The GeForce RTX 3080 has sold out almost immediately, with only a lucky handful of people able to get their hands on the latest graphics card from Nvidia. Worst of all, the scalpers are out in force and charging thousands of dollars for this new piece of tech, with one listing exceeding $75,000.
Three months ago, the first images of the GeForce RTX 3080 leaked and it looked like a pretty beefy card. It’s been officially revealed by Nvidia since then, with 3070, 3080, and 3090 models announced. Nvidia followed the reveal with the wonderful announcement that people would be able to buy this new card before the end of 2020.
This time around, Nvidia decided to go with staggered release dates for its cards and today was the big day for the RTX 3080. To the surprise of pretty much no one, it’s already sold out — every single Amazon listing for the GeForce RTX 3080 says that it’s currently unavailable and no manufacturers have the card for sale via their website.
It seems that most gamers trying to get their hands on this new graphics card weren’t able to successfully complete an order. While a handful of people reported success, most people in this Reddit discussion have said that they were unable to secure one for themselves. As one might expect, the high demand for this new card has brought scalpers out in droves.
The most egregious eBay listing found thus far has the highest bid at over $80,000 at the time of writing for a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080. A search of other RTX 3080 auctions on the site shows prices ranging from $910 to $10,000 for a product that has an MSRP of $699.99. (It is alsoentirely possible that some people are putting in fake bids simply to waste the scalper’s time.)
Understandably, many people are irate at this development. The replies to Nvidia’s announcement of the RTX 3080 reviews being out are savagely criticizing the hardware manufacturer for dropping the ball on pre-orders.
What's the point of the whole "Notify Me" emails if they didn't go out with a time for us to buy them or some system to purchase them that isn't easily targeted by bots?
One second it was Notify Me and then Out of Stock the next. Why wouldn't you do more to stop scalpers?
— Ashtarte (@Ashtarte3DX) September 17, 2020
If you weren’t one of the lucky few to get a GeForce RTX 3080 pre-order in, it looks like you might be out of luck for the near future. For now, you can hope that Nvidia gets a restock together soon or take your chances at getting the RTX 3090 when it debuts on September 24, 2020, for $1,499.
