The Groginati Sales Thread

[Greybriar]

Saw Hearts of Iron 4 Cadets Edition (6/6/16 release date) on sale for $26.45 at the cdkeys.com site.  Digital download on Steam.

Is this site legit? Anyone?

cdkeys.com is what is known as a "gray market" retailer, which (according to Wikipedia): "....is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are legal but unintended by the original manufacturer...." Green Man Gaming is another popular "gray market" retailer. From my very limited experience with the latter, I am satisfied with the retailer and have no qualms whatsoever about doing business there again. There are other less reputable "gray market" retailers that I would avoid, however. You might be interested in reading The truth behind those mysteriously cheap gray market game codes.

I hope that helps you out.

[Gusington]

Wow, good link Greybriar, thank you. I am a litle suspicious of Kinguin as they have a lot of 'Russian' version codes...that is slightly off putting to me.

[Pete Dero]

cdkeys.com is what is known as a "gray market" retailer

This is the standpoint of Paradox they posted on their forum :

Important information about retailers!
There is a large so called "grey market" which has made it a business to obtain Steam keys through illegal means (false credit card information usually) that they sell under market price. The most common outcome of buying keys like this is that after a few days the game will be removed from your Steam account due to the payment never going through. You will still have paid money however, and you will not get this money back. You have been warned!

Guess this is more to keep people from buying there as these sites probably don't generate any revenue for Paradox. (Imperial games and GMG claim they are authorised resellers)

[Tuna]

cdkeys.com is what is known as a "gray market" retailer

This is the standpoint of Paradox they posted on their forum :

Important information about retailers!
There is a large so called "grey market" which has made it a business to obtain Steam keys through illegal means (false credit card information usually) that they sell under market price. The most common outcome of buying keys like this is that after a few days the game will be removed from your Steam account due to the payment never going through. You will still have paid money however, and you will not get this money back. You have been warned!

Guess this is more to keep people from buying there as these sites probably don't generate any revenue for Paradox. (Imperial games and GMG claim they are authorised resellers)

My CDKeys purchases have 'stayed' in my steam account ;-)... One thing my son noticed is that the European Region flag is on the HOI IV page.. not sure if that is an issue for US, the money is in Dollar amount. I had him look at that Stellaris page (which I already bought through them) and that had a US Region flag.

[Greybriar]

Wow, good link Greybriar, thank you. I am a litle suspicious of Kinguin as they have a lot of 'Russian' version codes...that is slightly off putting to me.

You're welcome, Gus.

[Huw the Poo]

Greenmangaming are not grey market, they're legit.

[Ian C]

I pre-ordered HOI4 from Kinguin / G2PLAY.NET for only $28. Are Kinguin legit? I also bought their 'key protection' in case the key supplied is a dud/bad.

[Jarhead0331]

cdkeys.com is what is known as a "gray market" retailer

This is the standpoint of Paradox they posted on their forum :

Important information about retailers!
There is a large so called "grey market" which has made it a business to obtain Steam keys through illegal means (false credit card information usually) that they sell under market price. The most common outcome of buying keys like this is that after a few days the game will be removed from your Steam account due to the payment never going through. You will still have paid money however, and you will not get this money back. You have been warned!

Guess this is more to keep people from buying there as these sites probably don't generate any revenue for Paradox. (Imperial games and GMG claim they are authorised resellers)

My CDKeys purchases have 'stayed' in my steam account ;-)... One thing my son noticed is that the European Region flag is on the HOI IV page.. not sure if that is an issue for US, the money is in Dollar amount. I had him look at that Stellaris page (which I already bought through them) and that had a US Region flag.

I noticed this too. I'm hesitant to buy unless it is US or Worldwide release. Anybody have any experience with this?

[BanzaiCat]

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is $6.24 on Steam right now. I might go for it. Might.

[mirth]

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is $6.24 on Steam right now. I might go for it. Might.

Heh. You're the biggest game whore on these forums.

[Greybriar]

Greenmangaming are not grey market, they're legit.

I Googled "Greenmangaming grey market" and came up with a lot of hits indicating Greenmangaming has been involved in a lot of controversy as to whether it is or is not grey market. Greenmangaming's Wikipedia page (and I really, really hate to resort to Wikipedia, but what are you gonna do?) states, in part:

Green Man Gaming has been accused by some publishers, including CD Projekt, Activision, and Ubisoft, of selling unauthorized game redemption keys, as it is not an authorized key seller for these publishers. The company has responded that while it attempts to work directly with all publishers to sell keys directly, the company will sometimes need to use authorized third party vendors to offer keys for games from these companies, and insists that all revenue goes back to the publishers, with Green Man Gaming absorbing the cost of any discounts they offer.[30][31] Following this, in November 2015, the company have placed information on each game's store page at their site to identify the source of the redemption keys, either through Green Man Gaming as an authorized reseller, or through a third-party reseller, in addition to when users can expect delivery of keys for pre-orders."

As I posted above, I have no qualms whatsoever about doing business with Greenmangaming again. However, I feel it's just a matter of semantics, and if something looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck.

[BanzaiCat]

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is $6.24 on Steam right now. I might go for it. Might.

Heh. You're the biggest game whore on these forums.

[Nefaro]

cdkeys.com is what is known as a "gray market" retailer

This is the standpoint of Paradox they posted on their forum :

Important information about retailers!
There is a large so called "grey market" which has made it a business to obtain Steam keys through illegal means (false credit card information usually) that they sell under market price. The most common outcome of buying keys like this is that after a few days the game will be removed from your Steam account due to the payment never going through. You will still have paid money however, and you will not get this money back. You have been warned!

Guess this is more to keep people from buying there as these sites probably don't generate any revenue for Paradox. (Imperial games and GMG claim they are authorised resellers)

Sounds like publishers just don't like the second hand retailer market.

Which is nothing new.  The prime reason some of them implement strict DRM.  Only this time it is retailer-to-retailer selling.

[Greybriar]

It looks that way.

[Ian C]

This is the standpoint of Paradox they posted on their forum :

Important information about retailers!
There is a large so called "grey market" which has made it a business to obtain Steam keys through illegal means (false credit card information usually) that they sell under market price. The most common outcome of buying keys like this is that after a few days the game will be removed from your Steam account due to the payment never going through. You will still have paid money however, and you will not get this money back. You have been warned!

This is if the key is illegal. However, what concerns me is if the key is not illegal and they simply choose to invalidate the purchase on STEAM because it was bought through a reseller and not them.

The purchase I made for HOI 4 on Kinguin was checked and I also took out the cover in case the key is illegal or dud. My point being, I hope STEAM and Paradox will honour sales bought through resellers if they are legitimate.


Edit: I'm just concerned and pissed off about this. I bought a key in good faith from a site I believe is legit. I currently don't have much wiggle room with disposable income and I got the best deal I could legally.