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editorial responsibilities at Tom's

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  • Tom's Hardware
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January 11, 2014 4:27:27 PM

I understand that Tom'r has a responsibility to a major contributor like Newegg. But, as a bottom line,. Tom's is ultimately responsible to it's readers. Why has the editorial staff at Tom's not taken to task the profiteering currently going on at Newegg and for that matter ALL major online vendors in the wake of the recent litecoin run on the last generation of AMD gpu's?

I fully understand free market economics. At the same time I would expect Tom's and as a marketer Newegg, and other online distributors to take steps to protect they're long term market base. Be it by ramping production or limiting prices or both.

As a bare minimum I would expect Tom's to be warning it's readership to forgo ANY new purchases of amd based gpu's until the current market stabilizes.

You represent Tom's as our ad-visor in the computer parts marketplace,,,live up to it..

More about : editorial responsibilities tom

January 11, 2014 5:19:09 PM

This site, along with many others, recommends what they feel is the best GPU for a given niche. For here, that means mainly gaming. It is through no fault of theirs that the good gaming GPUs also double as good "mining" GPUs. In a free market economy, demand for a product dictates its price-point, plain and simple. And until the marketplace has time to adjust the supply/demand ratio, buyer's are at the mercy of availability/demand at any given time.
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January 11, 2014 6:24:39 PM

1. Tom's (and its Parent company Best of Media) isn't affiliated with any retailers to my knowledge. Its a hardware and technology review site, the editorial staff can comment or give opinion on retail prices but in no way can dictate them.

2. Lowering prices wont protect their market base just like keeping them high wont hurt it, its not like us enthusiasts are averse to spending significant amounts of money on hardware. Titans sold well and they were $1000 cards. Also, the market base for Newegg and all retailers isn't just the enthusiasts. If those cards are still on inflated prices, it means the Litecoin miners are still buying them, they seem healthy enough if their still buying so much.

3. Retailers don't control production, if you want that to ramp up you would have to appeal directly to AMD or their contractor TMSC who actually manufacture the GPU's (and Nvidia's funnily enough).

4. If Toms said "Dont buy any AMD GPU's" in a big announcement, we would be inundated with everyone saying that either the editorial are Nvidia biased or were paid off. Its bad enough that there's already plenty of sentiment going around that they prefer Intel over AMD.
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January 11, 2014 6:29:02 PM

Whole-heartedly agree with manofchalk! ^5 :) 
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January 13, 2014 6:35:02 AM

As ever, manofchalk hits the nail on the head there.

Tom's isn't a retailer, and isn't responsible for third party retailer actions. Editorially, it is Tom's responsibility to ensure our readers are as informed as possible to make the best possible judgments when it comes to making their hardware decisions and purchases. We do just that with reviews, benchmarks, charts and news.

Additionally, if there's something going on that you, as an informed user would like to make others aware of, you are empowered to do so here on our forums in quite a big way.
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