Small tips for the upcoming Steam Summer Sale

So, I thought, why not compile a small list of tips for whoever is new to the summer sale? I'm "kind of" new to it myself, having only started this last year with a very limited wallet, but this year might bring some more goodness. If you have any tips on what should be kept in mind during the sales, sound them so I can edit them into this main post. Until then, I start with mine.

• Oh boy, it's a few days or one day before the summer sale, and there's this insanely good daily deal that I'd like to get... What should I do? The answer is, buy it. I got Defense Grid's DLC for so cheap last year around this time, that it never, ever went below that price. Same goes to a Magicka Complete Pack which I spied before the Christmas sale back in '11 for a nice price, and it never went below that during the whole winter sale. It seems like an intentional decision on Valve's part, and it's damn clever. If someone has objection over this, please sound it and provide examples. As of now, let's see where Baldur's Gate will lead us; right now it's 75% off, which is great, but I'd bet you that it won't go any lower during the sales... I hope? (it's a midweek deal, so don't take my word for it. Definitely look for daily deals though)

• Only buy daily deals and special offers until the very last day. Those non-dailies you see in your wishlist? They'll stay like that through the whole sale time. Most of the time they go actually even lower, so be on the lookout for them.

• Avoid Paypal during this period of time, as it can suspect some fraudulent activity if you buy too many cheap things in small periods of time. I'm not sure how much they still do this, but apparently, it can be unpleasant when it happens, and there were reports of one guy having his account locked for Paypal's bullshit, although reportedly he got it fixed. Use PP only if you don't have any other alternatives, you have been warned. A friendly advice: try buying steam wallet funds with it, so that you can go haywire with your 1 buck purchases. EDIT: It seems like the majority of us didn't have too much of a problem like this, so it seems like it's safer than I believed. Still, if you're paranoid, you could use other alternatives or buy Wallet funds.

• NEVER, FUCKING NEVER buy your games directly into your library. ALWAYS get them as tradables. Why? Well, what if Amazon proposes a better deal for the neat little cow-fingering simulator you just got? Or what if the next Humble will get it? You'll be mad, and you'll be that for a reason. But hey, if you keep the tradable, and buy the key, you might be able to do an actually even profitable trade over at Steamtrades with your gift copy, only much later on (~2 months). Besides this, do not activate your games until you plan on playing them for the same reason. You never know when a new "indie" bundle or a better deal can pop up about it. If you can't hold your horses though, then go for it, but you have been warned again.

• Always look at other deals on different sites. Use SteamGameSales.com, or browse these forums to get a good look at other deals, at least on a daily basis. Last year Amazon outdid our favourite hat-supplier company in trades, and it can very well happen this year too. Here's another alternative to look for better sales: www.reddit.com/r/gamedeals/new (Thanks to Deiru for this!) Another one: http://isthereanydeal.com/ (Thanks, L1NU5!)

• A very useful tip brought to you by jshackles: install and use Enhanced Steam. It's especially useful for finding out which DLCs you own, or what version of a game you have (like the 2 different kinds of GOTY versions for Oblivion, those can be a bitch to find out). Personally, I'll give this a shot for sure.

• ToXXiN's advice: Have yourself a list of games to buy in the sale, or limit your wallet to a certain amount. Possibly both, with some clever thinking. Hey, think of it this way: everything else is an extra that you buy other than those from your limited funds.

• jshed2's idea might help out everyone who's into trading: "Another idea is to stock up on tf2 keys now and when a game goes on sale find a russian seller or someone trading for tf2 keys. You can generally get around 50% of the sale price by doing this"

That's all I can remember for now, if you got any more tips, or you want to correct a few mistakes in mine, post away and let's have a little guide for both newbies and even experienced consumer whores. Have a nice summer sale, and may all your wallets die of starvation happily!