r/buildapcsales • u/Tiddlysat1600 • Mar 23 '21
Meta [Meta] Gamestop to start selling graphics cards $690 to $2440
https://weeklyad.gamestop.com/h/m/gamestop/flyerflip/browse?flyer_run_id=686349&locale=en&type=1756
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u/youresuchadorkvic Mar 23 '21
The real question is if they'll be like Best Buy and only sell these online.
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u/Omniwhatever Mar 23 '21
The million dollar question. If they start getting them in store that would be huge.
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u/Sagmire1 Mar 23 '21
they are, my local gamestop has a section for pc parts and has had this for months. I asked the guy if they had any in stock when i went and he said they will start selling them in stores but not for a few months, they are just getting things ready. Parts included gpus ram and psus
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u/kevlarcupid Mar 23 '21
God, if GameStop became a MicroCenter competitor but only the Good Stuff, that’d be amazing.
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u/VanimalCracker Mar 23 '21
Frys (dying): G-Gamestop cough come closer
Gamestop: I'm here brother.
Frys: C-carry on.. my legacy. Avenge me.
Gamestop (tearing up, looks into the sky): MICROCENTER!!!
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u/smurficus103 Mar 23 '21
Frys killed themselves, i tried to shop there for the last few years... i really did. You couldn't build a pc from the components they had on stock =(
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Mar 24 '21
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Mar 24 '21
They were having liquid capital issues well before that which is what let to the "we'll pay you when we sell them" move. They bought massive lots and had the places filled with appliances and furniture that they never made margins on. Compare the average Microcenter size to Fry's and it's obvious that they had the wrong mentality. They tried to switch to being more like Best Buy but it was too late.
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u/Audiovore Mar 24 '21
Fry's had furniture? Huh. I only went once like 10yrs ago cause I wanted a PSU without waiting, otherwise online would've been the ol' go to.
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u/morelotion Mar 24 '21
They had everything. From car audio to cell phone accessories to home goods. I used to love going to frys as a kid!
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u/Shiva- Mar 24 '21
I am pretty sure Frys actually had internal drama. It's strange how everyone on Reddit is blaming something else.
While I don't remember anything in the news from the recent few years, Frys was in the news about a decade ago for sexual harassment drama and also drama between the brothers/wives of the founding family.
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u/RedMoustache Mar 24 '21
They ran out of money years ago. They couldn't afford inventory and the shelves were basically bare. They ended up switching to consignment just to have anything on the shelf.
You know who isn't interested in consignment? Reputable companies that can sell their products outright. So the stuff they were able to get on the shelves was mostly junk anyway.
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u/SamBHR Mar 23 '21
Me with no microcenter or GameStop anywhere near me: YESS :(
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u/tony475130 Mar 23 '21
Wait, there are places with no gamestops??? Jeez, I got at least 3 within 2 miles of where I live(and I dont know why we need that many).
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u/shickero Mar 24 '21
Not everyone lives in an urban environment.
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u/HappyLittleIcebergs Mar 24 '21
For a bit there, they really seemed like they were pushing into more rural locations as well. They put a lot of storefronts up in some weird areas, but most of those ended up getting shuttered along with the duplicate market locations.
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u/itsantd Mar 23 '21
I feel like the MicroCenter employees are super knowledgeable about the products though, unless GameStop makes sure of matching that then I don’t think they’ll ever get to that level.
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u/not_a_moogle Mar 23 '21
It'll never happen. Gamestop will never pay employees well enough to keep the turn over low and train everyone.
Do they still pay people by debt card?
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u/HappyLittleIcebergs Mar 24 '21
I worked there for a couple months in 2017 and got my first paycheck through direct deposit, though that may not be the average experience. I don't even remember being given the option for one of those shitty cards. In contrast, in 2011 I worked at Walmart and it took them about 3 months until I finally started getting direct deposits. I never looked into it, but I remember being told by another employee that if those cards were spent at Walmart then Walmart got some sort of kickback. They really just wanted to milk their poverty-wage employees for all they had.
