Social media platforms stirred up a storm as Starlight Partner, a subsidiary of MSI, was spotted selling the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 on eBay. The components were being sold at exaggerated costs on the online marketplace, with MSI being accused of scalping.
The incident was being shared on Reddit forums when people noticed that Starlight Partner is an official subsidiary of MSI. This led to people complaining to the company’s official channels. Once the incident was widely reported, MSI was quick to issue an official apology. Here is the tweet released by MSI on the Starlit Partner/Ebay incident.
MSI apologizes for an “error”
Based on reports from PC Mag, the subsidiary managed to make around four sales for the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio between $1,359-$1,399. On the other hand, between eight to eleven sales of the RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio were made at $2,599. For context, the RRP of the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio is $759, while the RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio comes at $1,589.
MSI took immediate steps to rectify the mistake. The company’s official statement read, “Starlit Partner has been instructed to contact the individual customers who purchased these graphic card products and offer two options—return the product and receive a full refund, or a partial refund of the amount paid over MSI’s MSRP.”
Once Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and 3090 were released, they got sold out immediately. The revolutionary graphics cards received such a massive demand that even third-party developed editions cannot be bought at the moment. Hence, the incident brought massive flak to MSI. This incident made tech enthusiasts further riled up, with scalpers already auctioning their hoarded cards on eBay and other auctioning websites.
