Uh, what? Scalpers are now charging people over $2,000 to own Nvidia’s RTX 3080?
Unfortunately, the ongoing shortage for the latest PC graphics cards is causing the prices for the Nvidia’s RTX 3000 GPUs to soar to disturbing new heights on eBay.
Since mid-September, scalpers have been reselling the RTX 3080 on eBay for around $1,300 to $1,500, which is almost double the original $699 to $869 cost, depending on the model. But in recent weeks, the pricing for the in-demand graphics cards has only gotten more insane.
To understand the full scope of the scalping, a Chicago-based data engineer named Michael Driscoll has been tracking the GPU sales on eBay using a computer script. On Tuesday, he told us the median prices for the RTX 3080 now reach $2,069.
The median prices on eBay for all the RTX 3000 cards began to balloon in February. In the case of the RTX 3080, costs shot up to around $2,400. The RTX 3070, on the other hand, hit a high of over $1,200.
The numbers only began to drop last week during the same time Nvidia launched its most affordable entry in the RTX 3000 series, the 3060, which starts at $329.
“The prices stopped going up exactly when the 3060 launched, so that can't be a coincidence,” Driscoll told us. “Not a huge drop, but significant. For the increases, I have no way of confirming this, but I know many employers give out year-end bonuses in February, and people are starting to file and receive tax returns, which could be driving some of the price increase.”
The insanity has also carried over to AMD’s latest Radeon graphics cards. Scalpers on eBay are now hawking them for about double the normal cost.
The eBay prices have also gone up as the GPU vendors themselves—such as Asus, EVGA, and MSI—increase prices for the new graphics cards thanks to rising component costs and a 25% Trump-era tariff going back into effect for certain Chinese imports.
Another possible factor is the surge in cryptocurrency mining, which might be creating more customers for the scalpers on eBay. Still, imagining someone paying over $2,000 for a single PC graphics card boggles our mind.
Ultimately, it's a dark time to be a PC builder. To improve your chances of buying a GPU at a normal price, we recommend you use a free online inventory checker, or check out Newegg's raffle system.