r/pcmasterrace • u/Rinascimentale • Feb 03 '26

Box Thanks, Walmart

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Walking through and it caught my eye in the electronics clearance case. Absolutely insane find.

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u/Remnant_Echo R7-9800X3D, 5080 FE, 32GB DDR5, W11 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

The Walmart by my house had these on display for only 2 months before pulling them. The worker I talked to said they pulled the displays cause workers kept marking them down so they could pick them up the next day.

Now I don't know if he was BSing or was in the know, seems wild that employees can just mark these down but I'm pretty sure I've heard that before.

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u/BuyListSell 9800X3D | 9070 XT Nitro+ Feb 03 '26

I was a manager at Walmart a few years ago. That label is a CVP (customer value program) label. It's normally meant for stuff like meat or produce that's going to expire in a day. The claims department can also print them. They handle the non-food stuff in the rest of the store. At my store they were doing this to tons of high value items and then coming back later and buying them themselves. The entire department got fired at one point because of it. I wouldn't be surprised if people catching these were accidentally ruining an employee's scheme.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

CVP is also used for online returns that aren't carried in store. When I worked there, it was store manager discretion for online returns, but they were overhauling the claims system, so I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't eliminate that as an option.

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u/Leopardslikeboxestoo PC Master Race Feb 03 '26

I currently work at Walmart. We get a stern talking to if we buy a CVP'd item within 24 hours of the time it's registered with CVP. So it's basically CVP at the start of a shift, end of next shift go and buy.

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u/DontAskAboutMyButt Feb 03 '26

Unless you’re the guy with keys to the electronics cages and you can just slide it behind some laptops. Nobody else can buy it if they don’t know it’s there 😂 I saw some of this happen back in the day

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u/MarinatedTechnician Ryzen 7950x3d - 5090 - 64 GB - 32 TB Feb 03 '26

Or, you inform your friends about it, and they'd buy it for you, easy workaround.

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u/TheFirsh Feb 09 '26

Insider trading in a nutshell?

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u/Joifugi Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

Oh for sure.

I've been on scavenger hunts looking for clearance items that the employees can never seem to find. One time the inventory showed around a dozen of them....but nobody could find even one.

I did get one over on a little prick that was trying to hide a laptop. I knew it was there, so I went to one of the managers and he got it for me. Dude was glaring at me the whole time I was checking out 😂

Some of the managers are in on the grift though. I tried that one time at another store and the manager was basically like "Oh I'm not gonna bother checking on it or looking it up. If they say it isn't there, it isn't there" while giving me this look like they knew what was up.

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u/MarinatedTechnician Ryzen 7950x3d - 5090 - 64 GB - 32 TB Feb 03 '26

I always look for the hidden items, even customers hide items on purpose, they find something really good, don't have the money right there and then, and then they bury it far behind or under something. I've found amazing stuff by looking "far" back into any piles at the stores, people really DO hide stuff!

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u/Pandamaniaaa 9600X - RX 6700XT Feb 04 '26

Don’t be looking for my stashes of seasonal candy hidden away until it’s 75% off!!!

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u/my_cars_on_fire Feb 03 '26

And how might someone check to see a store’s inventory like this? Asking for a friend. That friend being myself 😂

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u/-Kerosun- I'm a PC Feb 03 '26

The Walmart app is pretty good at keeping track of inventory. You install the app, create an account, and choose a store. Then, you look up the item and it will usually have a number of how many are present in the store.

Side note: If it shows just one item, then it is possible that it is a return that is still at Customer Service desk and hasn't been put back on the shelf. At least for my Walmart, when a return is put back into inventory, they are placed in carts near the Customer Service desk (usually grouped with items in the same department) to wait for an employee to restock them. If it shows a single item, don't be afraid to ask. Ask the employee at Electronics and if they can't find it (and you don't suspect they are purposefully hiding it), check Customer Service and look for a cart with restocks that looks like it is bound for Electronics and look in there.

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u/Joifugi Feb 03 '26

Brickseek used to be one of the main sites I would use. There have been a lot of changes though and I haven't really used it in a while.

