Steam Key Re-sellers

[devoncop]

Just a quick note about this thorny and somewhat controversial subject.

Much like in my case with EPIC many folk avoid resellers like the plague but I have used various resellers to buy games at crazily low prices for a few years without any problems at all. I got Pathfinder War of the Righteous for example for about 5 UK pounds.

Anyway with the release of Baldurs Gate 3 I checked out the resellers and found it advertised at £25 via Kinguin as opposed to £50 on Steam. Having bought it, on claiming the key I did not as usual get a Steam key to register but instead got the full username and password of another person's Steam account which had Baldurs Gate in their Steam library. Along with this I had their email address and password so I could change their Steam password to my own 

It is I am sure a matter of huge surprise to all that the email account was on a Chinese domain.

Needless to say this was a no go and I put in a support ticket to Kinguin and asked for a full refund expecting a brush off. 24 hours later the refund was approved.

Well dodgy.

I have of course ended up buying it on Steam as I probably should have done originally !

Something to bear in mind.

[Grim.Reaper]

When you buy from there, they tell you how your game will be received on the purchase page.  Typically it will be one of three ways.  Actual steam key, gift code, or steam account as you saw in this case.  It will show this up front.  They do a good job of providing refunds if you haven't activated the game so glad you weren't stuck.

[devoncop]

Yes in that case it was my fault for not reading the product delivery details so I was probably lucky to get the refund.

With the other occasions of buying keys I have always just received a key so that is what threw me.

It has to be contrary to Steam's terms of service to access a third person's account to play as I pointed out on the ticket.

[Gusington]

Careful with all that, jeez 

[devoncop]

Careful with all that, jeez 

Definitely othing illegal in buying the keys.  A little like buying goods of Amazon and then finding out they are counterfeit (which happens quite regularly) I have more than a suspicion that selling access to another person's Steam account is very much in " legally questionable" territory.

[Sir Slash]

If they're not careful, they're going to give this whole, 'Internet' thing a bad reputation.  You sure got to watch yourself these days everywhere you go and everything you click, like an open can of Tuna Fish in a Cat Factory. 

[CaptainKoloth]

If they're not careful, they're going to give this whole, 'Internet' thing a bad reputation.  You sure got to watch yourself these days everywhere you go and everything you click, like an open can of Tuna Fish in a Cat Factory. 

I have learned that if I open a can of tuna in my attic while my two cats are in the basement and close my eyes for 15 seconds, a cat reliably appears. 

[Gusington]

Like magic!

[CaptainKoloth]

I believe it to be some sort of spontaneous generation. Further tests are needed.

[Gusington]

 

[al_infierno]

I've spoken on this several times, but you should NEVER give money to these key resellers.  They use extremely shady methods to obtain these keys (usually through stolen credit card info) and when the credit card companies catch on, it's the game developers who get screwed and end up with no money.  Ya know - the people who actually made the game you're enjoying 

[devoncop]

Al

Not withstanding my own issues detailed at the top of this thread I think that is maybe a bit unfair.

I quote from one of the largest resellers CD Keys (with over 90% satisfaction ratings on Trust pilot btw):


'Our company helps you save money by importing the games from main distributors in other countries, where games have cheaper retail prices than in countries such as Australia or Israel. Because of the savings made in postage costs (as our items are sent digitally), it allows us to provide extremely low pricing. Not only this, but the codes we sell work worldwide as digital downloads, unlike physical products which are sometimes region locked."

Nothing illegal there at all and I have major issues with regional pricing on principle.

Seeing companies that often price gouge in countries like Australia and Israel whist charging a fraction of the price elsewhere in the world for the same product removes any sympathy for them when the resellers take advantage of the price differential they themselves have created.

Then again it's up to the customer to choose I guess.

[al_infierno]

Al

Not withstanding my own issues detailed at the top of this thread I think that is maybe a bit unfair.

I quote from one of the largest resellers CD Keys (with over 90% satisfaction ratings on Trust pilot btw):


'Our company helps you save money by importing the games from main distributors in other countries, where games have cheaper retail prices than in countries such as Australia or Israel. Because of the savings made in postage costs (as our items are sent digitally), it allows us to provide extremely low pricing. Not only this, but the codes we sell work worldwide as digital downloads, unlike physical products which are sometimes region locked."

Nothing illegal there at all and I have major issues with regional pricing on principle.

Seeing companies that often price gouge in countries like Australia and Israel whist charging a fraction of the price elsewhere in the world for the same product removes any sympathy for them when the resellers take advantage of the price differential they themselves have created.

Then again it's up to the customer to choose I guess.

I'm not familiar with the specific reseller you're referring to, but what you're talking about as "nothing illegal" has nothing to do with using stolen credit cards which backcharge and screw over the game devs and Steam. Naturally they are not going to publicly admit if they engage in this practice.

Seeing companies that often price gouge in countries like Australia and Israel whist charging a fraction of the price elsewhere in the world for the same product removes any sympathy for them when the resellers take advantage of the price differential they themselves have created.

Seems very unfair to paint game devs in general with this brush when it's mainly, to my knowledge, massive companies like Steam and EA who engage in this practice.  My personal feelings aside, I still don't see how that justifies buying what is essentially stolen goods and ripping off the devs who made the game. I don't see it any differently than someone buying a bunch of McDonalds burgers with a stolen credit card then selling the burgers out front for hard cash at a discount.

Literally a staple of Mafia money making, but I guess it's cool to rip off game devs because EA and Steam like to price gouge.

[Sir Slash]

But what if I buy a bunch of Mc Donald's burgers, don't I have the right to sell them to someone else? And doesn't that person have a right to sell them to others as well?  I see your point though, buying stolen goods and reselling them is always bad, but if the Steam Key is mine, what's wrong with me selling it to someone else?

[al_infierno]

But what if I buy a bunch of Mc Donald's burgers, don't I have the right to sell them to someone else? And doesn't that person have a right to sell them to others as well?  I see your point though, buying stolen goods and reselling them is always bad, but if the Steam Key is mine, what's wrong with me selling it to someone else?

You are blatantly ignoring the "stolen credit card" aspect of this analogy.  No, it's not okay, legal, or ethical to steal someone's money, then use it to buy property and resell it at a discount and profit yourself.  As I mentioned earlier, that is a very common money laundering scheme.

If you want to use your own money to buy something then re-sell it at a loss, that's on you.  But you're naive if you think that's how these re-sellers operate and that they're just doing this out of charity.

It's outrageous that this practice is tolerated by gamers who apparently don't care about the people who actually make their entertainment getting paid instead of some scammers who gamed a system created by big corporations.