Who regulates Steam Community Market.

[kr0wn]

As consumers who invest in Marketplace items how can we be assured that the system is not being manipulated by the very company that runs it?. Wall Street has the S.E.C but Valve is a private billion dollar company that can essentially manipulate the market anyway they choose. How can this system be trusted to not take advantage of consumers?

[Spawn of Totoro]

No one. It is a free market. Usrs list what they want to sell for, people either buy it or they don't.

There would be no reason for Valve to manipulate it, seeing as the wallet funds being used belong to them already.

[Satoru]

Ask your government to regulate it then.

The SEC is a government agency.

If you want them to regulate something, then you have to pass a law to do so. Regulation does not magically come out of thin air.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

There is every reason to manipulate it because there is no oversight and it generates millions of dollars annually. We pay taxes and many of us have to provide SS details. What assurances do we have as consumers to protect us from market manipulation?

Like I said, there is no reason for it to begin with. Market manipulation is doen for profit, Valve already got your money by you, or someone else, buying wallet funds. What reason would they have to manipulate the market, seeing as they don't get anything from doing so? Money? They already have it.

Unless you sell over 200 items and make over $20,000.00 a year in the communily market, then you have nothing to worry about with taxes. There is little chance someone can even get to the $20k, but the IRS still requires it. Agian, Valve gains nothing by manipulating the market, even if you do have to pay taxes, that is to the IRS, not Valve.

[Brujeira]

So you're more worried about Valve manipulating the market than the possibility that's it manipulated by the consumers themselves?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

Wallet funds are not Valves until I spend them.

Wallet funds, no, but the mony you used to purchase the virtual currance known as wallet funds, is Valve's to keep.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

You seem to be missing the point. I also find it suspect that the only answers come from community moderators who protect Valve and its interests.

Moderators are VOLUNTEERS

Aka they have zero financial stake in the company.

You're just seeing ghosts where you want to see them.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

Wallet funds are not Valves until I spend them.

Might want to read that SSA again

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

Steam Wallet funds do not constitute a personal property right, have no value outside Steam and can only be used to purchase Subscriptions and related content via Steam (including but not limited to games and other applications offered through the Steam Store, or in a Steam Subscription Marketplace). Steam Wallet funds have no cash value and are not exchangeable for cash. Steam Wallet funds that are deemed unclaimed property may be turned over to the applicable authority.

[cinedine]

Bad news for you, but Valve already manipulates the market.
Valve has full control about the goods on the market. Rarity, perceived value (store price), even availability.

And comparing the community market with the stock market - which has actual influence on everyone's life even if they don't participate - is highly flawed.
If a bank falls victim to a coup and loses your saving accounts that's completely different than you investing this money knowingly into an item which after three weeks is only worth half of what you paid for.

[Spawn of Totoro]

You still have not show where Valve would benefit from it, nor a good reason why oversite would be needed. As Valve already has the money and can spend it how ever they like, there is not reason for them to manipulate anything.

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

The question I have posed is not only valid it is something all consumers should be asking. It behooves Valve that wallet funds are used so that money can be put into corporate coffers.

No, it is not. Valve can do with their money, what ever they wish. They are under no obligation to save it. Just like a store gift card, you give them the money now so someone can make a purchase latter. The store can spend that money how ever they want.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

Yes these are the concerns that I am expressing and there are no protections for the consumers who use this service.

Then dont use it and ask your government to regulate it

Remember again REGULATION IS DONE BY YOUR GOVERNMENT

If its not being regulated, YOUR GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM.

[Forcen]

They are pretty up front about what protections exists and don't exists about the market. For example they repeat everywhere that market transactions can't be reversed and so on but they still have market restrictions and all that.

But in the end its just game items, not any more protected then gold in world of warcraft or isk in eve online.

Not really sure what you expect from the market.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

You seem to be missing the point. I also find it suspect that the only answers come from community moderators who protect Valve and its interests.

Point is. There is no regulation. It is a free market. Nothing stops you from selling an item for whatever price you want and nothing restricts you from buying any item you want on the market save your funds and any regional restrictions and censorship applied by your country's government.

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

I'm not expecting anything it is just a question I have often asked myself. If Valve was not a private company do you think that some of the unethical things Valve has done would be ok? If Valve was not a private company there would be oversight. We live in a Capatalist system and does your naivate really think that a private billion dollar company would not cook the books to increase revenue?

You seem to think that being aprivate company means you don't have any goversight. Newsflash,there is. Private does not mean lack of shareholders it simply means stocks are not publically traded on the stock exchange.

There's also the miserably complicated tax and other regulatory filings Valve must put through each year for each region they operate in. Secondly Private companies often have more internal scrutiny than public ones simply because you are dealing with a small group of shareholders who have a vested interest in the company's profits so yeah, them accounts get coimbed over.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

I'm not expecting anything it is just a question I have often asked myself. If Valve was not a private company do you think that some of the unethical things Valve has done would be ok? If Valve was not a private company there would be oversight. We live in a Capatalist system and does your naivate really think that a private billion dollar company would not cook the books to increase revenue?

Unethical things? Casting the "what" aside, unethical != illegal.
And why should a private company forge its records? Either they have the money or not. Unless they are up for sale, it's completely uninteresting to anyone besides the fiscus.

Did you just take a 101 in economics or something? You're concerned about things which have no feasible impact on you. If they did, you'd probably now where to turn to.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

I'm not expecting anything it is just a question I have often asked myself. If Valve was not a private company do you think that some of the unethical things Valve has done would be ok? If Valve was not a private company there would be oversight. We live in a Capatalist system and does your naivate really think that a private billion dollar company would not cook the books to increase revenue?

A non-private company would also have no oversite for such a system. Take Blizzard for example, there was no oversite with their Auction House or the Real Money Auction House. They are owned by Activison and are a publicaly traded company.

This has been true of many games. It isn't that much diffrent then with the community market.

If Valve was not a private company do you think that some of the unethical things Valve has done would be ok?

This part stands out. Valve has done nothing unethical to begin with, let alone with the communtiy market.

Originally posted by cheeseburgerz:

We live in a Capatalist system and does your naivate really think that a private billion dollar company would not cook the books to increase revenue?

That hold for any company, not just a private one. Valve's books are look at the same as any other companies, public or private.

[aiusepsi]

Governments, like the US government, control the money supply. They can just print extra money any time they want; indeed in recent times they, along with other governments, such as the British government, engaged in large quantitative easing programs which are the moral equivalents of printing money.

So, why do governments raise tax revenue and borrow money to pay their bills when they could just print money? The answer is that they could, but the resulting inflation would trash the economy.

When it comes to the Steam Market, Valve's the government. They take a tax from market transactions, and a successful functioning market is a selling point for their games. They've got very little incentive to engage in actions which would lead to damaging that market. If they didn't take the health of the market seriously, they wouldn't have hired the likes of Yanis Varoufakis to study it (before he became the Greek finance minister).