Market script purchase problem

[Irene ❤]

As we know there are rare charm IDs or low float skins. However, people wrote scripts to check for them every second and instantly buying them. Legit collectors unable to buy them on market.

As a result, those rare items were sold on 3rd party markets and it's usually a China controlled market.

To put into perspective, imagine you're doing an unbox and only the Chinese will unbox better skins. You will have to buy from them if you wish to get a better skin.

Suggestion :
- When buying an item, a bot checker box appeared.

[Vault Hunter 101]

Valve tried to do captchas when creating Steam accounts, it didn't help, bots were still being made

Valve tried to limit inventory/marketplace requests made by user in short amount of time, it didn't help, legitimate users were often being hit with "Sorry the market is not avaible at this time"


Feel free to come up with a better idea that won't hurt legitimate players

[Chiyoko]

I guess the only way to do that is to remove all IDs, pattern numbers and so on from the Steam market lots, so the only way you can to identify a pattern is by looking the item with your eyes. But this... kinda sucks.

And I am not sure to be honest, maybe there is a way to automatically compare the game screen to an image example to make a bot being able to detect the stuff they need.

UPD: Actually not.
I forgot that the anti-cheat is enabled only on servers with secure mode enabled, which means in the main menu you can inject whatever you want and extract any data from the client. So none of measures will stop these bots, but it only will make more problems for an average user.

[bAd a!m]

Question: are they paying for what the buy?

If yes, then it's totally fine.

Here is why:

1. John Doe lists RARE-ITEM on the market.

2. Script of Robby Doe detects the RARE-ITEM and buys it, using Robby Doe's money.

3. Either Robby Doe, or another script, re-lists the RARE-ITEM on the market.

4. Another script of Chris Doe buys the RARE-ITEM, using Chris Doe's money.

5. Either Chris Doe, or another script, re-lists the RARE-ITEM on the market.

6. Again, another script will buy and re-list the item, raising the price to absurd levels.

7. Eventually, one of these script users, in order to stop the loss, will have to STOP the script purchase.

The problem will be solved by the scripts itself.

[COREY NEIL(XBOX LIVE)]

Originally posted by YT @instituteofgamin:

Question: are they paying for what the buy?

If yes, then it's totally fine.

Here is why:

1. John Doe lists RARE-ITEM on the market.

2. Script of Robby Doe detects the RARE-ITEM and buys it, using Robby Doe's money.

3. Either Robby Doe, or another script, re-lists the RARE-ITEM on the market.

4. Another script of Chris Doe buys the RARE-ITEM, using Chris Doe's money.

5. Either Chris Doe, or another script, re-lists the RARE-ITEM on the market.

6. Again, another script will buy and re-list the item, raising the price to absurd levels.

7. Eventually, one of these script users, in order to stop the loss, will have to STOP the script purchase.

The problem will be solved by the scripts itself.

LOL. Sorry, but no. Do you think all the HFT's in the stock market cause stocks to infinitely run up? That's not how those scripts are written it would be stupid to do so. They have stop-loss set into the code.

The reason nothing is done because from the companies stand point it doesn't matter if it's human or a bot doing the buying. They're creating sales/profit for the company, they're creating volume making the market look more active than it is. Valve care about the profit aspect so as long as they're getting their cut it doesn't matter who it comes from.

[ag]

Originally posted by Chiyoko:

I guess the only way to do that is to remove all IDs, pattern numbers and so on from the Steam market lots, so the only way you can to identify a pattern is by looking the item with your eyes.

That is not possible if the inspect button reveals that data anyways, it can still be scraped and tested programmatically

Originally posted by YT @instituteofgamin:

Question: are they paying for what the buy?

If yes, then it's totally fine.

Its not fine, Valve explicitly disallows this.

[bAd a!m]

Originally posted by ๋ cat enjoyer:

Originally posted by Chiyoko:

I guess the only way to do that is to remove all IDs, pattern numbers and so on from the Steam market lots, so the only way you can to identify a pattern is by looking the item with your eyes.

