[numlock86]

It sold out in less than an hour. Scalpers are at it again. Units are showing up for as much as $300 in resell-value already. What I don't get is why their shop page just gives me an "out of stock" panel, instead of the purchase button. Why won't they just let me buy and pay it, and have it ship whenever? Is having customers to regularly check for new stock (and potentially missing it) better than ... just having them buy it in advance like a pre-order? I really don't get it. Like wouldn't it even make for a better forecasting indicator when it comes to resupplying?

[fxwin]

> It sold out in less than an hour. Scalpers are at it again.

"Underpriced good at it again" would be more accurate.

[saghm]

God forbid a company want to sell something for a smaller profit than they can make by selling it only to the people with that most money

[fxwin]

I'm not performing any sort of moral judgement here, I'm using 'underpriced' to describe a good that is sold below its equilibrium pricetag. Companies are free to do what they like, but lower prices will always lead to scenarios like this, where these go out of stock before demand is satisfied, and this discrepancy is what allows scalpers to exist in the first place.

[wyager]

Is it more moral to allocate goods to the people who are willing to pay the most for them, or to the people who have good scalping bots/happen to get lucky

[seanjaii]

Is this question not ridiculous?

A company can make something without the need to be greedy. If you allow backordering like OP mentioned, it goes a good way to resolving the issue.

[saghm]

Agreed, it's an absurd false dichotomy

[parineum]

They could easily do both.

They could sell the first few for more and settle down to their normal price after a time.

There isn't sustainable demand for a $300 steam controller, that's why they didn't price it there, not because they didn't want to sell for a huge profit. Ther is, however, a much smaller market of people who will pay a premium to be first, hence the resellers.

[LelouBil]

It's not underpriced at all.

[fxwin]

then how can scalpers sell them for more money than the original asking price? also see my other comment cf use of the term and equilibrium price

[mock-possum]

I honestly don’t understand that world. I wanted one, I was willing to drop a hundred bucks on a controller I wanted but did not need - but they messed up the launch, they didn’t have enough supply to cover demand, so I shrugged and moved on with the my life.

Who is actually out there 1) buying up these controllers to scalp them and 2) who is actually buying them at an inflated price from scalpers?

Like what is the point, what fun is there in playing this game… when I’ve already got a controller I’m happy with? You know? Why worry about this?

[golph]

Valve is "messing up" all launches in my opinion if I go by your definition. They always are out of stock pretty fast. Look at the Steam Deck. To this day you have to check every day (at least in Germany) if there is any stock now.

For the scalpers part; I know a lot of people who would pull out a stack of money for anything Valve/Steam branded. I personally needed a new controller and when I saw the release date I set multiple alarms because at some point you just know how fast they’ll be sold out.

[ga_to]

In my (german) memory, I could buy my steam deck quite problem free. The supply issues only really started end of last year/start of this year, due to the global RAM shortages. Before that, I can't recall there being availability issues. (at least in germany)

[wtetzner]

Yeah, even in the US they were even on sale on multiple occasions.

[tacocataco]

> Like what is the point, what fun is there in playing this game…

I got to ask What made you want to live this kind of life?

He said, "There ain't no rest for the wicked

Money don't grow on trees I got bills to pay, I got mouths to feed There ain't nothing in this world for free

I know I can't slow down, I can't hold back Though you know, I wish I could Oh no, there ain't no rest for the wicked Until we close our eyes for good"

Cage The Elephant - "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Z0sON2UPc

[danpalmer]

...in the US. Other countries have stock.

[numlock86]

As a resident of Germany, I disagree.

[Melonai]

Yeah I'm pretty sure there's no stock around in every single region, at least according to this: https://www.steamhardwarestock.com/history

Note that they don't check every second so they might miss some smaller restocks (or really orders which got closed and resulted in a few more units being re-added, since the actual stock is fully gone).

I've been trying really hard to get this new Steam Controller, I've been dreaming about playing grand strategies from my bed on the TV, but using a mouse in the bed is awful! This controller is essentially made for me. No luck so far at all the last few days, despite spending quite a few hours checking every few seconds! Region is also Germany. I've given up until the next restock Valve has announced will come "soon", but I'm guessing I'll miss it because there's too many bots aimed at their store page, not even sure why to be frank, are there really thousands of people willing to spend 3x for a singular controller, even if it's a nice one? The market seems to indicate that.

[danpalmer]

It stayed in stock in other countries for longer than the US. I ordered mine late on Tuesday, many hours after it launched. Was quoted "6-10 business days" for delivery, and it arrived this morning, approx 3 days after ordering.