Steam Deck prices reach $3,000 on eBay

midian182

Posts: 9,662   +121
Staff member
WTF?! When something is experiencing short supply and high demand, you can almost guarantee it'll appear on eBay at prices way above the MSRP. So, it should come as little surprise to learn that the auction site is awash with Steam Decks, the most expensive of which reaches $3,000, or almost five times the normal selling price.

The Steam Deck was always going to be one of those items at the mercy of scalpers. Its original launch date for pre-orders was pushed back by two months to February, while those who weren't as fast when securing a unit were recently told their 'After Q2' release window would now be 'After Q3.'

All of which adds up to a device that many want but few can get hold of—unless you're willing to pay over the odds on eBay. PCMag reports that there are tons of Steam Decks on the site going for obscene amounts.

Checking the Steam Deck eBay listings, it appears that the most expensive in-hand unit—as in, not still on pre-order—is up for $1,799 (+$70 shipping) for a 256GB variant. That's over three times its regular $529 price. There's also a 64GB model for $1,130. Its usual price? $399.

Most eBay sellers don't even have their Steam Decks; they're just selling the pre-order confirmations. The priciest of these, for a 512GB model that should cost $649, is a comical $3,000. For $100 less, you could buy a gaming PC from Newegg powered by a Ryzen 7 5800X and an RTX 3080.

The worst part of the situation is that people really are paying these prices. A look at eBay's Terapeak tool reveals that 516 Steam Decks have been sold through 448 sellers on the site so far, with the average selling price at $1,591—that figure was at its peak of $1,797 a couple of weeks ago.

In July last year, eBay started removing Steam Decks as they violated its "Presale Policy," which states all pre-sales items must ship within 30 days, so some of the current listings could be removed as they fall into the same category.

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This is essentially futures trading, which could quickly turn around and bite the scalpers if Valve manages to ramp up production. Here's hoping that's exactly what happens. Can't wait until all these new chip fabs are built so we can put these dark days behind us.
 
While we knew this would happen, this doesn't excuses Valve which are at fault here: Nobody forced them to try and release a brand new product in the middle of the worst shortage we've ever seen for PCs and I knew this would happen under even normal circumstances let alone what we've experienced the last 2 years but much like Nvidia, AMD or intel nobody forced them to just remain fully inflexible with their plans and commit to another in a long line of paper launches when the real availability in retail *might* be 2023 at best.
 
While we knew this would happen, this doesn't excuses Valve which are at fault here: Nobody forced them to try and release a brand new product in the middle of the worst shortage we've ever seen for PCs and I knew this would happen under even normal circumstances let alone what we've experienced the last 2 years but much like Nvidia, AMD or intel nobody forced them to just remain fully inflexible with their plans and commit to another in a long line of paper launches when the real availability in retail *might* be 2023 at best.


I only blame them for not doing what Apple does and forcing everyone to pre-order for their unit - and then checking the preorders for bots - and then having the pre-orders mailed direct to consumer after they've paid.

I see absolutely nothing here worth $3000.

Especially when the average smartphone or $1000 laptop with a 3060 can run the same games better.
 
With each and every release, I am even happier with Apple showing us how to avoid line mania, avoid scammers and avoid scalping.

Apple, with iPhone 7 Plus, started to:
#1 force potential buyers to preorder online
#2 checked the preorders to be sure that only a maximum of 1 or 2 went to a specific buyer.
#3 Allowed buyers to show up to claim their order - or had the order shipped directly to the buyer's home.

This avoided needless waste of time, energy, scalping and scamming.

Now why is it Nvidia, AMD, Steam Deck, PS5 and Xbox haven't done this?

It's because they don't care and they value the hype.
 
Everyone is praising the steam deck for being so cheap. Yet if you want it at that price you have to wait months. Right now my steam says “after Q3 2022”. So that’s 6+ months!

6 months is a long time to wait, we could see competitors coming in with faster or cheaper options or we could even see a new Nintendo switch announced in that timeframe.

I’m still holding out for a switch lite OLED. I love my switch lite, it lives in my rucksack and is ideal for when I’m on a long night shift with nothing much going on.
 
Everyone is praising the steam deck for being so cheap. Yet if you want it at that price you have to wait months. Right now my steam says “after Q3 2022”. So that’s 6+ months!

6 months is a long time to wait, we could see competitors coming in with faster or cheaper options or we could even see a new Nintendo switch announced in that timeframe.

I’m still holding out for a switch lite OLED. I love my switch lite, it lives in my rucksack and is ideal for when I’m on a long night shift with nothing much going on.
I'll wait for my Q3 delivery and pay Valve's price. If something better and cheaper in this form factor did come along in the next 6 months, I can buy that and not take the Steam Deck when my order slot is up.