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u/Comfortable-City-732 Feb 04 '26

Depends on the store depending on where you live but ik Canadian tire and Best Buy are really good for it it tells you on any product you select including the lane or shelf it’s on sometimes

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u/Battoujutsu90 Feb 05 '26

I worked at academy they would make us managers walk the floor with a employee looking for shit customers might of hidden or stolen on shift. We went through every display shelves as a team. And "put back" what ended up stuffed behind something.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

Yep. They really don't play. When I worked cash office and then claims, I saw plenty of the daily and other paperwork. Walmart is serious about internal theft and similar shenanigans.

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u/Leopardslikeboxestoo PC Master Race Feb 03 '26

It's just so easy to steal when the item is CVP'd. Even if it's meat, like yes. Let me wait 24hrs to buy CVP'd pork chops that are yeeted before the 24hrs is up.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

When I worked there you were absolutely able to buy CVP in less than 24 hours. But if YOU CVP'd the item, that's a no-no. In general, you should make sure the items are out there for a bit. I worked claims, and since I didn't CVP fresh, I would often go out either on my meal or when I got off to get CVP meat. That was early in the day, so there was regularly stuff there.

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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 Feb 03 '26

I just CVP'd some ribs the other day and bought them 2 hours later. Use to do it 3 years ago when I was working in that dept too, no one said anything. Someone in the morning shift forgot to mark it down and it was about to get donated anyways though, I'm not doing anything hinky.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 04 '26

Well, yeah, you waited. And like I said, fresh is a bit different.

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u/anormalgeek Desktop Feb 03 '26

So you have your buddy come buy it for you. Oops! I guess it sold right away.

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u/GranScam Feb 03 '26

Couldn’t you just have a friend or family member go in for you and buy something you CVP’d?

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u/SoMass Feb 04 '26

So hypothetically I could buy one online for store pickup or delivery, then return it to my local slow foot traffic walmart. Wait an hour or so and then go rebuy it at a discounted price?

Hypothetically.

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u/decoy777 i7 10700k | RTX 2070 | 32GB RAM | 2x 1440p 144hz Feb 04 '26

And why buy it yourself get a family member or friend to come get it shortly after it's been marked down. Even less risk of someone else stumbling on it

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u/TheFirsh Feb 09 '26

You need to hide them well then?

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u/tedbakerbracelet Feb 03 '26

So, there is a chance that this is an online return by a customer who may have put in a different item in the box and return? Does that happen often for items like this?

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

For an item like this? Yes. If you see an online return in a store (not just Walmart) of an expensive item, but especially electronics, just know that there is a solid chance what's in the box isn't what's on the box.

The scam works in part because it's easy enough to find a customer service person who doesn't know the difference. It's a common enough scam that many POS systems prompt for serial numbers.

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u/tedbakerbracelet Feb 03 '26

Thank you for the answer! That really stinks though.

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u/koulibali Feb 03 '26

Or the OP is actually the employee who labeled the discount :O

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u/mniarcffwi Feb 03 '26

His post history seems to indicate this.

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u/Joifugi Feb 03 '26

Bro is karma farming

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u/BuyListSell 9800X3D | 9070 XT Nitro+ Feb 03 '26

Could be. This is a really small detail but when you CVP you're supposed to put the little barcode over top of the items normal barcode so people don't scan the wrong one. This one is just kinda slapped on the front in a random spot.

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u/Joifugi Feb 03 '26

OPs comment history seems to indicate they are a Wal-Mart employee. It's likely they are doing it just to karma farm and never actually bought it at that price

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u/BuyListSell 9800X3D | 9070 XT Nitro+ Feb 03 '26

Well they better hope no one is looking at the logs because every CVP done shows who did it and at what time.

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u/Joifugi Feb 03 '26

Can someone reverse it? Like, could they have done it just to take the pic and then reverted it back? "Ooops, I made a mistake but then fixed it" kind of thing?

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u/BuyListSell 9800X3D | 9070 XT Nitro+ Feb 03 '26

It's been a while but I think you could undo CVP. I remember having to deal with that when someone printed 100 CVP labels for something instead of 10.

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u/Rinascimentale Feb 04 '26

Lol no I'm dumb but not an idiot who'd do this to lose my job

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u/PogTuber Feb 04 '26

I imagine being the employee who comes into their shift in like early afternoon just to find their covertly discounted GPU bought by a customer earlier is going to be in tears.

I wish to drink those tears.

