Scalpers Are Effectively Doubling the Cost of Valve’s Steam Machine
It’s only been a week since Valve opened reservations for its hotly anticipated Steam Machine, but scalpers are already listing the compact PCs at ridiculous markups. Buyers who will be among the first to receive the Steam Machine are now listing their reservation rights on resale platforms like eBay, TechPowerUp reports.
The Steam Machine officially starts at $1,049 and goes up to $1,428, depending on storage and whether a Steam Controller is bundled. But the resale listings tend to start at around $1,700, sometimes topping $2,900 for the 2TB variant.
Valve already had to bump the Steam Machine’s price before its release, due to component cost increases driven by AI data center demand. The company hoped to limit resellers by using a randomized reservation queue, requiring existing Steam accounts with prior purchases, and enforcing a one-unit-per-household limit. But when there’s scarcity, there are scalpers, regardless of how much consideration is taken on the seller’s end.
As with any reseller listing, buying a Steam Machine through a one-off third party comes with risks, and Valve will not be able to provide support if something goes wrong.
