Shoppers Note Low Inventory on MindFactory.de Webstore, Reports Suggest Upcoming Insolvency

[T0@st]

Frequenters of the MindFactory.de webshop have highlighted worrying signs of decline. A telling example was posted to the (German language) PCBaumeister subreddit; where a member queried: "what's going on at MindFactory? Only 12 Intel CPUs, 36 graphics cards (all brands), 30 monitors left on offer. Are they going bankrupt or are they emptying their inventory?" Similar alerts landed across PC hardware discussion boards—regional press outlets started to pay attention once a decent number of observations were tallied. Even VideoCardz started to receive tip-offs from its German readership, regarding MindFactory's very limited selection of previous-gen NVIDIA graphics cards (see screenshot below). According to the latest news articles, higher-end GeForce 40-series models are not listed. Additionally, there is a distinct lack of GeForce 50-series products on the webstore. VideoCardz found plenty of entries for AMD Radeon graphics cards, but nothing newer or more advanced than the RX 7800 XT.

Curious customers have contacted the webshop's service team, regarding low inventory and lack of product variety. A typical response reads as follows: "we (Mindfactory.de) are currently restructuring our store, which is why we have so few items in stock at the moment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us." Following on from community tips, local media outlets have shared their own investigations—currently, several online sites propose that MindFactory is facing bankruptcy. WinFuture.de's article sports a prominent "Insolvenz—Freie Marktwirtschaft" graphic—translation: "insolvency—free-market capitalism." Igor Wallossek—of Igor's Lab fame—took issue with some of the sensationalistic headlines. He weighed in on this matter: "apparently, bankruptcy is to be filed for next week. I cannot speak about the background, it is extremely sensitive. I have known about it since Friday (February 28)." A dedicated news piece did not appear on igorslab.de, due to the following of an ethical code of conduct.




Wallossek explained his reasonings: "the fact that filing for bankruptcy does not mean bankruptcy should actually be clear to anyone who knows about it, but many still equate the two to create drama. The fact that I wrote 'allegedly' is a clear limitation of the statement, but many deliberately overlook such nuances or ignore them because they do not fit into the sensationalist portrayal. This is particularly annoying with legally or economically sensitive topics, because a cautious formulation is quickly reinterpreted as a definitive statement that I did not make at all. That is exactly why I did NOT report it as news, it would have been possible to think logically."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Fluffmeister]

But but.... people like to roll out MindFactory sales figures all the time..... NOOO!

 

[Why_Me]

But but.... people like to roll out MindFactory sales figures all the time..... NOOO!

/thread

 

[R-T-B]

Man trolls always race to threads like these and declare them over before they start, as if only their opinion matters. It's getting old.

 

[_roman_]

What I read in german language on pcgh or igors screenshot is that someone used a noobie translate software to wrongly quote igor on videonoobs webpage. German text from screenshot I saw (or was it from igors webpage a screenshot) a few minutes ago.

Mindfactory: Was ist los beim beliebten Online-Versandhändler?

Was ist momentan los beim beliebten Online-Versandhändler Mindfactory?

www.pcgameshardware.de

They also question the facts but they seem to have some information source. They can not go into details for legal reasons.

It seems we will know more in a few days.

Summary + Opinion: Think careful when you buy now hardware - especially in central europe. Amazon will most likely be safe. Others - who knows. Several businesses have closed in past weeks. Possible several hardware dealers joining them will be no surprise to myself.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Man trolls always race to threads like these and declare them over before they start, as if only their opinion matters. It's getting old.

Well, I won't blame them too much on this one. It's always been a point of contention there, every time someone brought AMD's market share woes, someone would quickly invoke Mindfactory sales data as a counter-argument (the niche of buyers this store services is and has always been overwhelmingly favorable to AMD products), often followed by less savory types of discussion.

Rumor mill is going on about tax fraud, but those claims are both baseless and unverified right now.

 

[Why_Me]

Well, I won't blame them too much on this one. It's always been a point of contention there, every time someone brought AMD's market share woes, someone would quickly invoke Mindfactory sales data as a counter-argument (the niche of buyers this store services is and has always been overwhelmingly favorable to AMD products), often followed by less savory types of discussion.

Rumor mill is going on about tax fraud, but those claims are both baseless and unverified right now.