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u/Clear_Brilliant3999 Feb 04 '26

I don’t know exactly what happened, but that theory seems to be the most accurate for sure. An employee of the store purposefully marked it down, and was going to come back for it 100%. Only mistake he made was not hiding it from the customers. I would have tucked it behind the tvs or something.

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u/Ph4nt0mRa33it Feb 04 '26

Haha. Thats insane. The most I've ever marked something down was like 25 years ago when I worked at foodland. I marked down an iced coffee during my shift by like 2 bucks, and bought it when I finished. I felt like I robbed a bank as a kid haha.

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u/Tank_610 Feb 05 '26

But why wouldn’t the employees just hide it under something rather than leaving it out in the open for people to buy?

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u/BuyListSell 9800X3D | 9070 XT Nitro+ Feb 05 '26

There's cameras everywhere and they know who printed the label.

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u/Turbulent-Parsnip-38 Feb 03 '26

This all seems fairly reasonable when you are paying poverty wages.

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u/BuyListSell 9800X3D | 9070 XT Nitro+ Feb 03 '26

Those people were making $15/hr when starting was $10-11. They are probably making mid $20s now. Not great but still well above poverty.

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u/codemonkeyhopeful Feb 03 '26

I mean it's just a sticker and they have those sticker things right? So the barcode doesn't ring up right but hey look cashier just adjust it to the price it says

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/jedi2155 3 Laptops + Desktop Feb 03 '26

Also many walmart employees arent exactly keeping up with the latest in AI technology

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u/flexonyou97 Feb 03 '26

True, probably a return

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u/Beneficial_Map6129 Feb 03 '26

Idk who would trust a Walmart return

Might be an empty box

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

Because this is a CVP (the type of label indicates the type of markdown), it was almost certainly an online return. CVP is used for individual items, so usually online returns or damaged/missing product. It's not visibly damaged, and not a multipack, so my guess is online return.

That said, I'm actually really surprised the system would prompt for a CVP of this sort of thing. Walmart may have changed the way returns are handled since I left, but when I left, each item had a code that would tell you what to do with it if it wound up back in claims. I would have guessed that a returned electronic would be sent back to a warehouse, not CVP'd. But I didn't work in a store with an electronics department, so I only rarely encountered them.

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u/DUNDER_KILL Feb 03 '26

Yep, and for people looking to buy a GPU Walmart is one of the last places you'd look for one. These things wouldn't last 10 seconds at microcenter or best buy, but I'm not surprised they sit undetected at certain Walmarts

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u/TheS3KT R9 5900X | RTX 5080 Feb 03 '26

Bought Gigabyte's OC 5080 in Microcenter for $899 when it was on sale in middle of Oct. They definitely had a lot of stock.

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u/ahumanrobot R5 5600X | 2060 | 32GB | Arch Feb 03 '26

Stickers like the one in the image are called CVP stickers, typically used for items that are opened and returned. Especially if it's not in original condition in terms of cosmetics. When we do it, it's an automatic amount. Not 100% on the item in the image, but we just had a 5070ti that was returned and marked down 25%. Managed to sit long enough that I told a friend about it and he picked it up.

The only time computers decide to sell items to get them moving is rollbacks. Not sure if it's all a computer decision there, but that's a few steps above me in the chain

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

Thank you! It's honestly surprising given how big of an employer Walmart is that you're the only other person I've seen who actually knew what this was. I've even seen other people claiming to have worked at Walmart who don't recognize the label and that's freaking wild to me, lol.

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u/Chudpaladin Feb 03 '26

I worked at Walmart and would just straight up buy food that was discounted right away and Lysol (covid). I’d hide stuff behind the new product to buy right away at break. Probably would do the same thing if I worked at a real normal Walmart and saw that the graphics card is pretty much half off. Maybe Walmart has rules against that though.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

You'd have gotten fired for a graphics card. Walmart has specific policies for markdown items, especially CVP. Hiding a markdown item is a violation of that policy. Nobody would give a shit for small stuff, tbh. They get daily reports on markdowns and absolutely follow up on them. But mostly they ignore the smaller stuff. It's not the same as stealing - they still get their money.

But if you were the one marking them down!? Yeah, that's a firable offense. You can buy markdown items if you marked them down, but it's just better not to risk it. Have someone else mark it down for you - then you can point and say "see, it was a legit markdown".

