RTX 3090: In-Store Purchases vs Online Orders

BluRayHiDef

The official launch date of the RTX 3090 is September 24th, and all variants of it are expected to sell out within minutes once they become available to order online. So, I'd like to know that if I fail to order one online, whether or not there will still be units available for purchase in person at my local Microcenter (Brooklyn).

In other words, does Microcenter allocate a percentage of its stock exclusively for in-store purchases that aren't therefore effected by online orders (regardless of whether or not the online orders are for shipping or in-store pickup)? If so, how many hours before opening should I arrive to wait outside for the store to open up? Are there typically long lines outside of Microsoft locations on the days that new graphics cards are released?

TSTonyV

For the new RTX cards preference will be given for in-store purchasers. We don't have the full details yet but my expectation is that the items will show on the website, but will not be available to be reserved at first until supply/demand equalizes a bit. 

As for how early you should show up, that's going to depend on your store and availability. From what I'm hearing the 3090 is going to be a pretty limited card just in general. 

BluRayHiDef

TSTonyV said:

For the new RTX cards preference will be given for in-store purchasers. We don't have the full details yet but my expectation is that the items will show on the website, but will not be available to be reserved at first until supply/demand equalizes a bit. 

As for how early you should show up, that's going to depend on your store and availability. From what I'm hearing the 3090 is going to be a pretty limited card just in general. 

Thank you for your informative response. I guess I'll be camping outside the store four hours before it opens. 

floydian022

I'll be out there as well, courteously social-distancing myself at least 6 feet from this guy and others!

BluRayHiDef

floydian022 said:

I'll be out there as well, courteously social-distancing myself at least 6 feet from this guy and others!

What time do you intend to arrive? 

floydian022

I mean, the stores don't actually open until 10am(and I'm only about 20mins from my nearest one), so I'm probably not going to actually overnight camp or anything.  My basic plan is: 
1. Start hitting refresh on Amazon/Newegg/etc. at 11:59pm on 9/16(and checking forums a couple hours prior to start gauging the frenzy level).
2.  If FE & AIB cards are readily available(and Prime-eligible) from Amazon at midnight and I can grab one of my preferred ones(probably either AORUS, eVGA FTW3 or maybe just an FE), I'll likely just do that and wait the two days for delivery.  
3.  If things are crazy and cards are going out of stock immediately and there's nothing left but Zotacs and MSIs by 12:03, then I'll check online stock for my local MC to see if any cards have been listed yet and plan to head to the store a couple hours or so before opening and play it by ear from there. 
4. Worst case, if it's already total chaos by 7am at my local store and it becomes apparent that I have no shot at whatever stock the store might even have, I take my loss, go back home and wait and keep checking back here, amazon, bb, newegg, etc. for however long until cards are in stock again.  

My own personal take:  While I do think there will definitely be a day 1 rush on these cards(because they look to be great cards at a very respectable relative price point), and that supply logistics certainly have been thrown a unique curveball that didn't exist during the 1000 or 2000 series releases, I think the latter issue could be more likely to impact brick & mortars like MC, whereas vendors like Amazon have clearly shown over the past few months that they have the capital, workforce and transportation capabilities to keep churning along(for the most part).   Also(and perhaps more importantly), I don't predict a huge influx of crypto miners for these cards like we've seen previously.  For one, mining has become exponentially more complex/difficult since then, and many of the small-timers have packed it in at this point.  For another, pricing these cards in the $700-800 range is going to undoubtedly cause a HUGE drop in prices for 1080Ti's and 20xx's, and we'll also see a bunch of them hit the eBay market as well.  That's a good thing overall, because there will inevitably be plenty of folks with 1060 6GBs who will go, "I'd really love to spend the $700 on a 3080, but I can get a slightly-used 2070S now for $300, which is almost as good!", and many miners to realize that they can get better value/returns by gouging that used market, rather than dealing with trying to scam the online retailers with bots on release day(prob easier to script/tweak existing bots for eBay auctions anyway).  Lastly, there's also speculation that the smaller 8nm architecture for Ampere will allow for greater die yeild(meaning that NVidia may have already produced more GPUs this time around).  All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic that I won't find myself sitting here empty-handed in October, still waiting for 3080s to be back in stock and debating whether to just repeat from step 1 with the 3070s, but who knows.

edit: Apologies - I wrote this whole thing up and THEN realized it's a 3090 thread.  I'm an idiot.  Sorry about that. 

edit 2: And then I actually went back and clarified it some more, just because I feel my logic still applies to my approach/opinion re: the 3080s, in case anyone out there stumbles upon this lol

joejccva71

To be honest I would stay away from online buying.  I know that in the past I've ordered from Newegg on parts where it showed in stock on launch day, and credit card went through.  A day or two later I received an email stating they were out of stock and had to refund me.

I would get up early and wait in line at the store.

floydian022

Unfortunately, that option may have just become less viable: 

https://twitter.com/microcenter/status/1304475301100105729

Still no word on which(if any) AIB cards will be avaiable, or at which stores. 