These eBay listings are just stupid.
 
I'll wait for my Q3 delivery and pay Valve's price. If something better and cheaper in this form factor did come along in the next 6 months, I can buy that and not take the Steam Deck when my order slot is up.

These eBay listings are just stupid.
I’m not really interested in the deck, it’s too big and the software is too beta for me. But I couldn’t buy one if I wanted to, I’m relocating to Alaska from the U.K. in 4 months. And then after that I won’t be in one place for more than a few months at a time for a couple of years. (Benefits of being childless).

So unless Valve could get them sitting on shelves, I’m unlikely to get be able to get one. And I’m a nomad, I’m the sort of person who’s probably most likely to buy portable hardware.
 
I can't even order a steamdeck from valve, because I live in a 3rd world country (ie, Iceland...)...

I can imagine there are people who are in similar situation for whom this is basically the only way to get them.
 
Anyone else really not liking the death of retail ?
What really makes me salty is Big Box stores allowing scalpers to post on their online platforms and Amazon doing the same.
 
I only blame them for not doing what Apple does and forcing everyone to pre-order for their unit - and then checking the preorders for bots - and then having the pre-orders mailed direct to consumer after they've paid.

I see absolutely nothing here worth $3000.

Especially when the average smartphone or $1000 laptop with a 3060 can run the same games better.
That's what they did - only people with existing accounts were able to order single deck. Not to many were grabbed by a bots. And really, even if I'm very excited about getting my copy in q2, I would sell it without hesitation if someone offer me 2000 for it.
 
Anyone else really not liking the death of retail ?

20 years ago retail didn't do a much better job at this sort of thing. Getting the hottest new item meant practically camping out for a spot in line when a store opened with countless other people, hoping they had enough supply to make it to your spot in line. And that's when the employees weren't setting most units aside for themselves to scalp. And putting aside distribution inefficiencies. You could call or visit every store for 50 miles and find nothing, but a little further away there could be a store sitting on 20 units.

I'll admit things are probably worse now... automated scraping bots can find & buy newly stocked items, less leg work to find buyers, but pre-internet retail could still be a nightmare.
 
While we knew this would happen, this doesn't excuses Valve which are at fault here: Nobody forced them to try and release a brand new product in the middle of the worst shortage we've ever seen for PCs and I knew this would happen under even normal circumstances let alone what we've experienced the last 2 years but much like Nvidia, AMD or intel nobody forced them to just remain fully inflexible with their plans and commit to another in a long line of paper launches when the real availability in retail *might* be 2023 at best.

Sure, I guess it's Valve's fault for releasing a popular product. But why should they should have let their business stagnate as competitors with streaming options gained momentum in putting PC games on mobile devices? As Microsoft gradually attempts to shift Windows into an App Store model of software distribution, presenting an existential threat to Steam's business model? Why should Valve have waited an unknown amount of time for relief from a GPU shortage that already goes back at least 5 years, has little relief on the horizon in the near future, and a more recent general chip shortage that may not go away for a few years itself. All when they didn't know if their product would even be successful.

Or, Valve could decide **not** to waste countless time & resources already invested in R&D, decide they can't control and aren't responsible for all of the market conditions, decide that future market conditions are not any more certain to be in their favor, decide to strategically position themselves against a potential future with a more closed off Windows OS, decide they needed to see if consumers would even accept a "Deck" as an enjoyable device or if they needed to instead pivot their strategy... decide all of that, and simply release the device under less than ideal circumstances while limiting scalping as much as they could through account requirements & purchase limits.

Besides, read the stats above: barely 500 Decks have been sold through Ebay. If you multiply that across of a few other popular selling platforms it's still a small fraction of the very first pre-orders that will already have received or will shortly receive their Deck. All while later pre-orders and people just pre-ordering now will gain the benefits of those early adopters acting as beta testers for Valve to refine their system and fix their bugs.

There are no real losers here, there are only people whose rampant consumerism will have to wait a little longer to be satisfied, and some very few impatient people (remember, barely 500 scalped units on ebay) who willingly spend much more than necessary instead of putting in a pre-order now.
 
Sure, I guess it's Valve's fault for releasing a popular product. But why should they should have let their business stagnate as competitors with streaming options gained momentum in putting PC games on mobile devices?
What are you on about, what competitors!? This device is literally being criticized by many of the more mainstream outlets for being too damn esoteric being based on Linux, not launching with compatibility with the most popular online multiplayer games, etc.

