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> Did you not read what I said? I couldn't even get a replacement video card at any price during the height of COVID and believe you I had the money to pay for

> Did you not read what I said? I couldn't even get a replacement video card at any price during the height of COVID and believe you I had the money to pay for one. You're comparing to memory sticks that went up 6x. If you were offering anywhere near 6x MSRP and you couldn't get a video card... I don't believe you. https://www.pcmag.com/news/scalpers-have-sold-50000-nvidia-rtx-3000-gpus-through-ebay-stockx https://www.pcmag.com/news/scalpers-have-sold-50000-nvidia-r... https://www.pcmag.com/news/read-it-and-weep-heres-how-bad-nvidia-gpu-prices-got-in-a-single-year https://www.pcmag.com/news/read-it-and-weep-heres-how-bad-nv... These show GPUs available for 1.5-2.5x price, which fits what I remember. > I couldn't even get a Raspberry PI (any model) for about a year. https://picockpit.com/raspberry-pi/why-are-raspberry-pi-prices-so-high-will-it-improve/ https://picockpit.com/raspberry-pi/why-are-raspberry-pi-pric... I didn't look into Pi prices a whole lot, but this suggests they were continuously available for 2-3x price.

JollySharp0 7mo ago
I am in the UK. Not the US! > If you were offering 5x MSRP and you couldn't get a video card... I don't believe you. My 1080Ti had died. I had to use a 8800GTS from the late 2000s for about a year. As that was the only GPU I had. I have no iGPU on my CPU. There was at one time, no stock available. Not on Amazon, Not on Overclockers, Not on Scan. They had some weird lotto system taking place on most sites. Scalpers claimed to have cards. But I wouldn't risk sending a lot of money to some random seller on ebay. > Unless this article is massively misleading, sure it was out of stock at 1x price but it wasn't out of stock at 2-3x price. Again I am in the UK. You could not buy any PI other than 1GB model and maybe the zero. Both of which were useless to me.
- Dylan16807 7mo ago
  Okay, UK, maybe that changes things more than I expected. But what about ebay and the sites that replaced classified ads? And is it unreasonable for me to say that you could have bought a US listing and had it reshipped? Edit since you added: Scalpers claimed to have cards. But I wouldn't risk sending a lot of money to some random seller on ebay. Even with ebay's buyer protection? Well not to be mean but I think "I refused to use ebay" invalidates your claim that you couldn't buy a card.
  - JollySharp0 7mo ago
    > Even with ebay's buyer protection? I've had problems with it before (I can't remember specifics as it was a while ago). I'd rather not going through the hassle and/or risk in the first place. There are still plenty of scams on ebay. During this era there were people scamming. e.g the box for a GPU. Listing the entire specs and then putting right at the bottom of the listing it was only the box and not the card. > Well not to be mean but I think "I refused to use ebay" invalidates your claim that you couldn't buy a card. What you are doing is being hyper-pedantic. It is fucking tiresome when people do this online. If you are going to be a smart arse, I will modify my statement to say "I could not get a card from a reputable online store as they were all out of stock and did not wish to risk buying from a less reputable one". I would be foolish to trust some overpriced (or underpriced) listing on ebay. I've had an ebay/paypal account now for 25+ years, I've learned to never do this because I got screwed every time I did.
    - Dylan16807 7mo ago
      I wasn't trying to be a smart arse at all. "I couldn't get a new card from a store" and "I couldn't get a card at all" are extremely different claims in my mind. I'd rate my pedantry level as quite low. From my point of view this is not a nitpick. Especially because you emphasized "at any price". It's the scalpers and the used market that were selling at any price. Sticking to reputable stores means sticking close to MSRP.
      - JollySharp0 7mo ago
        Buying from scalpers and other untrustworthy people like thieves and other toerags is unreasonable. I would expect people to understand that unreasonable options should be omitted from conversation. There was no stock at any of the online outlets that are commonly used in the UK when it came to GPUs for what seemed like a long time. > I'd rate my pedantry level as quite low. From my point of view this is not a nitpick. "I have investigated myself and found that I did nothing wrong".
        7mo ago
- kelnos 7mo ago
  > Scalpers claimed to have cards. But I wouldn't risk sending a lot of money to some random seller on ebay. Ah, so you could have bought one, but you judged the available suppliers to be too risky. Completely fair, but then it's not true that you couldn't buy one "at any price". It was just not a price+risk that you were willing to take. Also, re: Raspberry Pis, you couldn't always get the exact RAM configuration you wanted, but they were pretty continuously available during COVID on Aliexpress. You did have to pay 3-5x normal price, but you could do it. I really needed one after one at home died, and paid the 3x markup, and it was annoying but fine. Not sure if Aliexpress is equally as available in the UK as it is here in the US, though.
  - JollySharp0 7mo ago
    > Completely fair, but then it's not true that you couldn't buy one "at any price". It was just not a price+risk that you were willing to take. You are being pedantic. I find this type of discussion very tiresome. I've explained why in other forks of this thread. Quite honestly it pisses me off. > Also, re: Raspberry Pis, you couldn't always get the exact RAM configuration you wanted, but they were pretty continuously available during COVID on Aliexpress. You did have to pay 3-5x normal price, but you could do it. I really needed one after one at home died, and paid the 3x markup, and it was annoying but fine. Not sure if Aliexpress is equally as available in the UK as it is here in the US, though. Not in the UK. Someone was running a site with all the places that you could buy from. I was checking most days. Stock was extremely limited other than a few models.
    - bonzog 7mo ago
      >Not in the UK. This was my experience, too. Pis would disappear from online retailers before you noticed the stock alert email. I only got hold of a Pi 4 by chance when Raspberry Pi did an official pop-up store in Southampton for one day only. The queue to get in was about 45 mins long.

