Buying during sale vs buying before sale?

[goat]

I've forgotten, but are there usually any benefits from buying something during a sale? apart from the potential discount of course. What i mean is the sale events like, i remember two years ago there was a 5 dollar discount, and i think last year there was something else, but if i remember correctly you got these bonuses from any purchase you had made within the last few months or something.
My question is whether there was actually something to gain from waiting until the sale event or if i can buy a game now and expect the bonuses during the sale (based of the last few years), also, what about the trading cards you get from buying stuff during the sale? did those also include purchases from the last few months?

[nullable]

I don't think there's benefit in waiting. Most of that benefit was being in the window for points during the recent sales. But now points are present all the time, so nothing to wait for. And the sales are more streamlined than ever.

Pretty much anything that introduces complications and min-maxing behavior on the part of consumers Valve has slowly eliminated from the process.

Or at least, I haven't felt an pressure to wait for sales for additional benefits when it comes to purchasing games when we're talking about the last year.

[Crazy Tiger]

Some games have better discounts inbetween the major sales events.

[Tito Shivan]

Last sale didn't include any voucher. Vouchers went out the same sale Valve opened the Points Shop.
Purchases made during the sale always count towards getting more Sale event card drops. If you want to count that as an advantage.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Some games have better discounts inbetween the major sales events.

Yup during Publisher Sale events.

OP if you're curious you can check the price history of some games you're interested in on STYeam DB That'll show you how low those prices dip and when.

[NS Plover]

For newer games there might not be much of a difference... Older games tend to go up to full price for several weeks before a major sale and then be 80 or 90% off during the sale...

Edited to add: and sometimes bundles let you double discount during sales (if everything in the bundle is discounted)...

[goat]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Last sale didn't include any voucher. Vouchers went out the same sale Valve opened the Points Shop.
Purchases made during the sale always count towards getting more Sale event card drops. If you want to count that as an advantage.

Yeah that's what i was remembering, steam cards being the only advantage, oh well.

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Originally posted by NS Plover:

Actually the sale itself doesn't interest me, what i want to buy is the new guilty gear game so obviously it's not going on sale. Just wondering if by chance there's another 5 dollar discount voucher i'd be getting it if i were to buy it now or if i should wait.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Goatkiv:

Just wondering if by chance there's another 5 dollar discount voucher i'd be getting it if i were to buy it now or if i should wait.

I wouldn't count on it, based on the last sales events. We'll know for sure when the sale actually starts, before that it's pure speculation.

[Irene ❤]

Hmm I think it's probably not realistic to compare to past sales. Many years back they want to attract more user sign ups. This year, Valve have lost some developers to Epic, so I think they might want to introduce things to fight for developers back, whilst keeping things at 30%. It means customers will have pay for more things. They have learn that players will go to Epic if it's free and it's meaningless to create community XP games.

What I think will happen :

1) No discount coupons. No XP games.

2) Summer season profile - buying games in order to earn profile means scoring more sales to justify the 30%.

3) Vote for Publishers - Why vote for game of the month when users can vote for a publisher. A new interface will display good comments and thousand of likes for developers, giving them a happy reason to stay.

4) New [favorite Publisher] showcase

5) Many good games becoming more expensive than before. (e.g. game which is $80 today became $100 during sales).

6) Many publisher bundle sales (e.g. all games for $X, usually over hundreds)

7) Knowing people bought games and earned points, someone in OT will ask "why do people dislike the jester award"

[Pocahawtness]

In passing I prefer the days when we had lower prices all the time rather than periodic sales. These days I will often hang on and won't buy a game unless it's on sale. I guess Valve must make more money with these periodic sales or they wouldn't do them, and I know they are very popular, but I prefer ye olde fashioned approach.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by ｢C❤️A｣ Pocahawtness:

In passing I prefer the days when we had lower prices all the time rather than periodic sales.

When was that? Seasonal sales has been a Steam characteristic since almost its inception.

[wuddih]

it is up to the product owner to set up discounts. many owners just do on these seasonal sales because they receive an email for those. the rest of the time Steam is just one place they sell their games, nothing more. spamming discounts is only good if selling units means more then to make profit.

if an owner cares a bit more about selling units, they can set a discount for their products every 8 weeks on Steam, in addition to every seasonal or curated sale. some actually do that and their products are pretty much half of the year on a discount.

also, Steam is not the only place to buy Steam games. there are 3rd party stores that sell Steam keys, sometimes for much lower prices than on Steam or bundled with other games.

buy it for the price (from whatever store) that you think is right for the game you expect to play and be done with it.
there will always be some time in the future where that game will be cheaper or even free.

[Yzal]

With the money you may have used to buy 1 game outside of a sale you may be able to buy 2 or more during a sale. Even if there's nothing else that you really want you get to save your money for the next time.