eBay Takes Action against Steam Deck Scalpers Selling Reservations for Up to $5,000

[Tsing]

Image: Valve



Valve’s announcement of a portable PC called the Steam Deck has been a pleasant surprise for gamers who are seeking a convenient way to take their entire Steam libraries on the go, but what followed was disappointingly typical in a year where hotly anticipated tech items are preyed upon by anyone desiring to seek a profit. Shortly after the Steam Deck went up for pre-order on Friday, July 16, auction sites such as eBay became inundated with listings for the popular device, with some lucky but immoral reservation holders seeking as much as $5,000 from desperate gamers wanting to receive a unit early. Luckily (and to the dismay of scalpers), eBay has already begun identifying and deleting most of these listings, as they violate the company’s terms and conditions for being pre-sale items that won’t be delivered within 30 days. Valve has attempted to minimize scalping...

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[Uvilla]

Yeah, as I am sure all the Oled switches went to scalpers too as it was " sold out" in seconds of opening pre orders.
Should just do unlimited pre orders, then lottery shipments with cancellation option before shipping. That will probably hurt scalpers real good, as if you have a preorder with a deposit and see in ebay someone selling the product way overpriced, you would be like meh, Ill wait, I have my pre-order.

 

[rat]

Yeah, as I am sure all the Oled switches went to scalpers too as it was " sold out" in seconds of opening pre orders.
Should just do unlimited pre orders, then lottery shipments with cancellation option before shipping. That will probably hurt scalpers real good, as if you have a preorder with a deposit and see in ebay someone selling the product way overpriced, you would be like meh, Ill wait, I have my pre-order.

Steam Deck preorders are unlimited.

People are *still* scalping and buying from scalpers despite this.