Whilst there's points for most if not all comments here, although I agree mostly strongly with this one from
@Bones
I already knew it was going to happen.
Saw it going on that very morning and said as much but as for me, not gonna worry about it because I've got what I need now and I'm OK.
Point:
As long as people are stupid enough the feed the swarm it will persist.
Don't by these scalped chips and there will be nothing for the swarm to feed upon.
You feed 'em, they'll be back for more - Guaranteed.
To me I'm never going to try rushing out and buying something at double the money it's meant to be sold for whatever the heck it is but the problem is that people selling these things through Ebay are just pumping up their profits and the scalpers aren't caring a thing because they are still making more money over and above what they should be.
But again, the last sentence in Bones's post, people want something that bad and they will pay for it, but they are only feeding the greed train more and more... Also the other issue you'll have from buying from scalpers is that, since they are the first person to own it, the warranties etc. sit with them so if anything did happen to the CPU/GPU you've just spent double the cash on, how is that going to feel to you when you need to return it? It's not going to work very well as you won't get very far...
Greed is an ugly thing and being daft enough to buy something at double the price is another thing altogether... The world we live in I'm afraid to say, has quite honestly turned to pooh... I don't recall things being this bad since all this issue with lockdowns etc... Might just be me, I'm getting old.....