Scalping at retail – The UK Retailer that tried to charge £3000 for an RTX 3080 Ti…
Scalping at retail – The UK Retailer that tried to charge over £3000 for an RTX 3080 Ti…
We have gotten a look at CCL Computers early pricing for their RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards, and none of them were priced at under £2,000. At worst, we had the Palit RTX 3080 Ti GameRock OC, which has a price tag of £3,600. That’s more than three times the cost of Nvidia’s already expensive Founders Edition RTX 3080 Ti.Â
If you think that these pre-launch prices were an anomaly, we also found RTX 3080 (non-Ti) graphics cards that were listed for over £1,300. That’s more than what an RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition should cost.Â
Franky, we are disgusted. These are prices that are crazy high, even by the standards of some scalpers on eBay. Compared to some of the MSRPs that we have received from AIBs, some of these graphics cards are being sold with a £1,000+ retail mark up. We all know that the availability of graphics cards is terrible, but this is profiteering, and we are not happy about it.Â
CCL is already responding to our criticism
It didn’t take long for our enquiries to start making waves, as CCL has already hidden all RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards from their website (the links still work, but they are now marked as “discontinued”). They are responding to our outrage, as they should.Â
We will have to wait and see how much they will actually sell their GPUs for.Â
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Once these early price listings came to light, we took screenshots and recorded the prices of CCL Online’s RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards. We also contacted representatives from Nvidia and Gigabyte to inform them of this mess.Â
Nvidia’s RTX 30 series was supposed to offer gamers value, but rampant hardware shortages have created a market of desperation. We all know that many people are taking advantage of this situation to make a quick profit, but these prices from CCL are beyond ridiculous.Â
What we are doing to help (trying)
It is a free market, and neither Nvidia nor their AIB partners can control pricing. Retailers can charge whatever they want to, and that is their right.
However, we have called on vendors to not sell their products to retailers who are known to be price gouging. Some retailers, such as Scan UK, have remained fairly reasonable with their graphics card pricing, and we are calling on graphics card vendors to sell to the retailers that will deliver good pricing for their products. Vendors should not be rewarding bad behaviour.Â
As mentioned earlier, we have already informed Gigabyte and Nvidia of CCL’s attempts at price-gouging. Hopefully, this will help GPUs get to the retailer that will not rip off consumers.Â
| Â | MSRPÂ (From AIB) (If Known) |
CCL UK Pre-Launch Pricing | Mark Up (£) |
| Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition |
£1,049 | N/A | – |
| ASUS RTX 3080 Ti TUF Gaming OC |
 – | £2,733.70 | – |
| ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 Ti |
– | £2,638.68 | – |
| ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 Ti OC |
 £1,599 | £2,899.80 |  +1,300.80 |
| ASUS ROG Strix LC RTX 3080 Ti |
– | £2,638.68 | – |
| ASUS ROG Strix LC RTX 3080 Ti OC |
 £1,799 | £2,638.68 |  +839.68 |
| Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti EAGLE |
– | £2,423.52 | – |
| Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti EAGLE OC |
– | £2,638.68 | – |
| Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC |
– | £2,493.86 | – |
| Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Aorus Master |
– | £2,638.68 | – |
| Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Aorus Xtreme |
– | £2,638.68 | – |
| MSI RTX 3080 Ti Gaming X Trio OC |
– | £3,057.79 | – |
| MSI RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X OC |
 £1,749 | £2,963.39 |  +1,214.39 |
| Gainward RTX 3080 Ti Phoenix |
– | £2,556.64 | – |
| Palit RTX 3080 Ti GameRock OC |
– | £3,600 |  – |
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At CCL, we also found a PayPal credit page on their graphics card listings, tempting their customers to get into debt to purchase RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards at their ridiculous prices. If you went down this route, you could be paying over £4,000 for an RTX 3080 Ti, taking this pricing insanity to a new level.Â
We understand that PayPal credit appears on CCL’s product page by default, but advocating for this amount of debt is simply irresponsible.
Gamers deserve better than this, and dedicated PC retailers should put their customers ahead of this disgusting desire for profit. Today’s graphics card shortage is sickening, as it has prevented many of us from indulging in our hobbies when we needed to the most. Today’s prices are eroding at the enthusiasm that makes PC gaming great, and CCL isn’t helping.Â
The internet has a long memory, and we will remember how much they tried to charge us for an RTX 3080 Ti. Scalper prices have hit retailers in force, making most consumers unable to get a new graphics card at a reasonable price.Â
You can join the discussion on CCL’s horrendous pricing antics on the OC3D Forums.Â
Original Pricing Screenshots
