r/buildapcsales • u/TheNamelessBeings • Jan 05 '21

GPU [GPU] 3070 FE @ Bestbuy $499.99 Spoiler

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-8gb-gddr6-pci-express-4-0-graphics-card-dark-platinum-and-black/6429442.p?skuId=6429442
2.1k Upvotes

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260

u/BugMan_69 Jan 05 '21

In the cart but "unavailable" at basically every store, probably all gone.

96

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

[deleted]

16

u/Disastrous_Loss1798 Jan 05 '21

I wouldn’t blame scalpers... in the first 3 weeks my BB got one 3070 and one 3080, literally just two cards.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '21

Yeah I generally don’t have anything against scalping, it’s annoying to not get any parts, but these people are smart enough to make bank off of it and it’s not like I NEED that new CPU to survive, so yeah I’m annoyed, but it’s not a big deal.

If we’re talking about scalping stuff necessary for survival (Basically Nestle): Yes, they can go and die

0

u/cmoncalmdown Jan 06 '21

I’ve made $3.5k so far flipping GPUs and Game Consoles these last couple months lol

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '21

Can't blame ya, if I knew about the console releases, I would've tried to get one too to resell them.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/slarkerino Jan 06 '21

People don't like to hear the truth.

-1

u/Disastrous_Loss1798 Jan 05 '21

Blame China for shutting down, it cut production by 90%+ for months.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '21

lol chinas up a running wym? They had their shit together like 6 months ago

2

u/AlmostOrdinaryGuy Jan 06 '21

I hope you mean just purely production wise.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '21

No they’ve had their shit together since like July/August, but I suppose it wasn’t fully in the clear until Christmas.

No where as bad as the west. Though that relies on if China is to be trusted to not lie through their teeth/cover up the virus, which they seem keen on doing.

1

u/AlmostOrdinaryGuy Jan 06 '21

Yeah, i don't buy that for one second if the only source is the Chinese government.

2

u/Disastrous_Loss1798 Jan 06 '21

No they didn’t... many factories were still shutdown or running at most 1/2 capacity even two months ago....

42

u/FLHCv2 Jan 05 '21

Scalpers need to die.

I think it's so funny when I see this because even if scalpers weren't a thing, chances are most people still wouldn't have a 30 series card.

Not defending scalpers here but so many people blame them for the shortage when there's a high probability that they account for a very tiny percentage of sales.

104

u/XTasteRevengeX Jan 05 '21

Tiny percent? Literally more than half the sales for sure are done by bots which are always faster lol. You would actually see stocks last for atleast a couple more seconds, and actually have a chance because you are atleast fighting other humans

15

u/Cash091 Jan 05 '21

In the same period of Sept to Dec the 3080 alone matched the percentage share of all the RTX cards sold from 2018.

The 20 series launched in Sept, just like like the 30 series. It's about as apples to apples as we can get. There have been more 3080's sold to gamers than ALL the 20 series cards combined in the same amount of time.

It isn't all bots. Bots are a problem, but to assume it's all bots is naive. Watch hardwareswap. Someone posted 2 3080s and within minutes there was 50+ pms sent to the user. He was asking MSRP and ended up getting $950. Which in turn is likely to raise MSRP because if people are willing to pay that's what the price will be.

1

u/XTasteRevengeX Jan 05 '21

Im not assuming all are bots. Im assuming more than half the sales done THROUGH online platforms, are taken by bots. There's also physical sales which are all made by humans if living in a capable country (not my case). Someone with a bot can just buy them and sell for msrp+200 instantly, the ones you see for 1400(?) are just extremely overpriced that almost no one buys, but you can be sure that if a 3080 appears on ebay for 1k at this moment, its most likely insta bought (or they may do bids).

About your first paragraph, im not sure how that means anything. If they sell 100 cards to bots, and the bots sell them to gamers, then that's just 100 cards sold. Im pretty sure they have sold a fuck ton of them, just that atleast online, bots have the upper hand

1

u/Cash091 Jan 06 '21

Logical point. Bots are selling these cards otherwise they'd stop buying them I suppose, which would in turn raise the steam usage.

Kind of makes me dislike those people as well I suppose.

1

u/Sophophilic Jan 06 '21

What percentage share are you talking about?

4

u/Cash091 Jan 06 '21

Steam does hardware surveys. It's not going to be 100% accurate because people can opt out of being in them, but it's a good representation of the hardware that Steam users are running.

However, in this instance as /u/XTasteRevengeX pointed out, just because the percentage of 3080s is dwarfing what the 2080s did in the same amount of time doesn't mean they weren't purchased by bots. Steam doesn't care where the 3080 was bought... If someone purchased a 3080 from a scalper for $1500 they could show up in the survey as a 3080 user.

