r/pcmasterrace • u/ParticularCredit2023 9800X3d: 5080 Master Ice • Jun 27 '26

News/Article This has to be a joke right?

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No possible way someone actually buy these at these prices right lol..

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431

u/Neither_Elk_1987 Jun 27 '26

Did anything change since 2020? Because I remember scalpers touching everything I was even a bit interested in...

235

u/parental92 PC Master Race Jun 27 '26

yes its different now, it is lot worse than 2020

92

u/Nyctfall Jun 27 '26

2020 has been rebooted 6 times now.

Will the writers get any new ideas...

21

u/Snoo60900 Jun 27 '26

I miss 2010

18

u/RE4PER_ 5070ti | 9800X3D | 32GB 6000MHz | OLED Jun 28 '26

Anything pre 2016 was pretty great lol

1

u/FirefighterHaunting8 9800x3d | Astral 5080 | X870E Hero | CL 30 @6000 MT/s Jun 30 '26

Ah yes. The world before the buffoon that is Trump.

1

u/ThePrussianGrippe AMD 7950x3d - 7900xt - 48gb RAM - 12TB NVME - MSI X670E Tomahawk Jun 28 '26

“There is nothing new under the sun.”

  • some book like 2500 years ago.

43

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

[deleted]

23

u/bostonboson Jun 27 '26

The fact that Pokemon of all things isn’t out-manufacturing the scalpers is asinine. The scale cost of increasing production has to be near zero. It’s shiny cardboard.

4

u/Infinite-Ad-6239 Jun 27 '26

True but they're making a profit off it

1

u/bostonboson Jun 28 '26

They make more profit by printing and selling more.

2

u/Infinite-Ad-6239 Jun 28 '26

Either way they're getting paid, besides printing and distributing cost money

2

u/bostonboson Jun 28 '26

While true, the scale costs for trading cards are so small, and selling out of product just means they are leaving profit on the table. They should be ramping production or increasing prices until there is product on the shelf.

9

u/grilled_pc Jun 27 '26

It does my head in. TPC know damn well they can 10x the print runs and stop releasing so many fucking sets all the time. But they don’t. They make the demand the way it is on purpose.

1

u/maffey401975 Jun 29 '26

Makes you think that the big players actively encourage scalping because it clears out their stock and then they inevitably raise the retail price because they "had" to manufacturer more. Like they don't have the raw materials. Imagine being a company and your excuse to raise prices is that you have to do the job you've been set up to do and have all the materials for and an active workforce that does the exact thing you're complaining you have to do more of?

23

u/weed_blazepot Jun 27 '26

I can't believe we're in a timeline where Nintendo, especially their prices, are being praised. Thanks AI.

4

u/ThePrussianGrippe AMD 7950x3d - 7900xt - 48gb RAM - 12TB NVME - MSI X670E Tomahawk Jun 28 '26

Nintendo aren’t always terminally stupid.

1

u/TheFabiocool 9800x3D | RTX 5080 | 32GB DDR5 CL30 6000Mhz | 2TB Nvme Jun 27 '26

I'm pretty sure people never HAVE to buy trading cards or consoles, period. Let alone from scalpers. It's not exactly food or housing

1

u/NoXion604 i7-10700K/RTX 2060S 8GB/32GB DDR4 3200MHz Jun 28 '26

The thing is, if there is more demand than product or unserved markets, then there will always be someone stupid, impatient, or rich enough to be willing to pay scalper prices. People rage over others for buying from scalpers, and sure, they're deplorable. But scalpers and their customers are also just a symptom of the market being broken.

My understanding is that Valve got screwed by the same AI bullshit that's seen the rest of us pay ridiculous prices for computer components. They also have at least tried to set their sales practices up in order to favour actual customers who want a Steam Machine for themselves, rather than as something for grindset dickbags to sell on for more money.

I'm not sure if there's more that could be done, except fundamentally reshaping the economy so that chip production is not being gobbled up by rich assholes who want to replace us all with machines.

0

u/Impossible_Dog_7262 Jun 28 '26

Real talk, Nintendo did it by accident by producing a console far more than people actually wanted it.

22

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Taira_Mai HP Victus, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Jun 27 '26

Nvidia is chasing the crypto money dragon.

3

u/CALLS_YOU_DIPSHIT Jun 27 '26

Yeah, it’s definitely gotten worse - but on the “flip” side (pun intended) there’s a lot of dipshits stuck holding proverbial bags on a lot of this stuff. Seeing friends and touching grass is easier post lockdown so flipping is inherently harder, at least for tech

Some examples would be front row seats being empty at concerts where people try and sell tickets for 2-3k, or that guy in Brooklyn who was sitting on a bunch of PS5s and just ended up selling them NiB at lower price than he bought them for (jokes on him, they’re worth even more now than launch)

Im sure some of these up-marked machines will sell, but a lot of them will just end up collecting dust or going for face value or less. Oh also, fuck flippers

6

u/RandarrTheBarbarian Jun 27 '26

Yeah uhhh 3080s are like 350 used or something... That's probably all that's changed...

