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Yesterday, online tech storefront Newegg held a brief raffle for their customers where the prize was a slim chance to purchase the latest PC tech, including AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs and Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics cards.
The event only lasted for a moment and was called the Newegg Shuffle. Luckily, Reddit user LordNazo was able to snag a shot of the contest information before it closed. Newegg had customers go through a process of selecting the items they wished to reserve for purchase on a sort of wishlist. If they were selected as winners, they would have the opportunity to purchase those parts within a reserved window.
The catch on top of this already less-than-ideal situation is that the expensive and more sought after parts that could be selected in this process were only made available as part of bundles with other parts that customers might not even want or need. The bundles featured either a Ryzen 5 5600 CPU, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, or ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3080 graphics card paired with a motherboard. The CPUs were bundled with a compatible AM4 board while the graphics card was paired with an Intel Z490.
Consumer reaction to the Newegg Shuffle was less than positive. The Reddit thread about it on r/buildapcsales is full of customers complaining about and making fun of the “prize,” mostly because of the forced bundles it entailed. Others were lamenting the state of the PC part economy being so bleak that people would be willing to win a chance at buying the expensive parts they were looking for, even if they had to buy something they didn’t need in order to do it.
Many were hoping that 2021 would put an end to the PC parts shortage that enthusiasts have been facing, but it looks like those hopes may have been premature. AMD has yet to divulge any details on future restocks for its Ryzen 5000 and Radeon RX 6000 lines, and according to NVIDIA CFO Collette Kress, Nvidia stock probably won’t return to normal until around May.
