Someone tried auctioning off an EVGA RTX 4090 prototype on eBay

WTF?! An account saying to characterize EVGA put a preproduction RTX 4090 prototype up for auction on eBay yesterday, with the proceeds heading to charity. It started a bidding war and shot up to 5 figures before the listing inexplicably disappeared right after about 10 hrs.
EVGA met with Avid gamers Nexus and JayzTwoCents quite a although back to notify them that they ended up terminating their partnership with Nvidia. When the YouTubers shared the news afterward there was an outpouring of appreciation and help for the beleaguered AIB lover. About a thirty day period ago, EVGA despatched two functioning preproduction samples of their FTW3 RTX 4090 to GN and JayzTwoCents for them to tear down and exhibit us what we skipped out on.
We believed that would be the very last we’d see of the GPU that was not intended to be. But, yesterday, it appeared in the history of an EVGA and Intel livestream that was boosting income for the St. Jude Kid’s Research Healthcare facility. Soon immediately after, the GPU was stated for auction on eBay with the proceeds also going to St. Jude. In advance of the listing disappeared this morning, the value had risen to $13,200 about 35 bids. With more than six times left to go, it was effectively on its way to getting to be the most costly GPU at any time marketed.
The eBay listing was pretty gentle on details. It had four photographs of the GPU and 5 strains of textual content that described it as a “upcoming gen” prototype that came without a guarantee, said it could only be shipped in just the United States, and affirmed that the auction was for charity. The spec sheet mentioned the card had 24 GB of GDDR6 and a PCIe 4. x16 connector.
There were some people on Twitter that ended up straight away suspicious. EVGA hadn’t advertised the auction wherever, and it didn’t come from the eBay account that the organization had utilised ahead of. But the timing and the charity angle designed feeling, and JayzTwoCents tweeted an endorsement of the auction that if he intended to be sarcastic, didn’t come throughout that way.
Certainly, this is fully legit, EVGA is auctioning off a person of their “Not 4090” Future Gen Online video Cards for charity, see it in this article https://t.co/oRaoneLsdH
— JayzTwoCents (@JayzTwoCents) December 10, 2022
Most confusingly of all, if the listing was a scam, it wasn’t just one aimed at making cash. It was portion of eBay’s charity method, this means that the funds would go straight from the purchaser to the verified charity. It’s possible the listing was legit but EVGA took it down at the request of Nvidia, or it’s possible eBay observed it suspicious and required to investigate itself.
My hope is that the listing returns and that the GPU is traded for a hefty donation to a very good lead to. If there was the selection of transport it to Australia, I would absolutely have place down $13,300 on it myself.