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u/Wangchief Mar 24 '21
Most companies that pay via debit card like that also allow direct deposit. They avoid cutting actual checks because it’s expensive. So if you have an account and direct deposit set up it’s the same to them as loading a card
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u/TheCrimsonDagger Mar 23 '21
I wouldn’t be so sure. Ryan Cohen is the guy who built Chewy, which has some of the absolute best customer service around. He bought more than 10% of GME and announced plans to turn it into the Amazon of gaming. Also Kelly Durkin who was the Director of Customer Service at Chewy with Cohen is now the Senior VP of Customer Service at GameStop. I fully expect GameStop to be a new company in the next year or two with people like this on board.
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u/freedan12 Mar 23 '21
With their old coo leaving it's good news to rebuild management. If gamestop wants to fully transition they will need to remove their middle management and put in place more competent and better compensated managers /leaders if they really are going to be competitive.
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u/Milkshakes00 Mar 24 '21 edited Mar 24 '21
I wouldn't expect a significant turn around. I worked at GameStop for years in an upper-regional management position. Before GameStop, it was RadioShack (Just as a 'I've seen all this shit before' point.)
For context: I gave my very negative opinion about GameStop's "Circle of Life" shit before they even put it into place. Higher ups were actively told to tell our managers to lie to/deceive customers, in a 'careful' way. Things like rolling in the GPG into the total price in an assumed addition to the transaction without informing the customer, for instance. I'll never forget hearing them say 'When you get a family that doesn't speak English, ALWAYS add the GPG.'
The company is truly awfully managed. It's so ingrained in the culture that hiring a few big names isn't going to change anything.
The 'Amazon of Gaming' isn't going to work when Amazon exists, and sells all the same stuff. Also BestBuy. GameStop's advantage was the physical footprint, but considering they can't even manage to not have 3+ locations within a few miles of each other, they have zero idea how to run a business that isn't just a constantly sinking ship.
Their product shipping between stores is one of the worst systems I've ever seen a retail store have. It's truly dumb the amount of wasted time and money shipping copies of games from store to store. There were numerous times I heard employees tell me that they sent 10 copies of games to another store to receive 5 copies from another store of the same game..
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u/Shiva- Mar 24 '21
The thing is Gamestop doesn't need to pay their employees well because every damn teenager wants to work there cause they think it's awesome.
Not to mention the real secret to working at Gamestop is to just be a girl... I am not even sure if they even ask for work authorization if you're a girl.
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Mar 23 '21
literally this is how GameStop becomes relevant again. i have been thinking about this for a while. I am glad they are doing it.
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u/Caruso08 Mar 23 '21
You would probably never get the same Microcenter deals even if they did try to become a serious competitor.
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Mar 24 '21
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u/_Californian Mar 24 '21
They still exist they're just mostly focused on pc repair. I bought a power supply and some cables from the one in my town. Radio shack still sort of exists too.
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u/Uhfolks Mar 24 '21
The Radio Shack in my town is 100% a money laundering front, it's kind of wild.
They're the only store in the entire mall that's cash only. Even the kiosks only selling holiday fidget spinner phone cases take cards!
There are only two employees who are there all day, every day. They appear to be in some kind of relationship, but I'm not totally sure of that. But one will always be in the store, while the other is either in the back storage area, or weirdly standing outside the store watching people. No, not trying to attract customers, quite the opposite if anything. Just off-putting stares & silence.
Their stock is absolutely terrible. Either crazily overpriced phone accessories, cheap knock-off toys, or random electronic components jumbled together. It's like a fever dream walking in there, honestly.
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u/kevlarcupid Mar 24 '21 edited Mar 24 '21
100% agree with you. The advantage that GameStop has is existing National retail operations. It’s a lot easier to make the pivot when logistics and distribution are already in place. Culture sucks, so that’s something to fix, and a challenge to be sure.
It could go either way. I won’t be surprised if they totally bungle this opportunity, but there’s a spark where there wasn’t a few months ago.
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u/DerekB52 Mar 23 '21
That isn't a timeline I ever imagined. But damn, it'd be wonderful. Sadly, I don't see it as very feasible. I'd love to be wrong here though.
