We all know GPU prices are absolutely insane right now, IF you can even find them in stock. But I just managed to get this 5070 Ti card at the MSRP of $750 (and declined a chance to buy a 9070 XT at MSRP) with only a few minutes of my time spent, without having to stand outside in line somewhere, or try to snipe a deal within seconds before it sells out. Let me show you how I did it.
Step 1: Find an MSRP Card
So this method should actually work for any of the NVIDIA 5000 series or AMD 9000 series cards, as long as some are being offered at MSRP at B&H. That’s right, the best place to do this is at bhphotovideo.com, but before you click off to try it, be sure to watch through to the end for a tip that could help you get past a blocker in the ordering process.
For NVIDIA, the RTX 5070 has the most stock at the $550 MSRP, with 4 different cards from ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and PNY. That’s $150 less than paying at least $700 for one of these elsewhere in the market.
The 5070 Ti has only 2 cards offered at the base $750, ASUS and PNY. That’s a $220 savings from the cheapest 5070 Ti you can find elsewhere.
Move up to 5080 and there unfortunately aren’t any at the $1000 MSRP, but there is one offering at $1100 from PNY. This is still $390 better than paying nearly $1500 for one somewhere else.
And if you really want a 5090, you can find one offered at $2300, again from PNY, which is $300 over MSRP, but still a whopping $1,600 less than the $3900 being charged elsewhere.
For AMD Cards, there’s currently 1 RX 9070 being offered at the launch MSRP of $550 from Gigabyte, which is $280 less than trying to buy it from somewhere else. The well-reviewed 9070 XT also has 1 offering at $600 from Gigabyte, which is a $340 savings from the nearly $1000 price point you can find elsewhere. So there’s a chance you’ll be able to get one at the price that actually makes the 9070 XT such a great value.
Step 2: Join the Waitlist and Wait
So once you’ve found the card or cards you want, the next step is to click the “Notify When Available” button to join the waiting list. Enter your email address and you’re all set!
Now you just need to wait. Eventually, you’ll receive an email called Product update from bhphotovideo.com with the offer to buy the card.
For me, I joined the waitlist for the PNY 5070 Ti on March 16, and I got the offer-to-purchase email just 1 day later on March 17! I also joined the waitlist for a 9070 XT on March 7, and I got the in-stock email 5 days later on March 12. You’re results may vary, so if there are multiple brands of cards offered and you aren’t particular about which one, I’d recommend signing up for all of them.
Step 3: Buy Within 24 Hours Notice
In the offer email, you’ll have 24 hours to complete the purchase, or the chance will go to the next person in line. Now here’s where you might run into a problem. When I clicked the “Add to Cart” button in the email, it ended up bringing me to an error page that said “The page you requested has expired”, and there’s nothing I could do from here. If you get the same thing, don’t panic!
Here’s what you need to do. First copy the URL, which is the unique link the offer sent you to. Then open up an incognito or private browsing window, and paste the URL in. Now, when you go there, the B&H website should load and ask you to login. Once you do, the item should be added to your cart and ready to check out.
I think the B&H website has a bug where if you’re already signed in, it could say the link is expired. So opening up the incognito or private browsing window will get around it.
Step 4: Use the B&H Credit Card for True MSRP
The final step is optional, but if you have the B&H credit card, you won’t need to pay sales taxes on your purchase, which is why this method works the best at B&H, even if another store also similarly offers an MSRP card with a waitlist system. Therefore, $749.99 is the final out-of-pocket cost for this 5070 Ti shipped to me.
If you live in a state with high sales taxes of 10% or more, that could be a very substantial savings. If you do want to take advantage of this, be sure to have the credit card already in hand well before the offer-to-buy email gets to you or you might miss the 24 hour window.
Now, I’m not sponsored by B&H at all; this is just a process I found to work well, and I do appreciate them offering a way to get these GPUs at MSRP with minimal effort, as well as being able to save hundreds or thousands of dollars on sales taxes.
