The recent case of a returned NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 should not only interest tech-savvy eBay users, but also point to the increasing professionalization in the field of hardware recycling – at least in its less legal form. What at first glance looks like a banal “no picture – return” case turns out, on closer inspection, to be a surgically precise raid on a piece of high-end silicon. Welcome to the year 2025, where even GPU theft at board level is becoming the new normal.
The backstory: It’s all legal – almost too legal
A Reddit user who goes by the name “piscian19” decided to put his RTX 4090 in good hands – the kind of “good hands” that shine on eBay with over 30,000 positive reviews. A buyer from California – presumably a company – struck, paid the market price without haggling and on paper seemed more reputable than many a system house partner in the B2B sector. But the seller was still suspicious. And rightly so. So the card was photographed before dispatch – from the front, from the back, with serial number, without serial number, open, closed, probably with romantic backlighting. In addition, there was insurance from the shipping service provider, true to the motto: trust is good, complete documentation is better.
Reason for return: “No picture” – what else?
Once sold, it took less than 24 hours for the return to arrive on the digital table. The reason: “No video output” – a classic among the flimsy excuses. The GPU came back, but in a condition that could at best be described as “reworked”. The slot bracket was bent, there were screw marks on the cooler and scratches on the shroud – the kind of signs of use that usually only mining farms or bad-tempered apprentices leave behind. But the real surprise came when I opened it: No GPU, no VRAM – just the bare PCB, as if someone had sent the card to a fine-dust lab to wring every last ounce of usefulness out of it. The GPU had simply been surgically removed, along with the memory chips. No gross traces of violence, no burn marks – it wasn’t a botched job, it was craftsmanship. Probably even with a preheating plate, rework station and antistatic mat. Reverse engineering, so to speak, with very clear intentions.
The destination? Somewhere between Shenzhen and Shenzhen
What happens to the captured goods is anyone’s guess. Unsurprisingly, the Reddit community suspects that the valuable components will be repatriated to Asia. Presumably for further use in AI-optimized OEM cards of dubious origin and with questionable BIOS mods. It is also possible that the chip will reappear in an RTX 4090 with a suspiciously high VRAM configuration – not on the European market, of course, but somewhere out there where customs authorities prefer to look the other way. The suspicion is that this is a case of structural fraud. Either the eBay account has been compromised – or it is simply an organized scam with access to accounts with high credibility. In any case, with 30,000 ratings, you are less likely to attract attention, even if you secretly solder out the chip with a heat gun.
Anyone who sells now has to act like an insurance investigator
The incident is symptomatic of the state of the secondary GPU market: return fraud with surgical precision, coupled with logistical sophistication. Insurance or not – the real damage lies in the loss of trust, because what is a returned RTX 4090 today could be a 4080 Super or a Radeon 7900 XTX tomorrow. Anyone who still believes that photos and shipping insurance are enough today will not be able to avoid video recordings with complete serial number tracking and preventive legal advice tomorrow. Because when such high-priced components end up in free circulation and the return mutates into cannibalization, this is no longer an exception – but a business model.
Source: piscian19 via X
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