MSI Responds to 3080 eBay Scalping Allegations

Since the launch of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, it’s hardly been a secret that getting hold of one has been more than a little difficult for many consumers. With scalping bots pretty much annihilating the initial stock levels, although they are out there to purchase, if you’re looking to get one right now from a reseller, you can pretty much expect to see a ridiculous mark-up on the MSRP.

Following a report via Videocardz, however, allegations have been made against MSI that suggest (with some compelling evidence) that the company themselves have been attempting to take advantage of this shortage via a subsidiary on eBay.

MSI Scalping Their Own Graphics Cards?

Now, this is a little bit of a knotty one, so I’m going to try and explain this is quickly and concisely as possible. The graphics cards in question are being sold on eBay via a seller known as ‘Starlit-Partner’. Coming with a ridiculously substantial price over the MSRP, one very resourceful Reddit user found that this company is owned (technically as a subsidiary) by MSI.

Through this association, the allegation is that MSI deliberately withheld 3080 stock from the general market so that they could sell their graphics cards, via this subsidiary, at a hugely marked-up price (based on the MSRP).

As you might have anticipated, based upon this news MSI has responded.

What Does MSI Have to Say?

In answer to these allegations, MSI has released the statement above. While they do confirm that ‘Starlit-Partner’ does work under MSI, they have said that an inadvertent error caused them to be erroneously allocated 3080 stock. More so, to address this clearly difficult situation, they are offering people who purchased them either a full refund (with the return of the GPU) or a return of a portion of the money back over the MSRP.

We should note as well, for the sake of balance, that this is thought to have only occurred on the American version of eBay. In other words, this is not a worldwide issue. Without a doubt, however, it’s hard to deny that this error has caused MSI a lot of ill-feeling among the community. Albeit, they do at least seem willing to rectify this and, more so, ensure that it never happens again.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!