You better be careful or someone might label you a troll.

 

[Dr. Dro]

You better be careful or someone might label you a troll.

Troll is amongst some of the lightest things I've been called, mate. Sometimes I really get under some people's skin, it's understandable though, not everyone has the same outlook on things as I do. And that's not only fine, it's how it's supposed to be.

Not even I'm immune to being fed up sometimes. It's happened before and other members have DM'd me to ask me if I was ok on occasion, which I took as a sign to slow down.

 

[Bwaze]

I wonder why are we seeing this rumour article?

All the while EKWB had major problems during past year, lost most of employees and production, customers and partners got shafted, many YouTube reviewers commented on their woes, but TechPowerUP only posted rosy picture with EK press releases that completely ignored all the issues.

But here TechPowerUP gladly copy pastes some forum debates?

 

[mb194dc]

Germany not doing well economically and this is just another symptommof it..?

 

[docnorth]

No Intel Martini, no party.
At the end it might be just a joke...(or not?).

 

[Hecate91]

I wonder why are we seeing this rumour article?

All the while EKWB had major problems during past year, lost most of employees and production, customers and partners got shafted, many YouTube reviewers commented on their woes, but TechPowerUP only posted rosy picture with EK press releases that completely ignored all the issues.

But here TechPowerUP gladly copy pastes some forum debates?

The clickbait rumors always get clicks, it's why we see tons of baseless rumors regarding AMD, while DLSS gets hyped up with a new article for every single game that gets it.
And it probably goes without saying TPU is likely sponsored by EK, I've seen banner ads around the site a few times.

 

[wolf]

But but.... people like to roll out MindFactory sales figures all the time..... NOOO!

Spot on. It's consistently rolled out as a counter argument to steam hardware surveys, ignoring all the other relevant factors (and indeed pitfalls) in citing one retailer as yard stick for EU market share.

If this is true, this is lol.

 

[R-T-B]

You better be careful or someone might label you a troll.

That'd require me to care.

Well, I won't blame them too much on this one. It's always been a point of contention there, every time someone brought AMD's market share woes, someone would quickly invoke Mindfactory sales data as a counter-argument (the niche of buyers this store services is and has always been overwhelmingly favorable to AMD products), often followed by less savory types of discussion.

Rumor mill is going on about tax fraud, but those claims are both baseless and unverified right now.

Only thing I take issue with is shutting down the discussion before it starts, honestly. Nevermind.

 

[Frick]

What I read in german language on pcgh or igors screenshot is that someone used a noobie translate software to wrongly quote igor on videonoobs webpage. German text from screenshot I saw (or was it from igors webpage a screenshot) a few minutes ago.

Mindfactory: Was ist los beim beliebten Online-Versandhändler?

Was ist momentan los beim beliebten Online-Versandhändler Mindfactory?

www.pcgameshardware.de

They also question the facts but they seem to have some information source. They can not go into details for legal reasons.

It seems we will know more in a few days.

Summary + Opinion: Think careful when you buy now hardware - especially in central europe. Amazon will most likely be safe. Others - who knows. Several businesses have closed in past weeks. Possible several hardware dealers joining them will be no surprise to myself.

Are company financials open information in Germany?

 

[Dragokar]

[/spoiler]

Germany not doing well economically and this is just another symptommof it..?

Nah companies come and go, that nothing new. The only bad thing is the bureaucracy.

Are company financials open information in Germany?

No not at all, some type like AGs (based on stock like plc) are. We have many ways to open and handle companies.

 

[_roman_]

I prefer to know such things beforehand that maybe a shop has issues. Some certain popular shops crashed recently. Regardless if it's fact or not. The worst thing what happened here is that you paid upfront and never got your stuff. Than they claimed they will go on and than it crashed a few weeks later again. Some other not so well known shops crashed also.

Are company financials open information in Germany?

I did not follow today changes in this story.

Yesterday I read that someone wanted to have the cash for all the goods they deliverd to that particular shop.

No - these informations are usually not open I suppose. But - when people work in jobs - and see at work - someone has no money - you know the rest. This was afaik also stated in between the lines yesterday.

I do understand - you want to most likely hint out - the speculation point. I see this very problematic as people lost their money upfront and their vouchers money several times recently here. I never really understand to use money to buy a voucher. Than you have a limited timeframe to use that voucher to buy something. Paying upfront is something which can not be avoided in online shopping quite often.

