Best Buy uses membership fee to spike GPU pricing
If you thought the best graphics cards‘ current inflated prices were bad, wait until you hear what Best Buy is up to. The retailer has taken to setting a portion of its available product aside exclusively for those who hop aboard its $200-per-year Totaltech membership.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. Best Buy has done its Totaltech schtick before with products such as the highly sought-after PS5. Still, it’s always worth noting when consumers can expect an already bad situation to become artificially worse.
In this particular instance, Best Buy was gatekeeping RTX 30-series Founders Edition cards behind its membership setup. The situation was spotted by @CameronRitz (via Tom’s Hardware).
Totaltech memberships include more than just exclusive access to rare tech. They include Geek Squad support, “free delivery” (barring the $200 you paid for it), extended return windows, and more. With that said, if you rarely shop at Best Buy, $200 is a hefty surcharge for a product type such as a graphics card.
It’s been a tough time to get GPUs or associated PC technology at a fair price just about anywhere, given how the market has redefined the word “fair” as a result of the global chip shortage. Thankfully, NVIDIA and others are confident that the situation, specifically as it pertains to graphics cards, will get better in the second half of 2022.
