This basically makes the vendor the scalper, and the public would react accordingly.

Right, I think the problem with a lot of the economics-based analyses in this thread is that they rely on the assumption that Valve ought to, or wants to, sell the device at its market value.

	▲	WarmWash a day ago \| parent [-]
		High volume on low margin is an extremely good way to make money. It's very naive to think the easy way to get rich is to price gouge. It's actually often the worst.

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rb666 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ticketmaster does this, and they are still around.

	▲	jojobas 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They are around because they control most of live venues and major bands don't care enough to fight. There are many ways to play steam games that don't involve buying nearly standard PC hardware at a premium.