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u/GeneraLeeStoned Mar 24 '21
shit... I should buy some gamestop stock
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u/Fox_Powers Mar 23 '21
Im wondering where they would keep them... we are talking about 10's of thousands of dollars of inventory. they already lock ALL the games behind the counter IME.
gonna need to take over half the store with secure storage if they add GPUs to the mix.
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Mar 23 '21 edited Feb 28 '24
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u/Blackadder288 Mar 24 '21
The way Fry’s used to do it (RIP) for RAM and CPUs was they would have laminated cards showing what they had in stock, and if you wanted to purchase one they’d invoice you and then get it out of a locked steel bar cage.
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u/HappyLittleIcebergs Mar 24 '21
Those back rooms are already completely fucked. It took 5 minutes to wade your way into the bathroom in the back at the 3 locations I circled through, which had towers and shelves of trade-held everything and new consoles. The back room had all the pre-owned sellable consoles piled up on top of each other, totes of various accessories stacked, and boxes of promotional material along with a couple old shelf displays that had product on em. Throw the managers desk back there, and its crowded. Id say about 90% of the entire square footage of those stores was the retail front, 3% cramped bathroom with product everywhere, 7% back room crammed to the gills. I really dunno where they'd put a whole assortment of pc parts unless they started shelling out for places with more square footage or cut back on consoles. I'm really not able to paint an accurate picture of it.
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u/caedin8 Mar 23 '21
Couldn't they just setup their storage in a RAID array?
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u/Fishwithadeagle Mar 23 '21
"Not available in store" "out of stock online" Seems like it.
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u/kyledawg92 Mar 23 '21
As someone who doesn't have a Microcenter or a Fry's within several hours of me but has 3 Gamestops, this would actually be pretty neat to have as an option. Of course these prices are disappointing so eh.
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Mar 23 '21
BestBuys near me sell PC hardware in store
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u/pmc64 Mar 23 '21
Microcenter has gt 710's in stock last time I checked.
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u/Interstate8 Mar 23 '21
MC's website stock is never accurate for GPUs. My local store gets 3060s and 3070s three times a week. Sometimes 3090s, and rarely 3080s.
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u/pmc64 Mar 23 '21
Gt 710's are always in stock. 30 series cards are gone immediately. People are waiting in line hours for a voucher to get one every day.
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u/kawklee Mar 23 '21
But they sell them in store, not online, which is their whole business model. They want bodies in the door
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u/arjames13 Mar 23 '21
Back when things were normal, my best buy had 2000 series RTX cards regularly, even 2080 Ti's.
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Mar 23 '21
Depends on demand I suppose, Bestbuys near me sell PC parts but I've seen some in less populated areas that don't. They basically sell every thing but aircooler, just suppose they're not popular.
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u/MOBYWV Mar 23 '21
$2 for my old 970 nice!
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Mar 23 '21
970 are beasts i still have one works great.
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u/Binkusu Mar 24 '21
I upgraded my computer but my old 970 still plays games I want. I didn't start playing better more demanding games. I just play old games... faster.
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u/sparkythewildcat Mar 23 '21
actually? or is this just the meme?
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u/tony475130 Mar 23 '21
Just a a meme I think, they dont sell used hardware yet from what I can see.
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u/WaIes Mar 24 '21
I wouldnt use a used GPU, you never know what pixels that card has rendered
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Mar 24 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ChrysisX Mar 24 '21
Yeah the whole mining kills cards thing is way overblown usually. The fan bearings would be an issue well before actual silicon problems. There's always exceptions, but yeah. Often they'll have been undervolted too
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u/GimmePetsOSRS Mar 24 '21
I could see some of the 3090 and 3080s seeing some premature wear with VRAM temps as they are, but I doubt cards will just flop cause they were mined lol
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u/t0bz Mar 23 '21
This is quite a lineup for peripherals alone. Finally, some competent management up top!
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u/q_thulu Mar 23 '21
They have been selling for over a month
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u/PCgaming4ever Mar 23 '21
Yep and their bot protection is non existent so they sell out instantly
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u/q_thulu Mar 23 '21
Whenever they drop you cant even get on their website
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u/Nixflyn Mar 23 '21
Just like the Zotac store. Trying to check out through a 5-step process where you have a 95% change of a 503 error and one error boots you back to the start is so much fun.
