56 ms·

Notice of Stolen EVGA GeForce RTX 30-Series Graphics Cards

348 points by paulproteus 5y ago

paxys 5y ago
How many people even register their graphics card (or really anything else) online on the manufacturer's website? And considering it is impossible for people to buy cards from legit sources, what exactly do you expect them to do?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- camhart 5y ago
  I do, because I want manufacturer warranties. I've lost out in the past by not registering and the warranty expires. I'm certainly cautious and frugal, but not too abnormally so (I think at least). I'd guess there are a handful of others like me.
  - paxys 5y ago
    You have the warranty regardless. Creating accounts and registering your product after purchase cannot legally be a requirement.
    - camhart 5y ago
      My EVGA card from a decade ago had a lifetime warranty if you registered it with them. I didn't, so when it stopped working 3 years later I had to buy a replacement. Registering for an extended warranty is a requirement that many companies enforce. Update: Why is this being downvoted? Literally from EVGA's website: "Limited Lifetime Warranties are available to the original owner on applicable parts if registered by the original owner within 30 days of the date of purchase." [1] [1] https://www.evga.com/warranty/2011/graphics-cards/ https://www.evga.com/warranty/2011/graphics-cards/
      - anonymousisme 5y ago
        Such companies may actually be in violation federal regulations. US Title 16 CFR § 700.7 covers this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/700.7 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/700.7 So the manufacturer must honor the promised warranty, but they certainly have the option to offer an extended warranty at no charge provided that the consumer registers with them.
      - tharkun__ 5y ago
        What's the "lifetime" of a graphics card? As in, lifetime doesn't mean your lifetime. Or the time you own the card. It means whatever expected lifetime the item has as per the manufacturer. The manufacturer may define the "regular lifetime" of their item to be 3 years for example and then it would not have helped you at all. I've never registered for any warranties in my life. I'm not sure if this is a thing where you are. But where I am for example, there are warranties guaranteed by law that require manufacturers to warranty their items for a "reasonable" amount of time (regardless of what their actual terms say). What is reasonable is up to interpretation and different for different items. They do give a few examples for common items like a washing machine but otherwise it's up to consumers and companies to figure this out together and if they can't you can make an official complaint with the government. Helped me w/ NVIDIA who wouldn't replace a broken tablet shortly after their official warranty ran out. EDIT: No idea on the downvotes, when I started replying there were no downvotes yet, when I submitted there was.
        breakfastduck 5y ago
        Yes they're obligated to offer a 'reasonable' warranty but this isn't what you get if you register. You get a significantly increased warranty as stated by other commenters getting a card upgrade years after their card failed. EVGA are particularly generous in this regard compared to others.
        verve_rat 5y ago
        If the company is willing to warrant the card for X years if you register it, then surely X years is the minimum bounds of a reasonable lifetime? I wonder if anyone in a "reasonable lifetime" guaranteed by law jurisdiction has used that line of thinking.
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      You have the legally required warranty regardless, but to the extent the warranty isn't required by law, you have whatever you’ve jumped through the manufacturer’s hoops for.
- nightski 5y ago
  EVGA has historically had the step up program. It used to be 2 years but look like it is only 90 days currently.
- acomjean 5y ago
  Yeah. Its pretty meaningless. If you are buying a new sealed video card, never used sold on craigslist/ebay, I'm guessing your not very suspicious and probably not looking for a warranty.
  - 14 5y ago
    Now days PS5's and graphics cards are bought up quickly and sold by scalpers. So I am guessing some may not be suspicious at all but assume it is just a scalper and may even expect to pay a mark up on said items.
  - kadoban 5y ago
    In the current market, you have essentially no way to buy from a manufacturer or primary retailer. You have to get _insanely_ lucky to be able to do so. So you're essentially saying nobody is going to be looking for any warranties on any cards, which is quite wrong.
    - AnssiH 5y ago
      Around here (Finland) there is a moderate amount of various cards in stock at the biggest computer retailers, the prices are just high: https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/catalog/706b/Naytonohjaimet/products?filter=AvailableImmediatelyAllChannels%3Aimmediately_shippable https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/catalog/706b/Naytonohjaimet/... (in-stock cards) https://www.jimms.fi/fi/Product/List/000-00P/komponentit--naytonohjaimet?ob=5 https://www.jimms.fi/fi/Product/List/000-00P/komponentit--na... (cards sorted by stock)
      - kadoban 5y ago
        Yeah you're right, it does depend where you are. I can only speak for US market.
    - xxs 5y ago
      in EU, you can just buy cards at amazon - the prices are what they are... 2100€ for 3080ti, sold by amazon, themselves. Being amazon you have the easiest returns ever, just send a complaint and send it back, they will return the money and both shipping costs.
- kevingadd 5y ago
  I register all my EVGA purchases specifically because they have very good warranty + customer service, and they have a great trade-in program for registered hardware.
- blackearl 5y ago
  EVGA has reportedly great warranty support so it's worth it, especially considering it's a purchase that's usually $500+.
  - mooman219 5y ago
    One data point but I have had issue with EVGA support, and their cards for years (I owned two before I swore to never buy another one). They had heatsink issues at one point and it was incredibly hard to get it fixed without me paying shipping and I would have been out a GPU for 4-8 weeks. I just fixed it myself and voided the warrenty.
    - kadoban 5y ago
      Fixing it yourself did not void the warranty. It's against the law to void warranties just because someone else fixed it (unless they, aka you in this case, break it).
- zeroDivisible 5y ago
  This is anecdotal but EVGA replaced my 1-month out of warranty 970 with 1070, after the card gave up to work about 2 years ago. And I registered it after the failure, although I was able to establish that I bought the card legally and was the only owner. All my contact with their customer support was stellar.
  - wang_li 5y ago
    Some time ago I bought an EVGA 560 Ti and they threw in a 10 year extended warranty. A couple years in it failed and they replaced it with a 660 Ti. About a year later that failed and they replaced it with a 960 Ti. I appreciate their warranty policies.
    - garaetjjte 5y ago
      I would not appreciate the product quality though...
    - artificialLimbs 5y ago
      >> ... and they threw in a 10 year extended warranty. How did you get that?
      - alborzb 5y ago
        You can just purchase a 5 year or 10 year warranty when you purchase directly from EVGA. Here's their pricing and info -- https://eu.evga.com/warranty/extended/ https://eu.evga.com/warranty/extended/
        artificialLimbs 5y ago
        That is shocking. I will definitely be purchasing an EVGA next.
    - xxs 5y ago
      You sure those were new cards or just rejects (refurbished ones by other customers)
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  In addition to the warranty mentioned by others, registering an EVGA product of a certain value or higher gets you into their Elite program, which gives early access to queues for new products. This is what allowed me to upgrade to a 3080 Ti for MSRP in the middle of a shortage. So it may not be immediately useful but can pay off down the road.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- xenadu02 5y ago
  A lot of products offer longer warranties if you register. For example my ice maker comes with a 1 year warranty but registering within 30 days automatically extends that to two years. It's an under-counter unit that makes nugget (aka Sonic) ice and wasn't cheap so I registered.
- NoPicklez 5y ago
  I do absolutely, for EVGA especially its quite easy and makes RMA requests a breeze (if I ever need to)
- xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
  I had a fan bearing go bad on an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. It was literally two days out of warranty, and I was pissed. I was near one of their main offices at the time, and ended up calling their reception and driving to drop off the borked card after speaking to an engineer who wanted to see it. They handed me a brand new card, no questions asked, and thanked me for bringing the problem to their attention. I miss the good old days.
  - dillondoyle 5y ago
    Apple used to do this for me more than once. Not anymore they need that sweet monthly applecare revenue.
  - eightysixfour 5y ago
    I’ve been such an ATi fan after owning an FIC-branded 9700 that was flashed to a Pro and went bad in the first year or so. I was ~13 years old, called up ATi and told them the situation, I was honest that I had flashed the bios, and asked if there was anything they could do. They sent me an ATi branded 9700 Pro. First company to do me a solid like that and I’ve stuck around since.
