Steam card confessions

[IndiraLightfoot]

I barely took notice of steam trading cards getting introduced, and when I did, I simply snorted at the notion -

"Bah! Kids stuff!"

However, a couple of days ago, I realized that those digital buggers were worth tiny bits of money on Steam Market, a place I had never ventured. Greedy thoughts went through my mind and I took stock of what games I had that were eligible for collecting such cards. I have dozens of games on Steam, I am a gamer after all, so it turned out to be quite a lot. Here's what I did:

 

While working, I opened the starting page of all of the eligible games and turned down the volume in Options. And as I was plugging away, I noticed regular pop-ups of cards getting piled up in my inventory in Steam. I did this for three days. I ended up with a few lucky foils, some rare emoticons and heaps of collector cards. So, I put most of them up on the market, even Euro 0.01 backgrounds, and lo and behold! I can now buy both Witches of Brigmore for Dishonored and a dlc for Bioshock Infinite. Also, I got a few complete badges crafted for myself in the process. I rushed passed level 10 in Steam and I have a number of nice backgrounds to match.

 

Now, I feel a bit dirty, the same I felt using the auction house in sly ways for Diablo 3. Even worse, I still dislike Steam's trading cards as a system, and I loathe Blizzard for what they did with that auction house of theirs.

Edited August 12, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[melkathi]

Welcome to the Dark Side. Have a cookie

 

Yeah, I started playing with the market place (did a long post about it a while back) and felt dirty as well. So I stopped

Edited August 12, 2013 by melkathi

[IndiraLightfoot]

Heh! I even went so far as to reinstalling some titles to get at the cards. Good thing is that I'm out of card drops, so it will resolve itself.

 

EDIT: And, oh! Steam got in touch with me after two days of my selling like crazy, just checking that I was legit. I proved it by clicking some links, and that was it.

Edited August 12, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[Guest Slinky]

Feel free to give all your cards to me, I can sell them to dumb people without feeling dirty one bit!

 

And why would you feel dirty, you are selling something you have to people who want them and are willing to pay money. Who cares if that something is utterly useless, idiots are paying money for them! Money!

[IndiraLightfoot]

Deathdealer: On a serious note - you're right, of course, and that's why I wouldn't give them to you. It's sweet, sweet money, after all!

 

I used to be a frequent traveller, so I had two old Steam accounts extra, and I milked those on every card as well on old laptops. It felt like I was breaking bad.

[melkathi]

My problem was that I found nmyself refreshing the market place, buying cheap and reselling just to get a couple of cents

But I spend all that hard earned cash on completing my own collections Silly, stupid thing to do.

[Labadal]

I crafted two game badges for myself, but after that, I've sold everything. I could have gotten 3 games during the summer sale, but I'll keep selling cards until the Christmas sale.

[Malcador]

Not many of my games generate cards (guess I need to play cool games or something). No one wants my Sleeping Dogs cards, I'm afraid

[Keyrock]

I just sell them whenever I get them, I don't care about levels or badges or backgrounds, cold hard electronic Steam Wallet cash is all I care about.  I put them up at a price that's fairly high but also one that I think they will sell at...  eventually.  I'm in no hurry to sell them, as long as they sell eventually.  I'm just out to maximize profit.  I've already gotten a game for free and another practically free due to the cards.  I have no problem with the cards and feel no guilt for taking advantage of dumbasses, they're there to be taken advantage of.

[melkathi]

Keyrock, stop selling cards and start working on the Numenera campaign you are supposed to be organising for us forumites

[Hurlshort]

I've made about $2 selling those cards.  It's really just like a rewards program for Steam players.

[Keyrock]

Keyrock, stop selling cards and start working on the Numenera campaign you are supposed to be organising for us forumites

I'm reading through the core book PDF while waiting to get my hands on the physical book, likely later this week, or sometime next week. Supposedly there is an adventure or two included in the core book (I haven't gotten that far yet), so I'd likely run those first while getting accustomed to the system and setting.  I'm down to GM, as I'm likely the only one with a core book right now, though this will likely take a little while to set up.  It's a brand spanking new system, and from what I've read it's completely different than any system I have ever used before (granted that's not that long a list), so it's not like setting up a campaign in something that everyone is familiar with, like D&D, or even something that likely only I am familiar with, like Rolemaster.  As a coincidence, both Rolemaster and D&D are systems that Monte Cook worked for, but I digress.

