To make things worse, this is not a region-specific problem as it appears to be a worldwide problems. There are no cards in some of the major US retail/e-tail shops, where Newegg.com has a total of 10 listings of RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT from various AMD AIB partners, but even the usual suspects, like Sapphire, are listed out of stock.
AMD sold some cards through AMD.com, and Frank Azor, AMD's own Chief Gaming Architect, has tweeted a successful purchase of Radeon RX 6800 card, although he had to do a page refresh.
Just successfully ordered an @amd @Radeon RX 6800 for myself on https://t.co/MnReZDudwp. Required some refreshing to get the order through but it worked. pic.twitter.com/0ERpS2BmnA
— Frank Azor (@AzorFrank) November 18, 2020
Things are not looking better in the UK either, as Overclockers.co.uk or Scan.co.uk have no cards in stock.
The rest of Europe is having a rough time as well, as currently, only Alternate.de lists a single Radeon RX 6800 XT from Sapphire, and this one is out of stock. Mindfactory.de does not have a single card listed.
Of course, scalpers take partial blame as there are currently cards on Ebay, asking anywhere from $620, up to well over $1,500, and there are even some crazy listings of over $4000, which is probably people trying to ramp up prices and ruin the day for those scalpers.
So far only reference cards but custom AIB versions are coming soon
There have been rumors from some major retailers that the supply is limited, and recently, Scott Herkelman, VP & GM of AMD's Radeon Business Unit, said that the reference RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT (MBA cards) will be in production until early next year when the company will rely only on custom versions from its AIB partners.
Yes, through early 2021. https://t.co/mWg3mALBvA
— Scott Herkelman (@sherkelman) November 18, 2020
This does not come as a surprise, as we are hearing that custom cards from AMD AIB partners should be coming to retail/e.tail as early as next week, depending on the region.
Hopefully, AMD will manage to ramp up the supply and we'll see a healthy stock as we draw closer to the end of the year.