News How Bots Took Over the RTX 3080 Launch

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There has got to be a way to counter these bots. I feel like the big stores make little to no effort to beat them, and the manufacturers don't care if middlemen artificially inflate prices.

A coworker of mine runs bots and is bragging about securing 6 3080s and 11 PS5s. He's been scalping since the spring pandemic lockdowns. No trips or vacations means extra money to fool around with. He "generously" offered to sell me a 3080 for a fraction of the "usual markup." No. He's also stunned that I would use it for personal gaming instead of resell it. Apparently you can now sell a preorder of a preorder of a 3080 on Ebay -- people are playing these things like Mortgage-Backed Securities during the financial crisis over a decade ago! WTF? I hate people these days.

I'm looking for a way to report this guy to Nvidia or Sony, or find some sort of HR violation. I hate scalpers. I hate it even more when the go to excuse is "hate the game, not the player."
 
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bigdragon said:
There has got to be a way to counter these bots. I feel like the big stores make little to no effort to beat them, and the manufacturers don't care if middlemen artificially inflate prices.
Click to expand...
I know the effort is not quite there, since the sales benefit them too. But tech is very hard to counter. When they counter these bots, the bot developer just stays up late until he can circumvent the new methods. Without people in the process, countering cheaters (cheaters, bots, pirates, etc) is just a cat and mouse game.
 
This is entirely the fault of NVIDA; like they didn't know this would happen. Why no pre-order lottery with a real limit of one that could be checked ahead of time?

The best solution for buyers now is to NOT pay $1500+ and just wait until there is enough supply -- in other words to punish the bot users by not buying at inflated prices.
 
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RealBeast said:
This is entirely the fault of NVIDA; like they didn't know this would happen. Why no pre-order lottery with a real limit of one that could be checked ahead of time?

The best solution for buyers now is to NOT pay $1500+ and just wait until there is enough supply -- in other words to punish the bot users by not buying at inflated prices.
Click to expand...
The launch was 100% successful.
They sold ALL of the existing stock, and generated significant buzz and media articles.

When the next batch comes in stock, people will line up to buy those. Even those people who are complaining about yesterdays sales.
They will flock.
 
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I'm going to guess tight anti-bot measures weren't taken, or a more "fair" system wasn't put into place is because there really isn't a major incentive for the companies to do so. Ultimately, whether the sale goes to a bot or a real person is irrelevant to the seller because it's still money either way. If a sale is made, why do they care who gave them the money for it? Unless the purchases were made with stolen credit card info, it's all the same money to them in the end. Once the product is off their hands, it's not really their problem anymore as far as they're concerned. Plus, money spent on anti-bot measures is money wasted on solving something that isn't really a problem for them in the first place.

The only effective solution that's in the power of most people is to simply not buy the cards from the scalpers at inflated rates and force them to abandon their business model. This will never happen however, since there will always be enough people willing to pay the marked up prices and keep the business model viable for them, so the next best thing for someone not looking to pay exorbitant prices is to just hold onto their money, and tough it out until the supply stabilizes.
 
anyone with good knowledge on bots should start an anti bot company and sells it to e tailors for a annual price. pretty sure in the long run this company will thrive because it will see as a company that help the common human customer and not the greedy <Mod Edit> who want to re sell items in an inflated price.
 
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I called ebay and complained, but I doubt they will do anything. I saw one listing close at $13,000. Really.
I read that another sold for $70,000. 70K. That's not a typo.

I also contacted newegg by chat, (and email) and the rep failed to see the problem, and she admitted they did NOT even set a 1-2 per person quanity for purchase. WHAT? Newegg, have you gone soft? I've seen them limit quantities on countless products, and they didn't do it for the most anticipated video card in years?

I'm beyond pissed, and I'm sure when they get back in stock, it's just going to happen again. Who knows when any of us are going to get a card.

What's almost as bad to me is the people buying these on ebay at 2-20 times the cost. Why on Earth would anyone validate scalpers and reward them for theft???? Boggles the mind.
 
RealBeast said:
This is entirely the fault of NVIDA; like they didn't know this would happen. Why no pre-order lottery with a real limit of one that could be checked ahead of time?

