How the tracker works
Where the data comes from
The only source is the Steam store itself. A small job asks Steam for the stock of every Valve hardware product in every country where Steam sells it, every 10 minutes. It uses the same public store data the Steam website uses. Nothing comes from resellers, rumours or user reports.
Each country is checked on its own, because Steam stocks, prices and queues are per country. When a status changes, the change is saved to the stock history and the product pages are rebuilt.
In Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Valve sells some hardware through Komodo, its official distributor, instead of the Steam store. Those pages link to Komodo.
What each status means
- In stock
- Steam reports units you can buy now in that country.
- Reservations open
- Steam takes reservations. You are emailed when you can place the order.
- Waitlist
- Steam has a queue and you would join the back of it. You get a chance to buy only after the people ahead of you.
- Out of stock
- Steam sells it in that country but shows no units right now.
- Not sold here
- Steam does not sell this product in that country.
Reservations and waitlists work differently for each product. Each product page has a short explanation, with a link to Valve's own page.
What it cannot tell you
- Your own place in a reservation queue or waitlist. Only your Steam account shows that.
- Stock that appears and sells out between two checks.
- Shipping dates. Steam shows those at checkout.
Prices are Steam's local prices from the last build. When Steam gives no price for a country, no price is shown.
Alerts
The live tracker can watch the products and countries you pick and alert you in the browser when one changes. The alert works while the tracker is open in a tab. You can also install the site as an app from your browser menu.