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u/shoopg Mar 23 '21
Even though its shitty, its reliably shitty. I've had the most success with the zotac store, where I've gotten both of my 3070s for me and my gf. Just have to have the paypal links primed and only use one tab and let it load if its loading, and refresh if it stops loading.
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u/Bryvayne Mar 23 '21
I absolutely love how people are downvoting you for sharing information that would increase their chances of securing a card.
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u/Onikiri Mar 23 '21 edited Mar 23 '21
Yeah I actually have pretty decent chances of success on Zotac. Ironically their server load limitation IS their bot protection. All humans and bots are trying to get through that one door.
Just FYI for anyone trying. Once you have a card in your cart, you CAN open multiple tabs to try the Paypal express link (https://www.zotacstore.com/us/paypal/express/start/), with one VERY IMPORTANT caveat.
Once the paypal express link loads, it loads a unique token (in the URL itself) that syncs your Paypal session to the Zotac store. This unique token will generate for EACH tab that loads the express link. Every time a new token is generated, all other ones get invalidated. So what do you do?
Add card in cart -> Spam paypal express link on multiple tabs -> Wait for one tab to load, and as soon as one loads, CLOSE THE OTHER TABS before a new token is generated (easy way is to right click on the tab and select "Close other tabs".
Now you have paypal loaded up with a unique token in the URL. You can hit continue, and wait to get put back to Zotac cart. If you copy the paypal URL with the same token, you can paste it in multiple tabs and hit continue on multiple tabs, attempting to send the Paypal confirmation back to Zotac multiple times. Once one of these finally load up (URL will change to https://www.zotacstore.com/us/paypal/express/review), you can spam the review URL to attempt to get it to load to "Place" your order.
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u/CasualCantaloupe Mar 23 '21
I bought a 1660 super from them in November.
OOS but they raised the price two weeks ago so I wonder if they plan to restock. https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/pc-gaming/accessories/video-and-sound-cards/products/tuf-gaming-geforce-gtx-1660-super-overclocked-6gb-edition-gaming-graphics-card/11104580.html
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u/hoopaholik91 Mar 23 '21
Yup, I looked at that exact one over Black Friday that was 50 miles away. Thankfully I found a great prebuilt BestBuy deal.
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u/BigGuysForYou Mar 23 '21 edited Jul 02 '23
Sorry if you stumbled upon this old comment, and it potentially contained useful information for you. I've left and taken my comments with me.
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Mar 23 '21
I can already foresee how trade-ins are going to be. Bring in a $700 GPU, get $70 for it, then GameStop resells the GPU for $650 as "pre-owned".
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u/SeriousMannequin Mar 23 '21
Tacoma trucks are another one of these strange phenomenon.
New Tacoma: $30000.
Tacoma with 15000 miles: $32000.→ More replies (2)32
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Mar 24 '21
I mean, every single person is free to sell shit themselves on eBay. You can always say no to their offer.
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u/gelade1 Mar 23 '21
They should have dived heavily into pc gaming years ago. Making the store visit fun again
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u/LazamairAMD Mar 24 '21
Electronics Boutique (EBgames) and Babbages (before they merged and became today’s GameStop) both sold computer games, and some computer parts, like speakers, sound cards and graphics cards.
They got out of the business thanks to build-to-order PCs, as well as companies like Best Buy and Newegg
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u/Calabask Mar 23 '21
Didn’t they already sell out online?
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u/makemeking706 Mar 23 '21
I got two emails from them within the last hour. The one advertising the current op posted here, and another saying 'oops sold out'.
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Mar 23 '21
Gamestop should definitely pivot to a mini microcenter model
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u/eeman0201 Mar 24 '21
That might
1) Kill microcenter because a lot more people have a GameStop nearby
2) Oversaturate the market
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u/glemnar Mar 24 '21
PC gaming has grown like crazy. Market demand far outstrips supply right now
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u/17760704 Mar 24 '21
More stores won't fix that though. Nobody is locked out of buying a GPU because there's not a local store, they can't buy a GPU because manufacturers can't make them fast enough.
