Resellers on eBay and StockX may have sold upwards of 50,000 RTX 30-series GPUs, according to data engineer Michael Driscoll's latest analysis of the GPU market. That's $61.5 million in sales, which translates to roughly $15.2 million in profit for those looking to make a quick buck on the not-so-savoury reselling market.
The Chicago-based data engineer has been tracking GPU sales using his own data scraping code for some time now, initially plotting the prices that GPUs sold for on eBay against their MSRP in, what our Alan called at the time, "plenty of depressing graphs." Spot on there, I think Alan.
Driscoll's latest in-depth report is more of the same, which is bad news for prospective graphics card buyers. It notes a significant price increase for RTX 30-series graphics cards that currently shows no sign of slowing down—anywhere from 140 percent to over 220 percent of MSRP.
The median price for the RTX 3060 Ti is now $667 on eBay, only a touch shy of the MSRP of the RTX 3080 and far in excess of the card's $399 MSRP.
The RTX 3070's median price is $809, while the RTX 3080 is sitting at $1,300. The RTX 3090 is less drastically affected by price hikes, perhaps due to its already steep $1,499 MSRP. Yet even it now sells for over $2,000, which is a 33+ percent markup.
StockX prices are a little lower, on average, but still far in excess of MSRP, and plenty high enough for the reseller market to turn a decent profit.
The most popular cards are those found in Founders Edition fare, while EVGA, Asus, and MSI cards follow close behind.
Price increase are also reported in older GPU generations, such as the 16-series and 20-series, as a result. We'd normally expect to see some price increases for these cards as inventory simmers down and is gradually depleted to make way for new stock, but significant upswings in pricing here may be determined by the overall lack of graphics silicon.
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It's great data that tells an unfortunate story, and hats off to Driscoll for collecting and collating the information.
Our recommendation remains to be patient and try official channels before considering any reseller. There is a slow supply of RTX 30-series stock gradually feeding the market, and it's certainly not impossible to find a card from a reputable retailer.
It seems you just need to be in the right place at the right time.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, if only a small speck on the horizon today: Nvidia is aiming for some semblance of normality come May, while AMD has offered a rough estimate of the second half of 2021 before it manages to meet demand.