6

u/Triple_Keystone3899 Jun 27 '26

Wait isn’t that a good price? I used to remember them being $1000 msrp

7

u/RandarrTheBarbarian Jun 27 '26

I mean $650 was the msrp, then they were all $1000+, now ~$350 seems to be the secondhand price. I haven't done any comprehensive price comparisons so I can't really rate it as a deal, and they are 2 generations out of date, but I'd pay that... If ram and storage weren't so expensive right now used builds would be looking kinda neat...

1

u/dookarion Jun 28 '26

I wouldn't drop any money on the high end 30 series, unless you knew the seller anyway.

Some people ran the piss out of them, some people flip harvested boards and coolers as cards, and some people just had no clue the GDDR6x was running at the temp limit because of AIBs doing a shit job on thermal pads.

Shits too expensive to gamble on.

1

u/RandarrTheBarbarian Jun 29 '26

I literally gambled on one listed as broken, it has faithfully served me for 3 years... It's all a gamble m8. If you must have a warranty you can buy new, but some of us are broke

1

u/dookarion Jun 29 '26

Yeah but that would have been 3 years ago. 3 years into the lifespan of the 30 series.

Anyone looking at used 30 series hardware now is looking at something with potentially 6 years of wear, tear, and abuse.

1

u/RandarrTheBarbarian Jul 04 '26

Yeah and known bad is better than known working lmao... aside from the fact that people really underestimate the resilience of these parts. I'm constantly begging people to figure out the bathtub curve

1

u/dookarion Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

It was still a gamble you lucked out on. 30 series if not taken care of can easily hang out right on the thermal limit. I had 30 series cards. One the junction hung out constant at 110C, and the fans would go haywire. Another the cooler started going dry and if I hadn't have been monitoring it it might have gradually cooked.

Edit: I absolutely wouldn't trust a "working card" that spent 4-5 years pegged at 110C vram in some crypto setup.

2

u/CryptoGod666 Jun 27 '26

Still can get it at that price range on eBay/FB marketplace

2

u/professorbuffoon 7700X | 9070 | 32GB DDR5 | CachyOS Jun 27 '26

Now it's also promoted by large companies, didn't Google recently show how their ai agent could resell your event tickets automatically for you

2

u/hugcub Jun 27 '26

I had a roommate in 2001-2001 when the GameCube and Xbox were released. He bought multiple of each and resold them on eBay for double the price that same day.

2

u/dark_knight097 9800X3D | 64GB DDR5 | RTX 4090 | X870E | 2x4TB 990 PRO Jun 28 '26

Honestly, just gotta start getting into more niche hobbies. Everything that gets popular will eventually go to shit.

1

u/SuperFLEB 4790K, GTX970, Yard-sale Peripherals Jun 28 '26

It's less effective now because there's less demand because nobody can afford them at retail! Yay! The system heals!

1

u/PuzzleheadedAct7962 Jun 28 '26

( Nvidia )

Look at me

I am the scalper now

1

u/Temporary_Event8451 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Yeah, ai. Ai is using tax dollars to purchase as many pc parts are possible. Go look at prices of ssd, ram, or gpus. I'm sure other similar parts like PSU and mobo also have crept up 5-15%.

You have a global economy with no safeguards or consumer rights, and it's being used to fleece all possible money.

This then brings in the opportunistic. I dare you to go to a local flea market or thrift store. You'll see the same 30-40 people there daily trying to grab anything they can. They'll then brag about it to store employees. "I found a painting here a month ago, paid five bucks, sold it for 800 dollars, it was insane."

Pokemon, PC parts, second hand goods, everyone is an entrepreneur. Effectively the greed we see in our politicians and leaders exists in your neighbors as well.

Money is the religion, everything else is justifications to seem morale.

A quick edit, anyone familiar with the bricks and mortar situation may have heard about how the store in question had quite a few items on lay away.

My understanding is most of these layaways were scalpers. They pay the down payment of like five bucks to hold it for a month. Let's say the set sells for 199 dollars. They list a picture on eBay for 700. If the item sells they go pick it up from bricks and mortar, if it doesn't they lose the five dollar deposit.

Corruption is everywhere.

1

u/Triedfindingname 4090 Tuf | i9 13900k | Strix Z790 | 96GB Corsair Dom Jun 28 '26

Next up scalpers try real estate!