How do users who give gifts afford them?

I am currently unemployed so I don't get a lot of money to buy things but I live quite simply and use the 'surplus' money to buy something to the community here. I mostly got my games from sales etc but sometimes buy something for full price. This kind of makes me unable to give away newest AAA games but a bit older games (like XCOM: Enemy Within) can be bought quite cheap and I think that people are still interested of them :)

Actually it made me smile when I gave away 2 copies of Dark Souls just a moment ago and people commented that they had always wanted the game and how the giveaway was a awesome thing. Near to 3½ year old game and it is still very wanted title! Ok it has some classic value but I was still surprised.

And no, I don't buy any keys / gifts from grey market. 1. I would feel wrong for doing it since I don't like what kind of market it supports and 2. I couldn't be really sure that the winner can keep the game (revoking etc) / gets a working key. Better to play safe.

I'm a games collector.

I spend an average of 5-10$ monthly for bundle games, and I usually have far more repeats that I'd like to have.

I don't think that spending 5-10$ monthly on games is much, it's less than humble monthly, and I'm able to get pretty nice games while I'm at it, so I ticked "bundle games" as a vote in the poll.

From time to time, I like to buy something for people I like, e.g. my group, because I don't consider spending 30$ once per half a year as a big problem either.

I have money, if I wanted I could get to L10 in notime, but I can't see a real reason for doing so. Gaming is my hobby, I like collecting games, playing games, and giving away games. Trust me that noone after L4 gives away games to win more in future, because that's usually the point when you're not playing games anymore, but you're actually gambling on steam, so it's simply not worth it to raise your level further. If you're giving away games for CV, you're doing it wrong, but we all know it and we're all doing it, just more or less.

So, if I had to put all of that in a nutshell, I'd just say that gaming is my hobby, and giving away games on steam is a part of it.

I know I'm not great, but SG is addicting.

When I was gifting non-bundled games in 2013-2014, I dropped alcohol and take-out coffee to buy more games to giveaway. I was very satisfied to make people happy.
Spring came, and there was a very tragic accident in my country, I became depressed. In addition, a while after, I lost my job. More depressed, I dropped every entertainment including SG.

When I recovered somehow, about 5-6 weeks ago, I came back to Steam and here. Many friends welcomed me. SG was different, changed. I adjusted myself to new system and I'm still learning. Though I cannot afford AAA games any more, I began to giveaway bundle left-overs and gifts in my inventory. As I expected, I became happier as I emptied my inventory and key-notes. Of course, winning is always good, too. :)

I trade to buy bundle games I missed while I was away, not to sell. I guess I cannot be a merchant in blood because selling something makes me uncomfortable. Anyway, gifting is satisfying, you will understand it someday. Take care of your wallet. ;)

I guess if you have a nice salary, you can afford to give more. And some users have been around for years, so they just got there over time.

I dunno, i just winning games, grabbing free games on various websites, farm cards, sell cards, so i have money to buy some games. Sometimes for myself, sometimes for giveaways. Also sometimes im trading some games for cards or any other items i have.

Last time i added real money on steam was more than year ago

I started using SG because I wanted to gift games. I was quite an enthusiastic Steam user/gamer at the time and there were games I enjoyed and wanted to gift to others or great deals (for the time) which I wanted to gift to others, and had no gaming friends. So after failing to get much traction on some forums and my Facebook page I found SG and started giving here. So at the time I was buying games especially to gift. At some point I noticed that I was buying a lot more than I was playing, so I stopped cold turkey for a few months, including buying gifts, and afterwards didn't return to my previous buying and gifting habits.

I put 'other' because I'm sure the answer involves all of the above.

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/m5ZiZ/call-of-duty-ghosts

beside that i hate charitys they work mostly only in there own pocket

if I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Some people are very well off, or at least secure, and have enough spare cash to give away lots of games. I imagine they also wait for sales/bundles and the like, like most people do as well, so the money can go further. Yes, you can spend that money on charity, but there's nothing to say that the person giving away games isn't doing that as well. Personally I try not to rank kindness, selflessness is selflessness.

