How a Bot Bought Dozens of RTX 3080 Units Before Consumers Could Grab Them

The bot was able to help one reseller score 42 units of the RTX 3080 from Nvidia’s website before it went out of stock.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

This is the same kind of nonsense that happens with concert tickets, and it's got to stop.

[lukasmain]

Thankfully Sony made it so at any store you could only get one PS5 per person. I'm sure most scalpers went to as many stores as they could, but still i think it may have helped some. Obviously some will get through the cracks, but this? 42? That's some bullcrap

[NomadR3aper]

Depends on the retailer. I was able to score 2. 1 each day. 1 for me 1 for a friend. Bots definitely took most of PS5 stock. Only way Walmart could sell out of stock before 6pm when their preorders started.

[lukasmain]

@ Nomad, you're wrong

[Hungryalpaca]

I don’t think you know how bots work. They’re specifically designed to work around the blocks you stated.

I have a friend who got 4 preorders using a bot. Granted they’re gifts and one for him so he’s not scalping them but still.

[RosweeSon]

It happens with everything Nintendo, ps5 anything seemingly popular or in demand they’ll jump on it. Time to ban the bots

[Dee_91]

ive been saying this for almost a decade. sneaker heads have been dealing with bots since at least 2009 and its not only gotten worse, its going mainstream. hopefully that'll be the push to ban bots from mass ordering. it would be as simple as limiting 1 or 2 items per IP.

[Neonridr]

they need captcha's or 2-step verification introduced on purchases to help curb this.

[RosweeSon]

Most do and it still doesn’t make much difference they just crash the site with sheer volume genuine customers give up and they 🤖 get free reign again

[Dee_91]

trust me, that doesn't help at all. i used to have to use scripts and plugins to buy shoes back in the day. I can only imagine how advanced it is today. it's crazy you have to learn about coding to buy in demand stuff online 🤣

[crazyCoconuts]

I had a script polling every 5 seconds and as soon as it alerted me I refreshed the page and it was sold out. Crazy. Hope I can still get one at $700 this year.

[CrimsonWing69]

This is absurd it’s why I can’t get a PS5 probably. I’m sitting there spamming the pre order button for like 20 minutes only to finally get through and it tell me it’s out of stock.

[SierraGuy]

Don't even bother...be like me and walk to the store day 1 and buy it...like ps4.

It's a hoax.

[sinspirit]

Pre-order stock is different from regular stock.

[Ri0tSquad]

Due to pandemic related inventory shortages and resellers, i doubt it'll be that easy. Just sayin'!

[Silly gameAr]

Figured somebody would say that.

[MazeRunner]

bullshit system they got in place.

[GoodGuy09]

This sorta thing really needs to be prohibited and legal action needs to be taken...

[aaronlif10]

Exactly. I noticed one scalper gave you a thumbs down btw lol.

[aaronlif10]

They really need to crack down on these scalpers.

[Lionsguard]

eBay is part of the problem. obvious resellers with this many stock needs to be banned from eBay but of course, they won't do anything about it because they get a cut. They're enablers for these shady ass tactics.

[RosweeSon]

Limits across the board really. 1. Tricky as I sometimes want 2 or 3 one to use one for collection and spare depends what it is how much i want and how rare but can get around but ordering from couple of sites not end of the world of it stopped scalpers I’m all for it can’t stop people genuinely buying something and then selling it on but these assholes just buying it to rip everyone off and yeah very annoying it’s a vicious circle

[Rachel_Alucard]

How hard is it to look at people buying 17 cards and claim this is legit? Why do none of these sites look at one account and see these huge amount of orders?

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Most online retailers limit buyers to 2 cards only since the mining craze in late 2017. Nvidia, on the other hand, doesn't.

[plmkoh]

This is why you cant announce the launch date, you need to simply make a live conference and then make a surprise announcement about preorders going live on the spot. Only the top enthusiasts (who deserve a launch console) will get the message.

That way whilst people will need to scramble, there will be no bots ready.

[FlyingFoxy]

I was watching it, literally went out of stock from notify me, in a single quick refresh.

Got my order in yesterday after trying for hours for an ASUS TUF anyway, same price as the founders card 649.99 and it's better! So joke's on them.

Glad I missed out on that founders card BS.

[Hitman007]

Scalper Scumbags = 💩💩💩
28169;💩💩㈐ 9;

[FernDiggidy]

F#ck you