How was your experience buying Random Steam Keys?

You're gonna get trash 99.99999% of the time

I think it's better to buy a game that you know you'd like, or a bundle where you know what you're gonna get.

Most of the mystery/random games are free games that have been given away a million times. If it was something valuable, they would not make it a secret.

If the mystery game is $1 and they give a AAA game once out of 500 times, they just sold a AAA game for $500. :P

I bought a couple of random games on GOG and I actually got a few interesting things: Golden Wake, Deponia 3, HOMM 4 and the best - Darksiders 2 which I actually really wanted. Other than that = garbage

it's planned to give profits to sites selling them, so, that tells you what kind of game you will mostly get.

It only worth for the seller, if the average price of the games in a "box" is less than the selling price. Which means that on average you get less value for your money than it's worth, and also - random game. Don't try it.
Also, basic probability: it does't matter if someone won something there, because probability - if I get lucky and win something, that doesn't mean you also will get lucky. Rather save up money and buy what you want, than gamble on a losing game and hope that you get something worthy, and wanted.

I still have to sit on a donut-shaped pillow after buying a few of those in the past.

Don't do it.

Didn't ever try any form of gambling in my life, and I don't plan on changing that.

I got some nice games like Death Road to Canada from LootBoy steam packs, but for example from GMG only trash so ¯\(ツ)/¯ overall I'm trying not to gamble like that even tho it's pretty addictive^^

Depends of where you buy it. But normally you get just garbage. And these "premium" randon keys are the same, it just cost more.

I bought a mystery bundle once a long time ago. It was all trash, BUT I did get DarkBase 01 which is just now a gag game for my steam library.

Tried it once and got Call of Duty Something Or Other. Saw that I basically won the lottery, and never did it again. Used up all my luck in one go.

Good thing I did though. That Shooterman game was something I would not play ever, and I had no friends who'd want it either.

Looking up what in the world I could do with something so valuable but of no interest to me, is how I learned about Steamgifts! I gave away some lower value things and hung around for a little while until I figured out the site so sadly I can't say it was the first thing I ever gave away here, but a bad decision that ended up as a lucky GMG box is why I'm here. I have a bit of happy nostalgia towards seeing the boxes because SG was the real prize in the situation.

That said, don't do it. Imagine it being like a GA here with 5,000 entries. Yeah, someone will get lucky and win but the chances of it being you are rare, and that risk costs actual money. You're better off spending that money in a sale, unless for curiosity's sake you're willing to set a dollar on fire to watch it burn.

Buying random keys was, as expected, random. As in a bunch of random games I didn't know existed, didn't need to know existed, and now wish they weren't existing in my library. Unless you know exactly what games are included and you want or are okay with, a majority of those games, it just doesn't pay to gamble. Because when you gamble, the house (or seller in this case) always has it stacked in THEIR favor. So if you want a good game, just find it on sale and buy it. That makes you a real winner. (If you need suggestions on good games, follow a curator or make a topic here, you'll get some good answers. Stardew Valley is a favorite of mine!)

Literally no idea why anyone would buy them. Even if they add a few 50$ games they make it back with all the free or garbage that costs pennies.

I bought a bunch when I first got a steam account. All were junk except I got a Lego Harry Potter key... and then a second key said I already owned the game, so I added it to my sons account and it turned out to also be Lego Harry Potter. So basically, waste of money but getting the lego games made up for it. Would never buy again however.

I bought like 5 of them when I was new to Steam deals and I only ever got keys for games often given away or bundled. I completely regret it and could have bought actually good bundles with that. Many have already said it, but it's designed to screw you over. They need to make the money back for the AAA games and also want to make a profit, so if you don't get the AAA main attraction it's gonna be below what you paid.

There are also sites with secondhand keys that offer "5x random keys" and those have like a 0% chance of having a good chance because 1) the site itself sure as hell's not going to check them and 2) no one is required to give out a good key for it and 3) the resellers are just going to resell their good keys because why would they miss out on profit? For sites like HRK and GMG it's a promotion, but resellers couldn't care less.

was lucky for the fist time. got mortal kombat X. next 50 times or so i got only indie shitty games :D
dont buy random keys:D better keep money for what u really want.

Tried a few times on GMG for fun in the past, always got trash.

Shattered Haven
Data Hacker Reboot
Cubicle Quest
Naninights
Corporate Lifestyle Simulator
Skyward Collapse
Time, Gentlemen Please & Ben There Dan That double pack

You can find at least several true cases when people indeed managed to snatch something good, but those are so rare that you can as well go buy a lottery ticket. Unless you want to gamble (and lose in 99.99% cases), you're far better keeping that money for a bundle you actually want, or a game on a discount.

I have been trying out lootboy and bought their theme packs (RPG, Fight for Glory, Tactical, etc.) for 99 cents each with Google Play credits. So far I received Neon Chrome, HoPiKo, and Dread Out. I guess the games are okay themselves, but are outshined in comparison to the other games that were possible to receive like GTA V, Stellaris, Shadowrun games, etc.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/428750/Neon_Chrome/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/437390/HoPiKo/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/269790/DreadOut/

Basically, trash. Your much better off spending the money elsewhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LumhEcadolo

It's basically gambling, which means you're gonna "lose" (by getting cheap shovelware) 99% of the time.

There's little to none who wants to buy a farmable free game so y not cover it up as 'random' so people will buy it