Steam Deck Reservations Resold at Markups Exceeding Double Original Price
Valve's Steam Deck reservation slots are appearing on resale markets at prices significantly above retail. The gaming community has begun to organize against these scalping practices.
Mere hours after Valve began sending out the first reservation emails for its new Steam Deck, scalpers were listing these reservation slots on platforms like eBay. Prices for these reservation slots reached up to $2,000, far exceeding the device's official retail price of $1,059 for the 256GB model and $1,299 for the 1TB model.
Resale listings for the 256GB version started around $1,700, while the 1TB version was listed for approximately $2,000. Valve's terms of service prohibit the transfer of reservation rights, as the purchase link is tied to a specific Steam account. No Steam Deck units have been delivered to customers in the US, Canada, UK, EU, or Australia yet, meaning buyers are purchasing a place in line, not the physical device. eBay's own rules also require listed items to be physical goods.
The gaming community has actively responded to these scalping attempts. Users on Reddit's r/Steam forum have shared methods for reporting such listings to eBay. Some players have identified the Steam usernames of scalpers and reported them directly to Valve. eBay has reportedly removed a large number of these resale listings.
While Valve has faced similar resale issues with past product launches, such as the Steam Machine, the organized community pushback this time highlights a strong desire to curb speculative reselling.