The lottery system did not work.
Steam Machine Reservation eBay Listings Double Retail Price as Scalpers Take Hold of Valve's New Console
Submitted 13 hours ago by monica_b1998@lemmy.world to steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
Comments
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 45 minutes ago
It was better than clicking “Next” every second for 45 minutes trying to check out, and then failing to get one. Nothing can truly stop scalpers except the original seller doing the scalping themselves with a reverse auction.
What I mean
I’m not suggesting this is a good system. Hence I’m hiding it in a spoiler. Imagine if Valve launched the sale, and priced the machine at like $2100 (base model), and that started ticking down. Well, the rich idiots who just have to have one buy it for that price, and more normal people buy it after it drops a lot. No scalper can profit if all the rich idiots already got theirs directly from Valve. Instead, Valve profits, which you could argue is better.
waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Scalpers take hold
Valve did the best they could given the demand, this is pure cope from the author for not getting on the reservation queue
zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 hours ago
VALVe knows who is buying a console. Just lock it to this person’s account for 90 days and the problem of the scalpers is gone. Sure enough, some people will be having issues as they have lost access to their account. Realistically, this will be a small number which can be addressed by VALVe support
Corngood@lemmy.ml 4 hours ago
This would require selling a locked down device. i.e. one where you couldn’t install your own OS. The fact that they don’t do this is one of the big selling points (for me anyway)
zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 hours ago
My idea clearly had a logical flaw. You are very right.
hayvan@piefed.world 8 hours ago
I understood the PoV of the scalpers. They grab something rare to resell. I disagree but I understand.
What I don’t understand is, who the fuck actually pays money for those reservations?
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
who the fuck actually pays money for those reservations?
Dumbasses with more money than sense
cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 10 hours ago
Nothing makes sense anymore. People will buy anything if it’s just hyped up and rare enough, without any regard to it’s utility or intrinsic value. Everything has become bored apes.
And I don’t mean to dunk on the steam machine itself, it is a good device for a particular niche. But at twice the price? That’s perfectly ridiculous.
FishFace@piefed.social 6 hours ago
I don’t really see the problem. It’s not worth double the price - anyone can go buy a computer and get the same functionality. If it’s worth so much to you to have the valve logo on the thing, then that’s up to you; the actual value though is in its use as a computer, which you can get by other means.
It’s not like a concert ticket where there’s no equivalent.
I would guess that scalpers will have to reduce their prices to shift what they’ve scrambled for when it comes to people actually buying them.
julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 5 hours ago
The scalper a protection is also quite bad. Valve only requires a purchase before a certain date. That means scalpers can easily reuse accounts from the Deck and Controller sales…
I said this before but (roughly) sorting the queue by money spend on the platform would make it insanely expensive to scalp, therefore eradicating the practice. Of course that would mean people (like myself) who don‘t spend a lot of money on Steam will need to wait longer, but in the fight against scalpers I think it is worth it. I hate scalpers so much.
BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
Don’t they also require a unique shipping address? I have doubts that the eBay scalpers are anything more than one-off people selling their 1 unit because they know they can get another one later.
julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 9 minutes ago
Good point. The only scalper I have ever met did it as a lucrative hobby always buying as many PS5 as possible.
JakenVeina@midwest.social 13 hours ago
How is it that eBay doesn’t have any resposibility for helping to crack down on these?
then_three_more@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Because it’s not illegal, just immoral.
mrfriki@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Probably because there are not a firm law on scalping, on top of being international site which makes applying laws even more difficult.
SailorFuzz@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Yea… but also, they’re a private business, they don’t have to accept it. It’s called having integrity.
It’s pretty slimey to be like “welp, it’s immoral, but not illegal, so we’ll profit off of it”.
artyom@piefed.social 11 hours ago
If fleaBay stopped them, they’d just do it somewhere else and then they would lose profits and solve nothing. It’s really not their responsibility.
When Ford and Tesla tried to stop stuff like this they were lambasted for infringing on customer freedoms.
https://carbuzz.com/news/ford-sues-john-cena-for-flipping-his-gt-supercar-and-making-a-profit/
Beacon@fedia.io 11 hours ago
I didn't see how this can work out for the scalpers. If the prices are higher than retail then people would just buy a computer and play the same steam games on it
nialv7@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
There are rich people who would buy a steam machine at any price just to own one.
FishFace@piefed.social 6 hours ago
If it’s successful, it won’t be rare.
Asafum@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Absolute scumbags
jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I put in for all 4 variants, got the 512 w/ controller.
I still haven’t seen the ordering email yet. I’m bummed because I really wanted the wood faceplate, but I’ll settle for the companion cube.
moijjo@europe.pub 9 hours ago
At least you got it. I asked for most expensive one, have over 15 years of steam stuff, probably quite high account value (in number of games and theor value). Zero results. None of my buddies have also gotten any email on topic.
ace@lemmy.ananace.dev 6 hours ago
Well, Valve did a randomization of the order queue. So your account value really shouldn’t matter
jordanlund@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I started with that and then clicked the other 3 when I found out it was a “best of” option.
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
Report them. ebay does not allow selling reservations.