how to buy game key from steam without activating?

[👽Shini]

my local community group and i are doing a fun giveaway and we need to buy a key for a specific game, but we dont want to go through trouble of adding the winner to one of us's steam account and blah blah blah. and we dont want to use any third party sites. how to do this?

[breadman]

uh, use a third party sites

stores like gmg, fanatical, voidu, humble, etc are 100% safe and legit

or add the winner to friends and gift, don't need to "add to account", whatever that means

[👽Shini]

Originally posted by breadman:

uh, use a third party sites

stores like gmg, fanatical, voidu, humble, etc are 100% safe and legit

or add the winner to friends and gift, don't need to "add to account", whatever that means

hm.................. but how do i buy from steam? because i trust steam and i want to give them my business

[Aachen]

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

hm.................. but how do i buy from steam? because i trust steam and i want to give them my business

Broadly, you don’t. Which specific game?

[breadman]

you add them to friends list and then go to store page and click purchase as gift

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

Originally posted by breadman:

uh, use a third party sites

stores like gmg, fanatical, voidu, humble, etc are 100% safe and legit

or add the winner to friends and gift, don't need to "add to account", whatever that means

hm.................. but how do i buy from steam? because i trust steam and i want to give them my business

You can't. Steam doesn't even use keys anymore, when you buy a game from the Steam store.

As stated, buy Steam keys from legitimate third-party sites.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

You can't do what you want on Steam since years ago when they changed the gifting rules. You either add them as a friend on Steam to gift them or you use an authorized key seller like the ones mentioned.

[👽Shini]

Originally posted by Aachen:

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

hm.................. but how do i buy from steam? because i trust steam and i want to give them my business

Broadly, you don’t. Which specific game?

diving dave or something like that
dolphin game
good for kids i think

[👽Shini]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

You can't do what you want on Steam since years ago when they changed the gifting rules. You either add them as a friend on Steam to gift them or you use an authorized key seller like the ones mentioned.

:summercat2023:

maybe we will just buy a steam gift card
are they available at walmart?

[Aachen]

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

maybe we will just buy a steam gift card
are they available at walmart?

You must confirm for yourself. In my area, they haven’t stocked any for, I think, two years and some months now.

As for Dave the Diver, there certainly aren’t tradable gift copies available directly through Steam.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

You can't do what you want on Steam since years ago when they changed the gifting rules. You either add them as a friend on Steam to gift them or you use an authorized key seller like the ones mentioned.

:summercat2023:

maybe we will just buy a steam gift card
are they available at walmart?

Buy a digital Steam card, from Steam.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/

There you go.

[👽Shini]

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/

There you go.

i think physical card is better because the whole point of looking for gift card is to keep the award process simple as possible. we want to just hand over whatever prize on the spot and be done with it and not have to add friend and gift a card. might as well gift the game itself if we are already adding each other as friends.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/

There you go.

i think physical card is better because the whole point of looking for gift card is to keep the award process simple as possible. we want to just hand over whatever prize on the spot and be done with it and not have to add friend and gift a card. might as well gift the game itself if we are already adding each other as friends.

Buy a key from a reseller. Fanatical. Humble, GMG. That's how. Steam itself does not sell keys,. It literally does not need to.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/

There you go.

i think physical card is better because the whole point of looking for gift card is to keep the award process simple as possible. we want to just hand over whatever prize on the spot and be done with it and not have to add friend and gift a card. might as well gift the game itself if we are already adding each other as friends.

Are you doing a worldwide giveaway? If so, physical cards have extra restrictions.

For physical cards/codes read the information in the green box...

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/78E3-7431-1E88-AD59

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by 🎮ps:Archer:

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/

There you go.

i think physical card is better because the whole point of looking for gift card is to keep the award process simple as possible. we want to just hand over whatever prize on the spot and be done with it and not have to add friend and gift a card. might as well gift the game itself if we are already adding each other as friends.

It's as simple as sending a gift through Steam. It is no different. You are making something complicated that is not complicated.