24-hour waits, $2,500 bribes: The current state of RTX 3080 Ti shopping at Best Buy
Desperate times, desperate measures.
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What you need to know
Do you like to camp in the woods amid the serenity of nature, or are you fine with doing it on concrete sidewalks surrounded by folks eager to spend thousands of dollars on graphics cards?
That’s the question, and for a lot of folks, the answer is the latter. Thanks to some excellent reporting over onPCMag, we now have a microscopic look at the macroscopic problem of the global graphics card shortage. At aBest Buyin West Los Angeles, the pilgrimage to RTX salvation has been formally documented so that future generations can look back and weep at humanity’s 2021 rat race for rare PC hardware.
The article exposes the lengths some people will go to secure RTX cards (in this case, the hot newRTX 3080 Ti) in the current market landscape. One man drove over an hour to reach the Best Buy in question almost 24 hours ahead of time, then plopped himself down and began a day-long wait. That same man, Edward Arciga, was quoted as saying, “people offered to buy our seats. They said, ‘We’ll give you whatever you want. $2,500 for a seat.'”
The reasons for such desperation are many. Some people hate the idea of giving into scalpers’ inflated demands. Others don’t want to ruin every day of their lives by fighting bots online. But whatever the reason that brought them to Best Buy, the end goal was the same: To claim an RTX 3080 Ti. Sadly, only 64 units were available, meaning many went home empty-handed.
There’s more to the story, so definitely check out the full piece. And if you want more coverage of thegraphics card shortageand how various companies are responding to it, be sure to check out ourplethora of coverageright here on Windows Central.
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Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He’s a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author ofCold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.
