What actually is the cheapest place to buy steam keys?

[wasab]

4 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

They(eBay) remove listings that get flagged or reported and they thoroughly check all listings created for suspicious activity. 

You have prove of that?

[Paul Rudd]

Just now, wasab said:

You have prove of that?

Sure. You ever see listings that are no longer available to view? They come up as errors. Lemme see if I can find an example real quick.

[Paul Rudd]

5 minutes ago, wasab said:

-Snip-

Try this. It's a brand new GTX 1070 that sold for $45.00. Obviously removed for suspicious activity.

[wasab]

4 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

Sure. You ever see listings that are no longer available to view? They come up as errors. Lemme see if I can find an example real quick.

We all know eBay is full of scams. There is no shortage of eBay sucks websites out there 

[Paul Rudd]

1 minute ago, wasab said:

There is no shortage of eBay sucks websites out there

Not sure what you mean by this.

[wasab]

4 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

Try this. It's a brand new GTX 1070 that sold for $45.00. Obviously removed for suspicious activity.

That is 498 USD. Where is the 45?

[Paul Rudd]

8 minutes ago, wasab said:

That is 498 USD. Where is the 45?

Exactly. The listing was removed and you are linked to the next similar item. The error message is temporary because it takes more time to completely remove listings. Here is what the error message looks like...

If you see a message like this, these are listings removed for different reasons. One of them being, suspicious activity.

[wasab]

Just now, A Random Dude said:

Exactly. The listing was removed and you are linked to the next similar item. The error message is temporary because it takes more time to completely remove listings. Here is what the error message looks like...

How do you know that eBay took it down instead of the seller themselves?

[Paul Rudd]

9 minutes ago, wasab said:

How do you know that eBay took it down instead of the seller themselves?

You don't know. It's just a possibility. This is an example of what they look like. I know it's possible because I have had listings I listed taken down before. I tried to sell an item that was illegal to sell(I wasn't aware at the time because I bought it on eBay) in my country and it was removed. This was the error message shown on my listing. I was also unable to sell anything for a brief period of time until I squared everything up with eBay. They take every single activity seriously. Once you do something against eBay policy once, unless you are a power seller like myself and can explain what happened, you're lucky to be able to sell anything again on eBay. And they also have ways of knowing when you try to create multiple accounts(it's pretty obvious to them).

[dalekphalm]

27 minutes ago, wasab said:

eBay won't honor buyer protection for digitcal goods either. G2A allow you to pay for insurance. On eBay, if key is defective, no protection for buyers. 

 

 

You’re not even supposed to buy keys through eBay in the first place.

 

Digital Delivery (sending the key via email or IM) is against eBay rules. You can only sell digital keys via physical snail mail. Which *are* protected for the buyer (the seller though can easily get fucked). 

 

G2A shouldn’t sell the insurance. Getting a working product shouldn’t cost extra. They’re literally making money off of fraud. 

 

How come you don’t see the problem with that?

[Paul Rudd]

7 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

You’re not even supposed to buy keys through eBay in the first place.

Proof? I buy keys all the time on eBay dude. And it's delivered to me digitally through eBay messaging. I make sure to message the seller before buying though. With multiple questions about the key and everything involved. All messages and responses are basically my insurance.

 

Could you provide these rules you speak of? I do think selling Origin or UPlay accounts is against the rules and people still do that anyway.

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

Proof? I buy keys all the time on eBay dude. And it's delivered to me digitally through eBay messaging. I make sure to message the seller before buying though. With multiple questions about the key and everything involved. All messages and responses are basically my insurance.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/digitally-delivered-goods-policy?id=4289

 

So there are some conditions in which selling digital keys are okay, but the list is pretty strict. 

 

Many people of course violate the rule, and it’s somewhat difficult to police, but there it is. 

 

Selling digital keys on eBay is mostly a problem for fraud against sellers these days, not buyers. It’s really easy to scam a seller with digital keys. 

[Paul Rudd]

14 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Many people of course violate the rule, and it’s somewhat difficult to police, but there it is. 

"When you sell digitally delivered goods on eBay, you must include a statement in your listing and product that says you legally own the content or are authorized to sell it."

 

This is basically what sellers do, thus they are not violating any rules. These are the sellers I buy from too and I make sure to contact them before buying.

14 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

It’s really easy to scam a seller with digital keys.

