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this post was submitted on 10 May 2026
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People have/buy old Steam accounts anyway, it wouldn't really do a whole lot. The best way I can think of giving the stock to legit customers would be giving priority to people who have bought Valve hardware before and have verifiably used it on their account... but any account could be a scalper, anyone could choose to do it whenever.
Whatever system they use, some people will feel it is unfair. A queue system is easiest and most neutral, first come first serve, but still lets you guarantee a chance at some point. It negates scalping a bit, because there's less value to scalp a device people are just queued for.
Honestly though, scalping isn't as big of an issue as people think it is, especially on higher priced devices. Most of the devices you "missed out" on, are just bought by other legitimate customers, the demand is just high for these.
Just add a stipulation that it has to be an active account with some guidelines.
Yeah, keeping it simple is best. Im sure they could use their trust factor system if they really wanted. It just obviously isnt that big of a concern for them, the queue system is to mitigate people having to spam refresh Steam all day, not to stop scalpers.
Search ebay for steam controller my dude
It's nothing compared to how many are actually sold.
Most are from Australia, so seems its one specific group there doing it. Ignoring them, the majority of listings are the original Steam Controller.
Scalping is always blown out of proportion because people are disappointed and upset they didnt get one. Yes it's an issue, but you most likely missed out because of regular demand.
Are that many people going to buy old steam accounts just to buy this hardware? I can't see that being a big thing either. I still think account age is the way to go here
No, but people who plan to do this, will set themselves up in that way.
As I mentioned, from a quick look on ebay, most of the scalped controllers are shipped from Australia, that tells me it's one person or a group there conducting an operation. They will make sure they have as much chance as they can to buy, which means having old accounts, having them active, making purchases on them etc.
It's not just one person deciding to do it on a whim most of the time, it's completely preplanned.