MSI is under scrutiny today following accusations that it had asked eBay sellers of Starlit Partner, a sales subsidiary under the MSI umbrella, to sell RTX 30 series cards at prices well above the asking price.

First brought to light by Mark at Average Tech Reviews, the card, which should have sold for $759, was sold by Starlit Partner for $1359. There has been a lot of internet sleuthing on reddit since the initial listing, but the question remains as to how this could have gone undetected by the company.

An official statement has now been released, explaining that MSI's investigation into the matter revealed an error in allowing Starlit Partner access to inventory that it was "not authorized to handle."

Starlit Partner, founded in 2016, supplies refurbished GPUs along with other components and accessories on eBay and Amazon.

The company is directly connected to MSI and Starlit is based at MSI headquarters. However, according to Gamers Nexus, the eBay team appears to consist of only one person.

But before you pick up the torch and the pitchfork, remember that while it is easy to demonize individuals, it often ultimately comes down to management issues, and MSI is currently answering this.

MSI, for its part, has assured that it will take a "stricter policy" in the future "to avoid such situations. It has also asked Starlit Partner to offer those who were sold unfairly priced cards two options: "return the product for a full refund or refund a portion of the amount paid in excess of MSI's suggested retail price."

There was much controversy following the launch of Nvidia's RTX 30 series, with disreputable resellers buying up everything they could get their hands on at launch and auctioning them off at exorbitant prices. And this is a new middle finger to the average PC hardware consumer.

We just want great graphics so we can immerse ourselves in leisure. One thing is for sure, both companies will be under intense scrutiny going forward.

Inventory of the RTX 30 series is extremely scarce and everywhere is in a tight spot, but there is no need to panic! We are keeping a close eye on RTX 3080 inventory.