Time to sell?
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 11:51 pm
So I finally came to the decision to sell off my two mining rigs. FirePit was 12 X 3060 Tis, and RedWood was 10 X Radeon 6800 XT.
The reason I chose to sell now was for a couple of reasons….
First and foremost, here in NH, our electric providers just got permission to double the generation cost for electricity, so our effective rate is about to jump to around $0.30/Kwh for the next 6 months (at least). With the price of natural gas going up, legislation targeting miners, and the pressure being put on the grid all over, I expect these price increases will start to spread (perhaps not as bad, but I expect they are coming).
Then when you consider the current crypto winter, it will be cheaper for me to just buy coins than mine them. That is the most important factor any miner needs to consider for profitability and if it is still worth it. I know some people talk about “don’t look at the value now, but what it might be worth in x years” – but if I buy the coin now I still see that same benefit if the coin goes up.
While the price hike is only supposed to last 6 months, in that time Ethereum most likely will go proof of stake, and so far no good contender for a replacement has shown up. So even when (if) it comes back down, not sure what would be worthwhile mining at that point.
The next thing that came to my mind was the value of selling the equipment. Once Ethereum goes proof of stake, I expect the market will get flooded with old GPUs, and the bottom will fall out of the market. It has already dropped quite significantly. I keep seeing videos where people are saying “you can sell it again later for 50% of MSRP” – I can tell you that even right now that is a challenge for a used mining card. When the market floods, don’t expect to get close to that. Also this assumes you got your cards at, or close to, the MSRP.
Also Nvidia and AMD both announced the next generation of their cards. While I have 3060 Ti’s, I expect when the 4000 generation starts hitting the market, the 3000’s will drop from that as well. Making it even harder to get close to that 50% mark.
So I figured with all these factors, I might as well sell them off. And here is where I ran into my next surprise – Ebay will limit how many cards you can sell per week. For the 6800’s I was only able to list 3 per week. With the 3060’s they only let me list 2 at a time, and had to wait 7 days after the last sale before I could list another 2! So you may find that selling them is not as easy as you had hoped.
NOTE – if you have a well established EBay history, and good reviews, you can call the support group and ask them to increase your limit. I was able to get my limit increased, but a friend was not the first time, but tried calling again the next day and that person did it for him. This can help, but I still wouldn’t recommend flooding yourself in the market. Keep the number on sale at one time to a reasonable level.
Finally, remember Ebay (or any marketplace) likes to make money as well. Even if you manage to sell your card for 50% of MSRP, EBay then takes 13% of your sale in fees. So a 3060 TI sells right now for about $500 (MSRP is actually $400), but if you can get 50% of that you are looking at a sale around $250ish, then Ebay is going to take 13% ($32.50), so you are only going to get $217.50 – or 43.5% of current prices. Average price for a 3060 TI over the last year has been closer to $600 to $700, so only getting $220 back is really going to hurt – and I honestly think in time that is just going to get worse and worse.
Anyways – not sure about all your situations, I know many people are just doing it on the side on their gaming rigs, etc. but some of you may have larger rigs and want to start thinking about these things. I happened to look at the ProHashing chart on the number of miners, and looks like they have dropped about 10% month-over-month, so some people are dropping out already (and probably trying to sell off equipment where possible).
Keep safe!
The reason I chose to sell now was for a couple of reasons….
First and foremost, here in NH, our electric providers just got permission to double the generation cost for electricity, so our effective rate is about to jump to around $0.30/Kwh for the next 6 months (at least). With the price of natural gas going up, legislation targeting miners, and the pressure being put on the grid all over, I expect these price increases will start to spread (perhaps not as bad, but I expect they are coming).
Then when you consider the current crypto winter, it will be cheaper for me to just buy coins than mine them. That is the most important factor any miner needs to consider for profitability and if it is still worth it. I know some people talk about “don’t look at the value now, but what it might be worth in x years” – but if I buy the coin now I still see that same benefit if the coin goes up.
While the price hike is only supposed to last 6 months, in that time Ethereum most likely will go proof of stake, and so far no good contender for a replacement has shown up. So even when (if) it comes back down, not sure what would be worthwhile mining at that point.
The next thing that came to my mind was the value of selling the equipment. Once Ethereum goes proof of stake, I expect the market will get flooded with old GPUs, and the bottom will fall out of the market. It has already dropped quite significantly. I keep seeing videos where people are saying “you can sell it again later for 50% of MSRP” – I can tell you that even right now that is a challenge for a used mining card. When the market floods, don’t expect to get close to that. Also this assumes you got your cards at, or close to, the MSRP.
Also Nvidia and AMD both announced the next generation of their cards. While I have 3060 Ti’s, I expect when the 4000 generation starts hitting the market, the 3000’s will drop from that as well. Making it even harder to get close to that 50% mark.
So I figured with all these factors, I might as well sell them off. And here is where I ran into my next surprise – Ebay will limit how many cards you can sell per week. For the 6800’s I was only able to list 3 per week. With the 3060’s they only let me list 2 at a time, and had to wait 7 days after the last sale before I could list another 2! So you may find that selling them is not as easy as you had hoped.
NOTE – if you have a well established EBay history, and good reviews, you can call the support group and ask them to increase your limit. I was able to get my limit increased, but a friend was not the first time, but tried calling again the next day and that person did it for him. This can help, but I still wouldn’t recommend flooding yourself in the market. Keep the number on sale at one time to a reasonable level.
Finally, remember Ebay (or any marketplace) likes to make money as well. Even if you manage to sell your card for 50% of MSRP, EBay then takes 13% of your sale in fees. So a 3060 TI sells right now for about $500 (MSRP is actually $400), but if you can get 50% of that you are looking at a sale around $250ish, then Ebay is going to take 13% ($32.50), so you are only going to get $217.50 – or 43.5% of current prices. Average price for a 3060 TI over the last year has been closer to $600 to $700, so only getting $220 back is really going to hurt – and I honestly think in time that is just going to get worse and worse.
Anyways – not sure about all your situations, I know many people are just doing it on the side on their gaming rigs, etc. but some of you may have larger rigs and want to start thinking about these things. I happened to look at the ProHashing chart on the number of miners, and looks like they have dropped about 10% month-over-month, so some people are dropping out already (and probably trying to sell off equipment where possible).
Keep safe!
