[ShyguyXPC]

well don't know about losing money, have to read the Terms and Conditions for the Program first to get an understanding of how it works though... there actually is quite a few definitive conditions & restrictions that have to be met/maintained to take advantage of it though...

http://www.evga.com/stepup/default.asp?switch=2

but pretty sure most of the returned cards are checked over & then "stamped" as recertified (refurbished) if they were cleaned up & fixed, then retailers like newegg & others can sell them again as Recertified cards for lower than retail pricing...

a year & half or more back I picked up an eVGA 7800GT (so I could run SLI with my XFX 7800GT), factory OC'd & for about $160-170, when that card was still going for $200-250 retail online... the newer 7900GT's had already been out for a while & were still in the $250 range as well... a few months later, newegg was offering more of that recertfied model of card for closer to $130...

usually if I see any "recertified" cards online their most likely eVGA models, I rarely, if ever, see XFX or other brands like that... but that'd be my guess as to what happens to the returned cards, more or less its a sort of recycling & reconditioning program, & pretty sure eVGA gets some nice tax deductions/credits for their program & its impact on helping the environment...