Amazon reserves RTX 5070, RX 9070 XT GPUs as Amazon Prime exclusives, to the dismay of scalpers

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Getting your hands on a new GPU might not be impossible–for Amazon Prime members, at least.

Amazon
(Image credit: Future)

Getting hold of the latest and greatest graphics card is almost always a challenge, thanks to scalpers, and the recent market hasn't been much different. Users are eager to get their hands on the new RTX 5000 and RX 9000 series GPUs, but finding a readily available supply is far from typical.

However, Damien Mason over at Club386 has noticed one vendor taking steps to manage their GPU supply in a way that directly impacts scalpers' ability to swoop in and raid available stock. Amazon has a handful of product listings reserving various RTX 5000 and RX 9000 GPUs and prebuilt PC's with these cards as exclusive items for Amazon Prime members.

This isn't true for every listing that features these cards but it is the case for a few. If you are logged into an Amazon Prime account, you probably wouldn't be wise to the situation, as there is no indication on the product pages that these products are exclusives.

However, if you find them while signed out or logged into an account with an Amazon Prime membership, you'll notice a tag that says "Exclusively for Prime Members" on the product search page. And the product listing includes a button to join Amazon Prime, rather than add the item to your cart.

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Amazon Screenshot
(Image credit: XFX, Amazon)

We've been covering the scalping situation, so it's interesting to see a vendor as large as Amazon offering a path for sellers to take, which would mitigate the issue. Some resellers have listed AMD RX 9000 series GPUs for as much as $2,000 (USD), while system integrators have seen RTX 5000 series GPUs offered for up to $3,000 (USD).

We took the opportunity to explore this claim for ourselves and were able to confirm listings for both GPUs and prebuilt PCs featuring these graphics cards that were labeled as Amazon Prime exclusives when accessing the product pages from outside of a Prime membership account.

It's important to note that Amazon has not officially declared this implementation as a tactic for combating scalpers, but it's hard not to see it that way. Then again, if scapling continues to be profitable, we're sure that resellers can afford their own Amazon Prime accounts.

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Ash Hill
Ash Hill
Contributing Writer

Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.

16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • grw34
    (You mean RX (not RTX) for the AMD product (9000 series/9070 (XT)))
    Reply
  • SyCoREAPER
    Oh noes, the empty wallet'ed scalpers won't have the money for (a) prime account(s) from all the previous scalpings to be members and scalp anyway.

    This is a publicity stunt, bandaid at best.

    Real way to stop it and this will be unpopular, require a driver's license and tie a one per residence until stock is deemed stable. That's the interim solution.
    Reply
  • sseemaku
    Scalpers don't have prime accounts?
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    I have a trial Business Prime membership and the 5070 shows up quite a lot now at MSRP of $549. The 5080's are also being reserved for Prime as well. The lowest i've seen is $1299.99
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    While the resellers maybe sweating it a little. The SacAmazon's are showing up in full force looking for suckers. I saw a 5080 listed twice by the same new seller for $799.99, such a deal. What's funny is when you look at their profile it is not a US address. 🥳

    That's what Amazon really needs to cut down on and not the legit resellers.
    Reply
  • vanadiel007
    All Amazon et all have to do is remove any listing above MSRP regardless of vendor. Same for Ebay and other favorite outlets.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    vanadiel007 said:
    All Amazon et all have to do is remove any listing above MSRP regardless of vendor. Same for Ebay and other favorite outlets.
    But they won't for two obvious reasons:

    1) It's NOT illegal to resell an item way over MSRP if it is considered non essential. GPU's are not like food staples or water or even gasoline. You can always buy a different GPU if you like and not the one you are after.

    2) They make a nice cut off of those reseller sales without in most cases not holding the inventory.

    This problem would go away if people used self restraint and did not buy from a reseller at inflated prices. If resellers went away, people would still complain for lack of supply. That is why resellers exist, they make a hard to find product accessible to a wider audience whether one loves or hates resellers or as many like to refer to them as scalpers.
    Reply
  • vanadiel007
    Heat_Fan89 said:
    But they won't for two obvious reasons:

    1) It's NOT illegal to resell an item way over MSRP if it is considered non essential. GPU's are not like food staples or water or even gasoline. You can always buy a different GPU if you like and not the one you are after.

    2) They make a nice cut off of those reseller sales without in most cases not holding the inventory.

    This problem would go away if people used self restraint and did not buy from a reseller at inflated prices. If resellers went away, people would still complain for lack of supply. That is why resellers exist, they make a hard to find product accessible to a wider audience whether one loves or hates resellers or as many like to refer to them as scalpers.
    Legal or not does not matter as Amazon can delist anything they like.
    But you are correct, in the end it's all about money regardless of how they like to spin it.
    Reply
  • why_wolf
    sseemaku said:
    Scalpers don't have prime accounts?
    They definitely have Prime accounts. Considering how many of them are drop shippers they need the fast delivery time and no freight cost. Scalpers flip more than just GPUs.

    So really this is just another move in the gradual transformation of Amazon into a membership only store.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    vanadiel007 said:
    Legal or not does not matter as Amazon can delist anything they like.
    But you are correct, in the end it's all about money regardless of how they like to spin it.
    But it's wishful thinking if Amazon is going to delete or delist something that is legal and they supposedly take an 8% cut. Now if the seller is a total scam artist looking to defraud you where you pay with no intention of receiving what you paid for, then that is a different matter entirely.

    People have the right to buy and resell something at a much higher price. It is up to the buyer to show restraint. The reselling of hot newly released hardware is nothing new. This practice dates back to the PlayStation 2. People where doing this back then and selling brand new PS2's for more than double MSRP. I remember that because I was working for Sony.
    Reply