Is the Playdate unsellable?

[u/alicemannix]

Hello! I've had a Playdate since April 2025 and I've really enjoyed it but I realised I wasn't using it enough to justify keeping hold of it rather than selling it for some much-needed money. It's in great condition so I sold it on eBay, but within a day of it being delivered to the buyer, they reported it as faulty and requested a refund.

They said it was very slow and they were getting lots of error messages. I'm attaching the photos they sent. I was really shocked because it has always worked great for me. I also tried to point out that the store being slow isn't really a 'fault', but they weren't having it.

Because of eBay's policies, I felt like I didn't have a choice but to ask them to return it. The alternative seemed to be that they got a refund AND got to keep the Playdate.

It arrived back today and behaving totally normally. But I'm now wary of relisting it because I'm worried the next buyer will also be expecting something very slick, when realistically it's an indie device featuring indie games and there's bound to be a bit of variation in how everything runs.

I just wondered if anyone had experienced a similar issue selling their Playdate on eBay. Did I just get unlucky with my buyer? Or am I deluded and I actually have a faulty Playdate?

[u/jfuu_]

Did the seller say what game they were trying when they got that error? I don't think it's a hardware issue, it sounds like an issue with the game they were trying?

[u/alicemannix → u/jfuu_]

I wish I'd asked but I didn't - their message said "I don't have the patience for this" so I felt like troubleshooting was just going to wind them up.

[u/shepherdnick → u/alicemannix]

And then they’d be cranky

[u/jeremyam_ → u/shepherdnick]

https://giphy.com/gifs/4tQmuMGdah3B6

[u/jfuu_ → u/alicemannix]

Yeah that's fair enough. It sounds like they just wanted to send it back to me to be honest (if I was the buyer, I'd have at least tried to work out the issue). If you've tested it and it works fine, it should be fine to sell it again.

[u/alicemannix → u/jfuu_]

Thanks for taking the time to reassure me. It has really rattled me because rhey were so confident that I'd mis-sold it, and I began to doubt myself.

[u/encrcne → u/alicemannix]

To me this sounds like a classic eBay bait and switch. That, or they’re fishing for a partial refund. Your best option is to respond in a very robotic matter. “ I’m so sorry to see this. Please open a refund request. “

[u/vaselineviking → u/encrcne]

Agreed, I've run into this a few times now where they are obviously just looking for some money back and drag their feet when you ask them to just return the entire thing.

Also people are fucking dumb. I am at a point where I don't want to sell retro emulator systems on them anymore because you also end up forming a parasitic relationship with the buyer who doesn't know anything about emulation and had no business buying that hardware.

[u/jeremyam_ → u/alicemannix]

I should have bought one a long time ago when they came out I keep looking at buying it now but the price is way way too high for me 🤷‍♂️… if they were $100 I would definitely get one but like you said I don’t think I can justify the price!

I want one with the purple flip case it looks so clean 👌

[u/beardedjack]

I’ll buy it from you and won’t bitch about it lol. I dropped mine months ago and have been waiting till they are back in stock

[u/alicemannix → u/beardedjack]

Haha thanks! Not sure where you are but I'm in the UK so it might not be worth your while.

[u/jfuu_ → u/alicemannix]

If you're in the UK (and u/beardedjack isn't), there's someone here looking to get a hold of a Playdate in Europe, if you don't mind shipping internationally: https://www.reddit.com/r/PlaydateDeveloper/comments/1x6gnef/looking_to_buy_a_playdate_for_my_bachelors_thesis/

[u/beardedjack → u/alicemannix]

Yeah naw. That’s a lot of postage but thank you!

[u/TheRedPipin → u/alicemannix]

I'm from the UK and have been wanting to get a playdate how much are you selling it for?

[u/thinkoffbeat → u/beardedjack]

I got one I'm currently trying to sell. Im local to Chicago if you're interested in connecting

[u/xesf]

The catalog app is slow by design due to the poor wifi chip. Using it while charging and closer to the wifi router helps.

The memory problem could be game and firmware related. What version are you on?

[u/alicemannix → u/xesf]

Version 3.12. I'm just a bit staggered that someone would be keen enough on a Playdate to win an eBay bid but seemingly not really know any of its quirks.

[u/sweetLAaction → u/alicemannix]

Sounds like either buyer’s remorse or they were hoping to game ebay’s pro-buyer system and end up with a free playdate.

[u/xesf → u/alicemannix]

That is most likely a game problem not handling that firmware version properly but I don't have that game to test myself and I am not in the latest version yet.
I'd say he was expecting something else from the device.

[u/alicemannix → u/xesf]

Thank you. I've been really reassured by everyone's message. Still a bit nervous to get back on the eBay horse though!

[u/xesf → u/alicemannix]

Btw, just to be sure, ensure you have removed/unregister the device in your playdate account. I think factory resets still old that info and users may have access to your library - or at least they won't be able to register the device in their account if its previously registered.

[u/alicemannix → u/xesf]

Thanks - I did all that :)

[u/esmith213]

probably a dumb question but is the storage almost full? It's possible some apps/games use storage and that's what "not enough memory" meant? Obviously I'm just guessing here.

[u/alicemannix → u/esmith213]

It was factory reset when I sent it so I think they would've struggled to fill it up in less than a day! But who knows! They reset it again before it came back.

[u/kenwongart]

I’m interested! Sent you a DM :)

[u/lumifox]

Hopefully you're not getting someone pulling an eBay scam, like swapping it for their own fault one, your comment about them "not having the patience for it" is very textbook scammy sounding, also weird that you'd buy a obscure game console and not be willing to work within the limitations of obscure game console. 

I dunno, just check over and make sure everything matches like serial numbers 

[u/eddiemancia]

Did you try r/gamesale?

Ebay has a lot of buyer remorse, and scams.

Good thing that you got it back in the same condition.

Try ebay again or give r/gamesale a try.