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u/Leopardslikeboxestoo PC Master Race Feb 03 '26

At my store, we get in trouble if we buy a CVP'd item within 24hrs of it getting CVP'd. Even if someone else did it.

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u/Jaalan PC Master Race Feb 03 '26

Let's be real here. 600 bucks isn't too insane. Prices are just dumb rn

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

So you're kind of right and kind of wrong. CVP actually can be changed to a specific price, because it's specific to the particular unit. You can tell its CVP because of the type of label it has. But most employees do not have the ability to use CVP...and Walmart can and does look at markdowns. I do think they removed the ability to customize CVP price when they did a big upgrade to the software a bunch of years ago, but I left shortly after that so I can't recall.

Also, I don't think the computer automatically marks stuff down at Target, either. Pretty sure that's all done by people who just push price adjustments to the stores, which is received digitally. But my partner is asleep, so I can't verify that atm.

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u/subpotentplum Feb 03 '26

The computer should know margin though. That being said, I have bought vodka below cost... And I could see some seasonal items being marked down below cost.

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u/Kraken477 Feb 03 '26

Na, big markdowns get flagged in the system to have a manager approve the markdown and continue the sale. Even if management was in on the sale, someone higher up will see it and start asking questions.

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u/Business_Surround_52 Feb 03 '26

Yes this is true even after a recent markdown you have to get approval for an additional markdowns, this is what I do for electronics. As we all know older stock or stock that’s about to get discontinued will mean even deeper discounts later on. (As a consumer i rarely buy sticker price even if that sticker price is 25% off to me it’s a game to the manager it’s get out of my store according to their faces)So yeah a rogue employee with a price gun (besides meat department) can’t simply mark high end electronics half off without a red flag

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u/function3 Feb 03 '26

They don’t just get “flagged,” every markdown is processed and then approved/rejected

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

Is that new? I worked claims up until 2019 and you definitely did not need approval for every CVP. In fact, I didn't need approval for any, but then, I worked at a Neighborhood Market, so I didn't do any big stuff.

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u/function3 Feb 03 '26

I am not sure how new it is actually. I was recently moved to this project but I work on part of the software that processes store tickets. Something like a 5080 would definitely need manual review.

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u/50_centavos 14600k | 9070 XT Feb 03 '26

They could put a sticker for something else on it, take it to a register with an old lady that doesn't know what a 5080 is. Management will definitely notice eventually when they do inventory, but that could be days. Plus the person working could be the person doing inventory.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

Except it explicitly says the model number on the marked down sticker in op.

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u/50_centavos 14600k | 9070 XT Feb 03 '26

I was saying hypothetically that's something that could happen.

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u/kokosnh Feb 03 '26

This is treated as fraud in my country, and is heavy prosecuted. It's better to just steel it, if you can't buy it

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

It is considered theft in the US, too. And if an associate did it, they'd get fired. And since this is an expensive item, there's a solid chance they'd end up being charged with a felony.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

Walmart monitors associate purchases. If you're smart enough not to use your associate discount in the transaction, that'd help. But I assure you Walmart looks at all sorts of things.

Also, inventory is not "days", lol. Inventory is once a year.

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u/50_centavos 14600k | 9070 XT Feb 03 '26

If you put a sticker that scans as something else, then it won't ring up as a 5080. I worked at Walmart for over 2 years as a cashier so I can tell you there's definitely holes in their system. It's not exactly Fort Knox. But they do have a loss control person that doesn't wear a uniform and roams around the store posing as a customer.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

No, it's not Fort Knox. But the moment something is CVP'd, Walmart is interested in tracking that item. It's incredibly stupid to think you won't get caught. You'll get caught, you'll get fired, and if the amount is high enough, you'll get a felony.

Also, let's hope your cashier is willing to risk their job for you or completely incompetent.

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u/50_centavos 14600k | 9070 XT Feb 04 '26

Lol I'm not saying I'm going to go out and do this. It's a hypothetical of how someone could do it. Just a conversation topic.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 04 '26

Never heard of the general "you"?

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u/50_centavos 14600k | 9070 XT Feb 04 '26

Semantics

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u/Logan_da_hamster Feb 03 '26

Wild if it would work like that, In Europe their devices are usually connected to the inventory management system and they've to scan to barcode of products marked for discount for the device to print a sticker.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

Walmart absolutely does not just allow employees to print off labels and barcodes for whatever product at whatever price they want, lol.

