10/03/2025
Hi folks, two things to run through - first up, a quick easy one. After the initial wave were snapped up, we have a few more RX 9070 XT available to pick up from the shop now.
Link - https://www.kustompcs.co.uk/components/graphics-cards/amd/?features_hash=24-8770
That's the easy bit. This is going to get long now.
Next, we need to talk a little about "MSRP" as cited in the (in my opinion, rather cruel) 1 star review placed on our google profile today. I feel this is something we need to be open about to the wider world, and maybe get a little more understanding to the other sides of a situation.
This is something that's been mentioned a lot lately - the manufacturers suggested retail price is a value provided to reviewers at a product launch and in marketing materials from said manufacturer. In this case, AMD, but nVidia played the same tactics so let's not apportion exclusive blame. Sometimes its US market only and we're left to work out what it should be in other regions with tax applied and so on, sometimes they put out material stating what price a product will be in various regions. You'd like to think it would be a fair indication and mange expectations accordingly.
This has happened since forever on graphics card launches, but it's always been the case that final price may vary - particularly as different board partners will build lower and higher-end versions of the products.
Now, if we were making 50% markup on graphics cards, I'd take any criticism on the chin because I'd be too busy having a great time in my sports car or yacht to be bothered by such matters.
But this is far from the case, and anyone with any grounding of how pricing and margins go in the computer industry will know it's generally quite a different picture. It would likely shock you how little we make in terms of markup on components as a retailer, and on the complaint made below, I'd cite that the markup is less like £200 and more like £30. And we have to do quite a lot of those to keep the lights on every day, pay salaries, insurance and all the rest.
So what happens, why the difference? This is all just marketing and we've probably seen many cases like it before - the boxing day sale with only 1 item per store, or the big price reduction on something that was marked up for months before... what's happening here this time, why isn't the price what they said it would be?
Simply, the launch MSRP needs to be only valid on 'a' or 'some' models and only needs to be at launch. Whether that's minutes, hours, or days. These cheap launch models are sadly not made available to every retailer but perhaps those that are most visible as it gives justification to "oh they definitely were that price". It's quite well discussed on other channels that many people tried to secure graphics cards at launch price following a big hype on Thursday last week, and while a few were lucky, many others were left feeling disappointed as pricing then increased once the launch models were sold.
Of course, this is to allow low pricing to be published prior to launch, and in reviews (which conveniently are allowed to go live the day before the launch) so helps with the marketing push for those manufacturers. The price point teased by "MSRP" is merely a lure to get your attention, and what we see now is what it was meant to be all along.
We're generally on the keen side of pricing for these products with many listed at higher costs or with wait times elsewhere, and we made sure to focus launches with quietly offering the products to those in our waiting lists rather than a crazy free-for-all online, and I'm actually proud that we did right for many people who got product in their hands with minimal fuss and at pricing often better than they would have got online (bar the lucky few who snagged those elusive MSRP models, fair play to you and your quick reactions, gg to you!)
It genuinely hurts to be called out for wrong behaviour for something that's not your fault, and I know sometimes we all just need a vent and a target. But our position is working very hard and trying to be fair - and heck, getting any graphics card stock just now takes effort and a lot of befriending with wholesalers! - and it's not nice to be tarred with a brush that's really just in our opinion the fault of two large manufacturers playing 'who can have the biggest launch' tactics to keep their share prices nice and high.
We need to keep in mind who is trying to be the good or the bad guy here.
But anyway - did I mention? We have some more 9070 XT.
The costs are good as they can be - if that's not for you it's totally no problem to vote with your wallet and either wait it out in case the market shifts or source something second hand, but lets not single out one shop as being the bad guy, we're just doing our best to help our customers enjoy their hobby and hopefully get our bills paid at the end of the week.
Peace.
- Graeme