 

Back to the cards, I admit I went through my library of Steam games and fired up games just to get the cards.  Then I'd Alt+Tab out of the games and surf the web or read the aforementioned PDF, or make myself a sandwich while the games were "playing".   

[Malcador]

I've made about $2 selling those cards.  It's really just like a rewards program for Steam players.

At least for the ones taking the cash from the idiots

[Hassat Hunter]

I wouldn't sell them if the reward for 'badges' was good.

But it's crap, so selling them off is better :/

 

Fundamental flaw there to make us all want for them. Now some do for... I am not even sure what.

I did one (the event one) to see what a 'badge' would do, but nope, never again...

[IndiraLightfoot]

I was happy to pass level 10, though. You get a showcase UI on your profile screen that I find slightly handy, but yes, if the badges and the cards were more rewarding, it would be another game.

 

Also, a weird thing - when you craft a badge, all those cards disappear. I mean, why cant they be some clickable option to see them all and zoom in on them, as if they were indeed cards. Weird.

[Tale]

I have a Saint's Row 3 foil card. I wonder how much it's worth.

 

*checks*

 

0.55 - 0.67

 

That's a bummer. Anyway, the only good thing to come out of badges is the backgrounds. But the backgrounds are often cheaper than the cards.

[Lexx]

I just sold a card for 0.08€. It took like 5 minutes till it was gone. I'll guess the price was too low. :>

 

I will never collect this crap, so yeah. Out into the wild it goes.

[Walsingham]

Like so many sins in this life I am protected by both laziness and technical incompetence +10.

 

So, if you want any cards, let me know. And tell me how to send em.

[Deraldin]

Like so many sins in this life I am protected by both laziness and technical incompetence +10.

 

So, if you want any cards, let me know. And tell me how to send em.

Provided you already have Steamguard enabled all you have to do is right click on one of your contacts in the friends list and then click "invite to trade". A notification will show up for the target of the trade and when it's accepted a new window will pop up for the trade itself which is just drag and drop.

 

If you don't want your cards I will happily take them off your hands. I'm also willing to extend my generous offer of accepting unwanted cards to anyone else that has cards that they don't want. :D

Edited August 12, 2013 by Deraldin

[Keyrock]

And if Deraldin gets overloaded with cards, you can send the surplus here: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197971335644/.  I can help bear the burden, for the good of the community.

[Guest Slinky]

Like so many sins in this life I am protected by both laziness and technical incompetence +10.

 

So, if you want any cards, let me know. And tell me how to send em.

Lets see how that protection holds against my Boot of Get Off Your Arse +15.

 

Open Steam, hover over Community, select Market, select Sell an item from upper right and pick a card. You will see the prices the card has been selling, go for around the same price. Then behold and be amaized how fast those stupid cards get sold.

 

Edit: Great, here I was trying to help the poor guy, while the vultures were already gathering

Edited August 12, 2013 by Slinky

[IndiraLightfoot]

Edit: Great, here I was trying to help the poor guy, while the vultures were already gathering

 

 

Let's just say that all those small profits add up. I've made something like $25 on these eager anonymous card collectors, and tomorrow, I'll get my beloved Brigmore Witches for free. Thank you, Steam benefactors! You've been good to me.  

[Deraldin]

 

Edit: Great, here I was trying to help the poor guy, while the vultures were already gathering

 

 

Let's just say that all those small profits add up. I've made something like $25 on these eager anonymous card collectors, and tomorrow, I'll get my beloved Brigmore Witches for free. Thank you, Steam benefactors! You've been good to me.  

 

I've gotten a bunch of free cards from other people but I haven't sold anything. I've been hoarding or trading them with other people. I've been trying to collect enough System Shock 2 cards to get the level 5 badge so the more different cards I get from people, the more trade fodder I have for when I find someone with the cards I want.

[AGX-17]

There's nothing wrong with exploiting a stupid financial system for personal gain.

[Hurlshort]

I played Skyrim for 5 minutes, realized I was bored to death, and then I noticed I had a new card in my inventory.  It must have been special, because I sold it for 25 cents.  Made me feel a bit better about that 5 minutes.