>Persistent shortages drove the real-world price up (no one was selling them for MSRP)
I see a lot of people say this, but I never saw this happen in the UK.
All of the official sellers sell it at MSRP.
I see a lot of people say this, but I never saw this happen in the UK.
All of the official sellers sell it at MSRP.
> I see a lot of people say this, but I never saw this happen in the UK.
Also UK. There was definitely a time (late 2021, early 2022) lasting some months when most RPi products were only easily available from resellers (I'm using that word charitably) at vastly marked up prices (at least as a home user just wanting a single unit or small number of units, it may have been different as a bigger buyer).
I have a Pi400 where a Pi4 (or 3 or older) would do just as well, because at the time I needed it for some reason the Pi400 hadn't yet been affected by the shortages (and resulting scalping) and was far cheaper to buy new (even with the full starter kit which included PSU & mouse) than any Pi4 despite nominally being more expensive. I think the 400 was even on offer below RRP at the time. The Pi400 became hard to find at RRP soon after I bought mine, I have a friend who was looking a short time later.
The shortage may have lasted longer than I'm remembering, as I only paid particular attention for a bit longer than the time of my own & my friend's needs.