4 ms·

To the extent that there is a liquid secondary market in trading cards, I'm not sure there is a real line between them and retail gambling instruments. But, so

To the extent that there is a liquid secondary market in trading cards, I'm not sure there is a real line between them and retail gambling instruments. But, some things cases have more in common with scratchers than Pokemon booster packs: - They're available instantly in effectively unlimited quantity, as many as you want to buy. - Although technically there are many gradations, the quality label of an item ("Factory new", "battle-scarred", etc.) is incontrovertible and easily verified. - As a digital good, liquidation is extremely low-friction and virtually risk-free. In fact: - You can click a button from within the game itself to see the current market value in USD -- sorry, in "Steam credit" -- and another to immediately offer the item for sale at that price. - Maybe most relevant to this thread, even without liquidating they can be easily used as currency to participate in unregulated online roulette, slots, sports betting and more. So, yeah, there are some differences.

cmdrfred 10y ago
Astute analysis, Valve's proximity to the secondary market seems to be the issue here. They also appear to allow you to generate keys for games that can then be sold[0][1]. This provides you with an indirect way of cashing out your earnings. [0]https://www.g2a.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-steam-cd-key-global.html https://www.g2a.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-steam-cd-k... ($7.23 USD vs Steam price of $19.99 USD) [1]https://www.g2a.com/mass-effect-trilogy-origin-cd-key-global.html https://www.g2a.com/mass-effect-trilogy-origin-cd-key-global... ($13.66 for all 3 Mass Effect games or $34.99 on Steam)
- ac29 10y ago
  I'm under the impression those "cheap keys" are from other regions where games are sold for cheaper, and can potentially get your account locked.
- jeeva 10y ago
  They don't allow end-users to generate keys for games - that is restricted to the publishers or game creators (in smaller cases). The keys on those sites are generally sourced from physical copies in cheaper regions (as mentioned in a sibling comment), cheaply sold bundles (Humble Indie Bundle, and other similar sites), and other such sources. You could possibly make an argument for gift-copies of games[0] being resalable, or games that can be added to third party systems (ME2 gives a CD key that can be added to Origin, for example) though the latter would be limited to one attempt per-game per-account. [0]http://www.g2play.net/category/24773/factorio-steam-gift/ http://www.g2play.net/category/24773/factorio-steam-gift/

cmdrfred 10y ago

Astute analysis, Valve's proximity to the secondary market seems to be the issue here. They also appear to allow you to generate keys for games that can then be sold[0][1]. This provides you with an indirect way of cashing out your earnings. [0]https://www.g2a.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-steam-cd-key-global.html https://www.g2a.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-steam-cd-k... ($7.23 USD vs Steam price of $19.99 USD) [1]https://www.g2a.com/mass-effect-trilogy-origin-cd-key-global.html https://www.g2a.com/mass-effect-trilogy-origin-cd-key-global... ($13.66 for all 3 Mass Effect games or $34.99 on Steam)

ac29 10y ago
I'm under the impression those "cheap keys" are from other regions where games are sold for cheaper, and can potentially get your account locked.
jeeva 10y ago
They don't allow end-users to generate keys for games - that is restricted to the publishers or game creators (in smaller cases). The keys on those sites are generally sourced from physical copies in cheaper regions (as mentioned in a sibling comment), cheaply sold bundles (Humble Indie Bundle, and other similar sites), and other such sources. You could possibly make an argument for gift-copies of games[0] being resalable, or games that can be added to third party systems (ME2 gives a CD key that can be added to Origin, for example) though the latter would be limited to one attempt per-game per-account. [0]http://www.g2play.net/category/24773/factorio-steam-gift/ http://www.g2play.net/category/24773/factorio-steam-gift/