The Time I Delved Into PC Game Keys Trading Community

"Have Some Unwanted Steam Keys?" ...Back when I used to trade Game Keys on the Steam platform, I earned money in my Wallet Balance that I used to buy more games. It wasn't a lot, but the experience was interesting, and I'll be talking about it today.

Steam by Valve is a gaming application for PC. It's the most popular storefront for PC Games. It boasts a huge library of games and robust features. For most people, Steam was the only notable PC game store before Epic Games entered the competition.

Steam has an inventory system where you can store In-game Items and Steam Trading Cards. There are a few games compatible with the Steam Inventory system. Users can trade items between each other, or sell them in the internal marketplace. These items could also be traded between players.

Of those items are Weapon Skins for the game CS:GO. Counter Strike: Global Offensive is a game by Valve, the same company that made Steam. These items come in many levels of rarity. The rarest of which are worth thousands of dollars.

Another popular item is the TF2 Key from the game Team Fortress 2, which became a pseudo currency between players on Steam. Like with the stock market, TF2 Keys have become a standard unit most of the items are valued against while trading.

When I first started building my backlog of Steam Games, I stumbled upon Games Bundles sites. These sites make deals with publishers and offer bundles of games for a limited time. Prices are cheap and the games are usually highly rated.

Of these sites, Humble Bundle stood out for its amazing deals and its support for charities. I got a few bundles from Humble, starting my ever-growing backlog! I still haven't redeemed all the keys I got from it yet.

Around that time, I discovered SteamTrades. A site in which I could trade Steam Keys with other players. There, I was able to barter the extra games I get from Humble Bundle (and other bundle sites) for games that I want or for TF2 Keys that I could barter for the games I want.

For almost a year, I grew my reputation on Steam Trades. I would trade games I don't want from bundles for other games or Steam items. Everyone had different rates, so I checked the ratings of multiple traders, and posted my own rates too. I mainly used the search function to find the games I wanted back then. Before I knew it, my reputation on Steam Trades reached 70 Positive Ratings.

I liked the reputation system of the website. As you trade with other users, they can review you Positively, as a recommended trader, or Negatively, to warn other traders of you.

Everyone I traded with was a nice person, and because I didn't trade with people with low reputations, I was never scammed by anyone from there. (Though scammers and disputes exist there.) One notable trade I still remember is when I gave the game keys to someone before he paid me, despite having a higher rating than him. He told me to be more skeptical of people.

A while after becoming a frequent member of Steam Trades, I discovered the Gray Market. Websites that allow users to resell their Steam Keys for actual money. Kinguin and G2A are the most notable of these, being popular even in Google Search for a while.

I later learned the questionable ways they make money. Some of their sellers buy games with stolen credit cards. When the fraud is discovered, Steam Keys get revoked. A revoked key becomes invalid and any player who owns it loses the game and the money they paid for it. I learned that these grey market websites encourage this behavior directly. Since then I stopped using these sites.

A good alternative I found for them is IsThereAnyDeal, a website that tracks the prices of all PC games over multiple stores including trust-worthy third-party websites.

My presence in the game trading space dwindled after that. I used to spend more time on Steam Trades than actually playing the games back then and I fixed that. My adventure ended as I started to focus more on my other hobbies like drawing. I still game, but my weekly gaming hours are a fraction of what they were before.

So, this was my story about the time I spent in the games trading community. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you'd like me to expand on anything or tell you some of the funny stories that happened to me, ask in the comments.

What do you think?

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<sup>- Images in this post are made using Clip Studio Paint. Get Free Trial Here! and iBisPaint.
- This article was originally published on CoinPayU Article. Republished here for archiving purposes.</sup>