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tl;dr
Just kidding, I skimmed over it, but I'm bumping to keep this up top.
STICKY!
thanks for the bump. people should definately read. I am also working on a F.A.Q. or shorter version for TL;DR'ers :P
Well, exploited generally refers to the keys that have been taken advantage of in some form or another. Some of these keys are not legitimate and will be removed from your games library, such as Dirt 3 Codes and Dead Island Keys. The reason is these keys were stolen from key databases via site hacks and other illegal means. The other keys are obtained through a vulnerability in the game software, as was the case of eets, which was available through an exploit on an iphone game app that was supposed to give 1 key upon completion of a specific level but could be manipulated into giving multiple keys. These keys may or may not be removed from your library. I also read that some dead island keys could also be obtained via a vulnerability in the game as well however again these keys WILL be removed for sure.
The Tl;Dr here is exploited means these keys were not obtained through legitimate methods. Some were stolen, others used a vulnerability in some program. at the end of the day, most of these keys are not considered legitimate by steam and will be removed from your library.
So right now the list is Serious Sam: Double D, Dead Island, Bulletstorm, Homefront Shotgun DLC, AI War, Portal 2, Dirt 3, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Multiplayer, Eets and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (as of 9/1/12 based on this thread)
Well it's a big wall of text, very seldom people will actually take their time to read all of it. I suggest you maybe highlight the main points, or re-arrange a summary or some sort. Great work btw.
I agree with shauntmw, its lot of text and I guess most (younger) user will not read it and even dont care until they will be scammed... Overall its very informing.
haha, that's funny. I literally made my account a few minutes ago and this was the first thread I read, and I read it completely. ;)
This is probably one of the best ideas anyone ever had since I'm trading. It should be stickied on the Steam forums also, so new people would avoid being scammed, etc.
hehe. Didn't know stickied threads could close :O Thanks ^^ how have you been yatter?
dont really know where else to post this...
If you buy a bundle, is only the whole bundle tradable or do you get each game seperatly in your inventory??
depends on the bundle. Most indie bundles give you keys, so you don't even get tradable games but a bunch of keys. Sometimes the keys are for all (or many) of the games in the bundle, as is the case with the humble bundles, whereas other bundles, such as the indieroyal or indiegala give you separate keys for each of the games. Bundles bought on Steam contain all the games in a single pack and are in the form of a tradable bundle (not keys and not separate games).
Please contact me if you like anything( http://www.steamtrades.com/trade/wdHtk/h-a-lot-of-games-brand-new-updated-w-offers) . Any i'm trying to get more people to join my trade group if you like to trade join! http://steamcommunity.com/groups/gametradingnow
Noob question: What are exploited keys and how can you tell which ones are exploited? I got offered EU Skyrim keys, could they be exploited?
Hi. You can check Rules and FAQ on the section "Keys Considered Exploited" for a current list :)
So I guess it makes sense when buying steam games to always buy as gifts?
then if you change your mind about the game you can just trade it later.
what do I do if someone just gives me negative rep here, though I never traded/talked with the person?
You remain with it, just like I got from an user after he insulted me also. There was a thread some time ago where users could post for their -rep to be removed but there is no more now.
Just having a quick flick through, I noticed you specified it was an hour needed between bumps. It's 30 mins rather than the full hour :) Might be worth mentioning the bump button too rather than actually typing "bump" because I still see this quite a bit.
I'm worried about carded gifts.. What if it was obtained using an illegal source of payment, stolen credit card..?
i'm new in steamtrades and steamgifts but that is because i didn't know about these websites (or i really didn't care to check it). But now i want some games and well... i'm here.
Thanks for the advice (yesterday someone tried scam me for paypal money)
I have a couple of games that I purchased 2 copies of on Amazon. I originally bought them individually, then picked up an extra key along with bundles. Anyone know how I can figure out which key is still available to unlock on Steam? I checked the CD key from the link in my library, but that number doesn't match either of the Amazon keys.
Reputation system just getting abused everytime, someone is not happy with my offer, he give me negative rep, i counter offer someone, he gave me negative rep.
offering and counter-offer is happen everytime in trading, in or off steam, god damn.
what the hell is wrong with people. jesus!
I think I've been cheated.
What can I do now?
Here's our conversation => http://i45.tinypic.com/30a7xoy.jpg
I just just got ripped of and it was no ones fault but my own. Is there anyway to warn people off? And to review pages count for anything?
