The year 2021, which has passed, has been called the "darkest year" by players in the main console DIY circle.
The soaring virtual currency that has continued since the end of 2020 has brought mining profits to an unprecedented height, and almost all graphics cards on the market have joined the carnival.
With the coaxing of virtual currency "miners" and the speculation of middlemen, the value of the body has soared, turning into "the best wealth management product in 2021".
The high premium of graphics cards has deterred countless players. Graphics cards, which were originally an ordinary member of many host accessories, have now become the biggest shortcoming that restricts the performance of the host.
This issue of Micro tells the story of a small group of graphics card enthusiasts who have chosen various unique ways to spend their days without a graphics card while the DIY circle is cold:
Faced with the double whammy of the tepid market and the epidemic, some people struggle to maintain their business in the cold winter;
Faced with the huge opportunities brought by mining, some people seized the opportunity and became a miner;
In the face of all kinds of chaos in the market, some people began to fight with scalpers and "mine bosses".
Here are the true stories about them:
Text | Teeth
Edit | Always new
My interview with Wang Yong was conducted via video, and the background of his call was a cluttered studio.
In that room, piled high with wires, boxes, and various computer accessories, several unfinished mainframe chassis stood out on the workbench.
"I have been interested in DIY since I was a child," said Wang Yong, 29, excitedly, who could not find a good job after graduating from college, and one of his interests at that time was to help people write installation configuration lists on the forum, "At that time, I thought that there were so many people playing DIY in China, if I did this business myself, I could make money by interest." ”
Figure | Wang Yong's DIY studio is full of chassis and accessories
Therefore, not long after graduation, Wang Yong relied on hundreds of thousands of yuan given by his family to establish an online installation studio.
But now, affected by the mining boom in 2021, Wang Yong's business is visibly cold.
"This year's graphics cards are either out of stock or outrageously expensive, and the same grade of machines cost thousands of dollars more than in previous years, except for just need customers, basically no one will buy for the premium."
Wang Yong analyzed that for most consumers, graphics cards are still relatively unfamiliar concepts, if you just want to assemble a suitable machine, in this year's environment, "everyone will be more inclined to choose brand machines, laptops and game consoles and other products with relatively small premiums." ”
But for professional gamers, or other customers with job needs, the market disrupted by miners and middlemen has ushered in a lot of trouble.
The performance of the graphics card directly affects the image quality and smoothness of the game when running. In terms of productivity, graphics cards are the biggest shortcomings that determine the most productive work efficiency such as video editing and deep learning. "If you need to configure a favorite machine, the graphics card and CPU are the two most critical parts."
However, the premium for graphics cards is so high that most people are prohibitive. At the end of 2020, Nvidia released the RTX30 series graphics card, of which the list price of the entry-level RTX3060 graphics card was 2499 yuan, and at the beginning of the year, the price searched by Jingdong was as high as 5499 yuan.
"Even taking into account the difference between non-public graphics cards and the official list price, their premium is close to 200%."
The vast majority of players who come to DIY hosts on their own are willing to "toss", and this kind of consumption driven by hobbies and interests is difficult to predict once it encounters large fluctuations.
Graphics card prices soared, dissuading a large number of customers, and the sudden epidemic at the end of the year made it difficult for Wang Yong's studio in Xi'an to ship normally, speaking of this, Wang Yong bluntly said, "If you can't earn money in 2022, you can only change careers." ”
Throughout 2021, Wang Yong's online store revenue fell by 30% compared with last year, but when he did the statistics afterwards, he found that the profit was much less than 30%.
"I have also communicated with my peers, everyone's order volume has been affected, but some merchants have taken some measures to ensure profits as much as possible", Wang Yong said, diy's biggest feature is to be relatively free, by recommending some higher profits but not cost-effective products, such as pirate ships, Zhiqi memory sticks, and then with some higher pricing custom chassis, improve profit margins.
Although these methods will not have a greater impact on the host and can earn hundreds of dollars more, Wang Yong rarely uses them.
"I will try to choose a combination with a high cost performance, except that customers with a higher budget can earn some differences, I basically only charge some hard money." He said that he himself came from Xiaobai, in addition to the manual fee, he should try to do what he got for every penny.
Wang Yong said that the current domestic DIY host players are about a million levels, "it seems to be a lot, but compared with the huge commercial computer market, the DIY circle can only be regarded as an accessory." ”
The low ability to resist risks is one of the sadness of the small circle.
"In fact, the appreciation of virtual currency is also a manifestation of the sluggish environment, but the graphics card market reflects it more obviously, although it is a circle, but what is the possibility of isolating the world and being alone?"
Because the graphics card can be used to mine in exchange for virtual currency, the graphics card is robbed, and the mining profit is more than enough to pay for the premium graphics card, which creates a vicious circle of fewer and fewer graphics cards and more and more expensive graphics cards.
Throughout 2021, the number of graphics cards that reached Wang Yong's hands was not only small, but the wholesale price was also much higher than the list price. "For dealers, channel providers, and even foundries and NVIDIA, miners are willing to pay money, there is no need for after-sales, and it is easy to earn their money, then everyone will vote with their feet."
