Steam Machine Reservations Hit Ebay As Desperate Buyers Pay Up To $2,900
Valve has begun sending out email notifications to randomly selected users who have been placed into a reservation queue for its upcoming Steam Machine release, and some recipients are turning their spots in line into thousands of dollars on eBay. Or put another way, scalping season for the Steam Machine has begun in earnest.
The way it works is, you can request to join the waitlist for one of four Steam Machine packages. They include:
- Steam Machine with 512GB: $1,049
- Steam Machine with 512GB + Controller: $1,128
- Steam Machine with 2TB: $1,349
- Steam Machine with 2TB + Controller: $1,428
Valve's email to interested parties who have been selected for the first wave of shipments suggest that it is a random selection.
"This is the only email you will receive about the results of the randomization. If you ended up with a reservation queue spot for more than one model, you were allocated a reservation for the highest end model, and were removed from all the others," the email states.
I received one myself for the base Steam Machine with 512GB, no controller included, and have no intention of flipping it on eBay. Others are going that route, though, and a look at completed listings indicates that desperate (and well to do) buyers are so far willing to pay up to $2,899 for a Steam Machine, plus an additional fee for shipping.
It also does not seem to matter which version of the Steam Machine gets listed, they are all commanding top dollar. For example, the highest selling price so far is a 2TB model without a controller that sold for $2,899 plus $15.56 for shipping, which amounts to around a 115% markup. Two spots down, a Steam Machine with 512GB and also without a controller fetched $2,800, which is a 167% markup.
The caveat is that there is no way of knowing if the buyer followed through with a payment or if there is a campaign to fight back against scalpers. Given the current climate, however, it would not be surprising if every sold listing is legit.
These are tough times for consumers. Valve's Steam Machine pricing landed higher than what many hoped—around 30% higher than originally planned, according to some reports—and it's because of a mass shortage of key components, especially memory and storage. Likewise, we have seen price increases across the board. Apple, which for a long time avoided buckling, rolled out sweeping price increases on Macs, iPads, and other devices, and Microsoft just announced its third price hike in a little over a year for its Xbox consoles, which shot up another $100 to $150.
