Searching for "RTX 3080," the first Ebay listing that appears has a price of $1,199.99. So far, 26 people have clicked Buy It Now on the card, paying several hundred dollars more than Nvidia's MSRP for a GPU that won't ship until early October. The listing has 140 one-star reviews. However, the second listing is only $699.99, which is because the seller is not actually trying to sell it. It's called "Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Render - Do Not Buy (Read Description)" and the description says exactly why: "This listing is for an 8.5x11" rendering of the NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080. It is listed at the RTX 3080 MSRP to call attention to scalping issues. This is not a real GPU and will not run on your PC.

"Do not buy the RTX 3080 for more than MSRP.

"Paying inflated prices will only encourage duffers. Please be patient, wait for authorized dealers to restock, and help the community clean up this gray market.

The first page of 50 search results contained nine fake listings for the RTX 3080, many of which cheekily called themselves "paper editions" of the new graphics card. However, when sorted by "price + shipping: cheapest first," the story is different.

The first page is mostly fake listings, some with rather amusing pictures and photos, encouraging vandalism. Currently, the number of these fake RTX 3080s is not large enough to drown out the hundreds of listings by those who bought up the initial inventory. However, along with negative reviews, they have become one way for angry fans to try to confuse disreputable resellers.

Most RTX 3080 models do not yet have an Ebay "product" listing (which can be applied to all listings for that hardware), but Zotac and Nvidia Founder's Edition models do. Both have been downvoted to 1 star with reviews accusing them of being dodgy resellers. While these reviews do not appear to have any real impact on sales, they are not the only ones that disgruntled PC gamers are protesting.

Some of the auction listings have outlandish bids that exceed $3,000 or $4,000. Sorting the auction by highest bid, the RTX 3080, currently the most expensive, is listed at $80,000. It appears that payment for it will never be made.

A now-deleted thread on Nvidia's forum is circulating on Reddit, where one poster claims to have created a bot that patrols Ebay and makes fake, outrageous bids on RTX 3080 auctions. It is difficult to ascertain if this is actually happening. Some of the extremely high bids are from proven users who have bought and sold items before and have positive account feedback. Others, however, are by new accounts bidding for the first time and may be bots or other people who simply created fake accounts to troll Ebay resellers. [The auction would last for a few days, after which the item would be relisted. It is also possible that the increased inventory of RTX 3080s arriving at retailers will eliminate the exorbitant sales they were hoping for.

While these fake bids do nothing to thwart Ebay scammers who choose the Buy It Now route instead of setting up an auction, the combination of the three tactics at least makes it a little harder for dodgy accounts to get a quick haul (1) The first is to make sure that the seller is not a scammer. And I would argue that even if the fake listing is not really intended to sell, it is just as legitimate as someone selling a card they don't even have yet. Maybe even more so; a reseller's order from Amazon or Best Buy could still be cancelled, but if you pay $2,000 for RTX 3080 toilet paper, you can bet it will be sent to you.