    - monkeytaco 5y ago
      I had a similar experience with AMD back in the day. I was probably a similar age and damaged the pins on my new Athlon XP 2500+. I called them up and they ended up sending me a 2800+ as a replacement.
    - masklinn 5y ago
      It’s why I still like logitech today. Had a mouse go bad 20 years back, called up support, they told me they’d send a new one. I was shocked, wondering what if I was lying and didn’t they want evidence? They replied they took it on trust but I could cut off the usb plug and put it in the trash if it made me feel better (that is, of course, a very easy repair).
      - philjohn 5y ago
- girvo 5y ago
  Me! I do. I've done it for basically all my parts, in case my retail store is a pain if something goes wrong. These cards won't be sold any time soon, they'll have been stolen for mining.
- proactivesvcs 5y ago
  I do with all the tech I buy and sell. I was burned about ten years ago by two apparently-grey market Intel CPUs that I had purchased from a reputable distributor, and had to eat the warranty replacements when they both failed. Once I started checking proactively I took delivery of a few hard drives that turned out to be "of questionable warranty period", again from various reputable distributors. I immediately had them replaced with no hassle.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  This. Buyers will have no way of knowing the card they buy-- at 2x retail-- was stolen. This penalizes buyers in a marketplace that doesn't have the structure in place to ensure 90% of its product doesn't end up in the hands of scalpers.
  - randomswede 5y ago
    Expect anything bought from a scalper to be stolen. I thought that was "you're buying from a scalper 101" (or possibly "lol"). People buying from scalpers is why scalpers can continue to exist. There's pretty much no way of stopping that, outside of making scalping illegal, then strictly enforce that. But, then, that pretty much kills the first-sale doctrine and I am not sure that is a good trade-off.
- shmde 5y ago
  People definitely do it nowadays because there are incentives like card manufacturers giving you a free AAA title etc.
  - hoseja 5y ago
    The "free" game is usually gated behind so much bullshit it's not generally worth it.
    - soylentcola 5y ago
      Yeah...I tried my damnedest to claim some Call of Duty game that "came with" my 3080 last year. By the time I was done, I had to sign into "GeForce Experience" (which I'd avoided up until then) and install battle.net, reset my old account from the last time I had it (I think when Diablo 3 was new), then I had a hell of time because the authenticator was tied to an old device but I couldn't manage it without logging in. I forget what eventually happened, but I never was able to play that stupid game and I only even bothered because it was "free".
- spaceisballer 5y ago
  I register nearly all computer components. Sometimes parts go bad and that’s the point of having a warranty. Thankfully I’ve only had to replace a motherboard and a PSU. Actually they were EVGA, hence why I normally buy their stuff. I got a 3060Ti through them also. I just happened to sign up for an out of stock notification and to my surprise they changed that into a queue giving you the option to buy a card. I mean I waited a year but it’s better than trying to deal with whatever nonsense Best Buy is doing or Newegg.
- 71a54xd 5y ago
  3yrs no questions asked warranty (at least in EVGA's case). There's considerable value there - in some cases surpassing the value of the card itself. What's interesting is EVGA now requires you to register the purchase date and location along with a scan of the physical receipt.
cillian64 5y ago
This seems like a nasty move from EVGA to shift the downside onto whoever ends up unknowingly buying these cards on eBay. It’s weird, they normally seem like a company with a decent customer focus, and it’s not like this move is going to make any difference to their loss from the shipment, it just screws customers.
- holografix 5y ago
  They are tackling the demand side of what could become a very lucrative business for thieves. If people are scared away from buying “dodgy back of the van” GPUs then thieves have no incentive to steal them.
  - ineedasername 5y ago
    Except it's not the back of a van, it's places like eBay, just about the only places you can find cards, including that majority that are not stolen. I've read through enough reasoning here that I'm not sure what the right answer is-- from a business and customer-friendly standpoint. But I think there's more gray are involved than with items that are readily available through normal retail channels. Then again, these stolen cards may be earmarked for crypto mining operations by organized crime, and then the issue warranties to those who knowingly use stolen goods is much less grey.
  - ant6n 5y ago
    People still steal iPhones although they are essentially bricks.
- fhood 5y ago
  Pretty much every company would do something like this. No reason not to discourage people from buying.
- MrFoof 5y ago
  I've sold two GPUs (as I've upgraded -- no mining unless Dward Fortress and RimWorld counts) in the past few months on eBay. One shipped to an eBay freight forwarder and ultimately to a buyer in Qatar. One shipped to an eBay freight forwarder and ultimately to a buyer in Kazakhstan. Gamers aren't the ones paying huge markups on eBay. These aren't going to be warranty registered.
forgotmypw17 5y ago
Funny enough, I'm getting this message: Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://forums.evga.com/Notice-of-Stolen-EVGA-GeForce-RTX-30Series-Graphics-Cards-m3490851.aspx http://forums.evga.com/Notice-of-Stolen-EVGA-GeForce-RTX-30S..." on this server.
- ev1 5y ago
  If you're on an abusive VPN with bad reputation it's blocked.
  - forgotmypw17 5y ago
    I'm not on a VPN.
  - unclekev 5y ago
    Getting this on a residential internet connection in Sydney Australia. Not on a VPN.
- spartanatreyu 5y ago
  The post says: PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on October 29, 2021, a shipment of EVGA GeForce RTX 30-Series Graphics Cards was stolen from a truck en route from San Francisco to our Southern California distribution center. These graphics cards are in high demand and each has an estimated retail value starting at $329.99 up to $1959.99 MSRP. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that under state and Federal law: It is a criminal and civil offense to “buy or receive” property that has been stolen. Cal. Penal Code section 496(a). It is also a criminal and civil offense to “conceal, sell, withhold, or aid in concealing selling or withholding” any such property. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER notice that: If you are able to successfully register your product and see it under My Products, then your product is NOT affected by this notice, you can also check the serial number at the EVGA Warranty Check page to see if it is affected. EVGA will NOT REGISTER or HONOR ANY WARRANTY or UPGRADE claims on these products. If you have or receive any information relating to these products, please share that with us at stopRTX30theft@evga.com. We appreciate your attention to this issue. Thank you, EVGA Management
thayne 5y ago
> It is a criminal and civil offense to “buy or receive” property that has been stolen. Cal. Penal Code section 496(a). I would really hope there is a "knowingly" qualifier on that.
- staticautomatic 5y ago
  There is.
- bitexploder 5y ago
  Intent definitely matters in this case. Like, if these end up on Amazon or eBay and you buy one at a market rate you are pretty safe. If you saw a “too good to be true deal” and proceeded, it gets murkier.
  - NullPrefix 5y ago
    Doesn't this criminalize the whole black friday/cyber monday thing?
perth 5y ago
Transporting GPUs in 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGZLYx8StWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGZLYx8StWk
rdtwo 5y ago
Interesting, smart move would be to just mine with them or sell them used. I’m sure they will just end up on Craigslist though
- wly_cdgr 5y ago
  Or even more devious: steal enough of them that you can scalp ones you bought legitimately for even more
- toyg 5y ago
  > I’m sure they will just end up on Craigslist though Why so sure? This doesn't look like a crime of opportunity - one has to know the truck will contain graphics cards, and that such cards are valuable in today's market. It doesn't say how many cards were stolen, "a shipment" could be the whole truck - and robbing a truck is no joke. If there is some organization behind the heist, I would expect them to be sent directly to a lined-up buyer that has a use for them - possibly an unscrupolous miner, possibly not in the country. At what price-point will it cost less to hire a bunch of goons than to pay RRP...?
  - vadfa 5y ago
    You assume the thieves knew what was in the truck. They could've expected anything, from plasma TVs to chicken.
    - spoonjim 5y ago
      If thieves selected trucks at random they would more likely get toilet paper than graphics cards. This could be just circumstance but more likely at least some targeting.
      - mike_d 5y ago
        Truck thefts are tipped off by workers in the logistics chain that have access to the bill of lading. It isn't particularly sophisticated or uncommon. They look at the shipping paperwork and see "Sony", "EVGA", "Nike", etc. and text the container number to their friends. Normally insurance deals with this and the public never hears about it. This is extremely odd to issue a public announcement.
perihelions 5y ago
