It might be harder than you think to buy a Steam Deck OLED from Valve, particularly if you’re a new Steam account owner. In an attempt to prevent scalpers from getting hands on the Steam Deck OLED only to sell it at a higher price, Valve is outright canceling orders it thinks are suspicious, or asking for additional info before allowing the unit to ship.
It’s no secret that we rate the Steam Deck OLED as one of the best handheld gaming PCs, and you can only buy them brand new directly from Valve. While this could be viewed as limiting the market, it does allow for anti-scalper measures to be properly implemented like they are in this situation.
This issue of Valve canceling legitimate purchases isn’t something you need to worry about if your Steam account has been active for some time and has a few games that you have sunk some playtime into. This was also the case when the Steam Deck LCD launched.
According to one Reddit user, Evillan79, their order was canceled and refunded by Valve recently. Upon putting this question to the Steam Deck community, it became clear that this purchase was made on a clean Steam account. This triggered Valve’s scalper/scammer alarm, and the purchase was rejected and refunded.
Other users came forward with their own experiences with Valve’s security countermeasures. Some stated that they were asked for additional information before the purchase could be completed.
One standout response claimed that despite opening a new account, their purchase went through with no issues whatsoever, so does this mean that Valve’s security let one slip?
Not quite, the user went on the claim they purchased using Steam Wallet credit, so Valve wouldn’t have stopped this transaction given that once the money was loaded into the account, there is no way of it leaving the Valve ecosystem.
The lesson to take from this is that if you want a Steam Deck OLED, use an account that has a few games and some playtime attached to it before trying to buy a $700 handheld as the first purchase.
Already got your hands on a Steam Deck and need some inspiration for what to play? Check out our best Steam Deck games guide to see which ones run best on Valve’s pocket powerhouse.