Data suggests RTX 5090 prices are slowly stabilizing — The average selling price on eBay has dropped to $4,000
We’re still nowhere near MSRP.
Since launch, Nvidia’s scarce GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card has been almost impossible to secure unless you’re willing to hand 2-3x the MSRP to scalpers. The same trend extended to other GPUs in the Blackwell family, reminiscent of the pandemic-struck days. A user at r/nvidia has aggregated data on RTX 5090 Founders Edition GPUs sold on eBay into a neat chart, giving us insight into current market trends. After the post-launch volatility, market prices have somewhat stabilized for the past one month, with a slow but consistent downward trajectory.
It’s important to understand this data accumulates listings featuring both used and new GPUs. A week before launch, we already saw a glimpse of Blackwell's horrendous supply woes with scalpers charging as much as $7,000 for “pre-reserved” RTX 5090 slots. Surprisingly enough, attendees at GTC this year were given the opportunity to secure one of 1,000 RTX 5090 units at MSRP and that number apparently surpasses Taiwan’s total reported allocation at launch.
The chart depicts a downward trend in pricing since launch, with average selling prices of completed eBay listings dropping from $6,000 to $4,000. Through closer inspection, the week following launch saw RTX 5090 prices range from as low as MSRP to as high as $10,000, rivaling the listed prices of Nvidia’s ProViz RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU with 96GB of VRAM. From January 30 to March 21, the standard deviation, which indicates the variation from the mean, was $1,121.98. When limiting our scope to just March, the standard deviation sees a sharp decline to $145.60, indicating market stability or, at least, consistent pricing across resellers.
The average price of an RTX 5090 has also dropped in March per the data, in the sense you might not end up paying $10,000 to scalpers… just $4,000 and some change. We found similar results from Camelcamelcamel, a website that tracks prices for products sold on Amazon where after the initial volatility spikes to $9,000, prices have now settled at $5,000. While this isn’t exactly cause for celebration, it is a welcome improvement and could indicate lower prices in the future. Of course, that’s considering if Nvidia and AIBs manage to supply cards in sufficient quantity. Notably, this data does not include custom RTX 5090 models among other RTX 50 series GPUs, it just concerns the RTX 5090 FE.
Price gouging this generation unfortunately also extends to system integrators, who are being offered entry-level RTX 5090 variants for over $3,000. AMD’s RX 9070 GPUs face similar constraints, as you’d be hard-pressed to find even an entry-level model at MSRP.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
-
Nitmare64 It’s even lower in other websites but still, I’m not pulling the trigger at $3,500.Reply
I was able to get a RTX 5070 and I’ll play on that until the prices return to normal. Enough with the
Scalpers. -
gg83 Could the scalpers "buy" their own $10k 5090's with alternative accounts to make it seem like people actually will pay that much? Even at $4K, I would think only east asian AI would pay that much.Reply -
Jabberwocky79 I watch the GPU market daily and have noticed the prices coming down as well. I snatched up an OC'd 9070XT when I had the chance, but still keeping my options open.Reply -
bill001g Reply
Ebay will get their cut and unless they get really creative and pretend to ship it outside the country ebay will collect sales tax based on the city it is shipped to. I bet there is a least 20% or more in tax and fees.gg83 said:Could the scalpers "buy" their own $10k 5090's with alternative accounts to make it seem like people actually will pay that much? Even at $4K, I would think only east asian AI would pay that much. -
Right now, there are 4 different versions of 5090 available, here, in Greece.Reply
The cheapest one (MSI Ventus 3X OC), costs $3,969. The rest of them, are priced at $6,488 (Gigabyte Xtreme Waterforce), $6,891 (Palit GameRock) and $6,703 (MSI Gaming Trio OC) respectively.
Yeah, they 're stabilizing alright! :ROFLMAO: -
AllcNi I've stated this a million times, and this article proves me right to some degree..Reply
But eBay and it's leniency towards scalping are a huge problem and the main cause of stock shortages such as this. eBay is essentially a "silent" partner in a massive consumer price gouging operation. Scalpers obtain then effortlessly list an item with the soul purpose of limiting consumers purchasing options.. This limiting of retail purchasing options creates a monopoly in which eBay & scalpers price fix the item with impunity. eBay is enriched via exorbitantly high seller/listing fees, thus looks the other way. eBay definitely has the capability to limit these scalping auctions as they do so for other listing activities they deem against their policies.