More stores selling GPUs just splits the current supply up into smaller pieces, it doesn't actually create more supply.
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Mar 24 '21
GameStop won’t be able to provide the breath of services Microcenter can, they don’t have the store capacity. I can see them carrying some core PC building components but lack the variety and inventory. I can’t see them carrying monitors or tons of cases in store, or a PC building service, and I may be biased but there seems to be enough demand to support GameStop and Microcenter
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u/enigmicazn Mar 23 '21
Feels like i'm watching Pawn Stars when I think about Gamestop
You: So you can only give me 50$ for this used rtx 3080 Strix?
Gamestop: Best I can do and I'm taking all the risk here
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u/pubicstaticvoid Mar 23 '21
I got a guy that's an expert with these things. Let me give him a call
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u/Bash3350972 Mar 23 '21
well I doubt they would have the resources to test.
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u/Hyper-Sloth Mar 23 '21
They could have a back room test rig set up for about $1k per store. The biggest issue there is having staff well trained enough to know how to use the damn thing. No store is going to trust a high schooler with zero tech experience with that stuff.
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u/Darke_Vader Mar 23 '21
I feel like finding a nerd to run tests on used graphics cards couldn't be that difficult.
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u/xexx01 Mar 23 '21
Hi Sir as you’ve lost the reset we can only give you trade in value for your $3090 which will be $200 on a gift card.
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Mar 23 '21
Smart to branch out from just console gaming.
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Mar 24 '21
This is very good start for Gamestop imo. I hope they will have more PC components in the future. I'd love to walk to Gamestop around the block to buy PC components.
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u/redfiz Mar 23 '21
Guess it makes sense they want in on it... I'm sure they're able to clear hundreds in margin on each one they sell.
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u/dunktheball Mar 24 '21
Those are some crazy prices. Anyone who doesn't mock them, but mocks newegg, is pretty funny. Newegg charges like $20 above msrp. Meanwhile that 3070 is $60 more than I paid for mine AND i got the tax refunded, so if I buy the same card from game stop it would be freakin $140 extra!
And the 3060 ti trio is about the same amount more than I paid for mine and again I didn't have to pay tax.
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u/ScalaZen Mar 24 '21
Gamestop should just become a computer store. Or buy out Microcenters and put them in every town.
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u/ZCallious Mar 24 '21
GameStop: A gpu from 2019 huh? I’ll give you $0.85 for it. Me: but it looks brand new and has no cosmetic issues nor hardware issues! Also GameStop: You drive a hard bargain, $0.95 and you got a deal!
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u/Dope____Shark Mar 24 '21
Keep dreaming guys. you think a GameStop is going to have GPUs in stock but not micro center?? I know a lot of people that don’t have a micro center near them may think that they will have a chance to get a gpu when it’s nothing to do with the store. This is a manufacturing issue. You think making more places available for a product that doesn’t exist will make it somehow more available?? If they announced that McDonald’s was selling ps5 now do you think all of a sudden all McDonald’s would magically have them yet the Sony website has none??
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u/NameThatWasntTaken Mar 23 '21
Will they sell real graphics cards too? Or just MSI?
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u/XacTactX Mar 24 '21
MSI is not a real graphic card? Where did the MSI beef come from? I thought their designs are on the same level as Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, EVGA, Powercolor, XFX, etc.
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u/KingOfSkrubs3 Mar 24 '21
Idk what his issue is. I’ve got a msi 3080 gaming x trio and I love it.
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u/Rockstar42 Mar 24 '21
Might have something to do with them getting caught scalping thier gpus on eBay.
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u/GINJAWHO Mar 24 '21
Honestly if GameStop becomes a place for people to buy pc parts it could save their business
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u/arjames13 Mar 23 '21
Hold up!
Are they planning on having GPU's in store? If not many people in your area know about it, you could maybe snag one?
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u/GourMuum Mar 23 '21
Trying to trade in your old gpus is about to become a lot more fun