What you need to know
- Currently, Valve only sells brand new Steam Decks but that looks like it could be changing in the future.
- Refurbished Decks hit Steam long enough to be collected by SteamDB.
- Prices look set to resemble the discounts recently offered in the Steam Summer Sale.
- UPDATE: This is now confirmed, and rolling out now. Head over here to see if you can score a Steam Deck for less.
UPDATE: Since publication, the official Valve Steam Deck Refurbished store page has gone live. See below for pricing!
Original article:
The recent Steam Summer Sale offered the first significant discounts on Steam Deck hardware since its release and now it looks like further, more permanent opportunities may be on the way.
As reported by Pavel Djundik, the brains behind the most excellent SteamDB resource, all signs point to Valve planning to sell "certified refurbished" Steam Decks.
Seems like Valve gonna sell 'certified refurbished' Steam Decks at a discount64GB - 319$256GB - 419$512GB - 519$ https://t.co/RdqCj42liSAugust 7, 2023
There's nothing currently live on the Steam store for such hardware, but the information hit just long enough for SteamDB to pick it up. Djundik reports that the prices will start at $319 for the entry 64GB model, rising to $519 for the top-end 512GB SSD version with the anti-glare screen. These prices resemble the recent discounts that caused the Deck to go out of stock pretty quickly. Still, a sizeable enough discount over the price of a new one.
Refurbished of course doesn't mean new, but if you were going to buy such a thing then Valve would be the only place you'd want to. The Steam Deck is highly repairable, and Valve has had an excellent return and replace policy for faulty hardware. There's probably a decent stash of units by now that can be refurbished and resold rather than adding to e-waste.
What else do we know? Well, again, according to the SteamDB listing, refurbished Decks won't be available everywhere. Regional restrictions look set to apply and these so far look exclusive to Europe and North America. Speaking from a European perspective, too, you would expect a decent warranty on even a refurbished unit, after all, there are laws protecting consumers.