Guy jumped offline as soon as I made my end of the trade, I figured it was fine for me to go first since I was the one with no rep and he had 43+
EDIT: Well learned my lesson, the guy I traded with was faking to be the real xDIABLOx. Make sure to check the account link on the rep page with the one of the guy you're trading with. Again I don't blame anything but my own naive stupidity.
you can use http://steamrep.com/ and insert the person's profile URL to get data on him.
Based on rules It seems I'm not a person to trust (2 months on SG, Steam account since 2011, any trades yet so any +rep).
Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait some time before start making trades. Starts are difficult >_<
This guy just tried scamming me
Hes banned and tried to get me to go first...
http://www.steamtrades.com/trade/ZhG2Q/watch-out-this-guy-is-banned-and-tried-to-get-you-to-go-first
Dude... OK, you should try and warn as many people as possible, but you are spamming this site.
BTW, I reported the dude as soon as I saw your first post, hope many more did as well.
I wonder why so many "Dead Islands" pop up lately..?! There was a free-giveaway of 5000 keys on raptr.com for this, so there may come up a huge wave here... ;-)
Introduction
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It has been more than a month since steamtrades opened up (I know... I was there… No wait, this isn’t that movie :P) and though a small community at first composed mainly of interested wanderers from steamgifts and such, the site gained quick exposure and an exponential growth in users and threads when the steam forums went down and also when a sticky to our site was placed on steam trading forums.
At first, there were no rules as they were not necessary- we were a small community composed of people from steamgifts and we more or less knew or trusted each other. There were no scammers afoot (certainly not in this number) and most traders respected the other in terms of both trade etiquette and otherwise.
That quickly changed however, when the user base grew and it quickly became apparent that something had to be done and one of the mods from steamgifts, lokonopa, was forced to intervene in the forum and establish some rules on the forums. Bump policies were put into effect and many of the rules from the main community site, steamgifts, carries on here as those rules were voted for and reached by the majority vote as well as by the community's, mods' and admin's own moral and ethical guidelines. A reporting thread was "stickied" to help users that were inconvenienced by the actions of another to report the said action, report violations of rules and scam reports. I have been very heart broken by the sheer number of posts that get added there every day, and many of them can actually be avoided if everyone reads, understands and applies the rules of the site. The emphasis here is the applies part, as it is up to us to prevent ourselves from being scammed. So without further ado, I present to you my humble opinion on how you should trade.
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Trading
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We will look at this in two different perspectives; the trader making the thread and the trader making the offer. The trader making the thread is like the trader setting up shop. You put what you have to trade on display and wait for the interested persons to come by your thread and try to come to some form of agreement on the trade terms. The trader making the offer is the one that goes from thread to thread making offers for the games they are interested to get, i.e. like the customer. The most successful traders make threads and also actively seek out games they want in other's threads by making offers for them. So now let us look at the trader creating threads to inform others of what they have:
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Creating threads
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One of the most important things about trading is letting others know what you have. Thread titles are limited to 100 characters, so it becomes a case of optimizing the information in your title to attract the maximum number of interested users. Titles should in the form of
[H] <insert what you have here> [W] <insert what you want here>
Of course, sometimes you have so many games to trade that it will not fit in the title; in this case you have to decide what it is that will attract the most number of users. There are a number of ways of doing this but I shall name a few here:
the most.
This holds true for listing what you want as well; a common and good way to keep the [W] section as short as possible and attract the maximum number of interested users is to either state the single game that you wish to trade for the most or just say "Wishlist" if you are only interested in getting one of the games you want or "Offers" if you are open to any game offer that will be made.
Once the title is ready, enter any and ALL descriptions about the items you wish to trade, including any regional tags on the games, activation restrictions as a result of regional restrictions, where the game is in your inventory or a key, and so on. Please note that trading keys that are considered exploited are NOT allowed, regardless of whether the ones you have are exploited or not. This is stated in the rules section clearly.
Once you are done entering the details, click "Create Your Discussion" green button below the "Body" where you entered the description and WAIT. The site is slow to respond sometimes, but your requests are taken in and if you click the button multiple times, you will be creating multiple duplicate threads. If you realize this has happened, please delete any and all duplicate threads made by you, as they clutter up the forums needlessly, make it more difficult for people to search for the stuff they want and (more importantly to you perhaps) make it difficult for you to follow offers made to your threads as you will need to follow each of these threads separately when offers are made and might miss out on important offers.
