Christmas has come and gone, but the latest game consoles and high-end gaming GPUs are not yet in stock at retailers and are selling for big premiums on eBay.
While the prices of after-market for Sony’s (SNE) – Get report PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s (MSFT) – Get report Xbox Series X has dropped from the highs they reached after the consoles went on sale in November, but it’s still comfortably above the list of prices.
The standard PS5, with an MSRP of $ 499, is still selling for over $ 800 on eBay (EBAY) – Get report, for example. And the PS5 Digital Edition, which does not have an optical drive and has a $ 399 MSRP, tends to cost around $ 700.
The Xbox Series X sells on eBay for about $ 700. That represents a decent premium on the console’s $ 499 MSRP, though less than one recommended by the PS5, which by all indications is a greater interest from gamers have seen (using a probably better version of exclusive launch titles).
Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S, which does not have an optical drive and has a less powerful GPU than the Series X, usually sells for $ 350 to $ 400. This represents a moderate premium on the Series S’s $ 299 MSRP.
Nvidia’s (NVDA) – Get report RTX 30-series gaming GPUs also remain hot items after their launch in September and October. The top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 3090 often changes hands for about $ 2,000, well above the $ 1,499 MSRP, as you can see below.
Recent eBay sales of graphics cards powered by Nvidia’s RTX 3090 GPU. Source: eBay.
The RTX 3080, with an MSRP of $ 699, usually sells for around $ 1200 to $ 1,300. And while Nvidia delayed its launch by two weeks in October in an effort to avoid major shortfalls, the RTX 3070 still sells for $ 750 to $ 800 today, well above its $ 499 MSRP.
The story is similar to AMDs (AMD) – Get report RX 6000 game GPU line, launched in November and early December. The flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT usually sells for $ 350 to $ 400 above its $ 999 MSRP; the RX 6800 XT sells for $ 400 to $ 500 above its $ 649 MSRP; and the standard RX 6800 sells for $ 200 to $ 300 above its $ 579 MSRP.
While such shortages and premium premiums for high-quality gaming hardware are unlikely to last for the entire 2021, it does look likely to remain so during the early part of the year, as chip and hardware vendors both deal with supply chain restrictions and ‘ a huge demand from consumers who spend more time at home than ever thanks to COVID.
Sony and Microsoft have both warned that they expect the latest consoles’ shortages to continue until early 2021. In November, Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart predicted that the shortages of Xbox Series X and S would last until the June 2021 quarter.
Similarly, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, predicted in October that shortages of RTX 3080/3090 graphics cards would last until 2021. And at the end of November, AMD predicted that it would take 4 to 8 weeks before the prices of the RX 6800 series graphics would drop. to their MSRPs.
Given the current supply-demand balance for both AMD and Nvidia’s most powerful gaming GPUs, gamers in the market for an RX 6800 series should probably not hold their breath to wait for a quick return to MSRPs.
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