[SOLVED] Purchasing off of Ebay a bad idea?

[SkeetyGuy]

I got some good suggestions for putting together a system, but there does not seem to be any graphics cards available anywhere other than on Ebay and for a premium. Is buying one off of it a bad idea? I am wondering about warranty and counterfeit. I have been looking for a RTX 3060 Ti.

 

[Math Geek]

you would be either supporting the scalpers who should die slowly in a fierce fire. or you are going to be scammed. that's really the 2 options with ebay. everyone wants those new gpu's and both scalpers and scammers are taking advantage. which one will you end up with? you won't know until you press the buy button and get some box in the mail (if you get a box).

i'd skip the ebay sellers 100% for sure. but that's just my opinion

 

[USAFRet]

I got some good suggestions for putting together a system, but there does not seem to be any graphics cards available anywhere other than on Ebay and for a premium. Is buying one off of it a bad idea? I am wondering about warranty and counterfeit. I have been looking for a RTX 3060 Ti.

1. Do you REALLY want to support the whole scalper ecosystem?
2. Warranty - Many manufacturers only support the original purchaser. Which is not you.

Paying a premium price, for an item not under warranty.
I know I wouldn't.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Scalpers can die a slow and painful death. What I find hilarious is reading their eBay ads "I accidentally bought 2 processors so now I'm selling one."

Yeah bro... you bought an extra Ryzen 5950x chip by mistake and are now selling one for $500 over retail price. Gotcha.



People like this is why Intel is the value option right now... of course roles may be reversed when the 11th gen chips launch... I'm assuming the 10900k that I got at retail price was also scalped back at launch.

It's annoying... but what can do you but wait it out. I got a Nintendo Switch at retail price in July... only had to wait 4 months to catch stock available. A&#clowns were selling those at DOUBLE the retail price when the pandemic started.. and they were selling.

Good luck OP... it's a difficult time right now due to supply/demand and greed. I'm still trying to get the last parts I want for my new system and that is the Honeywell flight simulator hardware. Was double the retail price a couple months back on eBay and has come down a lot since but is still overpriced. Retailers are supposed to have stock again in late January. We'll see.

(Yes... scalpers also do the same with flight sim hardware, VR equipment... anything computer related that is in demand)

 

[SkeetyGuy]

As I thought. I will be patient. While I have had a lot of success with computer components working properly, and only once received a bad mother board, I want that warranty. That and not wanting to feed the animals. It is too bad that the industry hasn't done anything about putting the scalpers out of business. I imagine it would if it could. Newegg and the like are probably missing out on a lot of sales. I am ready to drop for all new components, but don't see why I should until I can get a GPU.

 

[Math Geek]

depends on what gpu you have now. if what you have now is decent, then you can still benefit from the rest of the new parts. then whenever you can actually get that shiny new gpu, you can add it in.

 

[SkeetyGuy]

depends on what gpu you have now. if what you have now is decent, then you can still benefit from the rest of the new parts. then whenever you can actually get that shiny new gpu, you can add it in.

I understand that what I have is pretty ancient. An Asrock 8800 Extreme3 mother board sporting a AMD Athlon II 440 Rana CPU and an AMD Radeon HD 5670 GPU. All this with a 440 W Corsair PSU. My wife and son gave me Flight Simulator 2020 for Xmas and she will be crushed if I don't use it.

 

[USAFRet]

AMD Athlon II 440 Rana CPU

You need more than just a 3060 ti.

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/microsoft-flight-simulator/19451

System Requirements to Run Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on PC

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is the next generation of one of the most beloved simulation franchises. From light planes to wide-body jets, fly highly detaile

pyre.gg

 

[SkeetyGuy]

Yep. I received some suggestions for a moderate build over on a system build TH thread.

 

[spentshells]

ebay is safe, but dont buy from a scalper, let them hold those cards.

Ebay has a scam policy, you are safe, use visa when buying, visa and master card and the rest of the banking cartel are pretty good about protecting their investment, which is your use of their product for online purchases

 

[Karadjgne]

Buy anything you want from ebay, except 3 things.
Gpu, psu, storage. Stay away from those like the plague.

Just shop everywhere else first, know exactly what the current prices for the exact model new are going for, and be careful of 'shipped from China' as they often end up on a boat, take weeks to arrive and if there's something wrong you are out of luck as the return date starts the day they ship, not the day you receive.

I ordered a case directly from Lian-Li, OEM manufacturer in China. Took 4 months to arrive due to Customs as shipping first went through Singapore. That's customs export China, customs import Singapore, customs export Singapore, customs import US and finally put on a plane in San Francisco. Total time on a boat, 4 weeks. Total time sitting on the docks, 3 months. Perishables and medical take Priority, all else takes a back seat and ships when there is room.

 

[MorganPike]

MSFS 2020 is pretty demanding but it will run on older gen cards. Just not too old. Any chance of hitting up your circle of friends to see if anyone has a gtx 770 or better sitting in a box in their closet you can borrow for a few months?

I always keep at least one backup in a closet just in case. I currently have a 1060 backup stowed away. Maybe you have a friend who does the same and you're just not aware of it. If a friend asked me I'd share.

 

[SkeetyGuy]

I have been researching this scalping and bots phenomenon, mostly on TH, and it is unbelievable. I wonder if any scalpers have actually been scammed by buying pictures of graphics cards on Ebay. Hope a lot.

 

[Karadjgne]

Most scalpers are buying in bulk, they'll hit newegg or Amazon etc and pre-order 5 units. Then jack up the price and sell for what they can get.

The larger issue is in China, where tooling for old cards is still around, so you'll get many no-name brand cards like a 1050ti that physically look like a branded unit for the most part, will generally look like or say they are a 1050ti according to any software, but in reality are a gtx450/gtx550 according to physical inspection of the chipset and clock/memory speeds. (those can't be faked, the vbios tag can). They sell in places like ebay for just under what everyone else has listed with a brand name, let's catch the sucker on a budget.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Most scalpers are buying in bulk, they'll hit newegg or Amazon etc and pre-order 5 units. Then jack up the price and sell for what they can get.

I think they think most people are stupid... (well, their buyers are, but that's another discussion)

I've seen multiple eBay listings of PC hardware be it CPU, GPU, Flight Sim Yokes, etc... with a description of "I accidentally bought 2 so now I'm selling 1."

Oh yeah bro? You accidentally bought an extra 3080 so now you're selling it for 60% over retail price. Gotcha.



For my recent build it was really easy... retail price for the 10900k or retail price + 60% for the high end AMD chips? Value won. The last pieces I need for my PC is the Honeycomb flight sim hardware. Of course on eBay both items ($250 retail each) are grossly inflated with the throttle being over double the retail price. The yoke has come down a bit but is still an extra $150 or so... at this rate I fully expect retail stock to be replenished before I see an eBay listing even remotely close to retail price.

 

[Karadjgne]

I'll stick with my 20 year old Thrustmaster lol. If it's good enough for an F-16 pilot, it's good enough for me.