That is not possible if the inspect button reveals that data anyways, it can still be scraped and tested programmatically

Originally posted by YT @instituteofgamin:

Question: are they paying for what the buy?

If yes, then it's totally fine.

Its not fine, Valve explicitly disallows this.

In that case, talk to Valve. What do you expect us to do, beyond discussing the issue?

[ag]

Originally posted by YT @instituteofgamin:

Originally posted by ๋ cat enjoyer:

That is not possible if the inspect button reveals that data anyways, it can still be scraped and tested programmatically


Its not fine, Valve explicitly disallows this.

In that case, talk to Valve. What do you expect us to do, beyond discussing the issue?

I am not OP, and in OP's defense, highlighting this issue helps bringing attention to it. Should be pretty obvious.

[ag]

Originally posted by Knave:

Originally posted by Chiyoko:

I guess the only way to do that is to remove all IDs, pattern numbers and so on from the Steam market lots, so the only way you can to identify a pattern is by looking the item with your eyes. But this... kinda sucks.

And I am not sure to be honest, maybe there is a way to automatically compare the game screen to an image example to make a bot being able to detect the stuff they need.

Wait. There is a way to do that? I do inspect every item to check pattern and float. How do I do it without clicking everytime?

there are browser extensions that do that, like the CSFloat extension

[coda]

Originally posted by YT @instituteofgamin:

Question: are they paying for what the buy?

If yes, then it's totally fine.

Here is why:

1. John Doe lists RARE-ITEM on the market.

2. Script of Robby Doe detects the RARE-ITEM and buys it, using Robby Doe's money.

3. Either Robby Doe, or another script, re-lists the RARE-ITEM on the market.

4. Another script of Chris Doe buys the RARE-ITEM, using Chris Doe's money.

5. Either Chris Doe, or another script, re-lists the RARE-ITEM on the market.

6. Again, another script will buy and re-list the item, raising the price to absurd levels.

7. Eventually, one of these script users, in order to stop the loss, will have to STOP the script purchase.

The problem will be solved by the scripts itself.

Script is not just bying, but checks price, and buy it, if the item is selling for less, then it could potentially costs. So the algorythm is:

1. Scooby Doe lists RARE-ITEM for the low price on the market.

2. Script of Scrappy Doe detects the RARE-ITEM and buys it, using Scrappy Doe's money.

3. Scrappy Doe re-lists the RARE-ITEM on the market, for its real price, and gets profit. Bought by real, because scripts don't buy it, for not profitable price.

[bAd a!m]

Originally posted by Knave:

Originally posted by Chiyoko:

I guess the only way to do that is to remove all IDs, pattern numbers and so on from the Steam market lots, so the only way you can to identify a pattern is by looking the item with your eyes. But this... kinda sucks.

And I am not sure to be honest, maybe there is a way to automatically compare the game screen to an image example to make a bot being able to detect the stuff they need.

Wait. There is a way to do that? I do inspect every item to check pattern and float. How do I do it without clicking everytime?

I use CS2 Trader chrome browser extension. It's not a script, rather a giant info for everything related to CS2 items when you buy from market or when you trade.

It's the best one to have.

[123]

Valve really should disallow third party item sale & trading sites, it would greatly improve the user experience for steam users.

[KNightstyleZ]

Originally posted by Chiyoko:

I guess the only way to do that is to remove all IDs, pattern numbers and so on from the Steam market lots, so the only way you can to identify a pattern is by looking the item with your eyes. But this... kinda sucks.

And I am not sure to be honest, maybe there is a way to automatically compare the game screen to an image example to make a bot being able to detect the stuff they need.

Bots can check which color a pixel has, and thus pretty well identify most patterns, sapphires, rubys etc.

Steam Marketplace should only be accessible for users with linked steam mobile, not only to combat bots but also raise security against account theft and scams. If you get a tradeban or flagged as bot your phone number gets banned, that simple

[nemash]

Originally posted by < blank >:

Valve really should disallow third party item sale & trading sites, it would greatly improve the user experience for steam users.

Agreed. Valve should do this.