How can I check if a game product code is not used?

[raptus]

Hi,
I wanted to buy a Half Life 2 Collector physical box edition from a retailer but he told me that in the past he posted a picture with the product key visible.
How can I be sure that I can register and use the product?
Is there a Steam official support email? I tried [e-mail] but this address is not reachable.
Thank you for reply
Regards

[JPMcMillen]

Originally posted by raptus:

Hi,
I wanted to buy a Half Life 2 Collector physical box edition from a retailer but he told me that in the past he posted a picture with the product key visible.
How can I be sure that I can register and use the product?
Is there a Steam official support email? I tried [e-mail] but this address is not reachable.
Thank you for reply
Regards

The only way to check is to attempt to use the key yourself. Steam support will not tell you if a key is valid or not.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Don't buy used physical PC games that require keys to activate.

[WhitePhantom]

Buy it for the physical stuff and just get the game on Steam if you somehow don't already own Half Life 2.

[raptus]

Originally posted by WhitePhantom:

Buy it for the physical stuff and just get the game on Steam if you somehow don't already own Half Life 2.

I must confess that I thought to do so but, in that case, I would pay for the graphic cover only, I don't know if it's worth it :)

[KalGimpa]

Originally posted by raptus:

Originally posted by WhitePhantom:

Buy it for the physical stuff and just get the game on Steam if you somehow don't already own Half Life 2.

I must confess that I thought to do so but, in that case, I would pay for the graphic cover only, I don't know if it's worth it :)

get an email saying that he will refund if it does not work and then use paypal. if he doesn't return your money you can dispute it and use that email, along with the info you get from steam, and get it back

[Mad Scientist]

If someone puts up a picture with a visible key of the game, chances are very high that someone already redeemed it.

You're buying basically the physical stuff only at that point.

Originally posted by JPMcMillen:

Originally posted by raptus:

Hi,
I wanted to buy a Half Life 2 Collector physical box edition from a retailer but he told me that in the past he posted a picture with the product key visible.
How can I be sure that I can register and use the product?
Is there a Steam official support email? I tried [e-mail] but this address is not reachable.
Thank you for reply
Regards

The only way to check is to attempt to use the key yourself. Steam support will not tell you if a key is valid or not.

^This

Originally posted by kalcuey-freehk:

get an email saying that he will refund if it does not work and then use paypal. if he doesn't return your money you can dispute it and use that email, along with the info you get from steam, and get it back

^And that. OP, the price should be for the stuff, not the game key - if the individual posted a pic with the game key on it, again chances are someone, somewhere, redeemed it.

[faeЯ]

If there ever was a screenshot of the key on the internet, i can 103% guarantee its used.

[Zekiran]

Oh yeah jesus lol images on the internet for something like this means that guy knows EXACTLY how used that key already is.

I'd buy it for the box. I managed to rescue my housemate's box and disk for the original Sierra Half Life 1, he was gonna just *toss it*. T_T

[raptus]

Thank you for your advices. I will ask the retailer if there is some refund or if he can do a special discount price (I'd pay only for the box stuff)...

[djjavix(fatrilico)]

que vueno que es esteam

[smashball]

Steam just needs an additional step like "Are you sure you want to redeem XY?" ... to check if its valid but instead they chose to redeem keys instantly to the user, so there is no way to check if a key is valid

Kudos to the engineers, well done

[Zarineth]

Originally posted by smashball:

Steam just needs an additional step like "Are you sure you want to redeem XY?" ... to check if its valid but instead they chose to redeem keys instantly to the user, so there is no way to check if a key is valid

Kudos to the engineers, well done

If you have to check, then you should change key seller to authorized one.

[Yujah]

What you can do is use https://steamdb.info/keys/

I.e., you "donate" the key to the SteamDB bot -- but it is going to already have Half-Life 2 and will as such deny it but while telling you what the key was for (for cases when you don't know that much even) and whether or not it was already used.

To in fact have it tell you that you will need to first login to SteamDB with Steam (which is safe) before donating, and may need to wait up to 30 or so minutes after doing so for the information to show up in a personal stats section at the bottom of that page that you get when logged in.

In this case you could have the seller do this. It's as said practically speaking certain that the bot already has Half-Life 2 so even if it's unused it'll stay unused...

[Yujah]

Oh damn it. 2021. Really wish Steam would pro-actively lock these threads.

[Yandy]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.