Nobody is shipping millions of Aya Neons ok? Those exist sure but are niche devices almost nobody but super nerdy PC enthusiasts want. Steam Deck is a much wider audience but again there's just nothing out there comparable: The Switch is a vehicle for Nintendo properties that exclusively keep it viable, Sweeney wasn't even planning on an Epic Deck, Ubi and EA with their own stores built those just to at least try and not give as much money to Valve (And that's why they de-prioritized them greatly once Epic Store began forcing it's way into the market) and the rest of the stores are diminutive and on the brink of bankrupcy like gog.com
 
and the software is too beta for me.
It actually feels really smooth. I don't like touch screen gaming so I haven't tried anything w/o controller support, but with only 2 exceptions (the first 2 Batman games) nothing I've tried that has controller support has been a bad experience. Software really doesn't feel like a Beta. An early release with some rough edges maybe, but it's miles ahead of many new games that really are Beta or even Alpha builds that barely function on a day-1 release. Otherwise the biggest difficulty I had was in testing out AC:Odyssey because it requires the game to be launched through the Ubisoft launcher, which put a popup over the screen that couldn't be closed saying that my GPU wasn't supported. Deck doesn't make it easy to get to the launcher itself where I could turn off all of its popups: I had to switch to desktop mode, launch & minimize the game, and then enter the Ubisoft launcher settings. Less work than I have to do to get many games working on my normal PC, and AC:Odyssey isn't even officially tested by Valve yet.

This is all, of course, relative. In terms of market niche, this is somewhere in between a standard gaming PC and a console. Consoles (Nintendo especially) often have a smoother experience on release and, of course, 100% compatibility with their own game library, no exceptions. But that's the advantage of highly standardized & optimized hardware. And a normal Windows PC won't have problems with games w/ anti-cheat software. Not an issue for me, not the type of games I play, but I can absolutely see how that would be a deal breaker for some.

Where it really **does** feel like a beta? Using desktop mode with the controller & touch screen instead of a mouse & keyboard. Very clunky. Also some of the physical design choices: Thumbstick & button placement are very awkwardly different from standard controllers, and take some getting used to. As reviews have mentioned, they're just too high & close to the top & shoulder buttons. Also it's very easy to accidentally activate the touch pads.

If you're willing to put up with the normal hassles of PC gaming, none of this is that bad
 
What are you on about, what competitors!? This device is literally being criticized by many of the more mainstream outlets for being too damn esoteric being based on Linux, not launching with compatibility with the most popular online multiplayer games, etc.

Nobody is shipping millions of Aya Neons ok? Those exist sure but are niche devices almost nobody but super nerdy PC enthusiasts want. Steam Deck is a much wider audience but again there's just nothing out there comparable: The Switch is a vehicle for Nintendo properties that exclusively keep it viable, Sweeney wasn't even planning on an Epic Deck, Ubi and EA with their own stores built those just to at least try and not give as much money to Valve (And that's why they de-prioritized them greatly once Epic Store began forcing it's way into the market) and the rest of the stores are diminutive and on the brink of bankrupcy like gog.com
Take a look at what I said about competitors: **streaming** services, not hardware competitors. I absolutely agree with you that there's no hardware competitor-- the Switch is a different market segment.

But Google, Amazon (in progress), Microsoft, NVidia (and I may be missing others) all have cloud gaming options that allow mobile PC game streaming. Steam shouldn't wait until they reach anything near mainstream popularity before it positions itself with a viable alternative, especially when one of the main failings of these other services is lack of access to your existing game library: a strategic advantage Steam should use to its fullest. Another strategic advantage is that the streaming experience, for now, is still rough around the edges. Steam has its own client, but streaming from your home PC tends to be worse than streaming from cloud servers, at least in my experience with my broadband ISP. Putting PC games on the device itself is a big improvement in quality of experience.

Separately, I had no idea GOG was in trouble. It would be awful if they go bankrupt, I prefer to get DRM-free versions of games from them when I can. That's probably my biggest complaint about Steam (along with a bloated PC client that seems to slow down with each new release)
 
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It actually feels really smooth. I don't like touch screen gaming so I haven't tried anything w/o controller support, but with only 2 exceptions (the first 2 Batman games) nothing I've tried that has controller support has been a bad experience. Software really doesn't feel like a Beta. An early release with some rough edges maybe, but it's miles ahead of many new games that really are Beta or even Alpha builds that barely function on a day-1 release. Otherwise the biggest difficulty I had was in testing out AC:Odyssey because it requires the game to be launched through the Ubisoft launcher, which put a popup over the screen that couldn't be closed saying that my GPU wasn't supported. Deck doesn't make it easy to get to the launcher itself where I could turn off all of its popups: I had to switch to desktop mode, launch & minimize the game, and then enter the Ubisoft launcher settings. Less work than I have to do to get many games working on my normal PC, and AC:Odyssey isn't even officially tested by Valve yet.

