Best Buy Didn’t Even Bother Selling NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Online, Likely Due to Bots

[Tsing]

Image: NVIDIA



Best Buy has been one of the more popular destinations for eager NVIDIA fans to try their luck at scoring one of green team’s hotly selling GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards. Despite some honest attempts in recent months at combating bots and other nefarious activities, however, the iconic electronics retailer appears to have given up with the release of NVIDIA’s latest flagship GPU, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which is not being sold online at all. Instead, prospective owners were compelled to camp out early at a handful of locations early this morning for the chance of purchasing one in person. It isn’t clear when (or even if) Best Buy will begin offering NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti via its traditional online channels...

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[Dogsofjune]

That's cool. I didn't even bother to look for one.....

 

[Brian_B]

In all of California there were... I think 5 stores that had inventory. Local news were showing people camped outside. They were giving away queue tickets you could bring back during normal business hours so people wouldn't stay camped out overnight.

 

[Dogsofjune]

And they wonder why AR's are carried around? As soon as i get that Nigerian money.....

 

[Uvilla]

The same people doing a listing on ebay/ mercari/ offerup with a picture of the product still in the shopping cart, like they w PS5.

 

[magoo]

Cudos to BestBuy, honestly.
If you want one, come and get it in person.
Stops bots and scalpers all in one scoop.
Sure, you can pick one up and then scalp it, but you have to get off your a$$ to do it.
Or I guess they'll hire someone to stand in line......

 

[Grimlakin]

Cudos to BestBuy, honestly.
If you want one, come and get it in person.
Stops bots and scalpers all in one scoop.
Sure, you can pick one up and then scalp it, but you have to get off your a$$ to do it.
Or I guess they'll hire someone to stand in line......

I live near a microcenter. Its a familiar set of faces camping out most nights looking to score video cards. And it's not because they haven't yet.

 

[MacLeod]

Cudos to BestBuy, honestly.
If you want one, come and get it in person.
Stops bots and scalpers all in one scoop.
Sure, you can pick one up and then scalp it, but you have to get off your a$$ to do it.
Or I guess they'll hire someone to stand in line......

I totally agree with this. I've been saying for a while that BB and Microcenter could do a lot just by making it in-store purchases only and limiting 1 per customer. I know they'd still sell out but it would most likely being actual gamers that are buying them. It wouldn't be worth the trouble to the miners to go to the store and buy them this way.

 

[Denpepe]

I totally agree with this. I've been saying for a while that BB and Microcenter could do a lot just by making it in-store purchases only and limiting 1 per customer. I know they'd still sell out but it would most likely being actual gamers that are buying them. It wouldn't be worth the trouble to the miners to go to the store and buy them this way.

Miners buy pallets from distibuters, they don't "need" online purchases, scalpers can still go to stores and buy some to resell if only to get a free card out of it.

Not sure about prices in stores in the US but here in Europe I have seen stores with actual stock online, prices are so stupid they can't seem to sell em as fast as they used too anymore (2.799€ for a 3080Ti or 1.299 to 1.499€ for 3070's)

 

[Dogsofjune]

Yes...... Just yes

 

[MacLeod]

Miners buy pallets from distibuters, they don't "need" online purchases, scalpers can still go to stores and buy some to resell if only to get a free card out of it.

Pallets? I'm not saying that has never happened but I'd say 90% of miners buy them like other people from retailers when they can find them and scalpers.

And you're right scalpers can still go into stores but I'm not just talking about guys who sell their cards on eBay at 300% mark ups. The scalpers I'm referring to are the ones that use bots to wipe out entire stocks of video cards then sell them at +300%.

Again I know it wouldn't "fix" this issue but it would put more GPU's into the hands of actual gamers.