Is microcenter scamming us?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

24 minutes ago, Bi0 said:

Yeah I have been thinking about it, i just don't know if I can wait for the possiblity of a buyer. I don't wanna be stuck with it.

It's not a possibility of a buyer. If you sell it with shipping, so anyone could buy it, it may sell in minutes.

It's the inevetibility of a buyer.

[derpkotacasper]

if you don't like your local microcenter, we'll be more than happy to take it in seattle.

[Bi0]

18 minutes ago, derpkotacasper said:

if you don't like your local microcenter, we'll be more than happy to take it in seattle.

Lol, didn't your Frye's close recently as well.

[derpkotacasper]

1 minute ago, Bi0 said:

Lol, didn't your Frye's close recently as well.

frys closed their entire company

[MultiGamerClub]

1100$? For a RX 6800?

Seems about right for what its worth in norway.. (1150-1400$ :D)

Did not think it was that expensive in the US too.. if not much worse.

[cuvtixo]

4 hours ago, Dedayog said:

It's incredibly short sighted to even suggest that Microcenter "may" be scamming you.

I'd change your title, it's offensive to anyone that knows Microcenter...

 

   Much love for MC.  Much.

Please! You've matched the OP's exaggeration of "scammed" with an equal or worse response, that it's "offensive"!

A quick look on wikipedia shows $2.4 BILLION revenue for 2015. Poor Microcenter.

Last time I went there, the cashier asked me, "Please sir, can I have more?" and I said, "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!?!?!?"

Srsly, they don't need you defending them, they are not going to change their already profitable practices because someone accuses them of "scamming". Not even if hundreds of people do so.

With all the people who deserve sympathy during COVID-19, I find it kinda of offensive you are directing any to them. It's like telling someone they should take flowers and candy to their hooker on Valentine's Day. Just because they exploit you less than others doesn't mean they're not exploiting you.  And I'm not sending this with "love". I hope you are at least a little offended because you need to take a good long look at your priorities and values.  I would even be tolerant if you were demanding sympathy for companies like Purism. Maybe other FOSS companies like System76. They actually aspire to ideals beyond profit motive and even then, of course they are not non-profit charities, don't mistake me, I'm just trying to steer you towards better alternatives. Microcenter doesn't have any such ideals, and from what I've seen they don't treat their workers particularly well, either. 

C'mon man. Wake up.

Much Love, in the sense of tough love. I hope this serves as a loving whack upside yo' head!

 

 

[Action_Johnson]

5 hours ago, Bi0 said:

I recently went to a microcenter to see if there were any new cards to my surprise they had some amd cards. Me not being too familiar with their prices I bought a RX 6800, as I sold my 1080ti before the 30 series was released, and have been waiting ever since. Because of this desperation I just threw my card at the cashier and paid 1100$ for the card, when I looked it up it seems that the card should only be valued at 500$. Did I just get scammed by micro center or is there a reason the card is currently priced like this. I think I'm going to return the card, and put my pc out of commission again. As much as I hate waiting I don't think I can justify the price. Has anyone else noticed this? 

 

Keep in mind the card has a 30 day return which i am planning to take advantage of, and i am more just probing to see if this is common for everyone else/ if any one has some insight. The money isn't a huge deal to me personally as ill just be returning it shortly.

They're not scamming anyone, you just didn't do your research. 

[Dedayog]

26 minutes ago, cuvtixo said:

Please! You've matched the OP's exaggeration of "scammed" with an equal or worse response, that it's "offensive"!

A quick look on wikipedia shows $2.4 BILLION revenue for 2015. Poor Microcenter.

Last time I went there, the cashier asked me, "Please sir, can I have more?" and I said, "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!?!?!?"

Srsly, they don't need you defending them, they are not going to change their already profitable practices because someone accuses them of "scamming". Not even if hundreds of people do so.

With all the people who deserve sympathy during COVID-19, I find it kinda of offensive you are directing any to them. It's like telling someone they should take flowers and candy to their hooker on Valentine's Day. Just because they exploit you less than others doesn't mean they're not exploiting you.  And I'm not sending this with "love". I hope you are at least a little offended because you need to take a good long look at your priorities and values.  I would even be tolerant if you were demanding sympathy for companies like Purism. Maybe other FOSS companies like System76. They actually aspire to ideals beyond profit motive and even then, of course they are not non-profit charities, don't mistake me, I'm just trying to steer you towards better alternatives. Microcenter doesn't have any such ideals, and from what I've seen they don't treat their workers particularly well, either. 

C'mon man. Wake up.

Much Love, in the sense of tough love. I hope this serves as a loving whack upside yo' head!

AHh, another one that doesn't understand economics.  Revenue vs profits vs EBITDA.

