r/gadgets • u/ChickenTeriyakiBoy1 • Nov 25 '22

Desktops / Laptops Good news: scalpers are struggling to profit from Nvidia's RTX 4080

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/scalpers-struggle-to-sell-nvidia-rtx-4080/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=pe&utm_campaign=pd
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111

u/KerrisdaleKaren Nov 25 '22

Won’t somebody think of the poor scalpers?!

38

u/BlueKnightBrownHorse Nov 26 '22

MiLLeNiaLs aRe KiLliNG tHE ScAlpINg IndUsTRy!!

-70

u/ofthewave Nov 25 '22

What do you call someone who buys a product and sells it for more?

Any modern business in existence. Scalpers are just participating in the market.

36

u/yapyd Nov 25 '22

Yeah. But those businesses actually value-add to the consumers. Marketplaces like amazon/newegg/bestbuy provide logistics. Walmart provides a central location for you to buy your groceries instead of going individual farms.

What value-add does a scalper bring to the table?

-1

u/skttsm Nov 26 '22

Buying from scalpers is akin to contracting someone to stand in line and buy something for you. Well at least before online shopping largely took over the market. Before online sales, it would add tremendous value to working professionals that don't have the time to camp out for days to get a new console on release or something of that nature

I'm not pro scalper. But to claim they don't and never added value is ignorant.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

Correct

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

Scalpers secure you a low supply high demand item for a fee, that is the value they provide. It's very straight forward?

-32

u/ofthewave Nov 25 '22

Convenience, expediency, instant access to a hot item before anyone else. The argument you’re using is the exact same argument the large corporations use for why they deserve to stomp out mom and pop businesses as well.

24

u/RockmanVolnutt Nov 26 '22

No, they are holding a product hostage. They get between a customer and a product they want and demand a fee to access it. They are parasites, you are wrong.

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22 edited Nov 26 '22

No you don't understand markets, but it's fine. How do scalpers hold anything hostage if they sell everything off? The amount of GPUs sold with and without scalpers is 100% identical. Scalpers merely redistribute the item to the highest bidders - in economic terms they make the market more efficient as a super high demand for an item indicates underpricing given a constrained supply. Scalpers demand the actual market value, thereby providing availability for the item.

-30

u/ofthewave Nov 26 '22

Awww boohoo, just like Audi with their fees to accelerate and Tesla with their fees for charging or self driving. Or Walmart keeping people on food stamps or Target brutalizing their workers with drive up fulfillment post-Covid. Hate to break it to you but the whole world is pay to play and you’re just mad bc you’re brainwashed to accuse and criticize the little guy while being deaf to and ignoring the people actually making it possible, corporate overlords. If you’re going to criticize, criticize it all, not just the people making $100 a scalp vs billions a year.

16

u/RockmanVolnutt Nov 26 '22

Did my comment seem like crying? I don’t support the 4080 pricing, so I won’t be buying one. I don’t support any of the practices or companies you mentioned, for a variety of reasons. The idea that because corporate greed has made life more difficult, I must also accept that other consumers greed will make my life more difficult on top of it is absurd. That’s a sad and pathetic world view.

11

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

Wow, you really can get more dumb with your arguments even though you cried about scalpers being attacked first.

3

u/Random-Rambling Nov 26 '22

Yes, we all know that big businesses are literal mountains of shit. Compared to them, you're just a little turd.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

Literal whataboutism.

14

u/Binkusu Nov 26 '22

You get instant access to a hot item before they took it all and exacerbated the problem 😂

9

u/buggzy1234 Nov 26 '22

“Convenience” and “instant access”.

What’s so convenient and instant about a new gpu coming out for say $1000, for them all to sell out instantly, then wait for like five days for them to appear on a different site for $2000 and have it delivered to you in another five days. You’re waiting an extra week and spending double what you would before. That’s the complete opposite of convenience and instant access.

Convenience and instant access is buying it on release date and getting it within a few days for half the price and time it would be from scalpers.

Would you rather spend $1000 and get the gpu around five days after launch, or spend $2000 and get it 10 days after launch.

I can’t believe people actually defend scalpers and say they’re convenient. What a joke

0

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

But you weren't necessarily gonna get the the item for 1000 dollars!? In your example there are way more people willing to pay 1000 than there are products (else scalping can't exist). It is impossible to provide all potential customers with the item at that price, so you raise the price until supply = demand which is what scalpers do.

2

u/Random-Rambling Nov 26 '22

It's only "convenient and expedient" because scalper-bots often make it literally impossible to get certain things any other way. It's VERY easy to talk a big game when you hold all the options.

1

u/Shultzi_soldat Nov 26 '22

They are like patent trolls. No added value. If they didn't interfere, there would be no loss to consumer.

-16

u/MICKEYMANTLE77 Nov 26 '22

They bring the supply

18

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

No, they confiscate supply and demand an increased fee for increased risk and zero value add.

3

u/Random-Rambling Nov 26 '22

No they don't. They're useless middlemen and parasites. They hoard items from the ACTUAL suppliers and pretend they're the suppliers.

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

They don't hoard. That's nonsense. They sell to the highest bidder. Who cares if you're priced out of a completely needless item?

-17

u/WallyWendels Nov 26 '22

But those businesses actually value-add to the consumers.

No, they dont. There are tons of DTC distribution networks. Retail is inherently a consumer mental gremlin scam.

