Newegg offers up a GTX 1080 Ti for $1.63, if you ignore the $400 shipping — strange GPU 'bargain' sparks many questions

Bargain shoppers on Newegg may be excited to find the deal of a lifetime, a GTX 1080 Ti going for only $1.63 . Unfortunately, the refurbished 1080 Ti will come with a hefty $400 shipping cost, making it barely competitive with other refurbished 1080 Ti's on Newegg. At least the card itself can be split into four easy payments of $0.41.

Update (June 10, 14:22 ET): A Newegg Spokesperson responded to our request for comment by saying that the listing in question violates their policies and will be taken down. It took a few hours but the card is now gone.

Ozi from OzTalksHW was the first to spot the "bargain," posting it on Twitter this morning. The listing doesn't give any details on the card itself, beyond that it is a 1080 Ti with 11GB of VRAM. The photos show an MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio , a 2.5 slot card with 5 output ports, three fans, and an original MSRP of $799 when it was released 7 years ago — remember when $800 got you the highest end of consumer graphics cards ?

Looking deeper into the reseller, Creator Store, offers some context. The graphics card is promised to be "80% new - 90% new," while also being described as "well used," with a promise of complete 100% testing before shipping. Going from the product page to the seller's own Newegg store is even more illustrative. Creator is a Shanghai-based "young fashion" brand that sells a smattering of PC components. Creator carries a 3.7 buyer score, a not-terrible / not-great score which at least indicates it is not 100% a scam seller.

Other products listed on its Newegg store with a $400 shipping cost include an awfully cute gaming PC, a Vive Pro VR headset, and some PCIe expansion cards. No other product listed follows the 1080 Ti's $1 item plus $400 shipping scheme, but prices still seem inputted at random; a 2TB Samsung SSD is sold for only $80 listed next to a $500 Transformers action figure. But the 1080 Ti notably is not listed or searchable on the Creator Store; the cheapest items Creator lists on its Newegg store are laptop fans and photovoltaic fuses, hiding the $1.63 card from view.

Those hoping for cheaper shipping via local pickup would be out of luck. The $1.63 1080 Ti can only be found for shipping to the United States, sad news for bargain-minded UK readers. Creator Store does offer free 30-day returns, but its return policy seems to be overly complex, with a few easy ways to avoid having to process the return. And if you did happen to buy such an item and then asked for a refund, what would happen to the $400 in shipping?

We've reached out to Newegg for comment on this and other similar low-cost, high-shipping sales. We'll update the story when we hear back. If you're looking for good graphics card deals, we'd advise avoiding too-good-to-be-true offers from Newegg resellers and sticking to reputable sources; our list of the best GPU deals today is a great starting point.