Oh yea, definitely. I remember a buyer trying to scam me when I sold a Watch Dogs 2 key back during Christmas of 2016. They tried to say someone hacked their account and bought the key and used it. I easily won the case because they were able to find out exactly what they tried to do. It was my Watch Dogs 2 key that I got for free from Bestbuy so I had every right to sell it because I had proof that I owned it. I got all of the $50.00 I sold it for at the time too. eBay has better ways of finding out key scams these days. It's not as easy to be scammed nowadays when you know what you're doing. It's when you don't know what you're doing and/or are new to eBay that is grounds to be easily scammed.

 

There are hundreds of listings that anyone could just buy, get the key, use it, then just say it's already been used. But whether or not you actually get your money back is up to eBay. They undergo a meticulous process to figure out what actually went down. There's so many factors involved, you'd have to be dumb to try it.

[wasab]

33 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

You’re not even supposed to buy keys through eBay in the first place.

 

 

No it isn't. Read eBay's digital goods policy. Software keys are perfectly acceptable. Just do not expect any protection when keys are invalid. 

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, A Random Dude said:

"When you sell digitally delivered goods on eBay, you must include a statement in your listing and product that says you legally own the content or are authorized to sell it."

Key word is authorized to sell - and that's where things get murky. Do you have the right to resell a digital code? In some countries, that's probably a yes. In most countries, that's a "we don't know, because we never clarified our laws for the 21st century, and it's never been challenged in court".

1 hour ago, A Random Dude said:

This is basically what sellers do, thus they are not violating any rules. These are the sellers I buy from too and I make sure to contact them before buying.

Oh yea, definitely. I remember a buyer trying to scam me when I sold a Watch Dogs 2 key back during Christmas of 2016. They tried to say someone hacked their account and bought the key and used it. I easily won the case because they were able to find out exactly what they tried to do. It was my Watch Dogs 2 key that I got for free from Bestbuy so I had every right to sell it because I had proof that I owned it. I got all of the $50.00 I sold it for at the time too. eBay has better ways of finding out key scams these days. It's not as easy to be scammed nowadays when you know what you're doing. It's when you don't know what you're doing and/or are new to eBay that is grounds to be easily scammed.

 

There are hundreds of listings that anyone could just buy, get the key, use it, then just say it's already been used. But whether or not you actually get your money back is up to eBay. They undergo a meticulous process to figure out what actually went down. There's so many factors involved, you'd have to be dumb to try it.

 

[Paul Rudd]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Key word is authorized to sell - and that's where things get murky.

"When you sell digitally delivered goods on eBay, you must include a statement in your listing and product that says you legally own the content or are authorized to sell it."

 

The keyword here is or. If you include a statement in your listing and product that says you legally own the content(which sellers mostly do), you don't have to include a statement in your listing and product that says you are authorized to sell it. You just do one or the other.

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Do you have the right to resell a digital code?

Yes, it's my code. As long as I obtained it legally, I legally have the right to resell it. I live in America. Land of the free and home of the brave. 

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

"When you sell digitally delivered goods on eBay, you must include a statement in your listing and product that says you legally own the content or are authorized to sell it."

 

The keyword here is or. If you include a statement in your listing and product that says you legally own the content(which sellers mostly do), you don't have to include a statement in your listing and product that says you are authorized to sell it. You just do one or the other.

Yes, it's my code. As long as I obtained it legally, I legally have the right to resell it. I live in America. Land of the free and home of the brave. 

America is actually one of the places where that right is not guaranteed. That's because the First Sale doctrine has yet to be tested in court for digital goods.

 

It should apply, but that has yet to be clarified legally yet.

 

Anyway, this is entirely besides the point. G2A is a terrible business that preys on people trying to save money, and charges for fraud protection, and if you don't buy the fraud protection? Hey too bad!

[Paul Rudd]

10 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

America is actually one of the places where that right is not guaranteed.

Bought around a dozen keys off eBay. All worked flawlessly and I've had 0 incidents go down. This imo is because it's a video game. I install said video game. I play said video game. Not exactly a top priority for anyone involved with the law. It's a v i d e o g a m e.

10 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

It should apply, but that has yet to be clarified legally yet.

People should not throw trash out their car window. People should always chew with their mouth closed. This doesn't mean they won't.