Convenient for the criminals that there's a safe and easy way to launder expensive hardware into currency, without even needing to move it. What a lovely system we've created, and what lovely incentives.
- wmf 5y ago
  If you're talking about mining, setting up a mining farm with hundreds of GPUs isn't easy or cheap at all.
  - m-p-3 5y ago
    You can likely recoup the initial cost somewhat quickly with that kind of hardware though.
  - glanzwulf 5y ago
    I'm sure there are other shipments they can target
    - justapassenger 5y ago
      I think you overestimate sophistication of “let’s steal stuff from a truck” businesses.
  - Uberzi 5y ago
    Did you miss the part about the GPU being stolen ?
    - tshaddox 5y ago
      The comment said it’s not easy or cheap to set up a mining farm.
    - justapassenger 5y ago
      You need to plug those GPUs into computers. You need to plug those computers somewhere as well. It’s not going to the moon hard, but waaaaaaay harder than reselling it on Craigslist. And requires significant capital investment.
glanzwulf 5y ago
Modern day Fast & Furious. Dom and the Family moved on from VHS and Panasonic tvs to EVGA gpus!
- openthc 5y ago
  One of posts on the linked thread had that as a meme picture (page 2)
323 5y ago
Don't companies insure shipments? What if the truck bursted into flames?
- jpgvm 5y ago
  They almost certainly do. However this is a notice for consumers so they know that if suspiciously large numbers of EVGA GFX cards show up on Craigslist that maybe you should ask for serial to verify warranty status before you buy.
- cosmolev 5y ago
  Notice of EVGA GeForce RTX 30-Series Graphics Card Bursted Into Flame...
- waterglassFull 5y ago
  This may be wrong, but a friend in logistics once told me that some companies insure large shipments to a partial amount. So if you budget to lose X% of shipments a year that's inline with the savings of Y% payments.
  - delecti 5y ago
    Can you explain that logic? The possible cases I can see are: the insurance prices are reasonably fair (roughly equal to risk percent times insured value, plus some profit buffer), or they're significantly higher or lower than that "fair" amount. Given that, I have trouble seeing a case where the rational action is insuring part of the value. If the cost is significantly higher than the risk-adjusted value, then it wouldn't make sense to insure at all, and if it's roughly equal or significantly lower then it would make sense to insure as much as possible.
    - octodog 5y ago
      It's no different to choosing your level of cover on life insurance or your level of excess on car insurance. Different companies and circumstances will have different risk profiles and will therefore require different levels of insurance.
mensetmanusman 5y ago
A crypto future where armed guards are required to deliver gpus…
mrdrozdov 5y ago
Ocean's Eleven bitcoin edition...
- fleddr 5y ago
  You can't mine Bitcoin on these cards.
  - DangitBobby 5y ago
    Why?
    - fleddr 5y ago
      Because Bitcoin is mined on ASICs. It's not a graphics card, instead a single chip optimized for one function only: mining (by generating hashes). GPU based mining is mostly done to mine Ether. Ether will switch to Proof of Stake somewhere in the next 1-2 years, after which the competition between gamers and miners for GPUs will end.
      - marktangotango 5y ago
        That's the optimistic outcome, the pessimistic outcome is the miners will fork "eth-classic" and keep going. It's up to the reader to decide which is most likely, or both.
        StillBored 5y ago
        Or they will move to some other coin that is rising in popularity and doesn't have GPU resistance built in. The latter is something that feels like a negative these days if you want a lot of buzz about some new crypto tokens...
        fleddr 5y ago
        My understanding is that miners are on board with the new Proof of Stake system of ETH 2. Holders even more, as it will reward ETH to ETH holders.
theshadowknows 5y ago
Honestly I’m surprised that they cant just be remotely disabled. I’m not advocating for this feature by the way. I’m just surprised that it’s not a thing.
- yissp 5y ago
  How about this... some of these will probably be sold to unwitting gamers, right? So push a driver update with the hot serial numbers and have it pop up a window saying "tell us who sold you this GPU and not only will we let you keep the card, but we'll even throw in a free year of GeForce now" (EVGA can foot the bill). Then track down the thieves, done.
  - dahart 5y ago
    > some of these will probably be sold to unwitting games, right? Probably not, they’re more likely to get used for mining by someone who knows they’re stolen. The thieves already know that selling them is extremely risky. Which is why tracking from the driver is an interesting idea, but also probably won’t work. But then again, we’re only speculating, so maybe it’d work!
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    "push a driver update with the hot serial numbers and have it pop up a window" Sure that runs foul of computer misuse act, millioms od people were downloading a driver, and you used it to get admin rights and take control of their computer, and 99.9% of them have no stolen GPU. It's like if you broke into and searched every house in London to find a batch of srolen iPhones, you aren't allowed to do that
    - glouwbug 5y ago
      I’m almost certain everyone already does this. Even as far back as the Pentium III has there been an opcode for any soft vendor to retrieve a CPU ID
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
arthurcolle 5y ago
Seems strange that theft invalidates a warranty from first principles, its not like they took it apart or something
- noah_buddy 5y ago
  What first principles are you using? A warranty only makes sense when money was paid for the product, no? How else could you afford to provide support otherwise?
  - shadowgovt 5y ago
    Additionally, a warranty only makes sense when the manufacturer can provide some quality guarantee on the product. That's much harder to provide with stolen goods... No way to know the thieves didn't take apart / damage the cards.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Seems strange that theft invalidates a warranty from first principles The warranty is transferred from the manufacturer to the consumer through the chain of commerce. Theft breaks the chain.
  - arthurcolle 5y ago
    This makes the most sense out of all the arguments, kind of a chain of custody for warranty claims and how they flow from upstream (manufacturers) to downstream (end users I guess). Thanks
- gpm 5y ago
  The strange part is that they're discussing a warranty at all. Legally these are still their cards, if they find out you have one they can demand it back without offering any compensation whatsoever, not just not fix it for you for free.
  - mike_d 5y ago
spoonjim 5y ago
Why not push out a software update that disables the cards with these serial numbers?
- Namidairo 5y ago
  Nvidia would have to approve it, and they might not be too willing to risk headlines of "Nvidia update bricks cards", regardless of the amount of actual units it would actually affect. Unless you mean EVGA putting a method to brick cards within their own software, such as "EVGA Precision X1" (their overclocking/fan control/rgb lighting tool). Both are terrible options in my opinion, as the most likely destination for these cards would end up being a mining operation, with most likely little care for keeping slightly outdated drivers if it meant lower hardware costs. Or an unwitting customer, who ends up with a nice brick.
sebiw 5y ago
I call this a dick move on EVGA's side, mainly harming consumers. I'm pretty certain they have insurance for incidents of this kind (theft), limiting the financial impact for them.
- jchw 5y ago
  I disagree. Theft like this doesn’t benefit anyone other than thieves. They should be doing everything in their power to recover the cards and ensure the thieves are caught. I don’t want to buy stolen goods from a thief.
- greggman3 5y ago
  It doesn't matter if they have insurance. Someone has to pay for it which ends up being a tax on everyone.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- ericd 5y ago
  They're legally not the consumers' cards, they still belong to EVGA.
- sebiw 5y ago
  To be clear: I do not support theft and law enforcement must follow up on the offenders, recover what's left and seize the assets. But I just think a lot of people won't receive the message about these stolen cards and will be left with a rather shitty situation.
  - selectodude 5y ago
    That's the risk taken with buying second-hand goods. Whether that's a graphics card or, in a case I'm very used to, bicycle parts. Make sure you see a receipt before buying an EVGA graphics card for the time being, I guess.
cs702 5y ago
The thieves who stole the trailer truck stand to make quite a bit of money. The internal storage space of a large trailer truck is ~50ft long × ~8ft wide × ~9ft high, give or take. The box containing each RTX 30xx card is at most ~1ft × ~0.5ft × ~0.5ft, give or take. Assuming the stolen trailer truck could be packed end-to-end and floor-to-ceiling with cards, there could have been up to (50÷1.0)×(8÷0.5)×(9÷0.5) = 14,400 cards inside the trailer. That's the upper limit on how many cards were stolen. EVGA RTX 30xx cards retail between $1000 and $3000 each, depending on the model. Even if I'm off by a factor of 10× on the number of cards, we're talking about a fortune.
- gruez 5y ago
