support. Which when i have needed it has been spot on. But these days i just go on cost. I have built about a dozen machines over the last 12 months and only about 20% of components come from OKUK. were as in the past it would have been 90% only shopping elsewhere if it was unavailable at OKUK.

KiNgPiN83 · 17 Jan 2021 at 14:10

varkanoid said:
Due to the 4 moths not producing cards quickly enough there is no stock. Hardly need a slide rule to work it out makes me wonder why the question is being asked.
Its not scalping anyway thats just a made up word from last year need to come up with a new one for 2021. Its basically price and demand, doesnt matter whether its toilet rolls, tomato sauce or GPU's. Low stock availability = high prices. Been like it since the dawn of time. This summer oil was in short supply due to a hold up in the supply chain for a couple of weeks right after petrol hit 99p a litre and price at the pumps went up to over £1.20 per litre. No different with GPU's at the moment, CPU's too to some extent with the 5xxx series.

The problem is it never comes back down to the 99p it was originally and the new price is now £1.10. (Similar to the graphics cards that will probably never hit their fabled RRP's..

)

Rastous · 17 Jan 2021 at 15:28

Retailers are here to make money so will charge what they can for products. It's why competition is so important as usually if they asked you to pay say £1000 for a product you think if only worth say £700 (due to the manufacturer RRP in this case) you would just go elsewhere and so they would have to lower prices to sell. Currently though if you look elsewhere there are no cards available so you either suck it up and buy for the higher price, get a cheaper version or wait in hope of supply matching demand better and prices falling. It's rather funny actually as Nvidia were obviously scared of AMD so released early with lower RRP prices than expected (FE cards) but then AMD haven't been able to produce stock either meaning they could have charged significantly more (for the 3080 at least)!

fs123 · 17 Jan 2021 at 15:36

I've decided to just skip this gen altogether. The games I play are just fine with my 5700XT so not bothered at all. The inflated prices will no doubt still be payed by the desperate or impatient who justify the purchase in their heads but no way am I paying more than £600 for a top end card anytime soon.

Dirk Diggler · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:11

vapor matt said:
i see blatant scalping going on from a lot of etailers

I just bought a 5800x from a local electrical shop. They were more expensive than the etailer that I used to use, however they offered a price match. If I'd used the etailer then I'd have had it next day free delivery, but with the local electrical shop it was a 3-5 day service for free delivery.

I'm happy to go through the price match process and wait the extra days as I believe it's the only way to get the message across. Anything else is just self infliction.

Gerard · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:29

It's still going on because cards are still thin on the ground. The 3080 is probably as hard to get as a 6800 series card. Right now the 2 cards that are easiest to get are on 2 totally opposite ends of the spectrum, those being the 3070 and 3090, and unless you get an FE then be prepared to pay out the ass for them.

It's been a pathetic few months to say the least with both "sides" launching with not a lot to offer. More nvidia cards seem to be coming through more often than the amd equivalents it has to be said, though that should be expected as they launched around 6 weeks earlier.

benjii · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:31

Supply and demand. There's vastly more demand than there is supply, until that reverses the prices will be inflated. Most of the cards can be bought for RRP though, from select retailers. I bought one last Friday for RRP. However, you've got to be quick to get one, so it's not exactly easy.

Gerard · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:32

benjii said:
Supply and demand. There's vastly more demand than there is supply, until that reverses the prices will be inflated. Most of the cards can be bought for RRP though, from select retailers. I bought one last Friday for RRP. However, you've got to be quick to get one, so it's not exactly easy.

I've yet to see any cards going for rrp besides the fe cards or direct from amd.

Mikey · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:35

Supply and demand, is what it is and not exactly first world problems. Life goes on and if I had an order I'd be cancelling for something else or sticking with what I've got.

Brexit will add to the mix sadly too, I know a retailer I'm trying to purchase Sonos kit from, all their stock is sat at customs and has been for circa a week.

benjii · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:36

Gerard said:
I've yet to see any cards going for rrp besides the fe cards.

Oh, maybe I've forgotten what RRP was then. That UK chain of retail shops named after a takeaway dish has the Gigabyte Eagle and Asus TUF 3080's at £720. What was RRP for those? Some of the higher end cards were still RRP until very recently.

Gerard · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:38

benjii said:
Oh, maybe I've forgotten what RRP was then. That UK chain of retail shops named after a takeaway dish has the Gigabyte Eagle and Asus TUF 3080's at £720. What was RRP for those? Some of the higher end cards were still RRP until very recently.

The prices have bounced so much i've no idea anymore

. I think the asus tuf was meant to be around £679 or thereabouts.

varkanoid · 17 Jan 2021 at 16:50

rallyslag said:
I used to buy all my pc hardware from OKUK. I even drove from London once to there old place about 12 years ago. Now i use them less and less. I have always accepted they might be slightly pricier than competitors because of there support. Which when i have needed it has been spot on. But these days i just go on cost. I have built about a dozen machines over the last 12 months and only about 20% of components come from OKUK. were as in the past it would have been 90% only shopping elsewhere if it was unavailable at OKUK.

If you dont like them as much why do you call them OKUK ?

Mikey said:
Supply and demand, is what it is and not exactly first world problems. Life goes on.....

Actually thats what I meant supply and demand not price and demand.