Valve may start selling refurbished Steam Decks (Update: Sales have gone live)

Update, August 8, 2023 (3:41 PM ET): Valve has now officially announced its “Certified Refurbished” Steam Decks. According to the announcement, these Steam Decks have been “fully tested at Valve facilities and come with the same 1-year warranty as a new Deck.” The 64 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB models are selling for $319, $419, and $519, respectively. Valve warns that there may be minor cosmetic defects. You can check out the official page to order a unit while supplies last.

Original article: Valve’s Steam Deck is a great way to play PC games away from your desktop, that is, if you have the money for it. These handheld PCs can be quite expensive, but you may be able to get one at a discount soon.

On Monday, SteamDB-creator Pavel Djundik discovered listings on the Steam database for “Certified Refurbished” Steam Decks that would be sold at a discount. However, it appears Valve wasn’t quite ready to make this announcement, as the company immediately pulled the listings off of the database.

Fortunately, the listings stayed up just long enough for users to take screenshots. According to the screenshots, these refurbished Steam Decks were priced at $319, $419, and $519 for the 64 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB models, respectively. Normally, these Steam Deck models sell for $399, $529, and $649.

As pointed out by PC Gamer, these prices likely aren’t the final price. However, these discounts appear to mirror the discounts that were available during the most recent sale. As for availability, it seems the refurbished systems will only be available for purchase in the US, Canada, and Europe.

If Valve does decide to start selling refurbished Steam Decks, that would potentially give the device an additional advantage over its closest competitor, the ASUS ROG Ally. The cheapest ROG Ally model is only $50 less than the most expensive Steam Deck model, selling at $600. So a discounted version of the Steam Deck could get the device in more hands.