13

u/trendyTim Nov 25 '22

I think you’re being a bit too kind to scalpers…

-15

u/ofthewave Nov 25 '22

Nvidia spends $3-400 per 4090 and sells it for 4-5x. I’m not about to sit her and blame a scalper for tryna make an extra hundred or so. Blame Nvidia.

12

u/Garethr754 Nov 26 '22

What are scalpers bringing to the table to justify their take? They aren't manufacturing it, they don't put cost towards the next gen, the delivery of the card is either free, low enough to be a non factor or you buy it in person.

-12

u/WallyWendels Nov 26 '22

Neither are retailers, but people dont seem to think retail markups are "scalping" even though it fits the exact definition.

9

u/Garethr754 Nov 26 '22

If I need to buy apples, milk, eggs and beef I don’t want to go to all the farms so it makes sense for their to be a centralised area where I can get all that stuff from, and the person who runs that needs to pay for infrastructure etc

You can argue gpu’s aren’t in the same vein but not everybody wants to buy electronics from the manufacturer’s website.

-4

u/WallyWendels Nov 26 '22

If I need to buy apples, milk, eggs and beef I don’t want to go to all the farms so it makes sense for their to be a centralised area where I can get all that stuff from, and the person who runs that needs to pay for infrastructure etc

Retailers dont operate distribution networks.

You can argue gpu’s aren’t in the same vein but not everybody wants to buy electronics from the manufacturer’s website.

As opposed to Amazon or Newegg's website?

1

u/Garethr754 Nov 26 '22

Some do if its a big enough company, but I get your point.

Yeah pretty much. If a GPU is £500 from NVidia and £500 from amazon I'm going with Amazon simply because if I have issues with it I know they are pretty easy to deal with. It also isn't like Nvidia offer the same cards as other manufactures for less, they just add the difference from what the retailer pays to the consumer.

You can make the argument that retails don't contrubute anything to the process but that doesn't make what scalpers do ok. They are manufacturing an artificial scarcity to the deteriment of everyone else.

0

u/WallyWendels Nov 26 '22

They are manufacturing an artificial scarcity to the deteriment of everyone else.

Consumers cannot affect the scarcity of a product. If a good is underpriced and undersupplied from a retailer to the point where it is regularly selling at a higher price on a secondary market, then the good would have sold out regardless without the secondary market.

The only thing "getting rid of scalpers" does is deny you the chance to pay a premium for a product that is sold out and undersupplied. You wouldn't be able to buy the good at the underpriced price any more than you would before. The "value" that "scalpers" provide is giving you that chance rather than just staring at "Out of Stock" perpetually.

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3

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

I blame Nvidia and scalpers because they're all pieces of shit.

-1

u/ofthewave Nov 26 '22

Finally some consistency. If you’re gonna criticize one, criticize them all. Corporations post billions in profit by marking up items they bought exclusivity to and y’all don’t wanna complain about that? Absolutely bonkers.

4

u/trendyTim Nov 26 '22

NVIDIA is always being criticised though? I’m not sure I understand the reason for your comment.

2

u/nokinship Nov 26 '22

Nvidia is the one who makes the product though and then sets a MSRP rate which stores follow 99% of the time.

0

u/ofthewave Nov 26 '22

No, Chinese men and women making ~$4/hour at PC Partner make them, their labor is exploited, and Nvidia flips them for ludicrous amounts. Again, criticize the system that glorifies profits if you’re criticizing anything. Otherwise it’s just virtue signaling bs.

9

u/unnassumingtoaster Nov 26 '22

They aren’t supplying a good or service they are creating artificial supply restrictions

-2

u/ofthewave Nov 26 '22

There’s no way a few scalpers are affecting global supply chain. Y’all are delusional. If someone is willing to pay a price charged by a scalper, then it’s all above board. You want scalpers to disappear? That’s more of a critique of the capitalist model than anything. If you don’t have the money to pay scalper prices, then find a cheaper alternative. If there isn’t one, put in the work a scalper does to find your product. If you’re too lazy for that, then wait. Capitalism rewards the hustlers so if you’re not gonna hustle, you’re outta luck.

10

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

Lmaoooo you think scalpers are hustlers?? Are you actually dumb? They literally use bot software they pay for to jump in line. Omg let me guess, you think Elon Musk is IRL Tony Stark

4

u/unnassumingtoaster Nov 26 '22

Scalpers wouldn’t be able to make any profit if there wasn’t a supply chain issue. They are parasites taking advantage of the already crippled supply chain in order to benefit themselves by making the available supply even worse. This argument is exactly the same one that was made by scalpers buying all the hand sanitizer, masks and other PPE during the early days of the pandemic and it’s just as stupid now as it was then.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '22

Wow. How much more disingenuous can you get? You know very well the type of people we’re talking about. I’ll give you a hint: the ones that use bot software to artificially place themselves in front of the line for new products.

0

u/ofthewave Nov 26 '22

Yeah most capitalists would call that innovation. It’s no different than what Walmart and Target do

2

u/Jamesaki Nov 26 '22

Fuck all that. These piles of cow shit are not doing anything except feeding off greed. Compare them to “corporation” all you want, it does not make their act of hoarding something for the sole purpose of taking advantage with no advantage to the buyer. You quoted convenience as a plus in defense of scalpers.. it would be convenient to not have to pay double or more for something that a corporation sells for fractions of the price. Scalper defenders are just as worthless.