Hello,

I was going through my different owned bundles on various sites and there are a few games I might be able to donate. However, I am not 100% sure if the keys have been used or not (I don't think they have). But I don't want to take the chance to create a "false" donation here.

Is there a way to verify? They are all games I already have on my Steam profile, so if I try to use the keys on my account will they be wasted or is it a good way to find out?

Thank you.

9 years ago*

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itll be wasted

9 years ago
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not true. If you already have that particular game on your account - it will say that you already own that, but TBH I'm not sure if it will say if that key already used. If key wasn't used before that - it would still be useable (had several instances like that - I have the game already but forgot and tried to activate new key - after that my kid was able to activate it on his account). Now if you don't have said game on account - it will redeem it or say that it's a duplicate if it was used already.

Sorry, I know that it's not much help... But at least you can try to check with a key that you know for sure was used: if it say that it's a duplicate - then it's a sure way to check those that you have doubts about.

9 years ago
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Aside from asking steam support, there's no way for us non-destructively to check the status of a key.

If you own the game, and the key is used, you get the "Product already owned" message. If you own the game, and the key is unused, you get the "Product already owned" message.

If you don't own the game, and the key is used, you get the "Duplicate product code" message. If you don't own the game, and the key is unused, the game is added to your account. Oops! :)

9 years ago
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sadly, yes... I've got curious enough to check it on my own account - well, it works exactly as described.

So key will not be wasted - but you will not be able to check if it's used or not already...

9 years ago
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thanks

9 years ago
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Sad that Origin has this for quite some time now and Steam does not.

9 years ago
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You can't view your Origin game library in the browser. Steam has that since ... probably forever :P

They really should implement useful features that one has and the other lacks.

9 years ago
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If you installed "Enhanced Steam" chrome extension you can view your library on the browser just like this.

Clicky

9 years ago
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If you read my post carefully, you'd have noticed that I said you can't view your Origin library in the browser (only in the Origin client).

You don't even need any add-on to view your Steam library in a browser, so I don't know why you posted this ;)

9 years ago
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Yes, post them here.

9 years ago
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I won't ;)

9 years ago
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If you aren't sure you probably should post them on the forums instead of making a giveaway for them.

9 years ago
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If you already have them, it's okay to try them. It will say something like "Product already exists in your account" if I remember correctly.

9 years ago
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While this is correct it doesn't tell anything about the validity of the key. As far as I know there is no way to tell if a Steam key has been used or not.

9 years ago
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If the key has been already used, doesn't steam say something like "Key already activated"?

9 years ago
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Only if you don't own the game already.

9 years ago
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Oh, I did not know that. Thanks for sharing :)

9 years ago
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There's no way to check keys, besides activating them, sadly.

You could "drop" them to anyone interested, or even allow to "trade" them on Steam Trades (providing you state the key might not work and go first on the trade).

9 years ago
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This...

If u're not up to drop then on forum, i think this is the most suitable approach.

9 years ago
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i would gladly to receive your 'donation' :) trade me up xD

9 years ago
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This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

9 years ago
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clearly he say he want to donate, i offered myself.

9 years ago
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Say friend, maybe you should read the Steamgifts FAQ, especially the part about:

Begging in the community will not be tolerated.

And no, saying "I wasn't begging, I was just asking!" or "It was just a joke!" does not work.

9 years ago
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The main reason I'd rather not give them on the forum is that I would prefer the game to actually be played... Odds are better if I create a real donation.

Thank you guys for your helpful comments! I will work on my list and decide later. :)

9 years ago
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it is real! xD np.

9 years ago
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The best and safest way to test (and lose them actually) is to let anyone on your friend list to try (double points if its working and its on their wishlist) but that's just a suggestion if you want to give it away like so ;)

9 years ago
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What I did when I did a keydrop of a bunch of keys from Groupees (after they added the used checkmarks, and I wanted to mark everything as used, but wasn't sure what had been used and what hadn't)...

First I made an Excel document with the game name and the key, and passed it around to friends. They tried whichever keys they wanted, and marked ones that they used as used, and ones that had already been used as used. I then took the rest of the keys, with the names, and posted them in the forum here. I put in the names so that people would hopefully only try keys they really wanted. It was before Steam put the "too many keys tried" message back in before you hit a limit, and as I recall people were still finding usable keys in the list 15 minutes after I posted it.

Yeah, some people will try to take everything they can, but some people, seeing a game they don't want, will leave it be.

9 years ago
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Thank you bestem

9 years ago
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Actually, many people would enter a GA just to win the game, even though they won't play it. People might enter for fun, for the chance of getting something free, for increasing their backlog, for card drops... I really don't know for sure if a real GA has better odds. Maybe so as ninjas are before anything just ninjas, but not by much, I guess.

I also used excel to organize my keys, and color the ones that I'm not so sure that work, to avoid trouble when trading them. Nowadays I use Google Docs for that.

9 years ago
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I won a giveaway from someone and the key didn't work. He said he tried it on his account cuz he already had the game. So it must have been used even though he already had the game.

9 years ago
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Trick that might help.

Use forgot username -> I know product code I used. (from client)

This works only if you know that you didn't giveaway to someone else.

9 years ago
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Woa! Didn't know about that... I'll try it later for a few keys, thanks.

EDIT: actually, it seems to return the same message, for any keys I tried (keys I know are activated, and keys I know that aren't): "An email has been sent to the owner"...

Might help if you don't know if you activated it yourself or not, as you would receive the email if you activated it, but I guess that's what you meant on your last sentence.

9 years ago
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well, make some really hard puzzles an put one key in each of them

if key is valid: great

if key not valid: people did still have fun solving puzzle

dumping them here gives them to the people with key-grabbing bots

p.s. you can fool those bots if you just throw in string which look like a key, but are just random generated things: (you can fool people who cannot read this way, too). looks like this ;)

X64IG-DCZNP-IP1Y0
07GOT-46Y9D-7I40K
WF4ES-7542V-5V15V
EP51A-1L4VC-5CN0Z
ZANJM-A8JXE-Q739Y
4W5Q0-S05Z6-955OJ
JPL5X-04EQA-C33I8
H427C-TZ6K9-J0XZ2
7T585-A67NM-M9V09
94BPJ-M013D-O7HAA
CFNHZ-G7NIE-EL9EC
9 years ago
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9 years ago
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Could you stop necroposting

9 years ago
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