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Scalpers, the scourge of anyone trying to buy a graphics card or console have now decided to move onto the Steam Deck too and so the cycle continues. Anyone surprised? We're guessing not at all.

Valve did make a few steps to try and combat them but it seems not enough. Although, there is only so many ways you can stop people doing it. For the first 48 hours, Valve made sure only users who had purchased something on Steam before June 2021 could order one and there is a small reservation fee too.

The question is, why go to a scalper at all? Valve are still taking reservations. Well, take a look at ebay and you'll see plenty of listings like these:

The problem stems from availability, as always (and some countries can't even order them officially). Even if you put down a reservation for a unit now, you're looking at long wait times. Our unit for the top-end model isn't due to arrive until Q1 2022, so no matter what coverage from us will be after others (since it's unlikely Valve will provide a review unit, we had to ensure we got one). For people going to order right now, the top-end model is telling us it won't be available until Q3 2022, same for the mid-range model and the bottom model in Q1 2022. So, people might be tempted to pay a scalper to get one earlier but it's quite the markup on the price in some cases as you can see above.

Even if you have a reservation down, Valve aren't actually guaranteeing you'll even get one. In their FAQ on the bottom of the order page it mentions: "We are aiming to start sending order invitations by December 2021. We will make every effort to convert all reservations to orders but we are not able to guarantee availability.".

It goes without saying but we will anyway: don't enable scalpers, don't use them.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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14 comments
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damarrin Jul 19, 2021
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Human nature, innit (both scalpers and their clients in this case). Also see microtransactions and the insane amounts some spend on them.
Mal Jul 19, 2021
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Postage included. It's a steal!
rustybroomhandle Jul 19, 2021
Doesn't eBay have a rule about not being allowed to sell things you don't actually own?
jrt Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: rustybroomhandleDoesn't eBay have a rule about not being allowed to sell things you don't actually own?

I think it is preorders only ~30 days prior to shipping or something similar.
eBay seems to remove a lot of the offers. On the German eBay are only two offers left and both are posted a few minutes ago.
BlackBloodRum Jul 19, 2021
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Already got my 512GB reserved, did so the first chance I got 😃

I had a rare thing for me to happen, decided instantly to buy it 😂

😃Also successfully managed to have an argument about it when I told someone online about buying it with a Windows fan boy. It was about whether it's worth the money since Linux sucks all round apparently and Windows could not run games so well with this device. So the device is going to be a failure according to him.

So that reinforced my decision to buy this device. So now I have multiple reasons to buy it. 😂


Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 19 July 2021 at 9:52 am UTC
BielFPs Jul 19, 2021
Fortunately we don't have this problem here where I live, because besides the fact that they are not even selling here the official one is already too expensive for us to be able to buy

Take that first worlders


Last edited by BielFPs on 19 July 2021 at 12:47 pm UTC
Mohandevir Jul 19, 2021
In other news...

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-arm-powered-gaming-laptops-ray-tracing-dlss-proof/

Seems there is a lot of movement on the Linux gaming front...


Last edited by Mohandevir on 19 July 2021 at 1:20 pm UTC
kokoko3k Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: MohandevirIn other news...

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-arm-powered-gaming-laptops-ray-tracing-dlss-proof/

Seems there is a lot of movement on the Linux gaming front...

Yes indeed, and the timing seems pretty suspicious to me, considering Valve went totally Amd and x86.
Let's see what (if anything) will happen!
After all nvidia provided several Proton/dxvk fixes in the past, and since it shares large codebase with Windows gpu drivers and I assume they are not that interested in dxvk under Windows,I wonder why...




Last edited by kokoko3k on 19 July 2021 at 1:56 pm UTC
Mohandevir Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: MohandevirIn other news...

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-arm-powered-gaming-laptops-ray-tracing-dlss-proof/

Seems there is a lot of movement on the Linux gaming front...

Yes indeed, and the timing is pretty suspicious to me, considering Valve went totally Amd and x86.
Let's see what (if anything) will happen!

Might not be suspicious that much... Valve might even had talk with Nvidia... It's just that AMD is open source and Valve can contribute to the project directly. Nvidia, on the other hand, by it's proprietary nature, is on it's own. Similar to what happened with the Shield.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 19 July 2021 at 1:56 pm UTC
kokoko3k Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: Mohandevir
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: MohandevirIn other news...

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-arm-powered-gaming-laptops-ray-tracing-dlss-proof/

Seems there is a lot of movement on the Linux gaming front...

Yes indeed, and the timing is pretty suspicious to me, considering Valve went totally Amd and x86.
Let's see what (if anything) will happen!

Might not be suspicious that much... Valve might even had talk with Nvidia... It's just that AMD is open source and Valve can contribute to the project directly. Nvidia, on the other hand, by it's proprietary nature, is on it's own. Similar to what happened with the Shield.

Well, it seems that the gpu amd developed was done specifically for the Steam Deck console, so i suppose the agreement Valve-Amd was done long time ago, presumably much before nvidia provided specific fixes or new features like dlss for Linux.
Or maybe it is just that Nvidia trusts that the Linux gaming market will get a big boost, like everyone here is hoping.

Anyway, good news :)


Last edited by kokoko3k on 19 July 2021 at 2:03 pm UTC
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