Is there any danger with purchasing Steam keys for delisted for games online?

[Neonetik]

There's a game I want to own on Steam that was delisted a long time ago, but I can still find some people selling keys on ebay.

Is there any danger associated with this, aside from the personal danger of the key not working? Like, is there any policy with Steam where using keys online is against any sort of rule? I recall there was some big controversy some time ago again certain websites, but I'm not sure if that was the same sort of situation.

Cheers.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

On eBay? No. Only what you mentioned.

[•ᴋɪɴɢꜱᴍᴀɴ ♛]

yeah

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by 𝐊𝐧𝐁𝐍-:

yeah

There is no risk other than losing money for a key that doesn't work or gets revoked.

[Neonetik]

Just read somewhere that keys could be acquired through illegitimate means. If I were to try and redeem a key like this, that seems kinda risky. Not like there's much of a way to check on ebay.

Maybe I am overthinking this though.

[Halo]

Not sure there is any way to track a key for it to be investigated/revoked.

I lost keys on ebay a couple of years ago - legitimate and working - because idiots use 'password' as their login on ebay/paypal and they get hacked.

You have to refund and lose the key as the account holder is the victim.

When you check the buyer it is usually very out of their purchase history but people do share accounts.

So do you bother to report a Payday 2 key to Steam hoping they will ban it as stolen or just stop trying because of hackers who compromise accounts of the weak minded?

If you buy a key on ebay you should be protected, BUT it may be possible that you would be challenged if the seller really is legitimate.

Only way would be a central key black list that would flag it, but there must be millions(?) of redemptions a day, it would have to be part of major fraud to be looked into and certainly not one key.

I did get a delisted key from a developer on their forum, and that worked.

Up to you, I have sold keys to legitimate users and they were happy, not everyone is a scammer buyer or seller, but where game keys are concerned you are taking a risk by their nature.

[wuddih]

all Steam keys 1st source is always the product owner(developer/publisher)
and they are also the only ones who can revoke a key.
Valve does not interfere with that.

worst case:
i have personally seen that a game got nuked off Steam, the dev then sold remaining already generated keys on a known grey-marketplace and then revoked all of them afterwards. and then his Steam accounts were all suspended.

while Valve does not specifically prohibit selling of remnant keys you generated before your game got removed or you removed it on request yourself, it stil lmay be questionable to buy Steam keys for store-removed games.

the main reason that Valve does not interfere is ... the keys were already generated and might be sold on 3rd parties, if they would also nuke all remaining non activated keys, they might screw up some customers.

simple thumpy ruley:
if the game that got removed from the store is from a more known product owner, you should be mostly fine.
if the game is just mildly can be defined as asset flip/low effort template/meme/achievement spam game and is from nonames ... you should stay away from buying keys after the game was removed from Steam.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by Neonetik:

Just read somewhere that keys could be acquired through illegitimate means. If I were to try and redeem a key like this, that seems kinda risky. Not like there's much of a way to check on ebay.

Maybe I am overthinking this though.

If it is a key from a delisted game then there is little chance it was acquired through illegitimate means assuming it is real. This usually means the publisher went up in smoke or the game is banned in which there is no recourse for any entity to have the key disabled that is in circulation. Your only real worry is if the key works. Using eBay is risky for all parties so it is up to you however if it does work then it wont be removed.

[No skill only Tiktok]

I would check steamtrades.com first, ebay is full of scammers.

[eram]

that link above is full of scammers

[RiO]

Originally posted by Neonetik:

Is there any danger associated with this, aside from the personal danger of the key not working?

You know; you could always just ask Steam Support.
If there are policies in place against this type of thing, then they'll tell you.

if you're afraid that doing so will 'give you away' - what are you being worried about?

Telling Steam about buying the key is a moot point. Either the practice of purchasing a key that's still 'out there' is deemed fine, in which case the activation will work and everything is a-ok.
Or it's not deemed fine, in which case there will be contingencies in place to prevent the key from activating and potentially flagging your account for follow-up.

Either way; if there are bad consequences attached to such an undertaking, Valve will know what you did anyway. Best to be open about it then. (And of course: if they tell you it'll be fine, you have documented evidence. The best kind of thing to have in a situation such as this. :) )

[Dylan]

Nope :)