  Where does it say that they stole a trailer's worth of GPUs? LTL is a thing[1], so it's totally possible that there's only a pallet or two of GPUs on board. If that's true, even a factor of 10 adjustment wouldn't account for your overestimation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-than-truckload_shipping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-than-truckload_shipping
- paxys 5y ago
  Why bother making up so many numbers? The truck could have been any size. There could have been 10 or 10,000 boxes in it.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    If it was 10 I highly doubt EVGA would go through the trouble of making this announcement.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
arrty88 5y ago
Surprised they didn’t have an airtag in the box
colordrops 5y ago
If 20 years ago a cyberpunk author pitched a story to me about thieves that steal a truckload full of AI-grade processors in order to profit off a digital gold rush I'd say "cool story bro but it doesn't make sense technically"
- paxys 5y ago
  I would have said "cool, I just saw Fast & Furious as well" (which released exactly 20 years ago funny enough)
  - slg 5y ago
    Yeah, maybe I am missing something, but what is new or interesting about this story? In the first Fast and Furious movie they were hijacking trucks to steal DVD players and TV/VCR combinations to sell on the black/grey market. Isn't this the exact same thing except with newer tech?
    - parsimo2010 5y ago
      Well, the real life GPU thieves probably didn’t do a high speed heist by driving cars in formation with the truck. They say the cards were stolen en route, but it’s probably just that they took the truck at a truck stop.
      - attythrowaway 5y ago
        In these cases the driver is generally paid to walk away, play dumb, or some combination of the two. Escalating to violence taking a truck undermines long-term success doing the same, just like modern piracy somewhat forced shipping lines to enhance security, thereby making piracy harder. Organized crime in the US figured out a long time ago that hurting a driver generally leads to the collapse of the whole operation and indictments. Ask any trucker how often they’re approached.
        MisterTea 5y ago
joelbondurant 5y ago
I've got them for sale 75% off at californiatax.com.
pluc 5y ago
hook me up, I just want one and I've been looking for almost a year for one that I don't need a second mortgage to pay for.
deleted 5y ago
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aaron695 5y ago
I love the comments which think this is a pile on because they won't let people register for a warranty. What are you mentally ill children? Is this the new cyberpunk, you'll buy blackmarket computer parts and expect the company to pat your head and feed you soup if it breaks? It's about the heist of a trucks worth of graphics cards. Which is just going to be an employee pulling out a box and keeping it. But whateves...the heist 'story' is as least fun. Ohhhhh someone might lose warranty is the sad reality of hackers these days.
natch 5y ago
Warranty checker link taken from comments on the site: https://www.evga.com/warranty/check.asp https://www.evga.com/warranty/check.asp Check serial number before forking over payment. Safe to assume they will not offer warrantees for the affected items.
- martin_a 5y ago
  I never post or give away serial numbers of my stuff to other people. They can report it as stolen and my hardware gets bricked or whatnot. Why would you do that differently with a rare ressource like graphic cards?
SiberianDweller 5y ago
D'ya like dags?
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Hehe. Ok, just this once then.
ericls 5y ago
Instead of accusing the buyers who might unknowingly buy these cards, how about cover your losses using insurances? How about calling the police? Maybe paying more to buy a better insurance next time or hiring a government with better funded police or more efficient justice system?
- Lapsed 5y ago
  How do you know they didn't do those things?
1970-01-01 5y ago
You know you're old when you see "EVGA" and "Graphics Cards" in the same sentence and EGA/VGA is the thing that pops into your mind first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter
- TillE 5y ago
  I mean sure, I had that thought like 20 years ago, when EVGA first became a major player in the GPU market.
  - serf 5y ago
    I still catch "EGA" when I read it occasionally, even with lots of time with EVGA as a brand. I think it has more to do with impact and experience than how recent something is. Example: I spent a lot of time reading the phrases 'EGA' or 'VGA' in my life, much more so than I ever dealt with the brand 'EVGA'. When my eyes cruise over those letters together, something in my head always trips the concept 'EGA/VGA' first, even though I have known for years and year that EVGA is a brand and that EGA/VGA are now obsolete phrases. I don't know why that is , and maybe that's exactly the concept that parent was trying to get across : when you get older your brain tends to keep certain biases that were built during an earlier (now obsolete) era, even when they serve no real good purpose anymore -- likely because that concept was so exercised mentally at an earlier time. Now, if I were an actuary or accountant or business person working for EVGA and I had to write their name out 100+ times daily, i'd probably be singing a different tune.
- xxs 5y ago
  Alternatively you know that EGA - is a graphics adapter and VGA is a graphics array...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
jahewson 5y ago
It makes sense to steal hundreds of GPUs in parallel rather than individually.
- basicplus2 5y ago
  rather than Serially?
kolbe 5y ago
There wouldn't be such a robust secondary and black market for these things if they would just price them appropriately to begin with.
- vmception 5y ago
  them's fighting words! I've mentioned the same things before but their vocal customers are price sensitive gamers, otakus and teenagers who require a boogeyman for their place in life
dsign 5y ago
I hope these thieves-for-cryptomining are still around when we need to fight the cartels trying to create general AI.
takeda 5y ago
How does this work though? If I would buy a card on eBay for example, I paid for it, install it and during registration I learn it is stolen, am I just basically f-ed? I mean, will anyone reimburse me the money I paid for it? I would assume EVGA won't (since it was stolen from them), police won't, seller won't, eBay will say that it is between me and the seller. How something like that gets resolved?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- sersi 5y ago
  In this case you should be able to issue a chargeback by showing that it's stolen goods and the credit card company will try to get its money back from the merchant.
  - lrem 5y ago
    And the merchant will permaban your 10 your old account with bajillion fake internet points?
    - nopcode 5y ago
      No. eBay/PayPal usually favours the buyer and tends to instantly freeze the assets of the seller until this is resolved. This is especially true with "new" computer parts (lot's of fraud).
      - ihattendorf 5y ago
        Yes, if you open a dispute through eBay. Not if the first thing you do is initiate a chargeback with your CC provider. Chargeback is supposed to be done _after_ you've reasonably exhausted your options with the merchant.
    - Tuna-Fish 5y ago
      Well, yes, you should instead do a dispute through eBay. But "I bought stolen property on your platform" is exactly the kind of problem that they have policies for and for which they will reinburse you.
fareesh 5y ago
I noticed that this mentions California. Is it true that crime in California has risen significantly in recent years?
dusted 5y ago
I'm also wondering the duality of the statement: * It is a criminal and civil offense to “buy or receive” property that has been stolen. Cal. Penal Code section 496(a). * If you are able to successfully register your product and see it under My Products, then your product is NOT affected by this notice, you can also check the serial number at the EVGA Warranty Check page to see if it is affected. Sounds to me like, if you bought a card in some shop, and you're in good faith, but you check by registering, then you risk turning yourself in for a crime you didn't know you committed, from there, you cannot do anything to amend the situation since you already committed the crime. Fuck laws.
- buran77 5y ago
  > 496.(a) Every person who buys or receives any property that has been stolen or that has been obtained in any manner constituting theft or extortion, knowing the property to be so stolen or obtained, or who conceals, sells, withholds, or aids in concealing, selling, or withholding any property from the owner, knowing the property to be so stolen or obtained It's a crime to knowingly obtain stolen goods. Otherwise it's not a crime but you will definitely have to return the item and recover your money some other way.
  - eptcyka 5y ago
    Some other way means you won't ever recover the money.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - checkyoursudo 5y ago
    Seems like the person/business/entity whose goods were stolen should have insurance to cover the loss rather than putting the burden on an innocent, unknowing receiver of stolen goods to recover their subsequent loss in some nebulous way.
    - 5y ago
ineedasername 5y ago
EVGA's warranty explicitly grants warranty transfer to second owners with proof of the transaction. Denying this for stolen cards isn't very customer friendly when the vast majority of cards are (legally) hoarded and sold by scalpers to customers who have no way of knowing it's stolen. Especially considering that EVGA or whoever owned the cards when they were shipped will undoubtedly be insured and get paid on the cards regardless.

