A hot potato: Michael Driscoll's update on the state of eBay/StockX scalping continues with a look at the latest graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD. Just over 53,000 Ampere/RDNA 2 products were sold on the platforms, bringing in $65.45 million in sales and just over $16 million in profit.

Following on from his examination of Zen 3 scalping earlier this week, Driscoll looked at the turbulent graphics cards market. Nvidia's RTX 3000 series and AMD's RX 6000 line have been notoriously difficult to find unless you pay over the odds on reseller sites.

Starting with team green, a total of 49,580 Ampere GPUs have sold on eBay/StockX, bringing in $61.5 million in sales. Scalpers made $15.2 million in profit, while eBay/PayPal/StockX took a hefty $6.8 million cut.

Unlike Zen 3, most Ampere prices on eBay have been increasing recently---the only exception being the RTX 3090. They currently average between 140 and 200 percent of their MSRP. The RTX 3080 has consistently had the largest markup; its median price on eBay is currently $1,300, 85 percent higher than its MSRP.

Even the arrival of the RTX 3060 Ti didn't lower prices. "The 3060 went from 160 percent launch price 1/1/21 to now 210 percent launch price and has recently fallen down to 190 percent of launch price. The 3080 is a similar story, from 170 percent at Christmas to now 200 percent," writes Driscoll.

Founders Edition RTX 3000 cards were most popular, followed by those from EVGA and Asus. Additionally, RTX 20xx, RTX 16xx, GTX 1000, and GTX 900 series cards all increased 33 - 100 percent in price since the launch of Ampere

There were fewer of AMD's RDNA 2 cards being scalped: 3,461 appeared on eBay/StockX---just 7 percent of the RTX 30 series---bringing in $3.95 million in sales ($944K for scalpers, $615K for eBay/PayPal/StockX).

The cards average between 160 percent and 220+ percent MSRP. The Radeon RX 6800 XT ($499 MSRP) appears the most profitable for scalpers, selling for around $1,229.

It's not only the shortages that are causing problems. The 25 percent tax on Chinese imports has seen some vendors increase graphics card prices, with scalpers bumping up their prices even more. Both Nvidia and AMD have warned that supply will remain tight throughout Q1, so don't expect the situation to improve any time soon.