10 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

G2A is a terrible business that preys on people trying to save money, and charges for fraud protection

This is why I just use eBay or wait for price drops, sales.

[dalekphalm]

30 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

Bought around a dozen keys off eBay. All worked flawlessly and I've had 0 incidents go down. This imo is because it's a video game. I install said video game. I play said video game. Not exactly a top priority for anyone involved with the law. It's a v i d e o g a m e.

It being a video game is irrelevant, in my opinion, aside from the fact that this is why no one has bothered to challenge the law yet (because if you're trying to resell something worth maybe $50, there's not much incentive to spend thousands of dollars in court affirming your right).

30 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

People should not throw trash out their car window. People should always chew with their mouth closed. This doesn't mean they won't.

People do stupid stuff. That's pretty much humanity for you.

30 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

This is why I just use eBay or wait for price drops, sales.

Agreed. Personally I stick to Steam sales and Humble Bundles, for the vast majority of my PC game purchases.

[Paul Rudd]

39 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Personally I stick to Steam sales and Humble Bundles, for the vast majority of my PC game purchases.

Totally agree. Except I do find great sellers on eBay that basically have keys they own from buying things from stores like Bestbuy that I like to get my hands on since they don't mind letting them go for ridiculous prices. In order to trust that they get them from Bestbuy, just ask them where they got the key from. Their response is where the decision to buy is made the majority of the time. And of course their feedback and location as well. A lot of sellers, get this, let me know that they get their keys, from... Humble. Weird huh? Just bought Sniper Elite V2 from a seller that obviously got the key from Humble because it was a free game at Humble Monthly last month. And I never seen Sniper Elite V2 keys so cheap on eBay until last month. I'm willing to bet that the free Humble Monthly games at their website right now are on eBay for $1.00-$5.00 from multiple sellers. Depending on the price of said games on Steam. It's always at least 50% off of the price on Steam.

 

EDIT: After searching eBay for less than a few minutes, already found sellers selling Just Cause 3 XXL Edition, Wizard of Legend and Project Cars 2. All 3 Humble Monthly games for December, all being sold from the same sellers at discounted prices. And when you check their feedback, they've had positive feedback for games that they obviously got from Fanatical bundles or free games given out elsewhere. All up and down eBay. I have a good dozen keys I haven't used yet, maybe I should do the same thing.

[Andreas Lilja]

3 hours ago, Strike105X said:

I'm surprised nobody mentioned CDkeys.com they have generally good prices and last i used it didn't made deals as shady as g2a.

As shady site. They're listing Blizzard codes, that's against Blizzard's policy.

[Paul Rudd]

On 12/5/2018 at 8:41 AM, Zeddex said:

rocket league, but where is the actual cheapest place to buy it?

Back at 50% off($9.99) over at Humble until Saturday-Sunday.

 

Rocket League 50% off at Humble

[Frankenburger]

The first place I usually go to is CDKeys.com. They generally offer decent discounts on their keys, though their selection is limited, some are region specific, and they generally have limited stock. If CDKeys doesn't pan out, Greenmangaming.com is my next go-to.

[Bouzoo]

On 12/8/2018 at 7:46 PM, wasab said:

eBay won't honor buyer protection for digitcal goods either. G2A allow you to pay for insurance. On eBay, if key is defective, no protection for buyers. 

 

 

On GA2, even if you check that you don't want shield, you somehow sometimes end with it, and getting the money back is a bitch. Happened to quite a few people, and happened to me, even after unchecking boxes in 2 windows that I do not want the shield and reading every single small letter. Thank you no thank you. G2A is a bs site and their latest Reddit AMA has all the fine bits on why to avoid them. Exempli gratia. 

[Bouzoo]

On 12/9/2018 at 11:34 AM, Strike105X said:

Well it depends on the view point for me personally Blizzard itself is as shady as hell ever since it became part of activision, leaving half joking aside (because i do think that together with EA, bethesda, activision is one of the shadiest out there), its a grey area business, kind of how emulation is grey area, they have a costumer friendly business model, that's in no way similarly to the scummy practices G2A involves itself into.

I have bought from them long time ago, and yes, they are better than G2A, may be even be the best grey market site out there, but they are still a shady site. There is no word twisting or truth bending that will make them non shady. They don't get their keys directly from devs/publishers are not listed as official partner. They are shady. Period.