Japanese Store Readies Lottery System Ahead of GeForce RTX 5090 & 5080 GPU Launch

[T0@st]

Goodwill Nagoya Osu—a Japanese PC hardware store—has devised a lottery ticket system for potential buyers of GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards. Earlier today, the shop's social media announced a strict set of rules—providing a preview of this Friday's buying experience. Several retail outlets (around the globe) are preparing various anti-scalping measures ahead of a predicted bloodbath—a particularly brutal example was highlighted recently. AutoBuy, a Taiwanese store, demands that customers purchase almost an entire build's worth of pricey PC components—just to get onto a waiting list for GeForce RTX 5080 graphics cards.

Goodwill Japan's prize draw looks quite reasonable in comparison. Their announcement reads as follows: "the next-generation GPUs—which will go on sale from 11:00 on January 31—will be sold by lottery at the Nagoya Osu store. Lottery tickets will be distributed from 10:20. Those who are in line at 10:20 will be eligible for the lottery." Industry experts believe that high-end graphics card enthusiasts will experience long-term shortages—possibly up to three months after this week's international rollout. Goodwill Nagoya Osu will not reveal their (proverbial) full deck of cards until tomorrow night—available products and quantities will be announced at 11:00 PM.



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[Hakker]

finally something sane compared to all the online solutions. You want one just get to the store for a ticket.

 

[Chrispy_]

If you have to enter a lottery to buy something, it's usually a bad time to be buying that thing.

The advantage to the consumer of free-market competition on commodity items no longer applies if the commodity is in such scarce supply that it cannot be called a commodity any more.

 

[N/A]

In the wake of this nothing burger it's only safe to assume there are going to be exactly 10 scalpers and one real buyer in line at 10:20. The scalpers would then list it for 2499 and 3999 on eBay.

 

[GenericUsername2001]

These sorts of lotteries are common for high demand, limited quantity items, like concert tickets, in Japan. So Japanese customers will be used to this sort of system.

 

[AusWolf]

The high-end GPU market is becoming a parody of itself. I would even have a good laugh if the low-end still existed and midrange wouldn't keep getting postponed until forever.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

If you have to enter a lottery to buy something, it's usually a bad time to be buying that thing.

The advantage to the consumer of free-market competition on commodity items no longer applies if the commodity is in such scarce supply that it cannot be called a commodity any more.

There seems to have been a "supply issue" since 2020, you would think after 5 years they would know what the demand is with all the previous sales numbers (which they do), they are artificially creating the illusion of a supply problem so that they can milk the living crap out of people on launch day, and just 2 weeks later "GOOD NEWS EVERYONE" <insert whatever bs for supply increase> and then have closer to MSRP cards.

 

[TheKid]

BIG DEAL! Not worth the Hype or the money

 

[AusWolf]

There seems to have been a "supply issue" since 2020, you would think after 5 years they would know what the demand is with all the previous sales numbers (which they do), they are artificially creating the illusion of a supply problem so that they can milk the living crap out of people on launch day, and just 2 weeks later "GOOD NEWS EVERYONE" <insert whatever bs for supply increase> and then have closer to MSRP cards.

That, plus they're probably reserving most of the chips for the sensational Super "refresh" series.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

That, plus they're probably reserving most of the chips for the sensational Super "refresh" series.

The first GPU manufacturer I see this launch, that actually offer an MSRP price for their RTX5080, will have me as a customer for life (assuming they stick to this principle). I am sick to death of playing their games.

 

[AusWolf]

The first GPU manufacturer I see this launch, that actually offer an MSRP price for their RTX5080, will have me as a customer for life (assuming they stick to this principle). I am sick to death of playing their games.

They can't. MSRP only applies to the FE card. AIBs buy their chips from Nvidia at a higher price.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

They can't. MSRP only applies to the FE card. AIBs buy their chips from Nvidia at a higher price.

Galax, and Zotac have MSRP cards.

It remains to be seen if I can actually buy one in South-Africa at MSRP, as they claim, and when the launch is live.

 

[AusWolf]

Galax, and Zotac have MSRP cards.

It remains to be seen if I can actually buy one in South-Africa at MSRP, as they claim, and when the launch is live.

If the shortage is real, then I doubt it. But I wish you good luck.

 

[rhysjones55]

finally something sane compared to all the online solutions. You want one just get to the store for a ticket.

Yep, it's a great idea until you see that the cheapest 5090 will cost you 2700 USD here in Japan. And the most expensive is 3000+ USD.

 

[AusWolf]

Yep, it's a great idea until you see that the cheapest 5090 will cost you 2700 USD here in Japan. And the most expensive is 3000+ USD.

Great business model - create an artificial shortage to inflate prices. I wonder why I'm not so expensive, there's only one of me on this whole planet.