Vietnam’s Lê Thành, the self-proclaimed ‘King of VGA’, has fun on facebook (opens in new tab) (via I_Leak_VN (opens in new tab)). Looking at the photos and videos shared on the social media site, it appears that the store is using street trader tactics to grab passers-by and start selling GPUs by the kilo.
Lê Thành shared a photo of dozens of used GPUs piled up on the side of the road in an obvious parody of Vietnamese street food stalls. There’s even a video of vendors patiently shaking off flies with their nets, waiting for passers-by. Then, after the scooter stops and the seller weighs his GPU, the rider buys his GPU bundle, puts it in a flimsy red takeaway bag and drives off. Other photos show street vendors waving used GPUs to scooter riders on the street. Additionally, Lê Thành’s shop displays stacks and stacks of his GPUs, representing all major brands.
In the post-Ethereum GPU mining era, there was a lot of talk about an oversupply of graphics cards. In fact, we’ve seen consumer graphics card prices drop since this tech event. Leading up to the demise of GPU mining, the cryptocurrency business was losing momentum as cryptocurrency valuations plummeted and recession began to take over the world. The widespread end of pandemic-related lockdowns has done nothing for consumer electronics sales. So was the pressure on disposable income from rising energy prices.
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GPU makers have reflected cooling demand in their recent financials. As a result most people seem to be hoping for some relief in the new year despite the bleak outlook for the next few months in the case of the largest discrete GPU vendor his Nvidia gaming and professional graphics processors sales are expected to decline quarter-over-quarter. However, it looks like delivering his hot-selling GeForce RTX 4090 and high-end his accelerators to China before US sanctions kick in in late 2023 could work.
Readers, have you noticed an abundance of used GPUs at attractive prices in your area? Naturally, it’s easy to be tempted to upgrade, but buyers are often attracted to used models of unknown provenance. You have to be careful with what you buy.
