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ajmurmann • today at 7:00 PM • 4 replies • view on HN

Does it solve scalping? It seems like there is still money in sighing up with the goal to resell. Granted this is better in that I don't have to race the scalpers.

Till the sales price matches the market value scalping will exist. The best way to address that is a vickery auction. Till then scalping will continue.

Replies

Xirdus • today at 7:08 PM

"Customers must meet the following criteria to be able to sign up:

    You must have a Steam account in good standing.

    You must have made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27th 2026.

    Limit one signup per household. We will use payment method, shipping address, and other information to eliminate multiple entries."
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caconym_ • today at 7:10 PM

I assume scalpers are often much better at getting through a heavily contested purchase flow (eg the recent steam controller release) due to tools like bots, general experience, and being able to dedicate 20 minutes or more to sitting at a computer constantly refreshing a browser window.

This way it's just a random draw and (I think?) the number of accounts scalpers can enter with is limited because they need to be established. So it might not solve scalping, but it could be a significant improvement.

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unholiness • today at 9:27 PM

It doesn't solve scalping, it solves putting everyone in a Red Queen race[0] against the scalpers.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen%27s_race

nehal3m • today at 7:07 PM

I think account age and activity should be weighted into that equation.

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