Valve confirms that it's working on making sure buyers of Certified Refurbished Steam Decks don't miss out on rewards that are only available with new models.
The 256GB and 512GB Steam Decks come with some digital rewards, such as an exclusive steam profile customization bundle and a unique virtual keyboard (keyboard is 512GB only). Previously these rewards were not available to refurbished deck buyers, but Valve plans to change that and make these rewards available regardless of whether you buy new or refurbished.
As a day one buyer, I'm happy about this. Exclusives for people who buy early or pay a premium are silly. I just happened to be fortunate and lucky enough to get my Deck earlier, but the more the merrier.
If you enjoy it, that’s fine, but the only thing more stupid to me than caring about digital exclusive perks would be being upset that other people get them.
Might call around to your local GameStop's and see if they have any in stock. I think they dropped the requirement to be a GameStop pro member(or whatever it's called) to buy one there.