Question about GPU pricing/scalping, upgrade 9060XT

[pinky33]

So trying to understand this whole price gouging, supply and demand stuff.

When the 9070/XT came out at my local microcenter I saw and knew people who just went in purchased at normal retail prices that AMD listed. A few aftermarket fancy cards did cost more of course.

Now all cards at microcenter and online are well over retail and ebay is $$$$

I was never going to pay over $500 for a card anyway, but I am seriously considering the retail price of 9060XT to pair with my 5600x. This would be an upgrade from a NVidia 1080 card.

I have been trying to google how they can sell at retail for a short time, but then even the stores raise prices. Why not just raise price at the start? I read somewhere that brands (MSI, EVGA, SPARKLE, and so on) have to sell a certain quantity of units at retail and then raise prices..... no idea if this is true.

So when the 9060xt does come out and if it really is $300-350 retail do I run to microcenter and buy one ASAP?

Do I buy them all and then sell the extra on ebay? kidding.

Thank you

 

[Janus67]

The prices jump because of supply/demand, tariffs, and unknowns (being unable to forecast what is coming). The brands largely have an MSRP model, but those are few and far between to find because the other models have higher margins for the companies. [FWIW EVGA doesn't exist anymore in the GPU space, and honestly not much else either]. I'm not aware of any minimum quantities limitations, the prices that were available at/near launch increased as other factors came into play (as well as just corporate greed, of course).

Your best bet is to try to get a GPU on its launch day if you want to avoid future price increases, I don't imagine they will have quite the scalping and supply issues as the 5090 has. The 5070/5070tis have managed to stay in-stock for significant (comparably) amounts of times being multiple days. I believe the AMD cards have been somewhat similar.

 

[EarthDog]

No ETA on the 9060XT yet. Could be 'announced' at Computex or come out earlier as to not let the 5060 Ti get a month+ headstart.

If you want one, any card, at retail, get it day 1 or wait until the dust (as Janus described) settles. This behavior/cycle is very typical of the last few GPU launches.