Which stores? What about people that don't live near those stores.  They already sell a bunch at Microcenter, but a large chunk of the country doesn't live close enough to a Microcenter to go there.
 
Also, the reason Best Buy doesn't have 5,000 cards per store, is because they can't make 5,000 cards per store.  There was like 3500 TOTAL Founders Editions for the entire US (of 3080 ti)

Don’t understand how y’all think selling in store helps anyone…. I will never be able to reliable camp and wait outside, people have actual jobs. It’s much easier for me to at least try to get it this way rather than having a select few of stores not even in my state or hours away from me have it where I have to take off of work or come in late for work just for the chance of getting a card.

The Best Buy 3080Ti was absolutely atrocious, limited release and a bunch of scalpers got their hands on it putting the card on ebay and Facebook marketplace blatantly with the Best Buy receipt in it. How is that any better?

Stickboy46

SBMike2
Don’t understand how y’all think selling in store helps anyone…. I will never be able to reliable camp and wait outside, people have actual jobs. It’s much easier for me to at least try to get it this way rather than having a select few of stores not even in my state or hours away from me have it where I have to take off of work or come in late for work just for the chance of getting a card.

The Best Buy 3080Ti was absolutely atrocious, limited release and a bunch of scalpers got their hands on it putting the card on ebay and Facebook marketplace blatantly with the Best Buy receipt in it. How is that any better?

I agree with this.  People that flip full time would line up with every friend and family they could.  People with jobs can't camp out.  Most of the reports from the 3080 ti release were that people needed to wait in line 14-16 hours to get one.  People with jobs can't do that.  
 
EVGA's system and Best Buy's system aren't perfect, but it's the only places I've seen online where people were able to actually get cards that weren't botting.  

EVGA allowing elite members first crack is honestly the only anti bot system in my opinion. Everything else gives the benefit to bots or people who are scalping them. 

In stores would drive foot traffic and other sales.

whats easier? shipping 100-200 cards to hundreds of store across the USA every week/2 weeks. or have all your Cards sitting at a handful of warehouses and ready to be shipped out, paid by the customer? 

tanagon
If I become an elite member, I wonder if I can buy it in Japan

Same question for myself but for EU....but just joined, I am sure I will learn in few days.

03fan
In stores would drive foot traffic and other sales.

Specific releases like this rarely drive other sales.  People that have been camping all night are unlikely to spend more time looking around.  Its most often a get in and get out thing.  
 
Foot traffic alone is a cost if not adding additional sales that an online sale wouldn't get.  The extra logistics costs/staffing costs would likely make it less profitable to sell in stores. 

Stickboy46
The real winners are the people selling the bots ... 

This is depressingly accurate

kevinc313

jamey19but if 1 scalper with a bot online can buy 10,000 cards, then they’d need to wait in 10,000 lines to do so if it were a store only purchase. 

Just an FYI, the bot scene is not easy or everybody would be doing it.  You have to pay hundreds of dollars a month to rent a bot or find one to buy, pay to join a cook group, actually get it running, fake accounts/CC, etc.  Then there is a *chance* you might score a 2-3 cards online a month.  There are thousands of people running bots reselling all sorts of products.

The bot scene is easy.... there are several bot communities where they have people pay a subscription fee to add their name/account to the hat of the particular bot they want to snatch GPU's or PS5/Series X with. You don't need to make your own bot. Just join a group and pay a few bucks a month. 

Bot communities have existed for a few years now, specifically a lot of it started with shoes and clothing. The Back to the Future Nike Air Mags that were auctioned on ebay for charity? They pop-up on scalper communities once in a while. Even the custom made ones that actually have working "power laces" are going for big bucks - people pay almost the value of a BMW for them. 

EDIT: One genius, was a kid in middle school who created his own bot to scalp shoes with. Or I think it was with Nintendo Switch, since he really wanted one. He came to the realization that monetizing access to his bot, made him tons of money. Like several million dollars and got the attention of other tech groups willing to pay quite a sum for ownership of his bot. There was an article written about him but I can no longer find it. 

There are no winners in this :P

I put money in NVDIA Stock as soon as they started selling out, gotta get a win somewhere when you live in hawaii you always get last pick on cards

PvPsFinest
Zotac has some great drops too.

I prefer EVGA but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do 

Smithship

sidewaysout
There are no winners in this :P

Winners:
At least four sources are reliable sellers: EVGA, NewEgg, BestBuy, and MicroCenter.
I may have missed some others, but others probably do not have a steady supply.
Long waits are a big problem, but we have some chance with these sellers.
 
Unsure:
As far as Amazon, Ebay, and third party markets - these are probably overtaken with scalpers.
Personally, I'm not interested in paying a scalper price.
 
Losers:
For those willing to pay a scalper then I think Ebay is probably a good choice - if you find a seller with plenty of good reviews. Otherwise, I'm sure it would be much worse to get scalped, have no warranty, and possibly not get what you ordered. Big losing.
 

Well put. or just wait for them to pop up used eventually. You can still get a 3080 in a custom shipped to you for as low as 2,000 from cyberpower as a frankenstein pc if you go as cheap as you can on the other components, but still almost like scalping prices

I like this idea.  But we must also implement another rule: ID #will be added to the file to ensure the same ID can not purchase more than 3 cards in any calendar year.  This way we can prevent online bots, as well as in-store scalpers.
 
As mentioned before, it will probably never happen.  I can only hope.

sidewaysout

Smithship

sidewaysout
There are no winners in this :P

Winners:
At least four sources are reliable sellers: EVGA, NewEgg, BestBuy, and MicroCenter.
I may have missed some others, but others probably do not have a steady supply.
Long waits are a big problem, but we have some chance with these sellers.
 
Unsure:
As far as Amazon, Ebay, and third party markets - these are probably overtaken with scalpers.
Personally, I'm not interested in paying a scalper price.
 
Losers:
For those willing to pay a scalper then I think Ebay is probably a good choice - if you find a seller with plenty of good reviews. Otherwise, I'm sure it would be much worse to get scalped, have no warranty, and possibly not get what you ordered. Big losing.
 

Well put. or just wait for them to pop up used eventually. You can still get a 3080 in a custom shipped to you for as low as 2,000 from cyberpower as a frankenstein pc if you go as cheap as you can on the other components, but still almost like scalping prices

Good idea, I did not think of used market. Maybe there are used cards, with some sort of verification process, available in some forums. I've seen similar forums for used smartphones. But, I have not seen any forums for used video cards.
 
I've looked at a couple of complete build sellers. But, so far, there were no sellers where I was *confident* of them having all the good bits to sell.