As Wang Yong said, after the state cracked down on the mining industry in mid-2021, the number of graphics cards distributed by brands in the Chinese market has also dropped significantly.
Regarding the impact of mining on the graphics card industry, miner (a person engaged in virtual currency mining) Ah Hui has a more intuitive feeling.
Mining, in essence, is to use the computing power of the hardware to carry out a lot of repetitive work to crack the password of the block and get a certain virtual currency reward.
Ah Hui said that today's mining industry is very mature, basically eliminating the entry threshold. "In fact, mining is not as tall as imagined, as long as the hardware is prepared, powered on, all problems have automated software to help you solve, and then you can wait for the benefits."
As early as 2016, there was a case of Bitcoin soaring to trigger a graphics card shortage premium, and the continuous surge of Bitcoin in early 2021 made Ah Hui notice the arrival of the next round of mining and began his mining career.
"I started digging in February 2021, and I used the spare money in my hand to enter 15 cards, basically 3070, 3060ti and the like, including other hardware, rent and the like, and the upfront investment was about 180,000." I dug for three months to get my money back, and after that, I could basically make at least 10,000 yuan every month. ”
Ah Hui told us that as long as the timing is right, mining rarely loses money, basically achieving "lying down to make money".
"The income from mining mainly depends on the price of the currency at that time, and after the initial input, the output of mining is the trade-off between the electricity bill and the price of the coin."
Just after Ah Hui began mining, his mining pool "Ethereum (ETH)" continued to grow, which attracted more and more people to participate in mining, and it was at this time that the price of graphics cards began to soar.
Thinking of this, Ah Hui is somewhat fortunate that if he enters the game a few months late, then not only will the investment in buying graphics card hardware in the early stage increase, but also closer to the low-lying place of the August coin price, and the risk will be greater.
"Mining is actually very similar to stock speculation, basically relying on metaphysics, once at the wrong time, then the return cycle will be unimaginable." This process is a test of mind, especially for miners with large-scale mines. ”
Miners of Ah Hui's level are only junior members in the mining circle.
"I only have a dozen cards here, and the big guys with tens of thousands of cards have their own factories and power supply channels in the mountains, which is comparable to a small factory."
"Among these powerful big men, there have even been trades in second-hand hydropower stations."
A large mine often has hundreds of mining machines and thousands of graphics cards. The huge profits of mining have made mine owners' demand for graphics cards increasing day by day, and some channel-based mine owners will even drive trucks directly to the doors of graphics card factories in Guangdong and other places to pull goods, blocking the possibility of graphics cards entering the market from the source.
Figure | Interior view of a large mine, shelves are cabinets with graphics cards
These mine owners, who are called "mine bosses" by players, swallow most of the graphics cards in the market, and the constant hype that comes with the shortage of graphics cards has brought the graphics card premium to a high level.
Xiaokong is an active player in the DIY circle, as a senior bar friend of Tieba "Tuladin Bar", with the idea of resisting price gouging and restoring market order, he participated in the boycott activities spontaneously organized by players.
With the joint efforts of countless bartenders and players, a large number of "Syrian-made" graphics cards appeared on Idle Fish.
Xiaokong said, "If we hang a large number of original price cards on idle fish, according to the platform algorithm, the high-priced cards of those middlemen will be squeezed underneath, so that the high-priced cards of middlemen will not get enough exposure and it is difficult to complete the transaction." ”
Of course, these spontaneous boycott players do not have graphics cards in their hands, which has led to players producing a large amount of invalid transaction information while carrying out boycott activities, which has a negative impact on consumers who really want to buy graphics cards.
"Many middlemen's capital chains are very fragile, and they use borrowed funds to collect cards at high prices and sell them at higher prices to earn the difference." But if we find a way to make him unable to sell, then the speed of return of merchants' funds will become slower, and once the capital chain is broken, they will not be able to continue to do this speculative business. ”
Not only that, in Jingdong, the largest trading platform for computer accessories, many players are also using platform rules to shoot a large number of high-priced graphics cards and do not pay within 48 hours, using invalid orders to occupy merchant inventory, so that some stores are out of stock and cannot operate.
"No one wants the normal things to be so high, although these tricks have little effect, but everyone does not want the middlemen to make thousands of differences, let alone take over the mining card."
Although the fact is not so beautiful, but under the efforts of players, the premium of the graphics card has not declined, but a series of stories of wits brought by the graphics card have successfully come out of the circle and come to the public.
"DiY is a hobby, we can't compete with the miners who make money from it, but in the days without cards, fighting with people is also a lot of fun." 」
Non-rigid players like Xiaokong became the "wait party" in the circle, and like most players, transferred their energy to other hobbies.
"Most people in the circle are like this, and although sometimes indignant about this capital game, the circle is not the whole of amateur life. Without a computer to play, we would play with something else. “
Xiaokong could not play the game without a graphics card and began to change his lifestyle.
He bought photographic equipment with the money to install the computer, met his current girlfriend while shooting on the street, and because he did not have a graphics card, he took off the order.
As a wave watcher on the shore of the mine tide, I think he will be thankful for this time without a graphics card.
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