I keep repeating this every time scalping comes up: The best way to turn a scalper into a bag holder is to not buy what they’re peddling.
Scalpers put the items multiple times to ebay, with the intention to make the general price high, and also giving a “cheaper” option that looks like a deal. Even if its still higher than the original price. Getting the controller for 220 sounds like you got a good deal if most other sell it for 400. And there will always be people with more money in their pocket than the rest, who do not care what effects it has when purchasing it from the scalpers.
Hope all the scalpers lose money.
Four times. I’ve seen a listing marked as sold with a price of $400
You can sock puppet your own eBay listening to create “social proof”
I’m hoping nobody is actually paying $400 for an open box controller with no warranty…
You know what can’t be scalped? Open source: https://inputlabs.io/
An article about a reddit post blaming scalpers…
Demand was high, so it sold out. There are definitely scalpers but the percentage of real buyers is probably way higher.
Without hard numbers it’s all speculation either way.
True but if you look on eBay there aren’t nearly enough postings as to suggest scalpers grabbed all of them.
And gamers, the group of consumers known for their patience, will wait for the stock to be refilled in a month or so rather than making the scalpers worth their efforts.
I didn’t see that coming actually. I love my steamdeck but I felt that the price for this controller was a bit to high. But it’s great to see valve succeeding here, they make great stuff.
In my region, I managed to get it about 90 min after the launch. I had to click continue 100 times, then put the baby to sleep, and click for anther 200 times, but managed.
then put the baby to sleep
For a second there, I thought Steam had implemented a weird new CAPTCHA.
“To prove you’re a human, live a fulfilling life”
I managed to get one but I also checked resale sites in my area and was happily surprised to see that there’s yet to be a single one up for resale by a scalper.
That being said, I did see someone trying to resale the OG Steam Controller for $250 which is hilarious considering all the other listings for it are between $30-100.
Why wouldn’t they limit the number of controller you can by with one account, if scalpers are really the issue here
I saw an interview of two valve employees who said that the reason the controller took so long to come out was them wanting to make sure they had enough stock among some other things.
So I reckon they either didn’t expect to sell such a massive volume in such a short amount of time or have means to quickly restock
This success is a good news for gaming.