 

I never said sympathy. And yes, if you ever had dealings with MC, you'd understand as well.  How many times have they beaten major online retailers at pricing?  Throwing deals out there we know they're losing money on?

 

Profitable practices?  They're a business.  Do you not know what that means?  They're not saints but they're not scamming anyone.  Please, point out legitimate scams they've done.  Workers not treated well?  Rumor mill hard at work? Or do you know someone who works there?

 

You sound very young, talking about ideals and hoping to get a reaction out of me.  You did, I'm frankly disappointed in the lack of economic knowledge and research, from someone who probably has never set foot in one of their stores.

 

It's okay though, I was once young and full of misguided "ideals" and keyboard warrior aspirations.  

 

Doesn't change my love for MC, nor my hope that you'll look back on this exchange when you mature and understand the world a little better.  No harm, I was you once

 

Take care.

[Bi0]

10 hours ago, derpkotacasper said:

frys closed their entire company

Sorry didn't even know they closed down completely, I hope you get something over there soon buddy.

[Ravendarat]

15 hours ago, Bi0 said:

I'm curious, was it a reference, or a third party card?

Third Party Cards, they had Gigabyte, MSI and Asus in stock

[Mark Kaine]

Technically you were not scammed, you were "price-hiked".   So now what, are you going to return it? Keep us updated I guess, lol.

 

[Mooshi]

ITT: victim blaming and simping for MC

 

A consumer was taken advantage of by a respectful business and not some shady seller on EBay. Let's not toss different words in and acknowledge what happened here. Any business that does price gouging is scamming people for profit, stop defending this.

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, Mooshi said:

ITT: victim blaming and simping for MC

 

A consumer was taken advantage of by a respectful business and not some shady seller on EBay. Let's not toss different words in and acknowledge what happened here. Any business that does price gouging is scamming people for profit, stop defending this.

Supply and demand, and the "victim" was some *censored* who threw his card at the cashier like he's a Kardashian.  Remember, money ain't a thing for him. (yes I know who sings that).

 

He didn't have to buy it either.

 

Retail that card goes for that price.  Or do you want to adjust all MSRP's for everything to what you feel they should be worth?

[Bi0]

13 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Supply and demand, and the "victim" was some *censored* who threw his card at the cashier like he's a Kardashian.  Remember, money ain't a thing for him. (yes I know who sings that).

 

He didn't have to buy it either.

 

Retail that card goes for that price.  Or do you want to adjust all MSRP's for everything to what you feel they should be worth?

 maybe if you keep defending them they'll reward you with a 5% off coupon. It really seems like your some kind of *censored* IMHO, just because I can spare it doesn't mean i don't feel it in my pocket, due to scarcity i did not want to let the chance pass me by. I have been waiting almost a year to get my pc back up and running, the excitement and anxiety on weather or not this is my only chance to get a card definitely clouded my senses, I'm sure you can't relate. Either way don't be a simp, *drinks out of LTT water bottle while sitting on CPU Pillow* Unless of course it's for poppa linus.

[tkitch]

1 hour ago, Mooshi said:

ITT: victim blaming and simping for MC

 

A consumer was taken advantage of by a respectful business and not some shady seller on EBay. Let's not toss different words in and acknowledge what happened here. Any business that does price gouging is scamming people for profit, stop defending this.

Not really.  
These are all luxury goods, and they're not advertising one price, and then demanding a different one.

They're showing the shelf price and selling it for that.

Even Linus has commented more than once that computer hardware has 0 margin.  They're trying to make something off hardware when they can.  

 

36 minutes ago, Bi0 said:

 maybe if you keep defending them they'll reward you with a 5% off coupon. It really seems like your some kind of *censored* IMHO, just because I can spare it doesn't mean i don't feel it in my pocket, due to scarcity i did not want to let the chance pass me by. I have been waiting almost a year to get my pc back up and running, the excitement and anxiety on weather or not this is my only chance to get a card definitely clouded my senses, I'm sure you can't relate. Either way don't be a simp, *drinks out of LTT water bottle while sitting on CPU Pillow* Unless of course it's for poppa linus.

You weren't scammed, or anything else.

 

You saw a card you wanted, and you saw the pricetag.  You had more than 30 seconds between asking the employee for the card and buying it, so if you'd really wanted you could have looked it up.

 

Also, you looked it up after you got home.  They have a return policy.

If you really feel that disabused by it?  Go freaking return it.

 

Nope.  Not feeling bad for you.  You made a decision, and went with it.  You still have options.  Make another decision and go with it now.  

[Bi0]

2 minutes ago, tkitch said:

Not really.  
These are all luxury goods, and they're not advertising one price, and then demanding a different one.

