Valves newest display of brilliance: The Steam Holiday Auction
Turn extra inventory items (Cards, icons, backgrounds, etc.) into gems and then use the gems to bid on games
http://steamcommunity.com/auction/
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Turn extra inventory items (Cards, icons, backgrounds, etc.) into gems and then use the gems to bid on games
http://steamcommunity.com/auction/
Comments
and here I just posted about getting rid of my TF2 cards. It's like they know!
Smart. I imagine there are lots of inventories now overflowing with unsalable items like all those backgrounds that go for so little, they're not worth the time it takes to click the buttons to sell them. Now those things have somewhere to go, and people might even have a reason to buy some of the ones that are on the market.
Makes me wonder what a gem-to-USD rate would be, like if selling the cards for pennies each would get you a game cheaper than converting the cards to gems.
It's hard to tell. Since its an auction and still in its first round of auctioning the values are still unknown. But if last nights debacle was any indication it will push over 100K to 200k for the newest games. Or now if you want Borderlands: TPS it's up for 60,000 or 750 cards, or 30 bucks if you can find 4 cent cards.
This is silly and complicated. I'll pass.
I liquidated all of my spare cards and realize there is 0 chance of me getting enough for a game. So also going to pass.
You can also craft the gems into card packs for games you have crafted badges for.
http://steamcommunity.com/tradingcards/boostercreator/
Naw this is stupid. As in really stupid and dumb and just a poop everyone is playing with.
I liquidated all my spare cards, I ended up with 500 gems, I only need another 7500 to buy the one game I can think of being interested in (Legend of Grimrock 2)
(Legend of Grimrock 2 is SO GOOD).
Is there no way to bulk convert items?
If I assume each card averages out to be worth 4 times in gems what it is in money (cents)(that may be on the generous end of things, but lets go with that for now), such that a card worth $0.10 would get you 40 gems, then 6,000 gems would roughly be $15.00 yes?
So bidding 60,000 gems would be like paying $150.00 for a game that, what, usually goes for $50.00 (and considering Steam sales, may likely go for a chunk less given time)?
My math may be way off, someone please double-check, and I am very sure those initial bids we see on the gem auction page are not going to last forever, but dayum. To me, this looks like it might be a good time to sell the cards for money, since it looks like so many people are gunning for gems at this point?
@NullenVoyd I think it works out roughly that every cent a card sells for is worth two cards. So, a card that sells for .10 on the market can be exchanged for 20 gems. So if a game is selling for 60,000 gems that is like 30,000 cents or 300 dollars.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS?
Then I look through my cards. One sells for .09 but only worth 5 gems. SO Apparently it is based on more than just the value on the market. I don't Fuck this system, if it's not uniform what's the point?
Anyways I am super bored and plugged in all my card info into excel. Here are the results.
Which says for about every dollar you could sell for on the market you get 128.43 gems. So said 60000 game is worth $467.181
BUT ALL IS NOT LOST. It seems like Trading Cards, Backgrounds, and emoticons all have different Values. See Charts Below.
Backgrounds:
So for every dollar of market value in Background it is worth 1765 Gems. So that 60,000 gem game suddenly becomes $34.00.
Emoticons:
So For every dollar in Market Value of Emoticons it is worth 1957.5 gems. So that makes the 60,000 gem becomes worth $30.65.
Case in point if you want to do this in hopes of cheaper games. Go for emoticons. Though the more people who do that the less efficient that idea becomes.
The Holiday profile High Bid is currently 1,205,100 gems. OR Using the above method to get the cheapest....$615.63...........or totally batshit insane.
EDIT: SO I've looked at my methods more. Something wasn't sitting right. It's not a linear regression. It would be easy if it were.
So the most common emoticon and background price is $0.07 and can be transferred into 80 gems. SO. If you spent 50 dollars on 7 cent items you'd end up with 714 of those items. Which can bet turned into 57,120 gems. SO there's that.
I really wish I could figure out how the gem conversion is done because it's clearly not based only on market price. I guess rarity and somehow popularity of the game is taken into account.
I have a Psychonauts Raz emoticon which I could sell for $0.34 and can only turn it into 10 gems.
This whole thing, great social experiment. Not entirely useful for anything games, gamers wise.
That profile item also says it will expire in January. I assume that means it's gone for good, or at least till next holiday season. Which makes it even more insane in my eyes.
I do hope they keep the pack making ability after this.
Well You've been able to keep all other special backgrounds before. I don't see why this one would be different. I think it means you can't get it after January 1.
That could be. They could use some clarity on that.