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. 

they've proven they can put cards aside for elite members only. why not put some reasonably priced cards in there, like all models of the 3080...
 
it's not like they aren't gonna sell. they will get their money, but from real customers, not bots. and they'll earn some brownie points by helping the community.

Aurummorituri
You would think the $1799 price tag is enough of a barrier to buying this card, but EVGA decided to lock purchases to memebers who have bought at least TWO big ticket items like GPU's or laptops in the past and remembered to register the purchases. Money is green, and all the other AIB's would be happy to just take my money without the velvet rope.

Actually, it was their best move so far.  Making it available to it's most loyal customers.

Capt_Caveman

Aurummorituri
You would think the $1799 price tag is enough of a barrier to buying this card, but EVGA decided to lock purchases to memebers who have bought at least TWO big ticket items like GPU's or laptops in the past and remembered to register the purchases. Money is green, and all the other AIB's would be happy to just take my money without the velvet rope.

Actually, it was their best move so far.  Making it available to it's most loyal customers.

Agreed. People have been asking evga to do something for existing customers. Classy move. 

Capt_Caveman

Aurummorituri
You would think the $1799 price tag is enough of a barrier to buying this card, but EVGA decided to lock purchases to memebers who have bought at least TWO big ticket items like GPU's or laptops in the past and remembered to register the purchases. Money is green, and all the other AIB's would be happy to just take my money without the velvet rope.

Actually, it was their best move so far.  Making it available to it's most loyal customers.

it's a good move, but they need to add more than just their most expensive products. they should add all the 3080 models too. they have loyal customers in all price brackets, not just the highest end.

I'm an elite member but when I try to add it to my cart, I get:
 

Service Unavailable - Zero size object

The server is temporarily unable to service your request. Please try again later.
Reference #15.6741f648.1600957045.28768c12
 

bmt22033
I'm an elite member but when I try to add it to my cart, I get:
 

Service Unavailable - Zero size object

The server is temporarily unable to service your request. Please try again later.
Reference #15.6741f648.1600957045.28768c12
 

Keep refreshing that page until you get to your cart or they announce they are sold out.

personally I think the Elite wall is a great idea.  for the next month or so I would honestly like to see restocks put behind this wall for the first 12 hours or so just so we have a chance at the cards.  and it isn't hard to get the elite status, I joined just this week using my 1080 FTW cards that I bought 4 years ago.

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. 

Daniel, any chance we may see the FTW models of the 80s for Elite members in the next release batch?

I agree back orders would be nice, at least I would not have to worry about constantly waking up early to attempt to get a card to be greeted by them instantly being sold out and the Message I received this morning from the EVGA store "The EVGA product with Part Number(s): (24G-P5-3985-KR) was automatically removed from your shopping cart due to insufficient stock." After checking the product out...

I think it's a good way for them to take care of loyal customers and I hope they do this for the 3080 as well.

Making it elite members only could be a way to limit bots and scalpers, as, one might assume that bots and scalpers don't have an army of elite accounts used to snag cards, just normal ones, as there was no need to make them before. Putting up this barrier makes it harder to have a huge number of accounts buying up stock. It also makes elite members feel that there is some point to a program that really didn't have any real function before.
 
On the other hand, it makes non-elite members feel left out, and given that elite membership didn't mean much til now, no doubt a ton of people didn't even know about it, as the topic never came up. Even if they did in fact have several cards and a good number of posts, or other things that would qualify them a dozen times over.
 
In either case, they were going to sell out fast and be hard to get. Elite member or not.

But keep in mind, Non-Elite members, the cards are not ONLY for Elite members.  Jacob posted 4 minutes ago cards are unlocking for non-Elite shortly.
 
The Elite Members just have a separate supply to fight over.

is this going to happen to the 3080 as well in the future?

allstar319

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. 

Daniel, any chance we may see the FTW models of the 80s for Elite members in the next release batch?

Not completely sure.