Reddit Buyer Orders MSI SUPRIM GeForce RTX 5090 From Amazon Resale, Opens the Box and Finds Rocks Instead
A fresh cautionary tale is making the rounds in the PC building community, highlighting how the RTX 50 series shortage era is not only driving pricing volatility, but also amplifying fraud risk in the secondary retail pipeline. A Reddit user shared that they purchased an MSI SUPRIM GeForce RTX 5090 through Amazon Resale and received a package that contained rocks instead of the graphics card.
The context matters. With RTX 5090 availability still constrained across mainstream channels, street pricing has inflated sharply, and many listings are now floating above 3000$ depending on region and seller. When demand is high and supply is tight, fraud attempts scale, especially around high value, low inventory products that buyers will chase aggressively.
The buyer says they had already encountered issues trying to secure an RTX 5090 on Amazon multiple times, but still opted to try again, this time through Amazon Resale. For anyone unfamiliar, Amazon Resale is Amazon’s channel for discounted returned and refunded items, marketed as inventory that is inspected to confirm it meets expectations. The community reaction in the thread is that the inspection process may be overly shallow, with commenters speculating the package may have passed checks based on weight alone rather than verification of the actual contents.
This is not an isolated pattern in the broader GPU market. Similar stories have circulated previously where buyers open a premium GPU box and find unrelated filler items instead of the card, which is why this kind of incident hits harder during a shortage cycle. Even if the retailer is not always the direct source of wrongdoing, the operational reality is simple: the more hands an item passes through in a resale pipeline, the more points of failure exist for tampering, mislabeling, or incomplete quality control.
The Reddit user has not disclosed the exact listing details beyond stating Amazon Resale, so it is not possible to pin full responsibility on one party from the outside. But the outcome is still a practical warning for gamers and builders shopping online right now.
If you are buying a high value GPU online in this market, the risk controls that actually move the needle are straightforward:
Buy only from listings with clear seller provenance and easy return protection
Record an uncut unboxing video showing the shipping label, seals, and contents in one continuous shot
Verify serial numbers and packaging seals immediately upon arrival
Avoid deals that feel mispriced relative to the market, especially during peak scarcity
The RTX 50 series shortage environment is already tough on value, and nobody should be forced to fight both inflated pricing and active scam behavior at the same time.
What is your personal rule for buying high end GPUs online, do you stick to official retailers only, or do you use resale channels if the buyer protections look strong enough?