348 points by paulproteus 5y ago

How many people even register their graphics card (or really anything else) online on the manufacturer's website? And considering it is impossible for people to buy cards from legit sources, what exactly do you expect them to do?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
camhart 5y ago
I do, because I want manufacturer warranties. I've lost out in the past by not registering and the warranty expires. I'm certainly cautious and frugal, but not too abnormally so (I think at least). I'd guess there are a handful of others like me.
- paxys 5y ago
  You have the warranty regardless. Creating accounts and registering your product after purchase cannot legally be a requirement.
  - camhart 5y ago
    My EVGA card from a decade ago had a lifetime warranty if you registered it with them. I didn't, so when it stopped working 3 years later I had to buy a replacement. Registering for an extended warranty is a requirement that many companies enforce. Update: Why is this being downvoted? Literally from EVGA's website: "Limited Lifetime Warranties are available to the original owner on applicable parts if registered by the original owner within 30 days of the date of purchase." [1] [1] https://www.evga.com/warranty/2011/graphics-cards/ https://www.evga.com/warranty/2011/graphics-cards/
    - anonymousisme 5y ago
      Such companies may actually be in violation federal regulations. US Title 16 CFR § 700.7 covers this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/700.7 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/700.7 So the manufacturer must honor the promised warranty, but they certainly have the option to offer an extended warranty at no charge provided that the consumer registers with them.
    - tharkun__ 5y ago
      What's the "lifetime" of a graphics card? As in, lifetime doesn't mean your lifetime. Or the time you own the card. It means whatever expected lifetime the item has as per the manufacturer. The manufacturer may define the "regular lifetime" of their item to be 3 years for example and then it would not have helped you at all. I've never registered for any warranties in my life. I'm not sure if this is a thing where you are. But where I am for example, there are warranties guaranteed by law that require manufacturers to warranty their items for a "reasonable" amount of time (regardless of what their actual terms say). What is reasonable is up to interpretation and different for different items. They do give a few examples for common items like a washing machine but otherwise it's up to consumers and companies to figure this out together and if they can't you can make an official complaint with the government. Helped me w/ NVIDIA who wouldn't replace a broken tablet shortly after their official warranty ran out. EDIT: No idea on the downvotes, when I started replying there were no downvotes yet, when I submitted there was.
      - breakfastduck 5y ago
        Yes they're obligated to offer a 'reasonable' warranty but this isn't what you get if you register. You get a significantly increased warranty as stated by other commenters getting a card upgrade years after their card failed. EVGA are particularly generous in this regard compared to others.
        verve_rat 5y ago
        If the company is willing to warrant the card for X years if you register it, then surely X years is the minimum bounds of a reasonable lifetime? I wonder if anyone in a "reasonable lifetime" guaranteed by law jurisdiction has used that line of thinking.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    You have the legally required warranty regardless, but to the extent the warranty isn't required by law, you have whatever you’ve jumped through the manufacturer’s hoops for.
nightski 5y ago
EVGA has historically had the step up program. It used to be 2 years but look like it is only 90 days currently.
acomjean 5y ago
Yeah. Its pretty meaningless. If you are buying a new sealed video card, never used sold on craigslist/ebay, I'm guessing your not very suspicious and probably not looking for a warranty.
- 14 5y ago
  Now days PS5's and graphics cards are bought up quickly and sold by scalpers. So I am guessing some may not be suspicious at all but assume it is just a scalper and may even expect to pay a mark up on said items.
- kadoban 5y ago
  In the current market, you have essentially no way to buy from a manufacturer or primary retailer. You have to get _insanely_ lucky to be able to do so. So you're essentially saying nobody is going to be looking for any warranties on any cards, which is quite wrong.
  - AnssiH 5y ago
    Around here (Finland) there is a moderate amount of various cards in stock at the biggest computer retailers, the prices are just high: https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/catalog/706b/Naytonohjaimet/products?filter=AvailableImmediatelyAllChannels%3Aimmediately_shippable https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/catalog/706b/Naytonohjaimet/... (in-stock cards) https://www.jimms.fi/fi/Product/List/000-00P/komponentit--naytonohjaimet?ob=5 https://www.jimms.fi/fi/Product/List/000-00P/komponentit--na... (cards sorted by stock)
    - kadoban 5y ago
      Yeah you're right, it does depend where you are. I can only speak for US market.
  - xxs 5y ago
    in EU, you can just buy cards at amazon - the prices are what they are... 2100€ for 3080ti, sold by amazon, themselves. Being amazon you have the easiest returns ever, just send a complaint and send it back, they will return the money and both shipping costs.
kevingadd 5y ago
I register all my EVGA purchases specifically because they have very good warranty + customer service, and they have a great trade-in program for registered hardware.
blackearl 5y ago
EVGA has reportedly great warranty support so it's worth it, especially considering it's a purchase that's usually $500+.
- mooman219 5y ago
  One data point but I have had issue with EVGA support, and their cards for years (I owned two before I swore to never buy another one). They had heatsink issues at one point and it was incredibly hard to get it fixed without me paying shipping and I would have been out a GPU for 4-8 weeks. I just fixed it myself and voided the warrenty.
  - kadoban 5y ago
    Fixing it yourself did not void the warranty. It's against the law to void warranties just because someone else fixed it (unless they, aka you in this case, break it).
zeroDivisible 5y ago
This is anecdotal but EVGA replaced my 1-month out of warranty 970 with 1070, after the card gave up to work about 2 years ago. And I registered it after the failure, although I was able to establish that I bought the card legally and was the only owner. All my contact with their customer support was stellar.
- wang_li 5y ago
  Some time ago I bought an EVGA 560 Ti and they threw in a 10 year extended warranty. A couple years in it failed and they replaced it with a 660 Ti. About a year later that failed and they replaced it with a 960 Ti. I appreciate their warranty policies.
  - garaetjjte 5y ago
    I would not appreciate the product quality though...
  - artificialLimbs 5y ago
    >> ... and they threw in a 10 year extended warranty. How did you get that?
    - alborzb 5y ago
      You can just purchase a 5 year or 10 year warranty when you purchase directly from EVGA. Here's their pricing and info -- https://eu.evga.com/warranty/extended/ https://eu.evga.com/warranty/extended/
      - artificialLimbs 5y ago
        That is shocking. I will definitely be purchasing an EVGA next.
  - xxs 5y ago
    You sure those were new cards or just rejects (refurbished ones by other customers)
kitsunesoba 5y ago
In addition to the warranty mentioned by others, registering an EVGA product of a certain value or higher gets you into their Elite program, which gives early access to queues for new products. This is what allowed me to upgrade to a 3080 Ti for MSRP in the middle of a shortage. So it may not be immediately useful but can pay off down the road.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
xenadu02 5y ago
A lot of products offer longer warranties if you register. For example my ice maker comes with a 1 year warranty but registering within 30 days automatically extends that to two years. It's an under-counter unit that makes nugget (aka Sonic) ice and wasn't cheap so I registered.
NoPicklez 5y ago
I do absolutely, for EVGA especially its quite easy and makes RMA requests a breeze (if I ever need to)
xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
I had a fan bearing go bad on an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. It was literally two days out of warranty, and I was pissed. I was near one of their main offices at the time, and ended up calling their reception and driving to drop off the borked card after speaking to an engineer who wanted to see it. They handed me a brand new card, no questions asked, and thanked me for bringing the problem to their attention. I miss the good old days.
- dillondoyle 5y ago
  Apple used to do this for me more than once. Not anymore they need that sweet monthly applecare revenue.
- eightysixfour 5y ago
  I’ve been such an ATi fan after owning an FIC-branded 9700 that was flashed to a Pro and went bad in the first year or so. I was ~13 years old, called up ATi and told them the situation, I was honest that I had flashed the bios, and asked if there was anything they could do. They sent me an ATi branded 9700 Pro. First company to do me a solid like that and I’ve stuck around since.
  - monkeytaco 5y ago
    I had a similar experience with AMD back in the day. I was probably a similar age and damaged the pins on my new Athlon XP 2500+. I called them up and they ended up sending me a 2800+ as a replacement.
  - masklinn 5y ago
    It’s why I still like logitech today. Had a mouse go bad 20 years back, called up support, they told me they’d send a new one. I was shocked, wondering what if I was lying and didn’t they want evidence? They replied they took it on trust but I could cut off the usb plug and put it in the trash if it made me feel better (that is, of course, a very easy repair).
    - philjohn 5y ago
girvo 5y ago
Me! I do. I've done it for basically all my parts, in case my retail store is a pain if something goes wrong. These cards won't be sold any time soon, they'll have been stolen for mining.
proactivesvcs 5y ago
I do with all the tech I buy and sell. I was burned about ten years ago by two apparently-grey market Intel CPUs that I had purchased from a reputable distributor, and had to eat the warranty replacements when they both failed. Once I started checking proactively I took delivery of a few hard drives that turned out to be "of questionable warranty period", again from various reputable distributors. I immediately had them replaced with no hassle.
ineedasername 5y ago
This. Buyers will have no way of knowing the card they buy-- at 2x retail-- was stolen. This penalizes buyers in a marketplace that doesn't have the structure in place to ensure 90% of its product doesn't end up in the hands of scalpers.
- randomswede 5y ago
  Expect anything bought from a scalper to be stolen. I thought that was "you're buying from a scalper 101" (or possibly "lol"). People buying from scalpers is why scalpers can continue to exist. There's pretty much no way of stopping that, outside of making scalping illegal, then strictly enforce that. But, then, that pretty much kills the first-sale doctrine and I am not sure that is a good trade-off.
shmde 5y ago
People definitely do it nowadays because there are incentives like card manufacturers giving you a free AAA title etc.
- hoseja 5y ago
  The "free" game is usually gated behind so much bullshit it's not generally worth it.
  - soylentcola 5y ago
    Yeah...I tried my damnedest to claim some Call of Duty game that "came with" my 3080 last year. By the time I was done, I had to sign into "GeForce Experience" (which I'd avoided up until then) and install battle.net, reset my old account from the last time I had it (I think when Diablo 3 was new), then I had a hell of time because the authenticator was tied to an old device but I couldn't manage it without logging in. I forget what eventually happened, but I never was able to play that stupid game and I only even bothered because it was "free".
spaceisballer 5y ago
I register nearly all computer components. Sometimes parts go bad and that’s the point of having a warranty. Thankfully I’ve only had to replace a motherboard and a PSU. Actually they were EVGA, hence why I normally buy their stuff. I got a 3060Ti through them also. I just happened to sign up for an out of stock notification and to my surprise they changed that into a queue giving you the option to buy a card. I mean I waited a year but it’s better than trying to deal with whatever nonsense Best Buy is doing or Newegg.
71a54xd 5y ago
3yrs no questions asked warranty (at least in EVGA's case). There's considerable value there - in some cases surpassing the value of the card itself. What's interesting is EVGA now requires you to register the purchase date and location along with a scan of the physical receipt.

