Just a few days ago, we covered back-to-back GPU cases from Reddit, one positive and one negative, breaking the pessimistic cycle often associated with these stories. Today, we return to scheduled programming with yet another scam-swap incident: a customer failed to receive what they ordered. Specifically, a Redditor received a bunch of rocks and a towel in lieu of an MSI Suprim RTX 5090, one of the best graphics cards, which is worth at least $3,000 as per our GPU 2026 price tracker.
The victim wrote in r/pcmasterrace, detailing how they'd ordered an RTX 5090 from Amazon Resale, which means the GPU was repackaged and sold, but got sediment instead. Technically, you could use this to make silicon that eventually becomes a GPU die, but unless you're a multi-billion-dollar vertically integrated production line, you're stuck with just rocks.
Unlike most other stories where the card is brought brand-new from Amazon, the open-box nature of this unit complicates things. The post says the box's seal was barely intact, and we can see an LPN label, which means it was a previous return. So, this is a classic switcheroo: someone bought and actually received the real thing, swapped it for rocks to match the weight, and returned it to Amazon, which didn't bother checking what was inside.
Bought an MSI 5090 from Amazon Resale and got a box of rocks. from r/pcmasterrace
The returned item was added to the resale inventory, and u/Dazzling_Course8755 was the unfortunate soul who bought it. What's interesting is that this seems to be the fourth time this has happened to OP, according to their own caption, which really raises questions about the motives here. It's strange that someone who's been wronged three times already would try their luck yet again.
Anyhow, our victim recorded the whole unboxing on their phone after missing a chance to unbox it in front of the driver. As long as the case is legit, this should be a pretty easy return and refund with Amazon. Funny enough, a very similar story unfolded last month when someone received a large brick instead of the RTX 5080 they ordered, which later led to an investigation.
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