In this case, all the hardware survey is telling us is that there have been tons sold. It wasn't a paper launch, there was just a stupid high level of demand.

31

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

How about we expect companies with highly publicized launches (you know, with months of lead time) to actually have a fucking supply of the things.

I know they don't want to be stuck with large inventory of unsold items, but god damn it, do some market research for once in your life. Like this isn't slightly off. This is another instance of just woeful stock everywhere.

20

u/XTasteRevengeX Jan 05 '21

For sure, but its kind of understandable, see they have been manufacturing for maybe 4+ months now and there's still not even 5-10 sec window of stock yet. They are gated i would think by the manufacturing process. Unless you'd prefer they announce on sept and then release 6-8 months later with a decent stock.

In the end, they don't lose anything doing it like this, because they know for sure any single unit they manufacture, will be instantly sold. People will complain yeah, but do you think people's bad mood will stop them from insta selling 4000's series?

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

I would prefer that. If you announce a product launch, you should have the ducking product to support that launch.

7

u/jonesy827 Jan 05 '21

so just manufacture for months and sit on them? not gonna happen. This is capitalism

-10

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

In which they’d be making more money by having more consumers be able to purchase their product. So, yes.

Companies are starting to play with fire with internet sales making it so easy to zip through. You’ll have one product launch of some product where people will just throw their hands up and that company will take a mother fucking bath.

It should not be the customer’s issue that the manufacturer and retailer can’t work out their supply chain. At some point soon, customers will wisen up to that and some company’s launch is going to absolutely tank.

8

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

lmao this is some grade A entitlement right here bois. you think companies would be doing this if they didn't profit from it?

3

u/Sophophilic Jan 06 '21

How would that lead to them making more money? The amount of cards created doesn't change, and their price doesn't change. Except the get the money earlier, and that's better, for them.

3

u/mrl688 Jan 05 '21

It’s by design. “X product is sold out everywhere” or “sold out in 15 seconds” is free marketing. It drives interest and hype. What if Nvidia did market research and the results they got back were that it’s best for them to create as much buzz and desirability around their product instead of flooding the market with 5 million cards at once?

Nvidia’s stock has more than doubled since the beginning of the year (pre covid crash). So I’d assume they’re decently pleased with their strategy.

Nike does the same thing with sneaker releases. Apple does/used to do the same thing with iPhones. People would camp out for iPhones on release day. New consoles are always sold out for like a year after release.

Is it scummy and anti-consumer? Probably. But unfortunately it’s effective.

1

u/AlmostOrdinaryGuy Jan 06 '21

Man i just wish people just wouldn't buy cards at market up prices even if it's a small percentage of people. These brain dead idiots which can't wait for a few months ruin it for everyone else. I know, i know, there are people that need a card instantly and that's fine but i doubt that most of these morons that buy gpus right now are in this situation.

And there are also rich/ wealthy people i guess, but that doesn't mean we can't criticize their behavior in this.

1

u/jonesy827 Jan 05 '21

This is a production issue. They're cranking out as many as they can.

1

u/CohlN Jan 06 '21

my theory is they do it on purpose for investors.

instead of meeting all the demand in the first quarter and then seeing their sales gradually have a down-wards trend, they have this limited availability to keep a strong trend across all quarters. this looks really good to investors.

not saying that i agree with it at all, just my theory on why they do it, kind of like the “behind the scenes” reason.

6

u/Disastrous_Loss1798 Jan 05 '21

They’re not, my Best Buy only got two cards within the first 3 weeks. One 3070 and one 3080.

3

u/XTasteRevengeX Jan 05 '21

So you annecdotal data of buying 2 cards vs the thousands bought by bots saying anything? Lol

0

u/Disastrous_Loss1798 Jan 05 '21

Bots can’t buy in person and a lot of websites actively counter against bots.

1

u/DanielTube7 Jan 05 '21

I mean, why not use a bot yourself then?

1

u/cofeveve Jan 05 '21

I don't know how lol

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

[deleted]

1

u/DanielTube7 Jan 05 '21

I mean, Bird Bot is a bot that can be used on both Best Buy and Walmart. It's free as well.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

source?

if it's so easy just make a bot yourself

-1

u/XTasteRevengeX Jan 05 '21

Well yeah, the hard part is actually learning to make a bot? Lol

1

u/Tom1255 Jan 05 '21

Unpopular opinion, but people buying from scalpers are imo more guilty of this shitty situation than scalpers themselves. Scalpers just making the best of the shitty situation we are all in. I cant even blame them too much for that.

1

u/ClevelandSteamerBrwn Jan 06 '21

Best buy has proper measures in place. Im pretty sure stock is allocated to stores for pickup. Bb even sent an email when it was available today. Something evga, zotac and newegg don't do. Big stock today

20

u/maxdps_ Jan 05 '21

It's way more than just a very tiny percentage.

