I never signed up for elite just saw people talk about it.  Then I noticed the "I got an email..." thread so I went and signed up.  I'm not sure about the "two big ticket items" commentary.  The one step just listed categories and I have a 2080 Super.  I have a lot of products registered but it looked like one option was just to have "one of these things"...
 
Anyway I apparently actually had a 3090 in my cart.  Never could check out and I had to leave at 10:30 eastern.  It's still in my cart but quantity is now 0 instead of 1.
 
Oh well.  Personally glad various actual people got some of these.   Was already enough 3090 listings on ebay before the launch even happened.  All those FE cards "confirmed" pre-orders over an hour before... makes you wonder that it might be true considering how fast nvidia goes out of stock.

Mattler

snip931
I love the elite only listings, Oddly enough i also dont feel bad when i got get it, atleast i know it went to a real person/forum member than a bot.

I'm not an Elite member so I was kinda upset but when they all got sold out, I was happy as well they all went to actual people.

I have no idea what makes you an "Elite" member. I have purchased at least two video cards directly from this site but its been a while. I have had a login for a long time. I couldn't even log in until after they were all gone. At this point I guess my money will go to who ever has a 3000 series. I need a new video card.
 
Update: I don't qualify for Elite. Sorry I don't build new systems but about once every 5 years. Oh well I will have to wait. Thing is with an X99 Classified I will probably only pick up the 3080 now. This delay gave me some time to really think about the $1799 I was going to spend. It's way too pricey. At the $800 or less price for the 3080 I can afford to upgrade to the next Nvidia series and afford to build a new system in a couple of years. 
 
Actually I can afford it now:) It will be a 3080 or 3090. Which ever is available:)

mudbone91

Mattler

snip931
I love the elite only listings, Oddly enough i also dont feel bad when i got get it, atleast i know it went to a real person/forum member than a bot.

I'm not an Elite member so I was kinda upset but when they all got sold out, I was happy as well they all went to actual people.

I have no idea what makes you an "Elite" member. I have purchased at least two video cards directly from this site but its been a while. I have had a login for a long time. I couldn't even log in until after they were all gone. At this point I guess my money will go to who ever has a 3000 series. I need a new video card.
 

I think that's kind of the point of "Elite" or loyalty. It's appreciated by people like me who won't own a 3000 series card until I can get an EVGA one. I've passed on an MSI card already and my money won't just "go to who ever has a 3000 series."

My guess is elite member requirement will quickly change. It was good for the launch but I think a lot of people will be more interested in the 3080 because of cost being lower.

Hoggle
My guess is elite member requirement will quickly change. It was good for the launch but I think a lot of people will be more interested in the 3080 because of cost being lower.

 
My thoughts exactly. Had I just not recently upgraded my monitor to the Samsung Odyssey G7 I would not be looking at an upgrade. The 980 GTX SC I have does not have enough memory in it to play Warzone with the screen quality I want. Sure wish these cards could get memory upgrades like a motherboard. 

Let's break it down. If you've purchased multiple items to be "elite" you have a special window in which you can purchase all top tier cards. Basically giving a one hour window just for bots... Epic stupidity..

confused as to why Nvidia allowed Zotac to
Do 20k pre orders for the 3080 as a tier 1 partner but did not allow evga also a tier 1 and the rest of the tier 2 to engage in preorders?

As a non elite member i dont see this as a bad thing. It makes me want to be part of the elite membership for next release. Good way to prevent botting.

I'm not yet an elite member, despite having 2 x 980, 970, and 1080ti, but I think it was a good move on EVGA's part.
 
After they were open to the public, I couldn't add to cart with the zero object error 1000 times; the other two releases for the 3080's I was able to add but not check out though.
 
I picked the worst time to build a new pc.

EVGATech_DanielM

sonofshade
Yeah the elite part is pretty crappy for us "Non Elites".  A better option should have been allowing them to preorder the cards they wanted ahead of time and then allow us fight over the remains.  (If there would have been any after that).

We were told specifically no pre orders. If this were possible, we would have done it. 

What is the reasoning around not allowing preorders?
 
I only see advantages to both etailers and customers -- customers don't have to go through this aggravation of the buy-rush and etailers don't have to have their website deployments needing to allocate more resources to load balancing.

Aurummorituri
 and remembered to register the purchases.

But why would you not do that right away?!  EVGA has thee best warranty in town for video cards and awesome customer service!  That's why I continue to only buy EVGA video cards and make sure I register them asap!

bradsour

andybgood
I'm not yet an elite member, despite having 2 x 980, 970, and 1080ti, but I think it was a good move on EVGA's part.
 
After they were open to the public, I couldn't add to cart with the zero object error 1000 times; the other two releases for the 3080's I was able to add but not check out though.
 
I picked the worst time to build a new pc.

Once you get a card you'll realize it was worth it and will always remember it! Cherish the memory!

Hopefully it will work out next time.  I feel like getting the instant email notification almost gave me a better chance than the early morning launches.

NorcalRTX
Yeah this is quite possibly the most imbecilic move I've ever seen. Perhaps a blood offering or maybe an organ needs to be donated to EVGA first to then be given the hallowed honor of allowing me give to give them money. 

^^^Darwin award winner! I'm pretty sure this is only a temporary means to adhere to a loyalty rewards program of sorts. I don't blame them... loyalty speak volumes, they're being loyal to their loyal customers. Sit down... have another beer... and wait like the rest of us. (also cry more... I love it when they cry)
 
EVGA does not have a monopoly on RTX 3080(90), you have plenty of options bruh...and AMD's GPUs will be hitting soon as well.

I like the Elite Member requirement for early purchases of the high end models. Unfortunately, it took me over an hour to register as "elite" and by the time I was able to actually get my registration completed the entire inventory was out. Moving forward, I hope EVGA allows the current "elite members" the opportunity to get the 3080  ftw3 ultra's when they finally arrive....

Does anyone know how long the elite ones were there for? Was it much easier then everything else or was it still pure luck?