 

[mb194dc]

Nah companies come and go, that nothing new. The only bad thing is the bureaucracy.

No not at all, some type like AGs (based on stock like plc) are. We have many ways to open and handle companies.

Whatever they're saying officially, Ifo and bankruptcies are telling a different story:

ifo Business Climate Unchanged (February 2025)

Sentiment among companies in Germany continues to be skeptical. The ifo Business Climate Index remained unchanged at 85.2 points in February. While companies were slightly less satisfied with current business, expectations brightened somewhat. The German economy is waiting to see how things...

www.ifo.de

https://www.apolloacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Feb17_Chart1.jpg

 

[Dragokar]

Whatever they're saying officially, Ifo and bankruptcies are telling a different story:

ifo Business Climate Unchanged (February 2025)

Sentiment among companies in Germany continues to be skeptical. The ifo Business Climate Index remained unchanged at 85.2 points in February. While companies were slightly less satisfied with current business, expectations brightened somewhat. The German economy is waiting to see how things...

www.ifo.de

https://www.apolloacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Feb17_Chart1.jpg

What does the country does have to do with that case? They screwed up one way or the other, cant tell right now. so just wait

 

[Bwaze]

A lot of people are quite satisfied with this development, it seems. Just for the fact that they didn't like the "invoking of Mindfactory sales figures", and are more comfortable in a world without them.

Until now they had to somehow dismiss them as being "some irrelevant shop" - but it was probably biggest EU online seller, at least before they basically shut down the export from Germany.

Also somehow labeling them as catering to some weird small pro-AMD niche in GPU world would require a bit of explanation - other than their sales figures just don't conform to our expectations of 90% Nvidia / 10% AMD. I didn't find their offers to be extremely AMD focused - when they didn't have anything sensible from Nvidia in stock, nobody else around was in better position. At other times, they were usually one of the better stocked shops, and their prices were usually one of the lowest shown in various comparing sites like Geizhals.eu.

But yeah, it was always a "niche" - even if we had worldwide sales figures in such shops, I think direct purchases of PC parts for DIY home assembly were and are always gonna be in a minority, compared to people buying pre-assembled PCs - even for strictly gaming. That's why it took so long for AMD's complete dominance in Mindfactory CPU sales to translate into wider market share - Intel had a lot of long term contracts, and a lot of success even with the clearly inferior products.

And Europe is I think particularly vulnerable to GPU shortages - while USA has for instance chains of shops that are known for adhering to original pricing, GPUs and other components are often available directly through manufacturer's own shops, we have nothing like that in EU. At the slightest hint of scarcity manipulations start to happen by the importers, distributors, stores, and we get "pre-scalped" right away - that happened during cryptomining crazes, during covid shortages, with Nvidia RTX 40x0 cards at the end of their cycle, when Nvidia lowered the numbers produced and then stopped making them, and that happened now with RTX 50x0.

But if you looked closely at Mindfactory numbers, every time AMD got close or outsold Nvidia in GPUs, there were very small number of sales actually going on - that's not how you gain market share, those numbers were never really relevant.

Mindfactory had quite a bit of backlash in recent years due to denying a lot of warranty cases. Also, I think sales figures and revenues are down across all PC shops - people are just not spending for PCs here any more, with good reasons - basically the same products that we bought 2, 3 years ago are still offered as cutting edge, but at higher prices - everything got more expensive, and the performance didn't follow. And I'm not only looking at GPUs - CPUs got very mediocre performance uplifts, but are very expensive in shops here. 550 EUR 9800X3D? Get in line, we don't have them! Motherboards? No improvements, just higher prices. SSDs? Yeah, you could buy a 4 TB one in 2023 for 170 EUR, now we're offering it at 250 EUR.

Hard disks? You bought an 18 TB drive for 270 EUR in 2023? We're offering it now to you for 350 EUR. And guess what? Somehow the majority of drives seem to be years old Chia cryptomining used drives, illegaly "refurbished" and sold as new, with wiped SMART data! They still haven't found the culprit who brought these drives to EU and injected them into regular channels, so Seagate's warning that you should only buy from "Trusted Sellers", and then they list Amazon.de is just mockery...