If you’re desperate to own an Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card, then you might be on eBay looking to buy from a third-party seller. Just be careful of scams.
One seller on eBay is auctioning off an RTX 3080 Founders Edition for $590 — an amazingly low price for a card that should retail for $699. The only catch? The auction is actually for a 3D printed plastic model of the GPU.
The seller “risky_ricky” has been promoting the eBay auction with a main image for a seemingly-real RTX 3080. The title for the product also says “NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founder's Edition,” without mentioning it’s merely a replica.
You have to scroll down to the product description to see the auction is for a “New 3D PRINTED PLASTIC MODEL” of the card. “All sales are final, no refunds or returns,” the listing goes on to say.
The secondary images for the auction also reveal the product is a cheap-looking, low quality copy of an RTX 3080.
We reached out to the seller risky_ricky, but we haven’t heard back. So his intentions behind the auction remain unclear. However, the listing caught our eye because it seems at least one real user placed repeated bids on the product when it was going for a mere $520.
Interestingly, the auction for the 3D printed RTX 3080 began at $0.99 on Sunday. But it seems a collection of fake eBay accounts quickly propped up the price to $500 in a matter of hours.
It’s also possible the seller risky_ricky is just trying to troll users. On eBay, you can find numerous fake listings for the RTX 3080 from consumers who are trying to disrupt scalpers from selling the graphics cards to willing buyers.
“DEAR SCALPERS, THANK YOU FOR DESTROYING GRAPHICS CARD MARKET IN 2020 and 2021,” wrote one angry PC user, who’s been selling a printed picture of the RTX 3080.
Unfortunately, the supplies for the RTX 3000 graphics cards continue to remain low, six months after the initial launch. That’s helped scalpers sell as many as 50,000 RTX 3000 GPUs on both eBay and StockX, which take a cut of the sales.
To buy a real RTX 3080 Founders Edition from a merchant on eBay, expect to pay between $1,100 to as much as $2,499 for the card.