The Scalpers sold about 50,000 Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards on eBay and on the tennis website StockX, usually at twice the normal price, according to new reviews.
It is no secret that RTX 3000 graphics cards are being resold at absurd prices. However, a Chicago-based data engineer named Michael Driscoll has been monitoring sales on eBay using a computer script to understand the full scope of scalping.
On Tuesday, he provided an update on sales of the RTX 3000 after previously reporting that the money changers had sold 15,224 units on eBay in early December. Since then, the number has skyrocketed to 39,064 units on all RTX models, from 3060 Ti to 3090.
Credit: Michael Driscoll
In addition, Driscoll has been monitoring sales of the RTX 3000 at StockX, a site best known for reselling hard-to-find sneakers from Nike and Adidas. According to its computer script, StockX helped money changers to sell 10,616 units.
Credit: Michael Driscoll
Together, 49,680 RTX 3000 GPUs were sold on both sites, raising $ 61.5 million in sales. Driscoll estimates that $ 15.2 million was generated in profits for the money changers, while another $ 6.8 million went to eBay and StockX. “In the case of all four RTX 30 series, there was a sudden increase in sales between Christmas and right after the new year,” he said.
The price also remained high, despite the arrival of the RTX 3060 Ti, which normally sells for $ 399. “The 3060 went from 160 percent of the launch price on 1/1/21 to now 210 percent of the launch price and recently dropped to 190 percent of the launch price. The 3080 is a similar story, from 170% at Christmas to now 200% ”, he added.
Credit: Michael Driscoll
What is not helping is a 25% tariff from the USA covering motherboards and GPUs imported from China, which took effect on January 1. As a result, GPU vendors and scalpers themselves have raised prices further.
Unfortunately, the supply situation for RTX 3000 graphics cards may not improve soon. Nvidia’s CFO, Colette Kress, said earlier this month that the units “are likely to remain lean throughout the first quarter.”
“Our overall capacity has not been able to keep up with the strong general demand that we have seen,” she added.
As for Driscoll, he plans to post updates on Thursday and Friday about how many scalpers units Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 sold on eBay and StockX.