I my opinion, Nvidia and other companies should pressure eBay to implement the following..
Limit and Restrict 3rd party listing sites such as eBay from offering these types of low inventory, just released items. By enforcing a post-release minimum 90 day ("≤" retail value) policy; on final sale price. So if an items MSRP is $100, it's eBay final sale price can't exceed $100 during that "blackout period". furthermore, including said items in "bundled listings" is also prohibited, example; a 3rd party seller can not list a "custom pc" that includes the restricted item.
This would deter scalpers for at least 90 after the card was released and allow people that actually want to use the cards breathing room.
You see we've all been blinded to the real culprit to this mess.. Mother F-in EBAY and the likes.. If scalpers had no easy way to list and sell their cards to the mass public, most wouldn't even bother putting up the initial capital nor the time need to sell "in person".
We can either implement the above or just go nuclear and straight up begin a class action lawsuit against eBay for its complete disregard for consumer rights protection in its participation in what is basically extortion via product limiting price gouging scheme. -
ingtar33 this is valuable data to jensen. look forward to the 6090 launching to a $4000 pricepoint, with the 6080ti coming in at $3000 now with 16x the number of fake frames per real ones rendered.Reply -
Loadedaxe Reply
Nvidia and AMD both deal with high demand products (GPUs), and they could apply pressure to eBay to enforce these types of policies, the difficulty lies in eBay’s business model...they profit from listing fees, so they are not going crack down on scalpers willingly.AllcNi said:I've stated this a million times, and this article proves me right to some degree..
But eBay and it's leniency towards scalping are a huge problem and the main cause of stock shortages such as this. eBay is essentially a "silent" partner in a massive consumer price gouging operation. Scalpers obtain then effortlessly list an item with the soul purpose of limiting consumers purchasing options.. This limiting of retail purchasing options creates a monopoly in which eBay & scalpers price fix the item with impunity. eBay is enriched via exorbitantly high seller/listing fees, thus looks the other way. eBay definitely has the capability to limit these scalping auctions as they do so for other listing activities they deem against their policies.
I my opinion, Nvidia and other companies should pressure eBay to implement the following..
Limit and Restrict 3rd party listing sites such as eBay from offering these types of low inventory, just released items. By enforcing a post-release minimum 90 day ("≤" retail value) policy; on final sale price. So if an items MSRP is $100, it's eBay final sale price can't exceed $100 during that "blackout period". furthermore, including said items in "bundled listings" is also prohibited, example; a 3rd party seller can not list a "custom pc" that includes the restricted item.
This would deter scalpers for at least 90 after the card was released and allow people that actually want to use the cards breathing room.
You see we've all been blinded to the real culprit to this mess.. Mother F-in EBAY and the likes.. If scalpers had no easy way to list and sell their cards to the mass public, most wouldn't even bother putting up the initial capital nor the time need to sell "in person".
We can either implement the above or just go nuclear and straight up begin a class action lawsuit against eBay for its complete disregard for consumer rights protection in its participation in what is basically extortion via product limiting price gouging scheme.
The idea of restricting these third party listings may work, but I dont think they would be forced to, given how ingrained this practice is on their platform that users and sellers agree to.
In 2014, eBay was hit with a class action lawsuit from users who claimed that the platform facilitated fraudulent and deceptive sales. All it did was cause funds to be refunded to the users involved but I dont think it was anything to write home about. And remember, as long as people are knowingly paying more, and willing, there isn't any fraud.
The FTC has known about these types of exchanges on eBay and has done nothing in the last 30 years.
Maybe a class action lawsuit against eBay would be an answer. That would require a large group of affected consumers to come together and take legal action, and after all they just want a gpu, some will put up their first born for one.
It could create some publicity, and definitely be news worthy, and that could cause eBay to act. That would take a lot of time and resources, but it needs to start somewhere. I just dont thing the "gamer crowd" is interested in putting the effort in it. -
jp7189 It would be nice if the price data also came along with quantities, but i don't that on the chart.Reply