Last Thursday, Best Buy was supposed to start selling Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti. But like every PC graphics card, it sold out immediately. Or at least that’s what it looked like.
However, the people who run bots and computer scripts that monitor GPU sales say the launch never occurred. For whatever reason, Best Buy decided to hold back sales for the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition, even as desperate consumers waited for hours online to try and buy it.
“No one got the Founders Edition from Best Buy,” said a representative for House of Carts, a group that bots and resells graphics cards.
Indeed, something fishy occurred with Best Buy's launch for the product, which the retailer decided to exclusively sell online. Throughout the day, Best Buy listed the GPU as “coming soon.” Then at about 1:12 p.m. PST, the product’s status suddenly changed to “sold out.”
According to consumers, not once did the page show an “add to cart” button. The instant sold out notice caused us to assume bots had snatched up all the supplies. But several scalpers told us they never saw the product in stock either.
“I saw the same. Coming soon > Sold out. Even running a program specifically for automation I didn’t catch a glimpse or hear of anyone actually getting one,” said one reseller, who was able to score other GPUs from Best Buy.
We also spoke to the user who operates Fixitfixitfixit, which has been notifying consumers when graphics card restocks occur at major retailers. The service works by checking online product listings every one to 10 seconds.
“My monitors didn't see any 3070 Ti's go in stock on launch day,” the operator for Fixitfixitfixit said. “As a matter of fact, from what I can tell no monitors on the market did.”
The off-chance Best Buy sold out every unit in an instant also doesn’t match with how the company’s website normally operates. For previous GPU launches, Best Buy has displayed an add-to-cart button to purchase the product. But pressing it once doesn’t suffice. Best Buy will tell you it's preparing to distribute the product, and then ask you to click the add-to-cart button again to begin the checkout process.
This virtual queue system usually lasts for several minutes. But for the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition launch, it never appeared.
Other consumers who created or installed their own computer programs to track GPU sales also say Best Buy's website never sold the product. As evidence, they point to logs from their tracking programs, which show the RTX 3070 Ti never becoming available on Best Buy’s online listing.
One log shows Best Buy restocked on two dozen different graphics card models last Thursday. However, the RTX 3070 Ti was conspicuously absent.
The other glaring piece of evidence involves the resale market. Normally, scalpers are quick to brag about scoring a GPU on social media. They’ll then post the product on eBay. But we've found almost no attempts to resell the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition model. We’ve only seen a single open-boxed listing on eBay and another on StockX.
The strange launch is causing scalpers and consumers to guess that Best Buy will sell the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition at a later date, possibly on a Thursday, when the retailer normally restocks graphics cards.
Best Buy and Nvidia did not immediately respond to our requests for comment. However, Best Buy's Canadian blog did recently publish a post that says the company plans to sell Nvidia’s RTX 3000 graphics card in select stores. But a Best Buy spokesperson told us this policy only applies to Canada, not the US.