They get them the same way Alienware or Best Buy does, rather than buying them at retail
Delivery contracts make them first in line.
Why don't scalpers or miners sign up for the same contracts?
Presumably they (scalpers and miners) are not buying in large enough bulk orders, far enough in advance.
I saw a picture on Reddit of a wall stacked high with 3060’s. In the comments, the poster mentioned he placed a bulk order, the downside was it took a while.
Right - if they're reselling easily for massively over manufacturer price why isn't everyone placing these orders?
It probably took a while for the person on Reddit to get their order because they got it from a distributor who was filling all of their higher priority customers first. I bet Dell isn't even getting theirs from a distributor, I'd guess they get them directly from the manufacturer. There's a hierarchy to retail sales, and I'm sure even large miners aren't near the top of it.
Yup. I imagine it's similar to the inventory shortfalls ledger experienced a few years ago during the cryptocurrency price runup. I made a nice chunk of change placing bulk orders from Ledger, waiting a month for them to ship, and forwarding them to Amazon to resell.
For the same reason anything that's profitable remains profitable for a while: It's risky to enter and there is a barrier to entry.