Scalped RTX 4090s are Priced as High as $4000 on eBay

Asus
(Image credit: Asus)

The mining era and GPU shortage might be over, but scalpers are still making chaos in the GPU market. Scalpers have gone to town on Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090, selling cards at well over MSRP on eBay — with some cards priced at $4000 and higher.

eBay scalper listings start at $2,299, and most prices sit in the $2500 to $3200 range. At the high end, we've seen them listed as high as $4,499 — though most of the sold listings are in the $2500 range (our colleagues at PCGamer did some math and found that about 135 units were sold yesterday, with an average selling price of $2,524). 

But what's especially crazy is that many of the RTX 4090 listings are pre-order listings. This means the seller doesn't physically have the GPU — and you'll have to wait for the seller to get the card from the retailer they bought it from before they can even send it to you (and this is assuming nothing goes wrong). 

It looks like people are buying, though — the 135 sold yesterday account for about a third of the listings. The RTX 4090 went on sale yesterday — and sold out immediately, so desperate customers have no choice but to pay the scalped markup or wait for restocks. 

Scalpers buying up RTX 4090s isn't surprising to see, as this has happened at every GPU launch over the past several years. 

Is Nvidia Keeping Availability Low on Purpose?

The GPU market is in a good state for gamers, thanks to the decline of cryptocurrency mining. This means there is a chance Nvidia wants to stifle RTX 40 series availability — at least for a little while, as Nvidia and its AIB partners are sitting on a mountain of unsold RTX 30 series cards. This is why we're seeing pretty big price discounts on high-end RTX 30 series GPUs at the moment. 

Nvidia also overbought a ton of TSMC 4N silicon at the height of the GPU shortage last year. This will force the company to try and make the most profit off of silicon by selling cards at the highest prices possible, giving Nvidia even more incentive to keep availability low. 

Even if Nvidia is keeping supply artificially low, we doubt the company will stifle the market as badly as the GPU shortage of 2020 and 2021. But we suspect availability will take some time to return to normal for the RTX 4090, as well as the RTX 4080 16GB and the RTX 4080 12GB when they launch later this year. 

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • bigdragon
    I really hate eBay. Seems like it's full of Amazon drop-shippers and scam artists. The fees are also outrageous for the amount of work you have to put in trying to find legit buyers and sellers now. Seeing eBay again contributing to GPU -- or other electronics -- scarcity gives me additional reasons to avoid doing business there.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Nearly all decent GPU ever launched (and much other tech) have been on scarce availability for at least the first month from launch. The first wave of shipped cards instantaneously selling out was practically a given no matter what.

    Where the fun begins is when the second wave of cards hits the shelves before scalpers are done getting rid of their first batch and watch their stash of unsold inventory grow with each additional delivery once the early more-money-than-sense buyers are done.
    Reply
  • Math Geek
    i can't imagine being so impatient that i'd pay double for something just to have it today.

    something about a fool and his money comes to mind.

    it is funny that the folks willing to pay crazy prices are the same ones that whine and cry about the scalpers. it does not bother me really since i am not gonna feed them, but it does get old listening to the impatient ones whining cause someone is taking advantage of them. follow nancy regan's advice and "JUST SAY NO!!" lol
    Reply
  • btmedic04
    yep, saw this coming. funny thing is, my local microcenter didnt sell out of 4090s until late in the afternoon on launch day
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    Hopefully they get stuck with them and have to sell them under msrp.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    ohio_buckeye said:
    Hopefully they get stuck with them and have to sell them under msrp.
    30% of them sold for ~$2500. Lets see how long that holds. My bet is on not much beyond retailers receiving their second or third shipment.
    Reply
  • Why_Me
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGV6LQYR
    ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition Gaming Graphics Card $3,499.99 Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    I’m good. If I wanted to which I’m not buying a 4090, my local Microcenter showed 3 zotac models left in stock at 1699. But those are the kind you can’t buy online. Even at msrp, let retailers sit on them. They are overpriced at msrp much less people scalping.
    Reply
  • TheOtherOne
    Most, if not all, of these early "buys" are fake buyers to upvote and establish good rep for those sellers. Of course there's an old saying, a sucker is born every min on this planet. Some of those suckers end up looking at these "well reputed" sellers who have "sold" XX number of cards in last few days and now only limited stock is available, time to rush! They happily part away with their money to buy these overpriced cards for real and the wheel keeps rolling!
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    I just hope those sellers get stuck with those cards and lose a lot of money.
    Reply