cillian64 5y ago

This seems like a nasty move from EVGA to shift the downside onto whoever ends up unknowingly buying these cards on eBay. It’s weird, they normally seem like a company with a decent customer focus, and it’s not like this move is going to make any difference to their loss from the shipment, it just screws customers.

holografix 5y ago
They are tackling the demand side of what could become a very lucrative business for thieves. If people are scared away from buying “dodgy back of the van” GPUs then thieves have no incentive to steal them.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  Except it's not the back of a van, it's places like eBay, just about the only places you can find cards, including that majority that are not stolen. I've read through enough reasoning here that I'm not sure what the right answer is-- from a business and customer-friendly standpoint. But I think there's more gray are involved than with items that are readily available through normal retail channels. Then again, these stolen cards may be earmarked for crypto mining operations by organized crime, and then the issue warranties to those who knowingly use stolen goods is much less grey.
- ant6n 5y ago
  People still steal iPhones although they are essentially bricks.
fhood 5y ago
Pretty much every company would do something like this. No reason not to discourage people from buying.
MrFoof 5y ago
I've sold two GPUs (as I've upgraded -- no mining unless Dward Fortress and RimWorld counts) in the past few months on eBay. One shipped to an eBay freight forwarder and ultimately to a buyer in Qatar. One shipped to an eBay freight forwarder and ultimately to a buyer in Kazakhstan. Gamers aren't the ones paying huge markups on eBay. These aren't going to be warranty registered.

forgotmypw17 5y ago

Funny enough, I'm getting this message: Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://forums.evga.com/Notice-of-Stolen-EVGA-GeForce-RTX-30Series-Graphics-Cards-m3490851.aspx http://forums.evga.com/Notice-of-Stolen-EVGA-GeForce-RTX-30S..." on this server.

ev1 5y ago
If you're on an abusive VPN with bad reputation it's blocked.
- forgotmypw17 5y ago
  I'm not on a VPN.
- unclekev 5y ago
  Getting this on a residential internet connection in Sydney Australia. Not on a VPN.
spartanatreyu 5y ago
The post says: PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on October 29, 2021, a shipment of EVGA GeForce RTX 30-Series Graphics Cards was stolen from a truck en route from San Francisco to our Southern California distribution center. These graphics cards are in high demand and each has an estimated retail value starting at $329.99 up to $1959.99 MSRP. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that under state and Federal law: It is a criminal and civil offense to “buy or receive” property that has been stolen. Cal. Penal Code section 496(a). It is also a criminal and civil offense to “conceal, sell, withhold, or aid in concealing selling or withholding” any such property. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER notice that: If you are able to successfully register your product and see it under My Products, then your product is NOT affected by this notice, you can also check the serial number at the EVGA Warranty Check page to see if it is affected. EVGA will NOT REGISTER or HONOR ANY WARRANTY or UPGRADE claims on these products. If you have or receive any information relating to these products, please share that with us at stopRTX30theft@evga.com. We appreciate your attention to this issue. Thank you, EVGA Management

thayne 5y ago

> It is a criminal and civil offense to “buy or receive” property that has been stolen. Cal. Penal Code section 496(a). I would really hope there is a "knowingly" qualifier on that.

staticautomatic 5y ago
There is.
bitexploder 5y ago
Intent definitely matters in this case. Like, if these end up on Amazon or eBay and you buy one at a market rate you are pretty safe. If you saw a “too good to be true deal” and proceeded, it gets murkier.
- NullPrefix 5y ago
  Doesn't this criminalize the whole black friday/cyber monday thing?

perth 5y ago

Transporting GPUs in 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGZLYx8StWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGZLYx8StWk

rdtwo 5y ago

Interesting, smart move would be to just mine with them or sell them used. I’m sure they will just end up on Craigslist though

wly_cdgr 5y ago
Or even more devious: steal enough of them that you can scalp ones you bought legitimately for even more
toyg 5y ago
> I’m sure they will just end up on Craigslist though Why so sure? This doesn't look like a crime of opportunity - one has to know the truck will contain graphics cards, and that such cards are valuable in today's market. It doesn't say how many cards were stolen, "a shipment" could be the whole truck - and robbing a truck is no joke. If there is some organization behind the heist, I would expect them to be sent directly to a lined-up buyer that has a use for them - possibly an unscrupolous miner, possibly not in the country. At what price-point will it cost less to hire a bunch of goons than to pay RRP...?
- vadfa 5y ago
  You assume the thieves knew what was in the truck. They could've expected anything, from plasma TVs to chicken.
  - spoonjim 5y ago
    If thieves selected trucks at random they would more likely get toilet paper than graphics cards. This could be just circumstance but more likely at least some targeting.
    - mike_d 5y ago
      Truck thefts are tipped off by workers in the logistics chain that have access to the bill of lading. It isn't particularly sophisticated or uncommon. They look at the shipping paperwork and see "Sony", "EVGA", "Nike", etc. and text the container number to their friends. Normally insurance deals with this and the public never hears about it. This is extremely odd to issue a public announcement.

perihelions 5y ago

Convenient for the criminals that there's a safe and easy way to launder expensive hardware into currency, without even needing to move it. What a lovely system we've created, and what lovely incentives.