They're showing the shelf price and selling it for that.

Even Linus has commented more than once that computer hardware has 0 margin.  They're trying to make something off hardware when they can.  

 

You weren't scammed, or anything else.

 

You saw a card you wanted, and you saw the pricetag.  You had more than 30 seconds between asking the employee for the card and buying it, so if you'd really wanted you could have looked it up.

 

Also, you looked it up after you got home.  They have a return policy.

If you really feel that disabused by it?  Go freaking return it.

 

Nope.  Not feeling bad for you.  You made a decision, and went with it.  You still have options.  Make another decision and go with it now.  

No one's asking for your pity bud. this whole thread was supposed to be a discussion on why we are seeing amd card more then double but not Nvidia. even in the original post, if you had bothered to read it you would see i've already said I'm returning it. the main curiosity is where along the chain are these cards being market up OEM, AIB, Or the stores themselves. 

[Spotty]

4 hours ago, Bi0 said:

the main curiosity is where along the chain are these cards being market up OEM, AIB, Or the stores themselves. 

If this was multiple choice I would fill in D) all of the above. Also include tariffs.

 

They're not scamming. They're listing a product for sale at a certain price. There's no dishonesty or scam. You could say they're ripping off customers with high prices, but unless you can buy the same or equivalent thing elsewhere at a significantly lower price then that's hard to argue.

[LogicalDrm]

On 6/17/2021 at 11:29 PM, Bi0 said:

I am using "scammed" liberally, i'm not actually accusing them of this, i just was curious as the Nvidia options are only slightly higher than msrp. The amd cards seem to have doubled/ tripled in microcenter. 

Please stop. Don't use words you don't understand or are purposely using wrong. That is not helpful. They aren't scamming you, you were just lacking in research, as pointed out. There would be no point for established retailer to sell something very much over the actual value with profits for them. Their competition would steal all customers very quickly.

 

On 6/18/2021 at 2:25 AM, Bi0 said:

Im just curious as to why it seems amd aib, are so high compared to nvidias. If anything I would expect it to be the other way around.

Because AMD AIBs are worse than Nvidia's? The MSRP you see on AMD/Nvidia site is for factory default cards. AIBs will do changes which alone increase the price. Then retailers will buy the cards, meaning that price increases to cover their costs and make them profits. So only thing that can be said is that someone might not be reporting some prices honestly if it makes consumers think that there's some conspiracy going on.

[kpluck]

On 6/17/2021 at 1:21 PM, Bi0 said:

Also keep in mind i'm using scamming liberally, i do not feel as though micro center is maliciously trying steal my lunch money. it is just there to grab attention and raise discussion on the topic of the increasing rates we are starting to see with retail prices, specifically with the over 100% mark up on AMD cards.

So even though you don't think Microcenter actually scammed you, you are okay with associating their name with that possibility just to get more people to view your thread? In other words, this thread is a scam…Microcenter, not so much.

 

-kp

[Vishera]

Doing the research after you bought the card?

First do research,then decide whether to buy or not.

[partypants]

I'm confused. I thought AMD didn't actually make and sell cards, that they just licensed out the chipset. I also don't ever remember seeing $500 for a 6800 XT. Where did that price come from?

[frozensun]

He paid 1100 $ for a card and my monthly income is 200 $...wtf,are you joking me??
So basicallly I need to work 6 months to get dumb graphics card...

Man where are you living to throwing huge money such easily??

Call me to join please...

[Guest]

On 6/17/2021 at 5:40 PM, derpkotacasper said:

if you don't like your local microcenter, we'll be more than happy to take it in seattle.

yes, please

[Senzelian]

On 6/17/2021 at 10:44 PM, Bi0 said:

instructions unclear dog is in microwave.

Why unclear? You clearly got it right. 

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, comander said:

The last I check, pretty much ALL of the cards have been well above MSRP for a while. 

 

A while back I saw that I could sell my "old" card for more than I paid for it. Same with a lot of my stuff. 

 

 

Contrary to what reddit says, the US is a pretty well off country - especially for people who went into the top ~20% of careers. Median household income is something like $5800/month, which is about 30x what you bring in. If you filter to only college grads, it'll probably be something like $8,000/month. In some areas it's a lot higher. For consideration, the media employee at a place like Google, Facebook or Netflix makes ~$20,000/month before tax for one person.

From a quick Google search of "average income in the US" it turns up $31,133 as of 2019. I think unless someone makes more than that, or doesn't have to pay bills first, they shouldn't be spending $1100 on a graphics card. Unless the GPU market returns to normal and the average PC hobbyist can buy a decent GPU for less than $1000, the market is for the well off top 20% more than anyone else.