Published: April 19, 2021, 8:14 a.m.
b'As the global chip shortage continues to affect product availability, finding certain technology products is getting more difficult. Whether you are looking for a new Radeon RX 6900 XT videocard or an Xbox Series X, you\'re up against limited inventory, high consumer demand, and scalpers. All of these conditions are adding to the overall challenge of acquiring one of these products. Obviously, if it is possible to skip one of these items in the near term, that is going to be your best choice. However, there are some processes and solutions if you need one of these items.
One company that is trying to provide a solution to the problem is Newegg. Their Product Shuffle feature creates a lottery system when a new shipment of inventory has been received. So, if you are looking for that NVIDIA RTX 3090 and Newegg receives a shipment, you can sign up to be considered for purchase. Once the time window closes, the company randomly draws the number of names for which they have inventory and send an email. You then have a limited amount of time to make your purchase before the inventory is unlocked once again. It\'s not ideal, but it does mean that you\'re not fighting the mob.
Another option is to sign up for an inventory alert system like HotStock. On these platforms, you can log your interest in a particular product, for example a PlayStation 5. You can also enter a maximum price you are willing to pay (which you should absolutely do), to limit the results. Then, when the system encounters the product available on one of its partner sites for a price within your range, you can get an email or a push notification (if you download the mobile app). One of the limitations of these systems, however, is that you cannot enter a product category. So, for videcards, you\'ll need to enter alerts for every manufacturer of a model, as opposed to just saying you want a Radeon RX 6800.
No matter how you solve the inventory issues for yourself, we wish you luck in finding the items you need.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Avram\'s been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom\'s Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom\'s Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he\'s not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you\'ll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
'