wmf 5y ago
If you're talking about mining, setting up a mining farm with hundreds of GPUs isn't easy or cheap at all.
- m-p-3 5y ago
  You can likely recoup the initial cost somewhat quickly with that kind of hardware though.
- glanzwulf 5y ago
  I'm sure there are other shipments they can target
  - justapassenger 5y ago
    I think you overestimate sophistication of “let’s steal stuff from a truck” businesses.
- Uberzi 5y ago
  Did you miss the part about the GPU being stolen ?
  - tshaddox 5y ago
    The comment said it’s not easy or cheap to set up a mining farm.
  - justapassenger 5y ago
    You need to plug those GPUs into computers. You need to plug those computers somewhere as well. It’s not going to the moon hard, but waaaaaaay harder than reselling it on Craigslist. And requires significant capital investment.

glanzwulf 5y ago

Modern day Fast & Furious. Dom and the Family moved on from VHS and Panasonic tvs to EVGA gpus!

openthc 5y ago
One of posts on the linked thread had that as a meme picture (page 2)

323 5y ago

Don't companies insure shipments? What if the truck bursted into flames?

jpgvm 5y ago
They almost certainly do. However this is a notice for consumers so they know that if suspiciously large numbers of EVGA GFX cards show up on Craigslist that maybe you should ask for serial to verify warranty status before you buy.
cosmolev 5y ago
Notice of EVGA GeForce RTX 30-Series Graphics Card Bursted Into Flame...
waterglassFull 5y ago
This may be wrong, but a friend in logistics once told me that some companies insure large shipments to a partial amount. So if you budget to lose X% of shipments a year that's inline with the savings of Y% payments.
- delecti 5y ago
  Can you explain that logic? The possible cases I can see are: the insurance prices are reasonably fair (roughly equal to risk percent times insured value, plus some profit buffer), or they're significantly higher or lower than that "fair" amount. Given that, I have trouble seeing a case where the rational action is insuring part of the value. If the cost is significantly higher than the risk-adjusted value, then it wouldn't make sense to insure at all, and if it's roughly equal or significantly lower then it would make sense to insure as much as possible.
  - octodog 5y ago
    It's no different to choosing your level of cover on life insurance or your level of excess on car insurance. Different companies and circumstances will have different risk profiles and will therefore require different levels of insurance.

mensetmanusman 5y ago

A crypto future where armed guards are required to deliver gpus…

mrdrozdov 5y ago

Ocean's Eleven bitcoin edition...

fleddr 5y ago
You can't mine Bitcoin on these cards.
- DangitBobby 5y ago
  Why?
  - fleddr 5y ago
    Because Bitcoin is mined on ASICs. It's not a graphics card, instead a single chip optimized for one function only: mining (by generating hashes). GPU based mining is mostly done to mine Ether. Ether will switch to Proof of Stake somewhere in the next 1-2 years, after which the competition between gamers and miners for GPUs will end.
    - marktangotango 5y ago
      That's the optimistic outcome, the pessimistic outcome is the miners will fork "eth-classic" and keep going. It's up to the reader to decide which is most likely, or both.
      - StillBored 5y ago
        Or they will move to some other coin that is rising in popularity and doesn't have GPU resistance built in. The latter is something that feels like a negative these days if you want a lot of buzz about some new crypto tokens...
      - fleddr 5y ago
        My understanding is that miners are on board with the new Proof of Stake system of ETH 2. Holders even more, as it will reward ETH to ETH holders.

theshadowknows 5y ago

Honestly I’m surprised that they cant just be remotely disabled. I’m not advocating for this feature by the way. I’m just surprised that it’s not a thing.

yissp 5y ago
How about this... some of these will probably be sold to unwitting gamers, right? So push a driver update with the hot serial numbers and have it pop up a window saying "tell us who sold you this GPU and not only will we let you keep the card, but we'll even throw in a free year of GeForce now" (EVGA can foot the bill). Then track down the thieves, done.
- dahart 5y ago
  > some of these will probably be sold to unwitting games, right? Probably not, they’re more likely to get used for mining by someone who knows they’re stolen. The thieves already know that selling them is extremely risky. Which is why tracking from the driver is an interesting idea, but also probably won’t work. But then again, we’re only speculating, so maybe it’d work!
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  "push a driver update with the hot serial numbers and have it pop up a window" Sure that runs foul of computer misuse act, millioms od people were downloading a driver, and you used it to get admin rights and take control of their computer, and 99.9% of them have no stolen GPU. It's like if you broke into and searched every house in London to find a batch of srolen iPhones, you aren't allowed to do that
  - glouwbug 5y ago
    I’m almost certain everyone already does this. Even as far back as the Pentium III has there been an opcode for any soft vendor to retrieve a CPU ID
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

arthurcolle 5y ago

Seems strange that theft invalidates a warranty from first principles, its not like they took it apart or something

noah_buddy 5y ago
What first principles are you using? A warranty only makes sense when money was paid for the product, no? How else could you afford to provide support otherwise?
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  Additionally, a warranty only makes sense when the manufacturer can provide some quality guarantee on the product. That's much harder to provide with stolen goods... No way to know the thieves didn't take apart / damage the cards.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> Seems strange that theft invalidates a warranty from first principles The warranty is transferred from the manufacturer to the consumer through the chain of commerce. Theft breaks the chain.
- arthurcolle 5y ago
  This makes the most sense out of all the arguments, kind of a chain of custody for warranty claims and how they flow from upstream (manufacturers) to downstream (end users I guess). Thanks
gpm 5y ago
The strange part is that they're discussing a warranty at all. Legally these are still their cards, if they find out you have one they can demand it back without offering any compensation whatsoever, not just not fix it for you for free.
- mike_d 5y ago

spoonjim 5y ago

Why not push out a software update that disables the cards with these serial numbers?

Namidairo 5y ago
Nvidia would have to approve it, and they might not be too willing to risk headlines of "Nvidia update bricks cards", regardless of the amount of actual units it would actually affect. Unless you mean EVGA putting a method to brick cards within their own software, such as "EVGA Precision X1" (their overclocking/fan control/rgb lighting tool). Both are terrible options in my opinion, as the most likely destination for these cards would end up being a mining operation, with most likely little care for keeping slightly outdated drivers if it meant lower hardware costs. Or an unwitting customer, who ends up with a nice brick.

sebiw 5y ago

I call this a dick move on EVGA's side, mainly harming consumers. I'm pretty certain they have insurance for incidents of this kind (theft), limiting the financial impact for them.

jchw 5y ago
I disagree. Theft like this doesn’t benefit anyone other than thieves. They should be doing everything in their power to recover the cards and ensure the thieves are caught. I don’t want to buy stolen goods from a thief.
greggman3 5y ago
It doesn't matter if they have insurance. Someone has to pay for it which ends up being a tax on everyone.
- deleted 5y ago
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ericd 5y ago
They're legally not the consumers' cards, they still belong to EVGA.
sebiw 5y ago
To be clear: I do not support theft and law enforcement must follow up on the offenders, recover what's left and seize the assets. But I just think a lot of people won't receive the message about these stolen cards and will be left with a rather shitty situation.
- selectodude 5y ago
  That's the risk taken with buying second-hand goods. Whether that's a graphics card or, in a case I'm very used to, bicycle parts. Make sure you see a receipt before buying an EVGA graphics card for the time being, I guess.

cs702 5y ago

The thieves who stole the trailer truck stand to make quite a bit of money. The internal storage space of a large trailer truck is ~50ft long × ~8ft wide × ~9ft high, give or take. The box containing each RTX 30xx card is at most ~1ft × ~0.5ft × ~0.5ft, give or take. Assuming the stolen trailer truck could be packed end-to-end and floor-to-ceiling with cards, there could have been up to (50÷1.0)×(8÷0.5)×(9÷0.5) = 14,400 cards inside the trailer. That's the upper limit on how many cards were stolen. EVGA RTX 30xx cards retail between $1000 and $3000 each, depending on the model. Even if I'm off by a factor of 10× on the number of cards, we're talking about a fortune.

