News Raspberry Pi 4 in Short Supply, Being Scalped at 400% Markup

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I am so done with Amazon, Newegg, and Ebay empowering scalpers. Third party marketplaces are out of control. This is one of several reasons I'm not renewing Amazon Prime and no longer consider Ebay a viable place to sell old computer parts.
 
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bigdragon said:
I am so done with Amazon, Newegg, and Ebay empowering scalpers. Third party marketplaces are out of control. This is one of several reasons I'm not renewing Amazon Prime and no longer consider Ebay a viable place to sell old computer parts.
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Amazon, Newegg, and EBay don't give a damn. The higher the price something sells for on their marketplace the more money they make. They have zero incentive to try to stop scalpers.
 
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Pete Mitchell said:
Amazon, Newegg, and EBay don't give a damn. The higher the price something sells for on their marketplace the more money they make. They have zero incentive to try to stop scalpers.
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Exactly! Amazon and Newegg, in particular, sell the original computing component at MSRP (or the AIB's inflated MSRP). Then they get to profit again off the second sale. Scalped products don't even need to leave their warehouses anymore. Just slide it over to a different bin. Both companies are making tons of cash off the scalper ecosystem. They're not going to stop, and the manufacturers don't care because they can offload every unit they make. Screw the makers, gamers, artists, and content creators who aren't big enough to get freebies from the vendors directly!

That doesn't mean any of us need to do business with these companies or pay for their subscription programs. Does it matter if I don't renew my Prime subscription? Nope. Does it matter if a lot of people start thinking like me when it comes to not renewing? Yep.
 
Maybe some of this ire should be directed at the people who are paying those inflated prices? Supply/demand never sleeps in capitalism. I get that some people may have projects (or even commercial requirements) that need to use RPi but I'm not going to pay those kind of prices for my own personal projects. I can wait...
 
One frustration I have is with places such as CanaKit that package other products as the only way to purchase the Pi. I have no problem with some of their accessories but many times they are NOT needed for the purpose you’re wishing to purchase. I may need accessories but not necessarily the ones they are packaging, so while they can say they aren’t jacking up the price because they are selling additional products, you often don’t have a choice but to purchase unwanted products just to acquire your Pi.
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bigdragon said:
I am so done with Amazon, Newegg, and Ebay empowering scalpers. Third party marketplaces are out of control. This is one of several reasons I'm not renewing Amazon Prime and no longer consider Ebay a viable place to sell old computer parts.
Click to expand...

I didn't renew Amazon Prime spring of last year and I've saved a boatload of money. Once you no longer get two day free shipping you'll quickly realize how you don't need that random item that doesn't meet the $25 minimum. I went from weekly deliveries up to as much as 6 months between Amazon orders. Amazon also began delaying my shipment on purpose once I let Prime lapse. My post Prime orders would take up to a week to get delivered.. So now I go to other vendors. Walmart and Bestbuy for example have shipped for free in 2 to 3 days. I now also try to support the unknown businesses. I'm sick of these monopoly mega corporations. There used to be hundreds to thousands of brick and mortar stores and online companies selling PC hardware back in the 90s/early 2000s. I don't think you can find 25 now.
 
Can't say I've ever felt Prime to be compelling. Oh, I've taken advantage of their "have Prime free for a month" deals now and then, but that's about it.

Oh, and any bonus cash for refilling the gift card, or those offers of getting a decent amount of gift card balance if I apply for a credit card, etc.
 
Here's what needs to happen:

Part of what needs to happen is the people at Raspberry Pi need to forcefully apply sell limits to resellers. Resellers need to apply buy limits to customers. You get all these assholes who hoard the boards then resell them at a jacked price.

Part of another issue is that the people at Pi headquarters need to stop catering to big businesses that integrate the boards in their final products. It even states this on their website/blog where they talk about the shortage. Something along the lines of, if you need a boat load of Pi's don't hesitate to reach out to sales and someone will help you. How about me? I need roughly 5 a month for my business. Yea, I've sent dozens of emails and can't even get anyone to write back and give me an honest answer.

365+ days lead time for the regular customer who wants one, but you'll get 1000+ of the Pi 4's into the hands of big businesses in record time for their product launch? Give me a break.

So much for that $35/computer for kids to learn on. Might as well go on eBay and buy an ancient Apple IIc and learn to program. But get ready to fork over at least 14.5ish% to eBay. Currently that's the cut eBay will take at this time. I'm sure the seller has upped his or her price by that percentage to cover the costs. Another great idea down the tubes catering to corporate greed.

Raspberry Pi, sadly another company that started out with a good convincing promise but failed to come though for the consumer.
 
pat_g84 said:
Here's what needs to happen:

Part of what needs to happen is the people at Raspberry Pi need to forcefully apply sell limits to resellers. Resellers need to apply buy limits to customers. You get all these assholes who hoard the boards then resell them at a jacked price.

Part of another issue is that the people at Pi headquarters need to stop catering to big businesses that integrate the boards in their final products. It even states this on their website/blog where they talk about the shortage. Something along the lines of, if you need a boat load of Pi's don't hesitate to reach out to sales and someone will help you. How about me? I need roughly 5 a month for my business. Yea, I've sent dozens of emails and can't even get anyone to write back and give me an honest answer.
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That's what happens already on accredited seller pages. Take Berrybase in Germany, for example. They get restocks periodically and always sell to MSRP with limited numbers. When I first bought one last year for my NAS project, it was 2 or 3. Last month, it was only one and you needed registration for their VIP club, which was fairly easy to do and didn't even give them more info since all I needed was click a button while having an account with them.

I ordered there three times already, getting an 8GB and 4GB Pi4 and a Pi400. Never spent a dime more than MSRP. Though none of this prevent hoarding or reselling, just make it a slower process. Once bought, people can do with the Pis whatever they want and you can't stop them. I could also go to Amazon or Ebay and sell any of my three Pis for more than their worth... nothing stopping me.

If you need Raspis for your business, there should be options available, too. Though I can imagine that private customers have an advantage currently in this situation.
 
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