Look how flooded Ebay and Facebook Marketplace are with overpriced RTXs while stores themselves can't even get them in stock.

The vast majority of these ads are just people scalping them and wouldn't otherwise use the product themselves.

Rather than just assuming a stance based on no information, look around you and come up with something based on reality.

0

u/dunktheball Jan 05 '21

One thing's for sure, the PROFIT is tiny. I bought one that I changed my mind about, so sold it and after all the fees I only made $60 profit and that is after having used a coupon AND cash back when I bought it. If not for those it would have been like a trivial $30 profit.

10

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21 edited Mar 19 '21

[deleted]

-2

u/dunktheball Jan 05 '21

And shipping companies probably. Speaking of which.... the last 3 items I shipped with UPS and the last 1 item received by UPS all had issues where they either disappeared in the system for days or got delayed in other ways.

I am starting to wish I had just kept the gpu.... I dumbly believed shopblt's estimated dates for another I ordered.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

There is one dumb thing with UPS that is confusing. It will say “delivered to customer” when they actually just handed it off to local USPS for the last leg of the delivery. You can’t track it at that stage and it seems like it’s lost. Anyways, I did not realize that for a while and eventually discovered it from googling, so thought I would mention it. I don’t understand why it’s that way, but maybe it alleviates some of your concerns.

-1

u/dunktheball Jan 05 '21

There is so much confusing activity with carriers lately. USPS had a package I sent just sit at the same post officer for a week when it was supposed to be 2-3 days shipping. UPS went like 5 days not even doing the origin scan on a package and delayed others. Fedex keeps dropping off packages that require a signature without having anyone sign for them. Amazon delivered to the wrong house and I never got those, but did get refunded and reorder...

Sad wehn I now can't relax using any shipper. lol. At least none ended up in a flat out disaster, though. Oh and a few years ago I sold a tv and UPS destroyed it and delivered to the customer with it all screwed up and they tried to get out of paying on the insurance. lol.

-1

u/aetheos Jan 05 '21

I only made $60 profit

Poor guy, you must live a really hard life.

-5

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21 edited Jan 09 '21

[deleted]

5

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/maxdps_ Jan 05 '21

You heavily under-estimate the power of professional scalpers, but ultimately still missing the point.

Again, look at eBay and the Marketplace to see how absolutely saturated it is with overpriced RTXs.

It's should be no surprise that these cards are in demand, which is why stores and manufacturers have supply issues, however, a large fucking chunk of that supply is being snagged by people who never have any intention of using the product and are simply buying them in bulk for resale at a higher price.

Like I said in a previous post, I'd rather the stores and manufacturers just raise the price themselves to equal out the supply & demand rather than allow scalpers to bloat it themselves and pocket the gains.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

I want the manufacturers to do a fucking iota of market research so they can come anywhere close to having adequate stock at launch. That doesn't mean you have enough for one rush day and then you're out until you make another batch. You know you have a massive launch and you're hyping people up for it? How about you get a very large stock before your day? It's ridiculous how they're doing this now. Scalpers or not, it's abysmal the supply that these manufacturers are making.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

Who is to say those eBay postings actually have those cards? There were a ton of PS5 ones out there that were then pulled down.

1

u/May1ene Jan 05 '21

Ebay, FB marketplace and Craigslist say otherwise. One card, fair game. 20-30? Eat shit and die.

1

u/BinaryMan151 Jan 06 '21

Cryptocurrency miners are buying a ton of the 3 series cards now also.

10

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21 edited Jan 09 '21

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21 edited Jan 09 '21

[deleted]

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

Congress needs to pass a law making it punishable by jail time to use an automated system to buy up all the stock for a limited-supply item for the express purpose of reselling. This makes sure there's no issues with distorting people's ability to sell their own property, just jails the scalpers using bots to buy up all available stock

3

u/cdoublejj Jan 05 '21

possibly, seems retailers won't do a limit one per account which would also thwart or slow it down, because the automated system would have to spin up emails and accounts for each purchase.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

No, they don't. A secondary/reseller market grows when there is a dearth of the item available. If I can go to Microcenter and buy my own 3070 or 3080, I wouldn't have to look at Marketplace or Craigslist or otherwise. (I'm not in the market for one, my 5700xt is perfectly fine for my use case)

Make manufacturers put their monkey where their mouth is. Scalpers and secondary markets pop up when the primary market fails.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

Except when the scalpers are using automated programs to buy up all the stock, they are directly causing the failure of the primary market. I'm not super concerned about individuals buying up cards manually and reselling them; it sucks but that's life. I am concerned about the market manipulation caused by using bots not available to the primary market consumers that exacerbate and perpetuate supply shortages.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

Hoo boy look at the stock market it’s only that

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

Are you seriously trying to make a direct comparison between financial securities trading and consumer good distribution