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The Wait
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Once your thread is made, it is a matter of waiting. Please remember that the current site rules allow for a maximum of one bump per hour after the latest activity (i.e. post made by you or from another person making an offer) on your thread. Do not bump your thread beyond these provisions. Do not worry, if you have something that people want, someone is bound to make an offer sooner or later. As I said, it is a matter of waiting- the length of your wait depends on the games you have, how much people want those games and the games you ask for in return for the games you have.
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The Offer
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So you got an offer? Congratulations! This means that someone is interested in what you have to offer. Evaluate your offers based on:
If you are happy with the offer, reply with your steamid or a link to your steam profile, so that you may conduct the trade. If you are not happy with the offer, then state why you are rejecting the offer; too often I see people say "no thanks" but actually they do want what is being offered, just don't think it is a fair trade. If you do not want to hear another reply from the person, then "no thanks" is fine, but if you think you can work something out, say so.
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The Trade
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Ok so you think the offer is acceptable (or better) and you got the person's steam id. What next? Well, the first step is to contact the person. The most common way to do this is to add the person as a friend. However, I do NOT prefer this unless if the trader is highly trusted (for reasons I shall explain later below). You can actually pm and trade with people without adding them as friends. This can be done easily if you are both in the same group chat room (steamtrades group chat , for example) and then you can select the person you wish to send a private message to from the users that are in the chat room, and then chat and trade as usual. Regardless of the method you use to chat and reach an agreement, once an agreement is reached we go on to the most exciting part - the actual trade ^^
Do's and Don'ts of trades
Once your trade is conducted, thank each other and say your goodbyes courteously and then each of you can go on your merry ways (or if you both wish you may even stay as friends if you think the person is really a decent fellow that you would like to have a chat with once in a while or would like to stay as your friends, or whatever).
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Posting in threads
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Say you saw someone trading a game you would like. What should you do?
Well, the first thing is see what the trader is looking for. Don’t post if the trader is looking for a particular game and states that they are not interested in anything else, and you do not have what they are looking for.
Try to see if the person’s wishlist is available and if it is then try to see if you can offer a game from there. If not, make your offer if the person seems willing to accept other game offers.
When you post, always state what you are offering and what you want (if trader is trading more than one item) or if you want to see what the trader will offer you for your games, just ask something like “anything(s) for these?” or “interested in any of these?”
If you would like the person to contact you, leave a means of reaching you… Not everyone likes people adding them in steam randomly. Don’t post your offer and then leave the internets for a week then complain he never responded to your offer.
When you post, be to the point. Don’t write an essay. Be clear and concise.
Be reasonable in your offers. Don’t offer Fortix for Rage, for example… :P
Wait for the owner of the thread to respond. If they respond but miss out your thread, then ask whether or not they saw your offer- they may have missed it, though usually people either try to keep it for later or just can’t be bothered to say “no, thank you” :(
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Checking out user profiles:
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As you may know if you tried to click on a user’s name on steamtrades, steamtrades profiles are not yet active. However, steamgifts and steamtrades use the same usernames. This means that, by replacing the “trades” part of the address to “gifts” you can get a lot of information on the user; most importantly the date the user was registered to steamgifts. You can also view the steam community profile from this page. Use these two sources of information to determine how trustable the person is based on:
When they joined steamgifts (3 months ago is my preferred minimum).
When they set up a steam profile (newer profiles, say made in 2011, is not a heartwarming sign).
How many games they have on steam and what is the value of those games (do not count exploited keys in your valuation of the games and also remember to take regional differences into account). You may use
ddgamer price calculator or
steamcalculator
Do they have a trade or VAC ban on status? Trade bans are a definite warning and means stay the hell away as this user has scammed users before or traded in things he/she shouldn’t have. VAC bans are an indication that the person you are dealing with is not entirely honorable and may cheat you (as he has already cheated in the game).
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How to trade safe
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O.K. so now that we have discussed how to trade, let us now talk about how to trade safe. The first thing you should do is visit this thread by megarobot. It has a list of all scammers that have attempted to scam users of this site and he uses a process where scammers are added based on proof (so it is a pretty good and accurate list). Choose to block these characters on the blacklist for your own security or do not do so at your own risk. Read the section on "How to Report a Scammer" for information on how the proof data is/should be collected just in case you come across one as well. So now that you are geared up to report a scammer, let us talk about how to avoid one entirely.
This is a work in progress so bear with me and if you have any suggestions, lemme know.
EDIT 1: Now that steamtrades user profiles work and can take you directly to the steam community page, you do not have to remove the "trade" part of steamtrades and change it to "gifts" in the users user profile on steamtrades :)