Game Value Drop / Tier Strategy Questions

Simply said, if you make a giveaway on September 1st and on September 2nd a game goes into a bundle and drops, you won't lose CV, but if you give that same game away on the 3rd you will get reduced CV for it, that's something to keep in mind.
Not sure if you ever buy full price games, since you said you now buy a few extra bundles, high chance almost all games you give away will already be on reduced value.

As an advice I don't have any, I myself just give games away that are leftovers from bundles, but some here buy full priced games for the full CV it's what you want, though with a low budget I think bundle leftovers would be your best shot since then it basically won't cost much more than before, but that's just an idea, you do you!

I can see it does work for you, slowly but it works as you're almost at level 6, with 6 years of membership.

I'm thinking I need to budget, maybe once a month or possibly per pay period a 50/purchase. whether the game is on sale or not, that should net me max points. in addition to the 15% value drop.. It may have been there I can't recall, are the values based on official key sites only or gg.deals?

I think the CV changes when the standard price drops, not when it's on sale. After a game is a year or two old, the standard, not-on-sale price will drift down appropriately.

If you're literally "on a budget" .... like a budget of $20 a month, you could get Fanatical's monthly platinum bundle each time, choose a few for you, and a few with the best CV value, and make GAs with the latter group. If $20 is too steep, but $10 is realistic, just do every second monthly platinum bundle. That's one strategy for steady growth.

When you create a giveaway, you get full, reduced, or no CV based on the date you created the giveaway. This will not change, you will always keep full, reduced, or no CV, but your CV will slowly drop over time because it is calculated based on the current US full retail price on Steam. Steamgifts does not remember the price of the game on the date you created the giveaway. Temporary sales do not affect your CV.

Example:

• You create a giveaway for a $60 full value game and get $60 CV.
• Some time later, the game gets bundled or sold at a discount of around 95% off or more.
• Everyone who now creates a giveaway after that sale started gets 15% CV of the $60 game. You will continue to get $60 CV while all the new giveaway creators will get $9.
• Then at a later date Steam keys for the game are given away in a free promotion.
• Now anyone who creates a giveaway gets 0 CV. People who gave it away after the sale still get their reduced $9 CV, and everyone who created a giveaway before the sale still gets the full $60 CV.
• Then the full price of the game permanently drops on Steam to $40.
• You now get $40 CV and everyone who gets the reduced 15% CV now gets $6.

Edit: You can also lose some CV if you create a giveaway for a game that you get in a bundle or free promotion before steamgifts support is able to update the CV for the game. If there is a bundle for some games today and you create a giveaway for those games, you may incorrectly get full CV for those games right now because steamgifts support has not yet reduced the value of those games because it needs to be done manually. Then in the future, support will reduce the value of those games based on the date that the bundle was available and anyone that created a giveaway for those games on or after that date will have their CV automatically corrected to the reduced value.

You can only view your total CV on your profile, it does not give information for each giveaway you created. The value next to the number of games you have sent is the full retail price of all the games, but if you place your cursor over the value, it will show you the real CV that calculates your level based on if the games are full, reduced, or no CV.

If you want to know if a game currently has full, reduced, or no CV, you can view that on the page where you create a new giveaway. There will be a red asterisk next to reduced value games and 2 asterisks next to games that have been free and give no CV. If you want to know the exact dates for when giveaways for a game gives reduced or no CV, you can search for the game on this list.

Another option is monitoring sales for games that haven't been bundled, as they give Full CV. Gifting a bundled game on average moves me 1% closer to Level 6, when I find an unbundled game on discount (sometimes for $2 or less), I can get 10% closer with one game.

I'm not sure if this is a strategy, but I think there's something to be said about having patience - it will take a while for you to level up once you get to Level 4 or so, but as much as you can, try not to overthink it. Just keep using the website, contributing, and having fun, and sooner or later you'll level up. Also always keep an eye out for the bundles that sensualshakti posts here, it's an incredible contribution from her to the community.

You already have quality replies in the thread so I'm going to go ahead and make a more tangential post.
Before you budget anything, you have to ask yourself what's your end goal on SG.
If you want to make cool GAs with leftover games from bundles, and see your account level up for the fun of it, slow and easy will do it.
If you want to level up with a frenzy in the hopes of getting better odds of winning, I'd tell you to take a moment and check out the GAs being made, the usual level they require for entry and the money you're willing to put into it.

To be honest, most public GAs are under level 4, some between 4 and 5, a few at level 6 and almost none past that.
So I'd say, make your GAs with leftover keys, try to get into a few groups for better odds and just check out your level from time to time to see it inching up or down, without caring much either way.

Anyway that's what I recommend. In the meantime, enjoy the place, and thank you for your contribution.
Don't forget to check out groups like Playing Appreciated and Unlucky 7. They are welcoming and overall will add to your experience on SG.

My primary advice after reading your comment:
Completely ignore the leveling-up game. Just give your leftovers and occasionally some little specials if you can do so without any remorse.
But don't create giveaways seeing them as some sort of investment.

Both fernandopa and Fluffster pretty much say what I was going to write.

If you are looking to level up in order to get better odds of winning, then your best option is to look at Group Recruitment and see what is required to join some of the groups. Bear in mind that many groups require regular monthly giveaways, which can become quite a commitment, especially if you join several.

As for a levelling up strategy, look for games that are over 90% discounted and not yet bundled (check here). ITAD is good for this as you can set a filter to exclude games that have not previously been bundled.

Do you mind if I co-opt your thread for a question I have which is substantially related?