Best Buy's latest batch of GPUs were behind a $200 paywall and you're right to be mad

pcgamer.com:

Best Buy has landed itself in hot water by placing in-stock graphics cards behind a paywall. This has peeved a good few gamers, not only because the Totaltech membership program costs a whopping $200 per year, but also because Best Buy is the quasi-official retailer of Nvidia's RTX 30-series Founders Edition graphics cards in the US.

Best Buy took over selling Founders Edition cards on Nvidia's behalf following the green team's decision to put a pause on its own store until it could deal with the increase in bot activity. Best Buy would also later halt most of its online sales of RTX 30-series cards in favour of a ticket-based system at its brick and mortar stores.

Though yesterday it released more graphics cards on its online store, with one major stipulation: you needed to be a Totaltech member in order to buy any.

A Totaltech membership includes:

I don't really see the appeal of most of it, but perhaps you're an avid techie and you like the cover. I won't blame you for that. You can read the full Totaltech terms and conditions here [PDF warning].

Though the real kicker is the access to exclusive Totaltech member prices, which as some PC gamers have since discovered, includes Best Buy's hoard of RTX 30-series graphics cards, many of which you can't buy elsewhere.

The Totaltech package does not guarantee the purchase of a new graphics card, however. It's valid for a chance to buy a graphics card.

Well, that was a waste of time, not paying 200 bucks a year to buy ONE card… bullshitFebruary 10, 2022

This isn't an entirely new approach to exclusive stock drops or in-demand tech—bundles and lotteries have become the norm for PC gamers today. As Tom's Hardware points out, it's not an entirely new strategy for Best Buy,