Steam Deck Listings (Briefly) Disappeared from eBay

It seems like eBay has finally drawn a line in the sand when it comes to scalping popular electronics. Eurogamer today reported the company had removed listings for Valve's upcoming Steam Deck handheld gaming device from its marketplace.

Valve officially announced the Steam Deck on July 15 and started to accept reservations for the device on July 16. Those reservations give their owners the ability to purchase a Steam Deck for themselves within a specific delivery window.

Scalpers were quick to sell their reservations on eBay. Listings for the base model Steam Deck, which has an MSRP of $399, reached as high as $800 just a few days after reservations opened. The high-end model was going for as much as $5,000.

Now those listings have been removed from eBay. But scalpers have been using the platform to sell graphics cards, next-gen consoles, and other electronics with similar markups for months without obstruction. So what makes the Steam Deck different?

Spoiler alert: It's not because the scalpers were charging 10x as much as Valve for the Steam Deck or because it wasn't clear if they were selling the reservation or the device itself. An eBay spokesperson told Eurogamer it's because of its presale policy.

"To comply with eBay's presale policy, listings must clearly indicate that they are 'presale' items and must guarantee postage within 30 days of purchase," eBay said. "As the Steam Deck is not expected to ship until next year, these listings are in violation of our presale policy, we are working to remove all listings of the product."

Steam Deck eBay listing

(Image credit: Future)

Once the Steam Deck's release window is closer, well, scalpers will be able to list the device for whatever price they want once again. Not that eBay's system is foolproof; we already found a listing for the high-end Steam Deck with a $2,200 asking price. 

For anyone who doesn't want to spend that much on a handheld gaming device, Valve is continuing to offer Steam Deck reservations. Just be warned that current pre-orders won't offer that sweet, sweet 720p gaming goodness until late 2022. 

Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

Read more
GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
Data suggests RTX 5090 prices are slowly stabilizing — The average selling price on eBay has dropped to $4,000
ETA PRIME on YouTube using the AyaNeo Flip DS' bottom screen to adjust TDP mid-gameplay on the top screen.
Ayaneo Flip DS & KB was canceled mid-production — only some units exist, the rest won't come
GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
RTX 5090 scalpers sell Blackwell flagship GPU for up to $7,000 — 2X-3X scalper markup over MSRP
screenshot of AMD RX 9070XT listing on Amazon listed at more than $2,000
AMD's 9000-series GPUs sell for up to $2,000 as opportunistic scalpers take control
Crastinator-Pro's Steam Brick
Modder creates the Steam Brick — a stripped-down Steam Deck with only a power button and a USB
Best Gaming Handhelds
Best PC Gaming Handhelds 2025: Windows and Steam Decks
Latest in Handheld Gaming
Official renders of the Ayaneo Flip KB (left) and Ayaneo Flip DS (right).
Ayaneo Flip DS and Flip KB aren't dead after all — Ayaneo claims a misunderstanding
ETA PRIME on YouTube using the AyaNeo Flip DS' bottom screen to adjust TDP mid-gameplay on the top screen.
Ayaneo Flip DS & KB was canceled mid-production — only some units exist, the rest won't come
Ink Console e-ink handheld console
Interactive e-book brings choose your own adventure books to the 21st century
Steam Deck OLED
Valve shoots down rumors of RDNA4-based Steam Console — it routinely tests new hardware that isn't put into its own devices
Asus ROG Ally
Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is available for a record-low price of $449
Ayaneo 3 showing controller modules
Zen 5-powered gaming handheld launches with modular controller design — Ayaneo 3 starts at $699
Latest in News
Nvidia Ada Lovelace and GeForce RTX 40-Series
Nvidia is reportedly close to adopting Intel Foundry's 18A process node for gaming GPUs
RX 9070 XT Sapphire
Lisa Su says Radeon RX 9070-series GPU sales are 10X higher than its predecessors — for the first week of availability
RTX 5070, RX 9070 XT, Arc B580
Real-world GPU prices cost up to twice the MSRP — a look at current FPS per dollar values
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 5090 AMP Extreme Infinity
Zotac raises RTX 5090 prices by 20% and seemingly eliminates MSRP models
ASRock fixes AM5 motherboard by cleaning it
ASRock claims to fix 'burned out' AM5 motherboard by cleaning the socket
ChatGPT Security
Some ChatGPT users are addicted and will suffer withdrawal symptoms if cut off, say researchers