Amazon Japan is Selling GPU ‘Loot Boxes’ with 2015-era Cards

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(Image: Amazon)In what is truly a sign of the dystopian times we are currently living in, a Japanese Amazon seller has begun offering “GPU Loot Boxes” for sale, offering some “lucky” buyers the chance at a wide range of both new and old graphics cards. The mere existence of just such a product is troubling enough, but what’s even more discouraging is that the Loot Boxes are — unsurprisingly — completely sold out.

The boxes, which cost between $100 and $125 dollars, are offered in four tiers. At the top of the stack is the Good Box, which could theoretically include the following: Includes all series of NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards including RTX3090, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6900 XT, RX 6800, RX 6700 XT, RX 6600 XT. The listing adds, “Graphics cards include used and brand new. GeForce 30 Series and RX 6000 are brand new.” Next up is the High Quality box, but rather than a potential list of products it just says, “All graphics cards are real and worth your money, so you don’t have to worry about it,” which sounds like the sketchiest thing we have ever read.

Moving on to the bottom of the barrel, we have the 100% Winning box, which doesn’t sound suspect at all. The listing notes, “The probability to win this random box is 100% so you can find your own surprise and get a random product of equal or super value.” Finally, there’s the bottom rung box, which is cleverly titled “box,” and the description notes its contents is truly random, and a secret. “The item in the box is randomly selected. If you want to know the item, you need to unlock it yourself. This is a brave game. If you like it, please feel free to order it!” A brave game indeed. What’s that line about “A fool and his money?”

According to Wccftech Gamer’s accounting, the range of possible GPUs you could find in the box spans from the GTX 900/Radeon 300 era from 2014 – 2015, all the way up to the present RTX 30-series and AMD 6000 series. The website estimates the odds of getting a specific GPU drops in half as you move up the food chain. So that puts the odds of getting a GPU from 2015 at 16 percent, and eight percent for a GTX 10-series/RX500 GPU. As we move down the line, there’s a four percent chance of scoring an RTX 2000-series/RX5000 GPU, and a mere two percent chance you’ll find a shiny new RTX 3000-series or RX6000 series GPU staring back at you. That leaves a remaining 70 percent chance you’ll get some kind of GPU, and that’s it. That said, chances are high it will simply be a GPU that has the following characteristics: it will be old, it will be used, and it will be cheap.

It’s also possible this isn’t even a real thing, so maybe someone is taking the piss, so to speak. If someone did have access to a decent supply of GPUs, regardless of their age you can make a lot more money just selling them on eBay than you can with a Loot Box. Maybe the majority of the boxes sold, if any, were just filled with garbage. With the proliferation of scam products on Amazon these days, it would not surprise us. There’s also the issue that there are only two reviews for the boxes, and neither of them seem very trustworthy. For example, the first one reads, “I haven’t bought it, but it looks very fun.” Now, call us cynical, but that does not sound like a legit review. The only other review meekly reports, “It’s a product that has been used in many ways.” Well then, sign us up!

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