JollySharp0 7mo ago

I am in the UK. Not the US! > If you were offering 5x MSRP and you couldn't get a video card... I don't believe you. My 1080Ti had died. I had to use a 8800GTS from the late 2000s for about a year. As that was the only GPU I had. I have no iGPU on my CPU. There was at one time, no stock available. Not on Amazon, Not on Overclockers, Not on Scan. They had some weird lotto system taking place on most sites. Scalpers claimed to have cards. But I wouldn't risk sending a lot of money to some random seller on ebay. > Unless this article is massively misleading, sure it was out of stock at 1x price but it wasn't out of stock at 2-3x price. Again I am in the UK. You could not buy any PI other than 1GB model and maybe the zero. Both of which were useless to me.

Dylan16807 7mo ago
Okay, UK, maybe that changes things more than I expected. But what about ebay and the sites that replaced classified ads? And is it unreasonable for me to say that you could have bought a US listing and had it reshipped? Edit since you added: Scalpers claimed to have cards. But I wouldn't risk sending a lot of money to some random seller on ebay. Even with ebay's buyer protection? Well not to be mean but I think "I refused to use ebay" invalidates your claim that you couldn't buy a card.
- JollySharp0 7mo ago
  > Even with ebay's buyer protection? I've had problems with it before (I can't remember specifics as it was a while ago). I'd rather not going through the hassle and/or risk in the first place. There are still plenty of scams on ebay. During this era there were people scamming. e.g the box for a GPU. Listing the entire specs and then putting right at the bottom of the listing it was only the box and not the card. > Well not to be mean but I think "I refused to use ebay" invalidates your claim that you couldn't buy a card. What you are doing is being hyper-pedantic. It is fucking tiresome when people do this online. If you are going to be a smart arse, I will modify my statement to say "I could not get a card from a reputable online store as they were all out of stock and did not wish to risk buying from a less reputable one". I would be foolish to trust some overpriced (or underpriced) listing on ebay. I've had an ebay/paypal account now for 25+ years, I've learned to never do this because I got screwed every time I did.
  - Dylan16807 7mo ago
    I wasn't trying to be a smart arse at all. "I couldn't get a new card from a store" and "I couldn't get a card at all" are extremely different claims in my mind. I'd rate my pedantry level as quite low. From my point of view this is not a nitpick. Especially because you emphasized "at any price". It's the scalpers and the used market that were selling at any price. Sticking to reputable stores means sticking close to MSRP.
    - JollySharp0 7mo ago
      Buying from scalpers and other untrustworthy people like thieves and other toerags is unreasonable. I would expect people to understand that unreasonable options should be omitted from conversation. There was no stock at any of the online outlets that are commonly used in the UK when it came to GPUs for what seemed like a long time. > I'd rate my pedantry level as quite low. From my point of view this is not a nitpick. "I have investigated myself and found that I did nothing wrong".
      - 7mo ago
kelnos 7mo ago
> Scalpers claimed to have cards. But I wouldn't risk sending a lot of money to some random seller on ebay. Ah, so you could have bought one, but you judged the available suppliers to be too risky. Completely fair, but then it's not true that you couldn't buy one "at any price". It was just not a price+risk that you were willing to take. Also, re: Raspberry Pis, you couldn't always get the exact RAM configuration you wanted, but they were pretty continuously available during COVID on Aliexpress. You did have to pay 3-5x normal price, but you could do it. I really needed one after one at home died, and paid the 3x markup, and it was annoying but fine. Not sure if Aliexpress is equally as available in the UK as it is here in the US, though.
- JollySharp0 7mo ago
  > Completely fair, but then it's not true that you couldn't buy one "at any price". It was just not a price+risk that you were willing to take. You are being pedantic. I find this type of discussion very tiresome. I've explained why in other forks of this thread. Quite honestly it pisses me off. > Also, re: Raspberry Pis, you couldn't always get the exact RAM configuration you wanted, but they were pretty continuously available during COVID on Aliexpress. You did have to pay 3-5x normal price, but you could do it. I really needed one after one at home died, and paid the 3x markup, and it was annoying but fine. Not sure if Aliexpress is equally as available in the UK as it is here in the US, though. Not in the UK. Someone was running a site with all the places that you could buy from. I was checking most days. Stock was extremely limited other than a few models.
  - bonzog 7mo ago
    >Not in the UK. This was my experience, too. Pis would disappear from online retailers before you noticed the stock alert email. I only got hold of a Pi 4 by chance when Raspberry Pi did an official pop-up store in Southampton for one day only. The queue to get in was about 45 mins long.