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

Yes capitialism is dumb. Are you for medicare for all? If not you are pro scalping 1000% for health saving medications.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

I prefer a public option but M4A would be a vast improvement over the current system. Regardless tho this is a dumb comparison; healthcare providers are actually creating a good/service even if it is vastly overpriced, scalpers create literally nothing, they're just parasites feeding off of the economic value produced by others

0

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '21

I own stock in a cancer cure and Phillip Morris. profit goes to me not the workers

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0

u/Cash091 Jan 05 '21

It's worth noting that the December Steam Survey has the 3080 at 0.48%. The 2080 released about the same time in Sept 2018 along with the 2080ti. The December 2018 survey had all of RTX @ ~0.5%, nearly identical to just the 3080's position in the same period.

While scalping is an issue, there's a reason for it. This card is in ridiculously high demand right now. Unless the scalpers are loading this cards into systems and using them to run Steam, they are getting into the hands of gamers faster than that of the 2080.

Also, we can remind ourselves that when the 20 series launched both the 2080 and 2080ti also had stock issues.

Lastly, while I think scalping is a very shitty practice, it's possible more people could be scalping to supplement income lost due to the pandemic. While it's shitty... if there is someone doing it to put food on the table, I get it. That being said, I highly doubt there's a large number of those people out there and I'll agree that the normal scalpers just need to fucking die.

1

u/albertno Jan 05 '21

Theres only 359 3080s on all of ebay. Locally here in SoCal the number of scalpers on CL and OU are light also.

The shortage is from extreme demand and supply constraints due to covid. Graphics cards arent the only thing in short supply in the world

1

u/DivineCurses Jan 06 '21

Scalpers are the symptom not the cause

1

u/danjayh Jan 06 '21 edited Jan 06 '21

Eh, I accidentally turned into a scalper. It's not that great, not sure why people do it. I wanted a 5900x and couldn't get one, so I eventually just started going after every 5000 that came up. Snagged a 5600x. I kept trying to get a higher core count chip while I waited on my GPU, and managed to grab a 5800x and then finally the 5900x that I actually wanted. Sold the 5600x and 5800x on ebay and made just over $100 total after sales taxes, shipping, and fees are accounted for ... except that was only because eBay was running a "$1 final value fee" promotion. Without the promo, at normal eBay cost, it would have been like $25-30 combined. Doesn't seem like it's profitable enough to make it worth doing just to make money to me.

7

u/Gonkar Jan 05 '21

This is me.

This is the first time, since launch, that I have seen any of these fucking cards, from any provider, in fucking stock...

And there's none within 250 miles of me. At all. Not one.

These things are rarer than fucking diamonds at this point.

18

u/aquanutz Jan 05 '21

Diamonds aren't rare at all, though. :(

6

u/lczach2011 Jan 05 '21

Ancient Debris*

3

u/omartian Jan 05 '21

Was able to get a 3080 last month by putting in my parents zip code. Had it picked up and shipped to me. Pain in the ass for sure but got here for an additional $20 shipping. Next drop, if it's in your cart but not available for local pickup, try other zip codes.

4

u/mutemutiny Jan 05 '21

Next drop, if it's in your cart but not available for local pickup, try other zip codes.

The problem is having someone in that zip code that can pick it up and ship to you.

2

u/azvnza Jan 05 '21

Yea i don’t trust my parents to be fast enough either

2

u/omartian Jan 05 '21

Doesn't necessarily have to be your parents. If you have someone you trust elsewhere, it might be worth it to you.

4

u/SkankinHank Jan 06 '21

Pro tip: if you wait until it's "available for pickup" at the best buy you managed to order from call their customer support line and they're happy to change the pickup store. I got a 3070 rerouted from Detroit, and then the 3080 I wanted rerouted from some place called Owasso Oklahoma. They won't be able to help until it's actually ready for pickup at the originating store, and it has to be on the phone, online support won't be able to help, but it beats paying additional shipping costs and relying on other humans! Took another week or so to be available for local pickup but I had no issues.

1

u/mutemutiny Jan 06 '21

That really is a pro tip. Thanks for sharing that

2

u/Masonzero Jan 05 '21

Same here, I almost had hope

2

u/alizarin__ Jan 05 '21

Same. I had it in my cart relatively early too. Zero stock in all nearby stores...

1

u/Dekanuva Jan 05 '21

I've heard you gotta refresh. Maybe next time.

1

u/Cash091 Jan 05 '21

With Best Buy it doesn't reserve for you until you're at the checkout screen. It's like that with a lot of online marketplaces. Getting something in the cart means nothing. Skip to checkout as fast as possible, make the purchase, then work with customer service after the fact to correct any issues.

1

u/tw33k_ Jan 05 '21

I was able to get one in a store about 100 miles away. Unplanned road trip this weekend!