Newegg offers up a GTX 1080 Ti for $1.63, if you ignore the $400 shipping — strange GPU 'bargain' sparks many questions

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Get a piece of PC gaming history for pocket change?

Newegg screenshot of dirt cheap 1080 Ti
(Image credit: Future)

Bargain shoppers on Newegg may be excited to find the deal of a lifetime, a GTX 1080 Ti going for only $1.63. Unfortunately, the refurbished 1080 Ti will come with a hefty $400 shipping cost, making it barely competitive with other refurbished 1080 Ti's on Newegg. At least the card itself can be split into four easy payments of $0.41.

Update (June 10, 14:22 ET): A Newegg Spokesperson responded to our request for comment by saying that the listing in question violates their policies and will be taken down. It took a few hours but the card is now gone.

Ozi from OzTalksHW was the first to spot the "bargain," posting it on Twitter this morning. The listing doesn't give any details on the card itself, beyond that it is a 1080 Ti with 11GB of VRAM. The photos show an MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio, a 2.5 slot card with 5 output ports, three fans, and an original MSRP of $799 when it was released 7 years ago — remember when $800 got you the highest end of consumer graphics cards?

Looking deeper into the reseller, Creator Store, offers some context. The graphics card is promised to be "80% new - 90% new," while also being described as "well used," with a promise of complete 100% testing before shipping. Going from the product page to the seller's own Newegg store is even more illustrative. Creator is a Shanghai-based "young fashion" brand that sells a smattering of PC components. Creator carries a 3.7 buyer score, a not-terrible / not-great score which at least indicates it is not 100% a scam seller.

Other products listed on its Newegg store with a $400 shipping cost include an awfully cute gaming PC, a Vive Pro VR headset, and some PCIe expansion cards. No other product listed follows the 1080 Ti's $1 item plus $400 shipping scheme, but prices still seem inputted at random; a 2TB Samsung SSD is sold for only $80 listed next to a $500 Transformers action figure. But the 1080 Ti notably is not listed or searchable on the Creator Store; the cheapest items Creator lists on its Newegg store are laptop fans and photovoltaic fuses, hiding the $1.63 card from view.

Those hoping for cheaper shipping via local pickup would be out of luck. The $1.63 1080 Ti can only be found for shipping to the United States, sad news for bargain-minded UK readers. Creator Store does offer free 30-day returns, but its return policy seems to be overly complex, with a few easy ways to avoid having to process the return. And if you did happen to buy such an item and then asked for a refund, what would happen to the $400 in shipping?

We've reached out to Newegg for comment on this and other similar low-cost, high-shipping sales. We'll update the story when we hear back. If you're looking for good graphics card deals, we'd advise avoiding too-good-to-be-true offers from Newegg resellers and sticking to reputable sources; our list of the best GPU deals today is a great starting point. 

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Dallin Grimm
Dallin Grimm
Contributing Writer

Dallin Grimm is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has been building and breaking computers since 2017, serving as the resident youngster at Tom's. From APUs to RGB, Dallin has a handle on all the latest tech news. 

26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • thisisaname
    It is quite clearly up for $401.63, is it a con to put them higher up the order.
    Reply
  • Kenneth Hans
    Another example of how Newegg is circling the drain.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    So the same thing that has been happening on Amazon to Walmart and every marketplace in-between?
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    It's sold and shipped by a third party and it is standard scammer practice on places like Amazon and eBay to do that which is why eBay started charging a final value fee only because listing fees are based off of the price
    Reply
  • nightbird321
    Trying to dodge tariffs? It would apply to the stick price and not the delivery free.
    Reply
  • m3city
    Are there like two shops in USA selling pc hardware? Any news related is either about Newegg or Amazon. Like there is no competition. There are hundreds of stores in my country, both online only, and ones that sell both online and the n retail stores. With real competition regarding price, delivery time and method, customer programmes etc. We have several big retailers and lots of smaller ones. This offer is laughable... How is that possible at all to offer such crap?
    Reply
  • King_V
    I mean, this is happing with a 3rd party seller from China. No big surprise, except it's a bit more bold.

    It's defective? Oh, well, here's your $1.63 back, but only when we receive the card. Or, alternately, they will "generously" let you keep it without having to return it. They got their profit on a defective GPU, they can afford the $1.63 loss.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    There are quite a few shops. Newegg is one of the older tech stores in the US. Basically a direct from China importer from way back.

    Amazon is huge, and they usually have comparable or better prices than most other tech sellers these days.

    Microcenter is still a specialty store, and most of their good deals are in person only and they have limited locations in major metropolitan areas for the most part. And we have a few holdover e-tailers like B&H Photo that carry computer components as more of a side business. They really make their money in cameras and related studio equipment.

    A lot of the other e-tailers are gone or on life support. Like TigerDirect or NCIX which operated in the US and Canada. There was also a time Radioshack and Sears were a good place to get computers, and those companies practically exist in name only.

    We still have Best Buy, which is a decent place to get MSRP pricing. Beyond that we have Wal-mart which is a huge retailer, they sometimes have decent component prices, but mostly they are a place to find unsold laptop/desktop hardware at a discount. Actually true of Best Buy as well.

    And we still have a few specialty computer parts stores like Performance-PCs that offer more specialized things like water cooling components and other hardware.

    And there are many many more larger/smaller stores, but they don't have a focus on discounts or tech in general, so they don't often show up as places to buy from. You might be able to get a few components here and there, but not build a system outside of Amazon/Newegg.
    Reply
  • Notton
    There were/are a lot of ebay sellers that did the same to avoid fees.
    For something to cost $400 to ship, it'd have to weigh at least 50kg and/or come on its own forklift pallet.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    I suppose I am doing Best Buy a bit of a disservice. You can build a whole computer there, your brand choice is just going to be a little limited. And they do offer assembly services through Geek Squad, but that is a costly option.
    Reply