As PC elements like RAM proceed to be wolfed up by AI hyperscalers, resulting in greater costs and restricted provides, a big electronics retailer in Japan is operating out of computer systems and components and is asking its clients to please promote them some outdated PCs.
It has turn into dearer to construct or improve a PC over the previous few months. An enormous cause for that’s AI-focused tech firms gobbling up PC components to construct huge knowledge facilities. It’s changing into fairly expensive and difficult to your common particular person to purchase PC RAM and graphics playing cards, as companies like Micron stop selling to consumers and focus an increasing number of on large firms that purchase in bulk. Prebuilt PCs from firms like HP, Dell, and Asus will seemingly see a value enhance of 15 to twenty p.c as properly, according to PC World. All of this, plus tariffs inflicting different issues, has led to fewer PC components and computer systems on cabinets in some shops, forcing one store to beg folks to promote them some {hardware}.
ゲーミングPC、中古も本当に在庫なくて今これ
あの、お願いなので買い替えたらぜひ弊社にゲーミングPCを売ってください…
結構高く買い取っていますので…
ゲーミングのデスクでもノートでも、もちろんゲーミングじゃない普通のでもPCなら大体買い取っているので… pic.twitter.com/IinBuGgRV7— ソフマップゲーミング (@sofmap_gaming) January 7, 2026
On January 7, as noticed by PC-Watch and Tom’s Hardware, Sofmap Gaming, a big electronics store within the Akihabara district of Tokyo, posted a somewhat desperate-sounding plea. Right here’s the tweet textual content through machine translation:
“Um, as a favor, should you purchase a brand new PC, please promote your gaming PC to our firm. We purchase them again at fairly excessive costs. Whether or not it’s a gaming desk or a laptop computer, or perhaps a common non-gaming one, we just about purchase any PC.”
Hooked up to the tweet was a photograph of what seems to be a largely empty shelf inside Sofmap Gaming with just a few PCs and screens left. “Gaming PCs, even used ones, are actually out of inventory proper now. That is it,” claimed Sofmap Gaming. The account can be replying to just about each person who responds with questions on what they’ll promote and the way a lot it is likely to be value.
With some specialists saying the continued demand for reminiscence and different PC elements, like GPUs, will likely be an issue for 2026 and even 2027, it is likely to be an excellent time to begin wanting round your own home to see what random bits of {hardware} you’ve gotten mendacity round someplace gathering mud. If the components aren’t too outdated, they is likely to be value a fairly penny quickly.