This is all, of course, relative. In terms of market niche, this is somewhere in between a standard gaming PC and a console. Consoles (Nintendo especially) often have a smoother experience on release and, of course, 100% compatibility with their own game library, no exceptions. But that's the advantage of highly standardized & optimized hardware. And a normal Windows PC won't have problems with games w/ anti-cheat software. Not an issue for me, not the type of games I play, but I can absolutely see how that would be a deal breaker for some.

Where it really **does** feel like a beta? Using desktop mode with the controller & touch screen instead of a mouse & keyboard. Very clunky. Also some of the physical design choices: Thumbstick & button placement are very awkwardly different from standard controllers, and take some getting used to. As reviews have mentioned, they're just too high & close to the top & shoulder buttons. Also it's very easy to accidentally activate the touch pads.

If you're willing to put up with the normal hassles of PC gaming, none of this is that bad
When I’m on a plane or out and about the last thing I want is to have to troubleshoot some issue or fiddle around with settings when I play a handheld. I think the steam deck is for people who don’t travel, it’s for people who want to play their games sat on the sofa whilst others are watching TV. The size, battery life and the nature of the software tells me that.

I’d like one. But I wouldn’t travel with it. My switch lite barely has enough battery and that’s supposed to be double the steam deck. It also fits in the thin top compartment of my bag and it’s light enough for me to forget it’s in there. And whilst it doesn’t play my steam library, I actually don’t think any game in my steam library is as good as Breath of the wild. But obviously it’s a matter of taste.
 
With each and every release, I am even happier with Apple showing us how to avoid line mania, avoid scammers and avoid scalping.

Apple, with iPhone 7 Plus, started to:
#1 force potential buyers to preorder online
#2 checked the preorders to be sure that only a maximum of 1 or 2 went to a specific buyer.
#3 Allowed buyers to show up to claim their order - or had the order shipped directly to the buyer's home.

This avoided needless waste of time, energy, scalping and scamming.

Now why is it Nvidia, AMD, Steam Deck, PS5 and Xbox haven't done this?

It's because they don't care and they value the hype.

Apple also produces an s ton more phones. Their demand is higher yes, but they have their s together and dont sell products they cant produce fast enough to meet demand
 
Sure, I guess it's Valve's fault for releasing a popular product. But why should they should have let their business stagnate as competitors with streaming options gained momentum in putting PC games on mobile devices?

Let’s be real honest here. If Valve really cared about releasing a popular product instead of blindly throwing money on whatever pops in Gaben’s head, they would’ve made Half-Life 3.
 
While we knew this would happen, this doesn't excuses Valve which are at fault here: Nobody forced them to try and release a brand new product in the middle of the worst shortage ... blah blah blah.

Wrong. It's the simping nerd fanboy customers that are wetting themselves in anticipation that are at fault. If no one were willing to pay their ridiculous mark-up, scalpers wouldn't be able to sell them at those prices; they wouldn't try to scalp them, because they would be the ones stuck with them. And once the supply goes up again, they would only be able to sell them as used/for less because they're 3rd party, meaning they only make a loss.
 
When I’m on a plane or out and about the last thing I want is to have to troubleshoot some issue or fiddle around with settings when I play a handheld. I think the steam deck is for people who don’t travel, it’s for people who want to play their games sat on the sofa whilst others are watching TV. The size, battery life and the nature of the software tells me that.

I’d like one. But I wouldn’t travel with it. My switch lite barely has enough battery and that’s supposed to be double the steam deck. It also fits in the thin top compartment of my bag and it’s light enough for me to forget it’s in there. And whilst it doesn’t play my steam library, I actually don’t think any game in my steam library is as good as Breath of the wild. But obviously it’s a matter of taste.

You make a lot of hard statements for someone who hasn't touched one.

I've found the entire experience to be nearly flawless. Yes going into the linux desktop is finicky, but its not something you need to do at all and its way less finicky then going into desktop mode on a switch.

Witcher 3 has a longer battery life on the deck then it does on the switch.

In the two weeks ive had it ive seen plenty of improvements come down the pipe. The support is absolutely there.

But the truth is, I could hand it to any kid whos used a switch and he could buy a game, DL it, and be playing with zero issues in minutes. Did I mention it has actual built in voice chat support and bluetooth support? And I can install discord on it and that works flawlessly. Its just a better experience. My switch will only be for first party games from now on. 3rd party games that look like they would be good portable are going on the deck.
 
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