Hi

If you bought some bundles for future giveaways would you redeem the key and keep it stores elsewhere or would you not redeem it on the website until you were ready? Even if this was for months!

Is there a better option and why?

Cheers

7 years ago

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Activate them immediately, trade for other games, some people give them away here

7 years ago
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Let it there, feels safer imo

7 years ago
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I believe it's better to redeem to avoid any keys being revoked or cancelled.

7 years ago
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^^ yes. But tbh it's only recent times where this is happening. This did not happen to legit keys before.

7 years ago
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He's talking about showing the keys, not actually redeeming them on his account though.

7 years ago
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I've always let them there (HB, Groupees, Bundle stars) and never had any issue.

7 years ago
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+1
I had HB keys that were several years old and never experienced any issues.

7 years ago
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+1 i always let them there, but only on Legit Sites like HB, Bundle Stars and Indiegala :)

7 years ago
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If u want collect games = activate them or/and drop cards if u want some few cents back
If u want some another games = trade them
If u dont need them = giveaway

Its not important if it months, i found acc on groupess and some bundle inside after soem months and all works well.

7 years ago
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ur supposed to rearrange the letters and numbers of the key so it comes out as a sentence

7 years ago
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I instantly get the keys to keep them elsewhere. Otherwise I would get really confused as to which bundle has keys remaining etc. and have to load the bundle pages (some of them which are really slow like IG).

7 years ago
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I'm using an Excel document (or to be exact, I'm using the free version from open office) to catalogue all my unredeemed game keys until I need them for a trade or giveaway. I'm buying a lot bundles from different sites. I would not be able to remember all my unredeemed games and the shops where I have bought them. And if someone is asking me for a trade I just have to open the document and can tell him / her if I have the game he / she wants :)

7 years ago
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^ Would use it too, if I had any ^_^

7 years ago
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Barter.vg makes for a beautiful place to store a list of your unredeemed games, as well as being able to tag them with the storefront they came from. There's also the benefit of being able to get incoming trade offers while you sit on your keys, if trading is something you've interest in.

Of course, you can't directly store your keys on barter, so excel benefits from being a safe and easily accessible way of storing your keys.

7 years ago
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Never heard of Barter before, but it sounds interresting. Will take a look at it. Thanks for the info :)
But I guess with the amount of keys I have it's too much effort to make a new list on Barter xD

7 years ago
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you can directly copy-paste your list (only the names, not the keys of course) into barter

7 years ago
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I see :) Well, that makes it a lot easier ^^
Thanks!

7 years ago
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If you reveal all your keys instantly, you have to be careful keeping records, so you don't forget you already used one. :) If you don't reveal the keys, you can always see which ones are safe to gift/trade/whatever.

But there's one extra thing to remember - sometimes bundle sites die. I have a pile of keys locked away somewhere at the remains of Indie Royale, OneMoreBundle et al. that I'll never be able to use, since I didn't reveal them. :(

7 years ago
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If you don't keep track of all keys in one document it's easy to forget what you have, and if you're already maintaining a document, you might as well keep the keys there. That's what I do, and the only issue I have with it is that I once forgot one to mark a game as given and created another giveaway for it a few months later. I then had to trade for another key. Not a pleasant situation, but rare.

7 years ago
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Fortunately I didn't lose too many keys from dead bundle sites, and there weren't any obscure removed games among them, so it was a cheap lesson. :) Now I don't take any chances... :)

I've had to buy some bundle leftovers from Steam when the bundle keys turned out already to be used, which wasn't much fun... :( Solved that for the future with better record keeping and by not giving away bundle leftovers... :) Oh well. :)

I suppose people who make a lot of "level 0" giveaways are always wondering if a key was really used, or if a shady winner just used it on their second account... Not sure how common that is, though...

7 years ago
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steam_keys.txt
usedsteamkeys.txt

7 years ago
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Using a single spreadsheet is more convenient in my opinion, but whatever works ;-)

7 years ago
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if there were ever more then 5 valid/unnused keys at a time i'd probably do that.. but typically i create the ga or redeem to fast to bother with a large list =)

7 years ago
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Yes, maybe it's not relevant in your case.

I have more than 200 unused keys and tend to trickle them down into different threads, so it would be unmanageable without a proper document.

7 years ago
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yes yes, deff agree.. if i had a larger amount by anymeans a spreadsheet is certainly the way to go ^^

for just a few at a time though txt doc works fine for me.. cut from steamkeys.txt / paste to usedsteamkeys.txt =)

7 years ago
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It depends on the site. Sites where finding unused keys are easy (humble, groupees) are sites I'll keep the key on. Sites where it's not, I'll grab the key and put it in a text document for future use.

7 years ago
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What SketCZ said above is the best answer in my opinion.

In addition, I would recommend to use a spreadsheet to maintain the keys, and to back it up regularly.

7 years ago
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Thanks everyone. Wasn't expecting such a 50/50 answer. Personal preference i guess.
Will take on board what you all suggested

7 years ago
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Humble, Groupees, BundleStars, DailyIndieGame, and IndieGameStand all seem to be entirely reliable in storing your games/keys, and Humble has a solid reputation for fixing issues as best they're able.

Meanwhile, IndieGala is unreliable in many respects [and if you don't immediately store your keys off-site, you run the risk of losing them all if you're one of the small handful of users that IndieGala randomly deletes the account on (as I was)], while GreenManGaming actually has an active policy where they outright drop support for any purchases a week after you made them, so it's critical you test those keys to see if they're working immediately. If you wait too long, they've been known to invalidate keys.

In summary:
You're fine storing on-site for most sites (basically, any site other than IG and GMG and less-well-known bundle sites should typically be safe)- however, it's basically always a good idea to backup games and keys whenever possible, just to be safe: So if you've the energy to put in the effort, there's really no benefit to storing them online across numerous different sites, each of which has the potential to have an issue eventually.

7 years ago
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Thank you

7 years ago
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