PC gamers have spent years in uncertainty about the availability of hardware. Silicon shortages, pandemics, production problems, environmental disasters, and crypto mining have all devastated the market. For those looking to upgrade, especially those looking for a new graphics card, the pickings have been slim for some time. We even had a guide (opens in new tab) available that offered helpful tips for buying a new GPU during the glut. And now, the self-proclaimed king of VGAs, Lê Thành of Vietnam, is selling GPUs on the street.

After years that felt like decades, past GPU shortages are basically a thing of the past; GPUs are now far more readily available at retail stores, and brand new hardware is already on the way. The next generation of Nvidia cards are already out there (open in new tab), although they are expensive and still a bit difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, the Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition (opens in new tab) is a new force to be reckoned with, and the images of the new AMD RDNA 3 cards look super promising (opens in new tab).

As crypto mining begins to lose its luster (opens in new tab) and new cards are emerging, it is not surprising that used cards are hitting the market (opens in new tab). These used cards are not considered to be worth the money, especially with the power-washing process (open in new tab) that takes place before they are sold. Still, it is special to see them sold by the kilo on the street.

An image posted by Lê Thành on his Facebook account (opens in new tab) (via Tom's Hardware (opens in new tab)) shows a setup that looks like a street vendor selling fruits and vegetables, but instead of apples, there are piles of GPUs Instead of apples, there are piles of GPUs. Machines are stacked on top of each other, some in boxes, some outside; next to Thành is an old-style mint green grocery scale.

There is also a fun parody video (opens in new tab), in which Thành first waves a net over the produce, like a vendor chasing away flies. A scooter passes by to retrieve a weight of cards, which, after some bartering, are unceremoniously placed in a red plastic bag. It's enough to make those of us running old GPUs cry a little. Or maybe we'll cry a lot.

Once again, I would never recommend getting a used mining GPU. It will almost certainly not be worth the money. If it's really cheap, you might be able to use it for gaming, DIY, or even artwork. Even if all those cards are burnt to a crisp, I'd still buy a bagful of GPUs, please.

Thành's Facebook page (opens in new tab) has many other photos of a bottomless amount of graphics cards just kind of hanging around. The name-brand cards basically line the walls, so much so that in some places they begin to look like terribly repetitive textured graphics. With all the changes to crypto and the current market, one hopes that Dragon's GPU hoard is not something we will have to see again for a long, long time.