What's your experience with CD Keys sites?

[Zekkah]

Especially ♥♥♥. I've read online of people claiming these are scamming sites, but I've personally bought countless games from them and haven't had a single issue. Ever.

My favorites are Eneba and CDKeys.

Share your experiences and opinions.

[BJWyler]

Originally posted by jose_silveira20:

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

There's a reason why that one is censored.

I've found online people claiming they were scammed in that site, but I've personally never had an issue.

Because they wouldn't last too long if they scammed every single person. The best scammers are the ones who always try to appear legit, and even get people to shill for them.

[Paratech2008]

I've stuck with Fanatical and Humble particularly for gifting keys...

NOTE; Gift, not trade.

I don't ask for anything in return.

Most of the time the keys are for $3 or under for the games I gift.

[Zekkah]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by jose_silveira20:

The deals in there don't seem nearly as good as the ones in AllKeyShop.

Yeah because the keys on ITAD are LEGIT and get bought directly from the game developers/publishers.
While AllKeyShop lists all the shady reseller stores who do not tell you where they got their keys from and often have problems with keys being revoked, being bought with stolen credit cards and so on.
Of course they are cheaper.

In the end you need to decide if you just want the game as cheap as possible or if you actually want to support the game studio with your purchase.
In the latter case i would not recommend buying on the really cheap shady stores like the ones who get auto censored here.

Is this fact or speculation?

[NuLife]

some are fine and others are really shady, especially the ones that are selling the games with the accounts.... just do ur research and make ur best judgement, but personally ur better of waiting on steam sales if u want games cheaper or humble bundles

[Zekkah]

Originally posted by NuLife:

some are fine and others are really shady, especially the ones that are selling the games with the accounts.... just do ur research and make ur best judgement, but personally ur better of waiting on steam sales if u want games cheaper or humble bundles

The ones with accounts are even cheaper than the keys, but I have no interest in those.

[NuLife]

Originally posted by jose_silveira20:

Originally posted by NuLife:

some are fine and others are really shady, especially the ones that are selling the games with the accounts.... just do ur research and make ur best judgement, but personally ur better of waiting on steam sales if u want games cheaper or humble bundles

The ones with accounts are even cheaper than the keys, but I have no interest in those.

yer and they are really dodge, i wouldn't be surprised if there stolen accounts ect.. but i have bought a lot of games of keysites and never had a problem, but as of the last few years i don't anymore, because they really gone downhill with there business practices

[BJWyler]

Originally posted by jose_silveira20:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Yeah because the keys on ITAD are LEGIT and get bought directly from the game developers/publishers.
While AllKeyShop lists all the shady reseller stores who do not tell you where they got their keys from and often have problems with keys being revoked, being bought with stolen credit cards and so on.
Of course they are cheaper.

In the end you need to decide if you just want the game as cheap as possible or if you actually want to support the game studio with your purchase.
In the latter case i would not recommend buying on the really cheap shady stores like the ones who get auto censored here.

Is this fact or speculation?

Facts.

At the end of the day, many sites take advantage of people who are desperate to get games for super cheap.

They steal Steam accounts to sell. They buy keys with stolen payment information. They use deception to get keys through other means. And yes, when developers find out about it, they Revoke those keys, regardless of if some sap bought and used the key.

If you want to be 100% completely and totally assured of having absolutely no problems with buying a game, you get it from Steam or the Developer directly.

If you want to get a key from a third party reseller, you need to research and ensure that you only get them from the well known resellers with impeccable track records, Humble Bundle being one of them.

IsThereAnyDeal dot com, is the best way thus far to vette these resellers. Any other reseller is to be treated as suspect and avoided, no matter how many random YouTubers or shills tell you otherwise. Simple as.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by jose_silveira20:

Especially ♥♥♥.

Why do you think Steam has wordfiltered this one? Does this answer your question?

Besides that, legitimate stores are fine. And while there is no comprehensive list of good/bad stores, the "isthereanydeal" site tries to avoid the bad eggs, so anything they look at should be fine. Anything they don't mention may or may not be bad; ocnsidering the amount of shops they do monitor, I don't care.

About this, keep in mind that legitimate stores cannot sell keys bought from customers (they have NO way of checking whether these keys are even what they claim to be), they cannot sell games that have been taken off the market, they cannot sell games at exceptionally low prices (especially when average sale discounts are still very bad), and they cannot sell stuff like "warcraft gold". All these things are telltale signs for bad actors.

So far, I've only blacklisted GreenManGaming -- but that's not because they would be a scam shop that ITAD hasn't recognized as such, but because of an obvious disregard of customer relations, so I just told myself "if you want to be like that, fine. There are plenty of other stores".

[bidulless]

hello
I've remember i've bought key from humble bundle ( subsciption ) and from fanatical and do not think theses are shaddy site ...
there is an interresting video about that , sadly not very usefull outside youtube ( no translate possible trought subtittle on invidious )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMmcHFZa40k
just activate the sub and use english because it's a french one

[Glass Mother]

The second you buy keys outside of Steam or Valve-approved sites, you give up any right to support and you're on the hook for any drama that follows. You saw it coming from a mile away. I steer clear of these sites and suggest you do the same.

[Rusalky]

My experience is positive in general. Only had problems with some games unable to activate in listed regions. Those were refunded without issue. One or two times received keys for "beta testing" instead of final keys, but games work without issues.

if you look for affordable games, Fanatical is a first pick, many resellers buy bundles there and sell single games. Obviously making profit...
Don't link your Steam account to keys websites. Email/password will be much safer, use your internet trash emails.

[NuLife]

Originally posted by Rusalky:

Don't link your Steam account to keys websites. Email/password will be much safer, use your internet trash emails.

never link ur steam to anything but steam is good practice^^

[Crystal Sharrd]

I've only used Humble Bundle, Fanatical, GameStop, and Amazon. No complaints.

[ZakaryX]

Originally posted by jose_silveira20:

I've found online people claiming they were scammed in that site, but I've personally never had an issue.

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-303
Scroll about half way down the article and have a read of the factorio devs experience with the grey market.

Here's the post about the resolution
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-348
It's at the very bottom of the article.

[Spawn of Totoro]

I don't use grey market sites. Too shady for my taste and often hurt the game's developer.

I used to use Green Man Gaming long ago, but after purchasing what I thought was a Steam Key (turned out it was a Bethesda Key), and a refund refused, I had them delete my account and never went back.

These days I just avoid the confusion of key sellers by purchasing on the platform directly. Not worth the loss ($30 in the above case) to what I could potentially save... and that being a low amount of savings to begin with.