TSTonyV

floydian022 said:

Unfortunately, that option may have just become less viable: 

https://twitter.com/microcenter/status/1304475301100105729

Still no word on which(if any) AIB cards will be avaiable, or at which stores. 

We will have AIB cards, we just don't know which ones or how many yet. We may not know until release day, but we'll post any updates if we get them. 

BluRayHiDef

TSTonyV said:

floydian022 said:

Unfortunately, that option may have just become less viable: 

https://twitter.com/microcenter/status/1304475301100105729

Still no word on which(if any) AIB cards will be avaiable, or at which stores. 

We will have AIB cards, we just don't know which ones or how many yet. We may not know until release day, but we'll post any updates if we get them. 

Does Microcenter provide in-store warranties (protection plans, replacement plans) for graphics cards that are as expensive as the RTX 3090 ($1,499 to $1,700)? If so, how much do they cost?

TSTonyV

BluRayHiDef said:

TSTonyV said:

floydian022 said:

Unfortunately, that option may have just become less viable: 

https://twitter.com/microcenter/status/1304475301100105729

Still no word on which(if any) AIB cards will be avaiable, or at which stores. 

We will have AIB cards, we just don't know which ones or how many yet. We may not know until release day, but we'll post any updates if we get them. 

Does Microcenter provide in-store warranties (protection plans, replacement plans) for graphics cards that are as expensive as the RTX 3090 ($1,499 to $1,700)? If so, how much do they cost?

I don't see any reason why we wouldn't. It's possible I could be wrong about this, but considering that we offer protection plans on the 2080ti cards which are obnoxiously expensive, I doubt we would lock the 3090s out of protection plans. A $1500+ card would probably be ~$300 for a 2 year replacement plan and $430 for a 3 year I believe. 

BluRayHiDef

TSTonyV said:

BluRayHiDef said:

TSTonyV said:

floydian022 said:

Unfortunately, that option may have just become less viable: 

https://twitter.com/microcenter/status/1304475301100105729

Still no word on which(if any) AIB cards will be avaiable, or at which stores. 

We will have AIB cards, we just don't know which ones or how many yet. We may not know until release day, but we'll post any updates if we get them. 

Does Microcenter provide in-store warranties (protection plans, replacement plans) for graphics cards that are as expensive as the RTX 3090 ($1,499 to $1,700)? If so, how much do they cost?

I don't see any reason why we wouldn't. It's possible I could be wrong about this, but considering that we offer protection plans on the 2080ti cards which are obnoxiously expensive, I doubt we would lock the 3090s out of protection plans. A $1500+ card would probably be ~$300 for a 2 year replacement plan and $430 for a 3 year I believe. 

Thanks for the informative response. I guess I'll be getting a two year plan. 

director47

For the RTX 3090, is there going to be a purchase limit? My brother and I are going to get one but he is not able to stand in line at the store. Am i able to purchase 2 cards?

cucuchu

director47 said:

For the RTX 3090, is there going to be a purchase limit? My brother and I are going to get one but he is not able to stand in line at the store. Am i able to purchase 2 cards?

Pretty confident that like the 3080, it will be one per customer. There are a lot of scalpers out there with 'brothers' they want to get a card for. (not saying you are, but its a common theme is all, brother, friend's birthday, etc)

TSTonyV

director47 said:

For the RTX 3090, is there going to be a purchase limit? My brother and I are going to get one but he is not able to stand in line at the store. Am i able to purchase 2 cards?

cucuchu said:

director47 said:

For the RTX 3090, is there going to be a purchase limit? My brother and I are going to get one but he is not able to stand in line at the store. Am i able to purchase 2 cards?

Pretty confident that like the 3080, it will be one per customer. There are a lot of scalpers out there with 'brothers' they want to get a card for. (not saying you are, but its a common theme is all, brother, friend's birthday, etc)

This is correct, we'll have the exact same restrictions for the 3090 as with the 3080. You will not be able to purchase two cards at once, it's one per customer. 

director47

dang. Oh well. He SOL.
Any idea how early lines started for the 3080? How are vouchers handed out? Will a store employee mark us down for a card?

TSTonyV

director47 said:

dang. Oh well. He SOL.
Any idea how early lines started for the 3080? How are vouchers handed out? Will a store employee mark us down for a card?

Some people were posting at ~5PM waiting in line the night before. Vouchers are physical and handed out to people by a store associate in accordance with whatever stock the store has. When they're handed out is handled individually by each store though. 

JmOverclock

Why not wait 4-6 months and get a new card then? There will be plenty of stock and options. Let manufactures work out the bugs and Nvidia build better drivers. Why would you go to MC and risk yourself and others during covid battle that is still happening? Honestly it is extremely irresponsible for MC to even let people camp out at their stores. Bestbuy was smart for keeping it online. They obviously take the covid issue more seriously. If it wasn't for covid I would say by all means go ahead and camp. Whatever floats your boat. Exercise common sense because 30% of the people at microcenter camping are line holders and or being paid to be or are scalpers themselves. It's just not worth it. Just wait..