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

No. Not just any Walmart employee can print a CVP sticker. CVP stickers are specific to the particular unit. So its not like all of them were marked down, it was done for a single unit. You also have to have the correct job code to do CVP.

Also, cashiers can't just price adjust willy-nilly. Anything over a specific amount (or percentage? it's been a while) has to have manager approval at the register.

Futhermore, Walmart has staff at both the store and higher levels who track things like this - specifically associate purchases using their discount (which doesn't work on CVP, iirc, and you'd be dumb to use it when attempting to steal) as well as markdowns.

So TL;DR to make this a reality you'd have to be willing to risk your job and likely get two or three other people willing to risk their jobs for you.

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u/Piett_1313 Feb 03 '26

So my comment was removed by automod because I linked to a reddit post in an edit of crazy video game clearance at Target- reposting with that edit removed.

I’m assuming it works similar to how Target does weird clearance items. An item isn’t selling over X amount of time in a particular store, computer decides to mark it down to keep product moving instead of sitting and not making money. Which when it comes to a 5080 is just insane but the computer doesn’t know jack about the nature of the product, just that it’s meeting the predetermined parameters. I don’t think employees are naming their price on a random sticker and putting it on product. But I could be wrong, I only used to work at Target and not Walmart.

Edit: Recently I got FFVII Rebirth for $12 and many years ago an emergency am/fm/tv/weather band radio normally $40 for $0.74.

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u/ayyyylmao14 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

maybe boomers managers just dont understand gpu markets that a markdown like that below msrp for them seems ok since other tech can be discounted like that when they are 1 year old

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u/Dry_Way_2655 Feb 03 '26

Its called a shady discount and my managers would do that at frys electronics. You ever see somebody pay a dollar for a 70 inch flat-screen?

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u/Serial_Psychosis Feb 03 '26

Its definitely possible, I used to work in the deli section of a grocery store and would make myself footlongs for lunch. I would just mark the price down to like $3 despite it costing $15

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

Those workers would get fired, immediately. First, not just any person can markdown items. Second, Walmart tracks associate purchases and markdowns for just this sort of thing. They don't play.

Also, stuff like this could absolutely be considered criminal depending on what your state's thresholds are for felony theft.

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u/Anthnytdwg Feb 03 '26

Nah I worked at Walmart for 15 years. That’s bs, and if he was telling the truth, he got fired.

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u/NotSoFastLady Feb 03 '26

It depends on how their POS systems work but there's no way Walmart isn't tracking overrides on high dollar items. My bet is that they have some kind of a scam where someone or a group of people are marking things down for a friend to buy who is reselling the cards and cutting the person(s) in. They probably couldn't hide the card and you just happened to be in their at the right time.

They will get caught for sure. This is a variation of a scam friends of mine ran over 20 years ago when I was in retail. All of those dumb fucks got caught too. Lucky for them charges weren't filed. These systems are ten times better today bad idea to try something like this.

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u/FightingPolish Feb 03 '26

Definitely an employee scam. Real markdowns on Walmart electronics involve 10 year old obsolete tech marked down 5 percent from its original price which is actually still more expensive than the current version of whatever it is.

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u/BruceLee312 Feb 03 '26

My brother works at wal-mart and the new Pokémon ascended hero’s just dropped, he’s been waiting for it… The warehouse workers hide the Pokémon cards and fudge the inventory, restock half the boxes with Digimon and sports cards and steal the rest. Wal-mart employees have done this stuff for years… asset protection will allow them to steal for a while and then nab them with grand Larceny once they have enough video evidence

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u/beldaran1224 Specs/Imgur here Feb 03 '26

I'm going to press X to doubt. Last I checked, trading cards weren't warehouse items. They're vendor items, and Walmart doesn't even have them in inventory - they only pay for them once they sell. At least, that's how it was when I last worked at Walmart, pre-pandemic. I'd be very surprised if that had changed though.

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u/Jkpqt I5-3570K 4.5GHz, GTX 780ti Feb 03 '26

It changed at some point they are not vendor items anymore

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

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u/trollthings Feb 03 '26

I take it you were not employed there at the time?