Buying a Steam Deck OLED directly from US using BuyandShip

 

Just want to share as a guide or forewarning about ordering a Steam Deck OLED directly from the US. The post is a copy-paste from my own reddit post (in Filipino).

Preface: the plan of buying the OLED happened around January 2024

Steps and preparations I did before purchasing through the Steam Store US:

1. fully verified GCash account and activated the GCash AMEX virtual card; will be using this at the US Steam Store

2. About sa Steam Account, need mo talaga ng looks legit na steam US account. Gumamit ako VPN and signed-up sa browser ng account, hoping that the VPN US IP address is not flagged as VPN traffic. Then after the email verification and added some info na pwede ilagay, disconnected sa VPN and logged in with steam client to continue to complete some details and profile. Use the GCash AMEX to purchase at least $5 worth na game, then activate the steam guard (ginamit ko lang PH mobile number ko). Tapos wait roughly 10-15 days to check and observe if babawiin ung transaction and lapse the period na need activated ung steam guard. Yung billing address na gamitin mo is basically the US address info shown ni GCash for the AMEX card.

3. If wala pa buyandship account, sign-up for one and complete the instructions for you to get your own member ID and address you will use for shipping information. Yung portland address ang gamitin para tax-free yung purchase na gagawin mo.

4. Given wala naging problema yung 1st purchase mo and still appearing in US$ yung steam store pag login ka duon with client app na hindi naka-VPN, the next big step is to do the purchase nung mismong Deck. Make sure yung information ng address ni buyandship ang mailagay mo as shipping address and should exactly be the same. Wag mo piliin ung "recommended" address and stick with the one you encoded.

5. Pray na lumusot at maging successful yung purchase. Pag umabot na sa stage na for shipment na siya at tracking number, hindi pa siya ang endgame mo. It seems may instances na bawiin nila if mapansin nila anomalous ung transaction origin or duda sa shipping address information.

6. Pag may tracking number na, you would need that to submit kay buyandship to lodge your incoming parcel.

Given all is still well at shipped-out na siya (mine was via FedEx from CA to OR), had to wait na dumating siya mismo kay buynship, with matching bantay sa fedex tracking at whether mag-update si buynship na received parcel na talaga on their end.

Some add'l info to consider:

• conversion rate ni GCash ay kung ano man current market rate... +3 pesos. So yung bili ko eh rate was 55.4, sa conversion ni GCash eh lumalabas 58.4/$. For better math appreciation, $550 would be equivalent to +1650 pesos offset dahil sa exchange rate, $650 would be +1950 pesos.

• in a way risky ang pag-ship nung commodity and warranty might be the trouble. As of writing this post, eh inaantay ko pa nga dumating sa HK warehouse ni buyandship yung parcel ko. Even with their add-on na mala insurance (+1050) you still can't say how well things will go.

• Baka by now, si buyandship eh nag-aalok na ng pasabuy ng steam deck OLED via Komodo Japan at a reasonable markup inclusive of shipping to Manila.

All this in hopes na nakatipid ng 4k man lang (for either 512gb or 1TB OLED model) after landed cost vs. sa mga benta na price ni DB or GamExtreme

So ayun, kung hindi makati ang palad at willing to wait mala-jollibee champ or mcdo chicken, antayin nyo na lang magbaha ng stock sa HK or Japan at baka mas mura pa.

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TLDR

Cost breakdown and landed cost:

• Steam Deck 1TB OLED model - $649 = PHP 38,030.50 (approx 58.4/$ conversion GCash AMEX)

• BuyandShip freight to Manila - PHP 2180 less 400 thanks to BDO promotion

• BuyandShip+ insurance - PHP 1083

• TOTAL LANDED COST: PHP 40,893.50

Timeline:

• Purchased Steam Deck @ Store - Dec 23

• Departed from Valve Warehouse - Dec 29

• Arrived at BuyandShip Oregon - Jan 2

• Arrived at BuyandShip HK - Jan 8

• ETA Manila - swerte na kung Jan 15

• TOTAL DURATION: almost a month

Disable the screen resolution dialog for Paw Patrol On a Roll Game (Steam)

 If you are a loving parent/tech-uncle who just wants to make your child have a seamless way to play the "Paw Patrol On a Roll" game purchased from Steam and you either use Steam Link or Steam Deck, the window dialog asking about the screen resolution can sometimes become a nuisance.

There's an old discussion thread on the Steam page of the said game, but seems the OG devs aren't paid enough to maintain support on old games. A very kind-soul under the username "Pahiro" gave some general idea how to do the fix on your own copy of the game. For some technically-blessed people, they were able to understand and make the workaround fix using the Unity Asset Bundle Extractor published in Github performing the following steps.

1. Download the UABE release from GitHub (nowadays everyone by default is using a 64bit windows machine so please pick that).
2. Run the AssetBuildExtractor.exe
3. Select File -> Open, select the "globalgamemanagers" located inside the local game install folder of the Paw Patrol game; by default it is located in... C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Paw Patrol On A Roll\PawPatrol_Data
4. Click on the first line with the type PlayerSettings, do an export dump as text file
5. With a notepad or other text editor, look in the dumped text file the integer variable "displayResolutionDialog" and change the value to 0.
6. Save the modified text file, then back in the UABE click the import dump and select that modified dump text file.
7. Select File -> apply and save the new globalgamemanagers file (better to backup the old one before swapping them). If it prompts an error saving it, save it with a different file name then just use the file explorer to make the file renames as necessary.

After applying the fix, game launched fine on my part.

Now the backstory has been all said and done, if you just want the actual file (disclaimer: I have no liability should there be unfortunate outcomes when using the file I shared), see this drive link to download the modified globalgamemanagers file.

Hope this helps.