Scalper bots now outnumber shoppers 10 to 1 on DDR5 listings
DataDome researchers have uncovered a disturbing trend on major PC retailers: automated scalper bots now outnumber human shoppers 10 to 1 on DDR5 memory pages, aggressively scraping listings every 6.5 seconds.
This bot-driven frenzy has caused prices for 32GB kits to skyrocket from around $72 to as high as $392 in some cases. The surge is driven by resellers bundling DDR5 with CPUs, forcing them to move inventory quickly while bypassing standard one-per-household purchase limits.
While Newegg and Amazon have attempted to mitigate the issue through bundle pricing strategies, eBay listings reveal even more extreme markups. For instance, a G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 32GB kit listed at $836.54 in December was roughly double its standard retail price of $429.99.
The situation highlights the severe impact of AI-induced shortages on the consumer hardware market, effectively reversing two decades of price stability and pushing costs back toward inflationary levels seen in the mid-2000s.
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