Some lucky Redditors are getting 50-series cards below MSRP thanks to a weird Walmart quirk

jessica.kinghorn@futurenet.com (Jess Kinghorn)
2025-04-10 05:50:00
www.pcgamer.com

Seems like only a few weeks back we were grumbling about the price of Nvidia RTX 5070 graphics cards—because we were. Well, some enterprising Redditors have discovered a neat little loophole that’s bound to be closed one day, allowing them to pick up a like new RTX 50-series card at a cut price.

It all started with this post about one lucky poster stumbling upon a RTX 5080 card discounted down to $896 from $1280. The Reddit user found the card with the fabled yellow price sticker in the PC section of their local Walmart. Store employees explained to the poster that it was a return from the day before and that they’d been “placing bets [on] how fast it would sell” since putting it back on the shelf. But rather than being a one-off lucky find, this might actually be a ‘one weird trick.’

A few days later, a different poster shared their spoils—plus a little bonus insight suggesting this might be somewhat replicable. Inspired by the aforementioned RTX 5080 post earlier that week, this Redditor checked out the PC components cabinet at their nearest Walmart and picked up a RTX 5070 card for the discounted price of $515. Not only that, but the box was still completely sealed.

So, what’s going on? The short answer is ‘returns.’ Basically, due to the outsized demand for the RTX 50-series cards making things like in-person lottery systems a bad idea, Walmart is using an online-only system. However, when these cards are then returned in-store, some store employees have been putting them back out on the shelf at a discounted price whether the card has been opened or not.

Now, before you rush out to the big Mart of Wal’, it’s worth noting that there’s no guarantee you’ll be so lucky. For one, the comments are full of folks trying to do just that and returning to the post empty-handed.

For another, some schemers in the comments are floating the idea of buying a card at full price only to return it, wait for it to be put back on the shelf, and revel in the discount. This presents a few risks, including someone else pipping you at the post on buying back ‘your’ card and, if enough folks jump on the bandwagon, Walmart potentially wising up—because the entire scheme could be considered fraud.

All in all, there’s gotta be an easier way to get a decent price on one of these RTX 50-series cards. Speaking of, may I suggest our very own Where to Buy lists for the RTX 5090 as well as the RTX 5080 card as a starting point? For a perhaps slightly more reasonable price point, you could always get a brand-new laptop with a RTX 50-series card instead. Happy hunting!

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