system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
People are still acting as if $699 3080s were ever a thing. Apart from a few founders editions, almost every 3080 was sold to consumers well above msrp, many well above $1000. Compare real price to real price, not current real price to past imaginary price and suddenly the 40 series makes more sense.
gpt
Dunno about the US but in the UK it's been quite easy to get MSRP 30 series since the ETH merge 


AMD GPUs have tanked well below MSRP 


I personally picked up MSRP, 3050 (below MSRP), 3060 and 3070 GPUs 

With 3050, 3060, 3070, 3080 all much below MSRP on the used market