The best solution for buyers now is to NOT pay $1500+ and just wait until there is enough supply -- in other words to punish the bot users by not buying at inflated prices.
Click to expand...

I blame newegg too for not selling a per customer limit. They've done this on countless other products, but not this?

Who else but a scalper scumbag, would buy 30 video cards at once?
 
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bigdragon said:
There has got to be a way to counter these bots. I feel like the big stores make little to no effort to beat them, and the manufacturers don't care if middlemen artificially inflate prices.

A coworker of mine runs bots and is bragging about securing 6 3080s and 11 PS5s. He's been scalping since the spring pandemic lockdowns. No trips or vacations means extra money to fool around with. He "generously" offered to sell me a 3080 for a fraction of the "usual markup." No. He's also stunned that I would use it for personal gaming instead of resell it. Apparently you can now sell a preorder of a preorder of a 3080 on Ebay -- people are playing these things like Mortgage-Backed Securities during the financial crisis over a decade ago! WTF? I hate people these days.

I'm looking for a way to report this guy to Nvidia or Sony, or find some sort of HR violation. I hate scalpers. I hate it even more when the go to excuse is "hate the game, not the player."
Click to expand...
I was reading a comment related to counterfeit bourbon rings about someone who purchased "black market whiskey." Said person tried to drink it but it wasn't drinkable and when they complained to the seller, the seller went "black market whiskey's for selling, not drinking."

Feeling the same vibe here, but at least the GPUs are legitimate and usable, unlike what was likely turpentine in the story.
 
Nvidia will be tempted to inflate prices now...
70k a piece..

Edit : apprently bouncealerts.com is a wepage presenting their business. it's a private discord server with paid access.
all access are soldout but one of the members can resell it's access for 100's or 1000's

shady
 
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e-nigma said:
I blame newegg too for not selling a per customer limit. They've done this on countless other products, but not this?
Click to expand...
The scalpers have numerous accounts, different credit cards, different name variations, and will ship to the addresses of friends and family. They are genuinely hard to counter if quantity limits and name or address matching is used. The bots also strip out most of the scripts that slow down the ordering process or add extra bloat to store pages.

According to the [NSFW_language] coworker with the bot, the only thing that would stop it is some sort of quiz or challenge/response embedded into the ordering process. Something more advanced than a simple script that returns true/false. Newegg's bot check is "hilariously easy to beat."
 
Actually I love this ... let them resellers take them all , and resell them for high prices ..

And please: no one buys from them ... then sooner or later , the 16GB and 20GB of 3070/3080 will appear and they will bite their fingers lolz

it is our responsibility not to buy at inflated prices ... and no rush , most people who rush to buy are crazy , people should be calm down and wait few weeks to see if the card has any problems ...
 
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bigdragon said:
There has got to be a way to counter these bots. I feel like the big stores make little to no effort to beat them, and the manufacturers don't care if middlemen artificially inflate prices.

A coworker of mine runs bots and is bragging about securing 6 3080s and 11 PS5s. He's been scalping since the spring pandemic lockdowns. No trips or vacations means extra money to fool around with. He "generously" offered to sell me a 3080 for a fraction of the "usual markup." No. He's also stunned that I would use it for personal gaming instead of resell it. Apparently you can now sell a preorder of a preorder of a 3080 on Ebay -- people are playing these things like Mortgage-Backed Securities during the financial crisis over a decade ago! WTF? I hate people these days.

I'm looking for a way to report this guy to Nvidia or Sony, or find some sort of HR violation. I hate scalpers. I hate it even more when the go to excuse is "hate the game, not the player."
Click to expand...
Aren't there laws that criminalize scalping during this pandemic? Or, do they only apply to "essentials?"
 
e-nigma said:
I called ebay and complained, but I doubt they will do anything. I saw one listing close at $13,000. Really.
I read that another sold for $70,000. 70K. That's not a typo.

I also contacted newegg by chat, (and email) and the rep failed to see the problem, and she admitted they did NOT even set a 1-2 per person quanity for purchase. WHAT? Newegg, have you gone soft? I've seen them limit quantities on countless products, and they didn't do it for the most anticipated video card in years?

I'm beyond pissed, and I'm sure when they get back in stock, it's just going to happen again. Who knows when any of us are going to get a card.