I have a job, but I usually can't even spare a few dollars for giveaways. Instead, I rely on Tremorgames (got an awesome referral a while ago who earned me a shitload of coins), Steam sales (of which I pay with wallet I made through selling cards) and other "sources".

Food and water are games for us :)

But u are right. We send food/water to charity too, not only games.
I have moreless same wedge as u, also family. etc.

Happy new year.

I prefer quantity over quality, that's why I do mostly bundle giveaways. Being relatively poor has something to do with that as well. You can get 10 keys for a euro and make 10 people happy or have a few thousand more entrants and make one person happy for considerably more money. It just makes more sense to me.

Also on HB I always choose to split funds between HB and developer... guess I am just not a charitable person.

For me, a combination of bundle games, trading card sales and trading profits. I gave away over US$1200 of games for my birthday because of heavy trading at the time. Shame that all dried up. :(

I giveaway bundlegames mostly, but this holidays (actually my first year on steamgifts:)) just wanted to make somebody happy and bought few games in steam just to giveaway. So probably just extra money and good mood:) I think those guys with level 10 are level upd their accounts not for winning giveaways because it will be more reasonable to buy those wishlist games if they have so funds for GA... So steamgifts is about make someone you dont know happier:))))

P.S. I registered here to get some games for free, but actually giving away more)))

Money from employment.
Right now... unemployed, so no income, so (probably) no new giveaways. :(

When I gift, it's typically a game I personally really enjoyed, and want to share with the people on the site.
To say that this site is community-driven is an understatement; if the community on here wasn't as cool as it is, there would probably be far fewer gifts.

"Maybe somebody likes to spend their money for others? if so please explain."
Sometimes it's hard for users new to the site to grasp this. That's okay. But really, there are people out there who are that kind and are that generous. It's as simple as that.

I gave up other vices that were costing me money, so I could give more initially. I quit smoking and almost all alcohol, although I still drink on occasion (once or twice a month). I was wasting money on unimportant things and I basically redirected that to pursue something more charitable. Giving away games on here has had a positive influence on my health.

I earn millions with selling csgo cases. jk but i can spare a few games from what i make

Other people here are pure condensed awesomeness and generosity, and are saints of the gaming gods, sent to selflessly bless us in the name of Barbie.

As for me:
In a selfish desire to partake in that positive environment others create more thoroughly, I scrape together what bundle keys and trading card wallet fund-purchased games I can offer. Then, I win super shiny games and I feel guilty, and so I buy even more extra bundle keys... ..and then I feel guilty for them being bundled..so I try to get more trading card funds, and more bundle games to offer..

so I'm basically caught in an up-down cycle of pleasure, personal connection, and guilt.

It's basically a really long-lasting one-night-stand, but with far less regret. :X

seriously, though, so many people here are amazing, and I feel like a total leech by comparison. :X

90% of public giveaways are from bundles games. (probably people buy 2 packs each time one for them and other for giveaway. (however take in mind that some bundles need to spend 15$ to get the games so it's nice that they buy them for giveaway soo nice people.)

9% of public giveaways are from high sales (like winter , week , etc... where you see a very nice amount of good/popular games)

1% of public giveaways are from people that really buy games on steam for give to free or level up more fast.

that's it's what i think, but no matter how people afford the games, they giveaway some of them and that's nice!!!!

Pretty much just spend whatever money I have spare on the GAs, I've bought very few games for myself in the past few months!

La maggior parte dei miei giveaway provengono da roba che non mi interessava contenuta in bundle presi su HB. Alcuni giochi li ho presi sullo store di Steam utilizzando il mio wallet (ma roba di poco valore) giusto per tirare un po' velocemente su il mio CV.

Onestamente, anch'io non capisco la logica di spendere una fraccata di soldi (vedi Fallout 4 o similia) per darli via qua su SG. Ben venga, sia chiaro, ma... non li spendo nemmeno per me tutti quei soldi su Steam. :O

Probably from some website like G2A or kinguin they give money for ref's