US Tariffs vs Scalping Prices

[Weirdman]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about the US tariffs and how they affect prices versus the price of scalpers? For example, I have been frequently seeing the 5950x on Amazon for $999.99 by Orinokia Tech (which I am jumping to assuming is an international seller based on the name and their English responding to reviewers). I understand that the MSRP of the 5950x is $799, but a $200 price increase doesn't sound crazy if they are factoring in the cost of the tariff (which I hear is 25%) on top of a minor price increase to match demand. I've also seen similar price increases elsewhere, such as the B550 Vision D motherboard, which is being sold for about $100 above MSRP by a UK seller on Amazon (Bleepbox).

 

I would appreciate any insight, since I don't mind paying the difference as long as I am not supporting scalpers.

 

Thanks

[dizmo]

It's pretty easy to find out the MSRP. Then just compare that to what they're asking. I wouldn't be using third party Amazon sellers as a starting point.

There's no real difference between scalping and increasing prices due to demand. It's just who you'd rather give that money to.

[bondoao1]

To add to what dizmo said, any tariffs the manufacturer would have incurred importing product to the US, would be included in the MSRP.  

[Weirdman]

5 hours ago, dizmo said:

It's pretty easy to find out the MSRP. Then just compare that to what they're asking. I wouldn't be using third party Amazon sellers as a starting point.

There's no real difference between scalping and increasing prices due to demand. It's just who you'd rather give that money to.

 

5 hours ago, bondoao1 said:

To add to what dizmo said, any tariffs the manufacturer would have incurred importing product to the US, would be included in the MSRP.  

 

Does that mean the current MSRP of the 5950x in the US is no longer $799 as listed in places like BestBuy and Newegg?

[bondoao1]

On 5/1/2021 at 12:53 AM, Weirdman said:

 

 

Does that mean the current MSRP of the 5950x in the US is no longer $799 as listed in places like BestBuy and Newegg?

MSRP or Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of the 5950x is still $799. That is the price set by AMD, and it is up to the retailers to set their own prices based on the MSRP. 
MSRP is typically set by the manufacturer prior to product release based on manufacturing costs (including taxes and tariffs) and the profit they want to make from said product.
MSRP is usually adjusted by the manufacturer when manufacturing costs change.

[Jzuken]

No MSRP of CPUs are set by manufacturers, there are only 2 of them, that's what they want the GPUs to be sold for to the consumers. $999 for 5950x is actually quite good, that's just a 20% price increase. There are AIBs that increased GPU prices for something like 3060 from $330 to $500, a 34% MSRP increase, and then there are scalpers that add insult to injury and scalp those GPUs to $900 for $330 GPU.

 

$799 is the normal price, where tariffs and seller margins are accounted for, $999 is the shortage price where seller has to pay more to the distributor to get an item, anything more (like vendors setting 3080 price to $1199 "MSRP") is greedy price. The shortage in the chip manufacturing industry is about 20%, not 150% like those vendors make it up.

[Middcore]

AMD, Intel, and Nvidia have never updated their official MSRP's for any of their products that release prior to the tariffs. There is no benefit to them in doing so. They can't really control what the retailers sell them for anyway and it's better from their standpoint to let the retailers be the "bad guy."