The day many gamers had circled on their calendars has come and gone, leaving a trail of frustration and inflated price tags. After months of rumors and anticipation, pre-orders for the highly anticipated ASUS ROG Ally X and the standard ROG Ally finally went live. However, the celebration was short-lived, as units vanished from major retailers in a matter of hours. Now, opportunistic scalpers are seizing the moment, listing the devices on online marketplaces like eBay for as much as $2,500—more than double the official retail price.
The situation highlights the intense demand for premium Windows gaming handhelds, but also raises questions about supply chain limitations and the ethics of the resale market in modern gaming.
A Feeding Frenzy for Pre-Orders
The more powerful model, the ROG Ally X, equipped with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor and a significant boost in RAM and battery life, carried a U.S. price tag of $999.99. Despite being a premium product, it proved to be the more popular of the two options, significantly outselling the $599.99 base model.
The demand became official when the official Xbox social media account posted a message on September 26th, announcing that the Ally X was already sold out on the Microsoft Store. The ASUS eShop quickly followed suit, listing the device as out of stock. For many U.S. customers, Best Buy appeared to be the last major retailer standing, though its pre-order inventory also dwindled rapidly, leaving many prospective buyers empty-handed.
The rapid sell-out has ignited a fierce debate within the gaming community. Is the demand for the ROG Ally X genuinely unprecedented, or are artificially low stock levels creating a false sense of scarcity? The phenomenon is reminiscent of the console wars of recent years, where PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X shortages were aggressively exploited by resellers using automated bots.
A Global Rollout with Uneven Availability
The picture isn't entirely consistent across the globe, suggesting that supply chain logistics are playing a major role. For instance, while the Asus UK store reported selling out almost immediately, the device remained available for pre-order in France and several other European countries for a longer period. This patchy availability fuels the argument that limited initial shipments, rather than purely overwhelming demand, are to blame for the quick sell-outs in key markets like the United States.
The competition in the space is also heating up. The recent excitement around Lenovo's upcoming Legion Go 2, which is also expected to feature a variant of the powerful AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, has been so high that Lenovo itself was forced to cancel some pre-orders due to overwhelming demand, indicating a thriving market for high-performance handheld PCs.
The Scalper's Playground
Regardless of the reason for the shortage, scalpers are wasting no time in capitalizing on it. A quick search on eBay reveals a flood of listings for the ROG Ally X, with "Buy It Now" prices commonly ranging from $1,500 to a staggering $2,500. While the vast majority of gamers would balk at such a premium, the platform has already recorded several completed sales, with one buyer committing $1,775 to secure a unit ahead of the official October 16th release date.
eBay's policy allows sellers to list pre-order items provided they can ship the product within 40 days of the purchase date, creating a legal, if controversial, avenue for this kind of resale. For gamers desperate to get their hands on the device day-one, the temptation to pay a scalper's ransom is a tough dilemma.
Looking Beyond the Hype
As the community waits for the October 16th release date to see how the ROG Ally X truly stacks up against competitors like the Steam Deck OLED and the original Legion Go, some are questioning the long-term value. While the device offers a incredibly convenient way to access the full Xbox Game Pass library and other PC storefronts, its exclusive advantages might be short-lived.
Microsoft has announced plans to license its "Xbox experience" to other handheld manufacturers, meaning devices like the MSI Claw A8 and the Lenovo Legion Go 2 could offer a very similar, if not identical, console-like interface by 2026. This long-game strategy from Microsoft suggests that the battlefield for handheld gaming dominance is just beginning, and today's must-have device could be tomorrow's footnote.
For now, the advice for disappointed gamers is simple: exercise patience. Retailers are expected to receive more stock around and after the official launch date. Paying a scalper’s premium not only hurts your wallet but also incentivizes a practice that ruins launch day for genuine fans. The real game with the ROG Ally X, it seems, is being played on the resale market before the device is even in anyone’s hands.
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