gruez 5y ago
Where does it say that they stole a trailer's worth of GPUs? LTL is a thing[1], so it's totally possible that there's only a pallet or two of GPUs on board. If that's true, even a factor of 10 adjustment wouldn't account for your overestimation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-than-truckload_shipping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-than-truckload_shipping
paxys 5y ago
Why bother making up so many numbers? The truck could have been any size. There could have been 10 or 10,000 boxes in it.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  If it was 10 I highly doubt EVGA would go through the trouble of making this announcement.

deleted 5y ago

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arrty88 5y ago

Surprised they didn’t have an airtag in the box

colordrops 5y ago

If 20 years ago a cyberpunk author pitched a story to me about thieves that steal a truckload full of AI-grade processors in order to profit off a digital gold rush I'd say "cool story bro but it doesn't make sense technically"

paxys 5y ago
I would have said "cool, I just saw Fast & Furious as well" (which released exactly 20 years ago funny enough)
- slg 5y ago
  Yeah, maybe I am missing something, but what is new or interesting about this story? In the first Fast and Furious movie they were hijacking trucks to steal DVD players and TV/VCR combinations to sell on the black/grey market. Isn't this the exact same thing except with newer tech?
  - parsimo2010 5y ago
    Well, the real life GPU thieves probably didn’t do a high speed heist by driving cars in formation with the truck. They say the cards were stolen en route, but it’s probably just that they took the truck at a truck stop.
    - attythrowaway 5y ago
      In these cases the driver is generally paid to walk away, play dumb, or some combination of the two. Escalating to violence taking a truck undermines long-term success doing the same, just like modern piracy somewhat forced shipping lines to enhance security, thereby making piracy harder. Organized crime in the US figured out a long time ago that hurting a driver generally leads to the collapse of the whole operation and indictments. Ask any trucker how often they’re approached.
      - MisterTea 5y ago

joelbondurant 5y ago

I've got them for sale 75% off at californiatax.com.

pluc 5y ago

hook me up, I just want one and I've been looking for almost a year for one that I don't need a second mortgage to pay for.

deleted 5y ago

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aaron695 5y ago

I love the comments which think this is a pile on because they won't let people register for a warranty. What are you mentally ill children? Is this the new cyberpunk, you'll buy blackmarket computer parts and expect the company to pat your head and feed you soup if it breaks? It's about the heist of a trucks worth of graphics cards. Which is just going to be an employee pulling out a box and keeping it. But whateves...the heist 'story' is as least fun. Ohhhhh someone might lose warranty is the sad reality of hackers these days.

natch 5y ago

Warranty checker link taken from comments on the site: https://www.evga.com/warranty/check.asp https://www.evga.com/warranty/check.asp Check serial number before forking over payment. Safe to assume they will not offer warrantees for the affected items.

martin_a 5y ago
I never post or give away serial numbers of my stuff to other people. They can report it as stolen and my hardware gets bricked or whatnot. Why would you do that differently with a rare ressource like graphic cards?

SiberianDweller 5y ago

D'ya like dags?

jacquesm 5y ago
Hehe. Ok, just this once then.

ericls 5y ago

Instead of accusing the buyers who might unknowingly buy these cards, how about cover your losses using insurances? How about calling the police? Maybe paying more to buy a better insurance next time or hiring a government with better funded police or more efficient justice system?

Lapsed 5y ago
How do you know they didn't do those things?

1970-01-01 5y ago

You know you're old when you see "EVGA" and "Graphics Cards" in the same sentence and EGA/VGA is the thing that pops into your mind first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter

TillE 5y ago
I mean sure, I had that thought like 20 years ago, when EVGA first became a major player in the GPU market.
- serf 5y ago
  I still catch "EGA" when I read it occasionally, even with lots of time with EVGA as a brand. I think it has more to do with impact and experience than how recent something is. Example: I spent a lot of time reading the phrases 'EGA' or 'VGA' in my life, much more so than I ever dealt with the brand 'EVGA'. When my eyes cruise over those letters together, something in my head always trips the concept 'EGA/VGA' first, even though I have known for years and year that EVGA is a brand and that EGA/VGA are now obsolete phrases. I don't know why that is , and maybe that's exactly the concept that parent was trying to get across : when you get older your brain tends to keep certain biases that were built during an earlier (now obsolete) era, even when they serve no real good purpose anymore -- likely because that concept was so exercised mentally at an earlier time. Now, if I were an actuary or accountant or business person working for EVGA and I had to write their name out 100+ times daily, i'd probably be singing a different tune.
xxs 5y ago
Alternatively you know that EGA - is a graphics adapter and VGA is a graphics array...
deleted 5y ago
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jahewson 5y ago

It makes sense to steal hundreds of GPUs in parallel rather than individually.

basicplus2 5y ago
rather than Serially?

kolbe 5y ago

There wouldn't be such a robust secondary and black market for these things if they would just price them appropriately to begin with.

vmception 5y ago
them's fighting words! I've mentioned the same things before but their vocal customers are price sensitive gamers, otakus and teenagers who require a boogeyman for their place in life

dsign 5y ago

I hope these thieves-for-cryptomining are still around when we need to fight the cartels trying to create general AI.

takeda 5y ago

How does this work though? If I would buy a card on eBay for example, I paid for it, install it and during registration I learn it is stolen, am I just basically f-ed? I mean, will anyone reimburse me the money I paid for it? I would assume EVGA won't (since it was stolen from them), police won't, seller won't, eBay will say that it is between me and the seller. How something like that gets resolved?

deleted 5y ago
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sersi 5y ago
In this case you should be able to issue a chargeback by showing that it's stolen goods and the credit card company will try to get its money back from the merchant.
- lrem 5y ago
  And the merchant will permaban your 10 your old account with bajillion fake internet points?
  - nopcode 5y ago
    No. eBay/PayPal usually favours the buyer and tends to instantly freeze the assets of the seller until this is resolved. This is especially true with "new" computer parts (lot's of fraud).
    - ihattendorf 5y ago
      Yes, if you open a dispute through eBay. Not if the first thing you do is initiate a chargeback with your CC provider. Chargeback is supposed to be done _after_ you've reasonably exhausted your options with the merchant.
  - Tuna-Fish 5y ago
    Well, yes, you should instead do a dispute through eBay. But "I bought stolen property on your platform" is exactly the kind of problem that they have policies for and for which they will reinburse you.

fareesh 5y ago

I noticed that this mentions California. Is it true that crime in California has risen significantly in recent years?

dusted 5y ago

I'm also wondering the duality of the statement: * It is a criminal and civil offense to “buy or receive” property that has been stolen. Cal. Penal Code section 496(a). * If you are able to successfully register your product and see it under My Products, then your product is NOT affected by this notice, you can also check the serial number at the EVGA Warranty Check page to see if it is affected. Sounds to me like, if you bought a card in some shop, and you're in good faith, but you check by registering, then you risk turning yourself in for a crime you didn't know you committed, from there, you cannot do anything to amend the situation since you already committed the crime. Fuck laws.

buran77 5y ago
> 496.(a) Every person who buys or receives any property that has been stolen or that has been obtained in any manner constituting theft or extortion, knowing the property to be so stolen or obtained, or who conceals, sells, withholds, or aids in concealing, selling, or withholding any property from the owner, knowing the property to be so stolen or obtained It's a crime to knowingly obtain stolen goods. Otherwise it's not a crime but you will definitely have to return the item and recover your money some other way.
- eptcyka 5y ago
  Some other way means you won't ever recover the money.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- checkyoursudo 5y ago
  Seems like the person/business/entity whose goods were stolen should have insurance to cover the loss rather than putting the burden on an innocent, unknowing receiver of stolen goods to recover their subsequent loss in some nebulous way.
  - 5y ago

ineedasername 5y ago

EVGA's warranty explicitly grants warranty transfer to second owners with proof of the transaction. Denying this for stolen cards isn't very customer friendly when the vast majority of cards are (legally) hoarded and sold by scalpers to customers who have no way of knowing it's stolen. Especially considering that EVGA or whoever owned the cards when they were shipped will undoubtedly be insured and get paid on the cards regardless.