If that's what you actually wanted then Valve could just sell them at auction and at least have the money going to the company actually making the thing instead of a useless middleman.

Moreover, that's what happens anyway. If you get one of the slots and you value the difference between what you paid and the "real" (resale) price more than you value having the console, you can still sell it. But then more of the money goes to ordinary customers rather than rewarding people who snipe with bots etc.

I would also point out that you can build a PC to run SteamOS with approximately the same specs for approximately the same price, so it's not clear who is going to be paying a significant premium over the sticker price instead of doing that if they don't get a slot.

Not hard to imagine minimum wage workers wanting some gaming console quite badly and being outbid by tech workers who are vaguely interested.

As an adult I have rarely wanted things as badly as I did when I was a kid. But I can sure outbid them.

I think you might actually be maximally wrong, as those with means have plenty of entertainment options compared to those without.

Scalping adds no value to the product.

Scalping also actively damages the pricing, which is part of the product. Valve wants to sell this product at a specific price, which is targeted to an audience. By scalping and ultimately changing the price, you are hurting both the consumer, who now pays more, and the company, who doesn't see a cent of this increase and is now failing its target.

Scalping also damages the demand for the product, since it creates a submarket that is volatile and unpredictable.

Scalping is a bad thing because by basically any measure, a market with scalping is worse for everybody involved than one with scalping. Except for scalpers, who make money off it by making it worse for everybody else. Which is why scalpers are bad people.

Some people argues that, but that's not how scalping works because it first chokes the supply to create a fake demand. The scalper listing prices don't represent the true price on supply-demand curve had there not been artificial meddling through published MSRP, but merely how forcefully they managed to choke the life of the product.

They buy up ALL the stocks. Then puts them on auction sites after supply had hit as close to zero as possible. That's not how economics work by the books.

This would only make sense if everyone has equal ability to pay.

If you can't see the human effects scalping has on the market, then, well, you might be a microeconomist

That's just bad ragebait

Something that only benefits people with the most disposable income is a bad thing. I will preach from any platform that I have that scalpers are shit people.

Absolutely no one needs a steam machine.

You are right. Basic economic theory says nothing about distribution of value, only about creation of the most value. I don't know why your comment is grey.

But... perhaps these guys are playing a longer game? Reputation has value as well and from other comments this move seems to boost reputation significantly.

Scalper:by increasing prices we add the value of enabling people to express their desire more faithfully.

A sound economic theory after we grant the assumption that all consumers have equal amounts of money.