What's almost as bad to me is the people buying these on ebay at 2-20 times the cost. Why on Earth would anyone validate scalpers and reward them for theft???? Boggles the mind.
Click to expand...
Most likely troll bots to combat the scalping. Hit 70K > cancel sale > cant profit. It's admirable, but it can only last so long though.
 
folfy20 said:
Aren't there laws that criminalize scalping during this pandemic? Or, do they only apply to "essentials?"
Click to expand...
In the USA, there are no laws against scalping products. There are laws -- only in about 15 states -- that restrict the scalping of tickets to performances. There are laws against price gouging, but gaming products are considered luxuries rather than necessities -- therefore not covered.

Laws need to be updated, but they won't be. Ebay, Amazon, and friends can easily prevent modernization of anti-scalping laws.
 
e-nigma said:
I called ebay and complained, but I doubt they will do anything. I saw one listing close at $13,000. Really.
I read that another sold for $70,000. 70K. That's not a typo.

I also contacted newegg by chat, (and email) and the rep failed to see the problem, and she admitted they did NOT even set a 1-2 per person quanity for purchase. WHAT? Newegg, have you gone soft? I've seen them limit quantities on countless products, and they didn't do it for the most anticipated video card in years?

I'm beyond pissed, and I'm sure when they get back in stock, it's just going to happen again. Who knows when any of us are going to get a card.

What's almost as bad to me is the people buying these on ebay at 2-20 times the cost. Why on Earth would anyone validate scalpers and reward them for theft???? Boggles the mind.
Click to expand...
Also, if a sale in the 5 digits do process, ebay will enjoy that sweet sweet 8%-10% sales fee, and the respective state will nut to their sales tax too. Neither entities will do anything about it because complaints don't make them money.
 
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USAFRet said:
The launch was 100% successful.
They sold ALL of the existing stock, and generated significant buzz and media articles.
Click to expand...
You really think Nvidia is happy with this launch? How often does a successful launch include a public apology about how it went? Whether or not the apologize was sincere is irrelevant to point the company felt the need to make a public statement on it.

These cards would have sold out extremely quickly even without bots. I'm fairly certain Nvidia would have been much happier if social media was filled with gamers bragging about their new cards they just got as opposed to the firestorm of gamers cursing them out because no one but bots could land cards and now they are all being listed for jacked up prices on auction sites.
 
bigdragon said:
In the USA, there are no laws against scalping products. There are laws -- only in about 15 states -- that restrict the scalping of tickets to performances. There are laws against price gouging, but gaming products are considered luxuries rather than necessities -- therefore not covered.

Laws need to be updated, but they won't be. Ebay, Amazon, and friends can easily prevent modernization of anti-scalping laws.
Click to expand...

even if there are some laws , it is impossible to prove anything on sites like ebay ....
 
bigdragon said:
In the USA, there are no laws against scalping products. There are laws -- only in about 15 states -- that restrict the scalping of tickets to performances. There are laws against price gouging, but gaming products are considered luxuries rather than necessities -- therefore not covered.

Laws need to be updated, but they won't be. Ebay, Amazon, and friends can easily prevent modernization of anti-scalping laws.
Click to expand...
Ah, yes. Tickets to performances are DEFINITELY not luxuries...scalping should be in violation of Antitrust laws. Scalpers are behaving like monopolies, very anti-consumer.
 
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spongiemaster said:
You really think Nvidia is happy with this launch? How often does a successful launch include a public apology about how it went? Whether or not the apologize was sincere is irrelevant to point the company felt the need to make a public statement on it.

These cards would have sold out extremely quickly even without bots. I'm fairly certain Nvidia would have been much happier if social media was filled with gamers bragging about their new cards they just got as opposed to the firestorm of gamers cursing them out because no one but bots could land cards and now they are all being listed for jacked up prices on auction sites.
Click to expand...
I was being a teeny bit sarcastic.
But...if they had 10x the physical devices ready, and NO bots allowed...it still would have sold out in mostly the same time.

Newegg site still would have crashed, and people still bitching.


How Nvidia feels is irrelevant. There are only 2 players in this space, Nvidia and AMD.
They know it, we know it. When stock returns to the sites and shelves, people will STILL flock.
 
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