Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU is teaching scalpers a well-deserved lesson
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Nvidia’s RTX 4080 GPU is fresh on the scene and we’ve seen stock shortages in the early days of the graphics card – but the good news is that scalpers trying to profit from reselling these cards usually seem to fall flat on their faces.
As Tom’s hardware (opens in new tab) reports, looking at sales data for RTX 4080 GPUs on eBay in the US over the past week, they’re barely shifting, so contenders hoping for quick gains on them are no doubt starting to freak out – and maybe rethink their money-making gamble that currently crashing and on fire.
In fact, RTX 4090 graphics cards are much better than the RTX 4080 on eBay, according to Tom’s stats, with 3.4 of the former being sold for every unit of the RTX 4080 that has shifted. In other words, it’s about four times as many RTX 4090 graphics cards being sold compared to its lesser Lovelace sibling.
Tom’s notes that an average of only eight RTX 4080 GPUs are sold per day on eBay US, and that’s a huge step down from what was seen with the RTX 4090; when the flagship launched, it was selling 64 cards daily on the auction site at its peak.
Analysis: Reflecting broader feelings about the disappointing RTX 4080
This reflects the broad sentiment that exists regarding the RTX 4080 as a poorly positioned graphics card – almost as pricey as the RTX 4090 in some cases, and yet it doesn’t offer anything like the same levels of performance.
While the RTX 4090 has been a profit maker for scalpers (unfortunately) – selling through at 54% above MSRP in its launch week on eBay – the RTX 4080 currently only offers a 30% premium over MSRP (and it doesn’t really sell much at neither that level, as noted above). The RTX 4090 currently remains 38% above MSRP, still stronger than the newer 4080, and the Lovelace flagship prices have even gone up a bit on eBay after the launch of the RTX 4080.
This describes some things pretty clearly: the disappointing and poorly received RTX 4080 certainly helps boost sales of RTX 4090, both new graphics cards off the shelves (as we’ve seen with stats elsewhere, the flagship has more than four times as many units like the RTX 4080, roughly), and on eBay.
It’s also a clear lesson to scalpers that just because a shiny new graphics card comes out, it won’t necessarily be a resale goldmine, or even make much of a profit. Right now, scalpers with RTX 4080 models will no doubt look nervously at the stock shifting and may take a small loss rather than a larger loss over time.
Times seem to be changing, then, in terms of GPU price erosion for new stocks now feeling a bit like playing with fire – at least with the RTX 4080. And with luck, these warning signs could make scalpers think twice about getting involved in reselling of AMD’s incoming RDNA 3 graphics cards, which may be cheaper than Nvidia’s Lovelace models, but will still be expensive beasts. That rather depends on how initial inventory levels turn out, mind you, and how much volume AMD and its card-making partners can muster – because if GPUs turn out thin, that’s clearly a ripe recipe for scalping.
Let’s hope some lessons have been learned here, and in any case, some people who apparently burn their fingers trying to flip an RTX 4080 for profit may not want to go through this risk or hassle in the future.