An eBay reseller known as Baily Ecom received a ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 5090 returned in a stripped state, with both the GPU package and GDDR7 memory chips removed from the board. The seller, who had sold the card for around $4,000, says it had been tested and working before shipment.
The problem was only discovered after the cooler was removed and the PCB was inspected. According to the seller, the return looked normal from the outside, but the damage became clear only after disassembly, where the board was found missing the main processor and all memory modules.
Pulling a high-end GPU package and several GDDR7 chips off a board takes proper equipment, time, and some soldering skill. This suggests the work was deliberate rather than accidental damage. Once those parts are gone, the PCB, cooler, and shroud account for only a small share of the card's value, so the seller is left with most of the loss.
Scammers earn by reselling the GPU core and memory modules or retrofitting another graphics card with the stolen components. This practice is reportedly being done in China, where RTX 5090 dies and GDDR7 memory modules are being transplanted onto compact blower-style graphics cards for AI server purposes.
This is not an isolated incident. This type of scam was common with RTX 4090, and it seems to have now spread to the RTX 5090 series. The escalation tracks directly with surging demand for high-performance chips driven by artificial intelligence applications.
The fundamental issue lies in how eBay's return protections operate. Such scams have grown popular lately, leaving sellers with extensive losses and little to no recourse, as proving the tampering is practically impossible. eBay policy trumps a seller's terms of sale when the Money Back Guarantee is invoked. This creates a structural asymmetry: buyers can initiate returns citing defects, and eBay protects the buyer's interests first and foremost. This is the liability all sellers face on this platform.
The challenge is that sophisticated component theft looks indistinguishable from legitimate damage claims to automated systems. The screws may be deliberately stripped, possibly by scammers to make it harder to disassemble. A major issue with fake RTX 5090s is that the memory is only on one side of the PCB, so removing the backplate reveals nothing. Scammers may also target models with full-cover shrouds that make it harder to see internal components.
eBay has long struggled with high-value electronics fraud. The platform's dispute resolution process, while theoretically favouring transparency, in practice requires sellers to prove a negative—demonstrating that components were deliberately removed rather than damaged or defective—with limited access to forensic evidence.
Whilst desoldering GDDR7 chips doesn't demand much in terms of skill and tools, removing the GPU requires specialised equipment, at least if you care about keeping it in good working condition. Yet this technical sophistication is exactly what makes the scam difficult for platform moderators to identify and prevent.
For individuals and smaller resellers, the financial stakes are substantial. With the missing parts representing about 80% of the value of the card, the seller is now left with an expensive paperweight. Large retailers with fraud detection teams and insurance may absorb such losses more easily, but independent sellers often cannot.
The economic drivers for this scam remain robust. These chips are valuable in China due to US restrictions, especially since PCB and cooling parts are readily available there, often ending up as blower-style AI accelerators due to the higher return on investment. Until semiconductor supply improves or demand cools, sellers on eBay face a genuine risk when transacting in premium graphics cards.
The situation tests the underlying philosophy of online marketplaces: protecting buyers from fraud and defects is important, but when that protection becomes so broad that sellers lose recourse to prove deliberate theft, the incentives shift dangerously. A seller who cannot reliably recover from a scam may simply exit the market, reducing legitimate supply and raising prices for consumers.