Ryzen 9 5900x/5950x scalpers running rampant

JJC

Hi I live in Denver and have noticed that every time my local microcenter restocks, it's out of stock within an hour of opening and considering you tend to receive shipments on tues/thurs, M-F working people like myself can't possibly hope to beat the unemployed scalpers waiting in lines in the morning.

I've noticed every time I see stock come and go there is usually a ton of new posts selling Ryzen 9s at absurd markups in the Denver area same day. Is there any way us normal working people can reserve a chip? Can you do anything to combat the amount of scalpers buying out your stock?

If there's any way you can help work with me on this I'd be a return customer for years to come, I just want to upgrade my 8 year old CPU on my editing rig.

Thanks in advance.

takeaschmidt

Same deal for the graphics cards, but significantly worse. At least you have reasonable options to choose from if you really need to get a machine up and running. Maybe not the same exact model you hoped for, but pretty darn close. People hunting GPUs are dead in the water stuck with cards that are completely unusable for games. A passive cooled GT710 or 1030 won't even run any modern games. This new normal of buying from scalpers is extremely annoying.

JS_MC

Hello @JJC

Thanks for sharing your feedback about this. I know your frustration well as it took me quite a long time to be able to get a GPU.

We have taken steps to quell scalpers and we're still making changes to further reduce this. For now, we've implemented a system that requires that you show your ID at checkout and we're matching that with the information provided at checkout as well. High-demand items like these are limited to 1 per household until we start to receive more of the item.

I hope this info is helpful to you, but until the manufacturers are able to catch up with the high demand for these items, we'll continue to do our best to provide opportunities for you and other customers to buy these items.

JJC

Yeah I'm grateful to have a pretty decent GPU but unfortunately I am not flexible on the CPU in this case, I will be using it for very intensive editing and I'm trying to get the best performance I can. Unfortunately it looks like I'm gonna have to wait a few months, either that or buy from a scalper or set up an Amazon bot :(

JS_MC

@JJC I'm seeing that most of our stores have the 5600X and even 5800X in stock at this time, hopefully, we'll start to see the same availability for the higher core count chips soon as well!

Definitely keep an eye on our website. I'd strongly recommend going into the store if you're close by to speak with an associate about these as well. They may have more information about these, and who knows, you might get lucky if we do receive a shipment on the day you arrive.

Personal opinion would be to not bend to the scalpers. I can kind of understand the need in some cases, however, supporting scalpers just increases the number of scalpers. From what I understand your CPU has been working well for you for some time and it still offers that same performance.

I hope you're able to get a new CPU very soon and I wish you the best in your search!

JJC

Right but I work Monday-Friday mornings so I have little chance to get one before they're sold out, I've been told they restock on Tues/Thurs which has proven true based on when I check the site for inventory. Trust me I've tried.

I've spoken to store reps to see if we could work anything out, I offered to prepurchase just one chip in advance and nobody was willing to work with me, at this point it seems my options are wait months for stock to replenish, buy from a scalper, or somehow magically beat a bot to buy on online retailers.

JS_MC

Yeah, I know the feeling. 😔 Hopefully, as we've seen with other new CPUs the stock will become more readily available quickly! 👍

Modern

Microcenter is one of the only places that consistently gets this hardware in stock, but their model for GPU and highly sought after CPU sales (line up outside) caters to the scalpers (who often are unemployed/self employed).

They need to put some effort in to offering a better service for their customers. The Newegg Shuffle isn't a perfect solution, but it's better than trying nothing.

JS_MC

Hey @Modern mirroring my post here too.

We do have guides and policy in place to restrict the ability of scalpers wherever possible and we're still working on new processes for these items.

Thanks for sharing your feedback here about our current processes. I know it's a difficult time for us all right now since there is such a limit on all these CPUs and GPUs. I've recently noticed that we're starting to see ample stock of the 5600X and 5800X CPUs, so I'm hopeful that we'll start to see the same for GPUs in the near future.

I know that our corporate teams are still working on ways to improve this and other processes in our stores. I'd be happy to pass this along to the correct teams!

Carver

I spent 2 months trying to score components for a desktop build for video editing and photogrammetry. I soon found out that not only were the components scarce from retailers that the manufacturers were completely sold out as soon as they brought them in. ( remember that these components are almost 100% manufactured in China or at least somewhere in the pacific. ) Actual production is truncated as well as shipping throttled back. Most have made some effort to curtail the miners bots but some were dumping product just because it was a quick injection of cash when they really needed ( wanted ) it.

I was incredibly frustrated by the fact that " first one in the door gets the product" causing a long line of campers before the store even opened. Microcenter started releasing the product as soon as it came in the back door and got logged into the web based inventory instead of releasing it at opening the next day. I started my day by doing a search for a particular product and then continued to refresh the web page ( on my phone ) every time I remembered to throughout the day. In a few weeks I found my 5950 and my 3090 in stock and made my hour drive into the store each time.

I got my Video card in December and my processor in Feb. and am still trying to find some less exotic parts that are not to be found either.

I also ran an ad in craigslist offering to pay slightly more than retail for an unopened part. I got a few calls from guys that had won some in the "shuffle" at one of the online retailers that send components out by drawing.

Best of luck to everyone including Microcenter.

JJC

Apparently microcenter no longer carries the 5900x or 5950x, looks like buying from a scalper or waiting several months is the only option now.

Ian

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/29434#Comment_29434

Greetings, while we may not have stock of the product, we are for sure still carrying them. I am seeing this as an example on our product page:

I am seeing our Denver store, which is closed temporarily for weather concerns is not showing any information at this time on the product page but we believe it should correct itself once the store re-opens but will look into it with our web team.