Delete / unbuy and Rebuy?

[battlezoby]

Update: [See original post just below...]

Originally posted by Kenpoleon Bonaparte:

The option for "removing" a game from your library doesn't actually delete it. It just gets hidden from you. You can contact Steam support to get it restored.

Thanks. So the next question is: Can you delete / no-longer-own and then rebuy it after playing it too much to get a fair refund or abusing the refund policy?

Or are you stuck with the version you bought and can't "throw it away" and buy a newer copy instead? (On the same account.) See my reply to Psychlapse at roughly Reply#15 below.

BTW, correct me if I'm wrong, but "another account" is an option if you want to manage them, but that's not what I'm asking about here. The only reason I've seen for not being allowed to create a new account is to "circumvent a ban" and I'm clearly talking about a completely different reason.

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Note: The original title of the thread was "Remove and Rebuy". The original post is below.

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So, there's a feature where Steam will allow you to remove something from your library.

Any idea if it's possible to actually re-buy a game afterwards and actually pay for it?

I was thinking that there are, or might be in theory, (or at least hypothetically could-be) some games where you can't get as good a deal on the DLC and add-ons if you already bought the game, because you might get a better deal buying the whole thing later after the price has dropped and the DLC has been incorporated into the main game.

So again, is it possible to buy a game, have it removed from your library, and then re-buy like it was the first time? (Without using more than one account.)

For argument sake, assume you've already played it well past the two hours, maybe even a 100+ hours, and don't want a "return/refund", you just want it "removed from your library."

Thanks.

P.s. There are clearly some games here that want you to buy at least two copies: One for Steam and one for your mobile device.

[Kenpoleon Bonaparte]

The option for "removing" a game from your library doesn't actually delete it. It just gets hidden from you. You can contact Steam support to get it restored.

[Chika Ogiue]

If you remove the game, you're not going to be refunded for it. So there is NEVER a time when removing an already purchased product (without using the refund system while being eligible) will net you a better deal. If you could do that, you'd be throwing away money already spent in an attempt to get a better deal buy spending more money on the same product.... Does not compute.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Kenpoleon Bonaparte:

The option for "removing" a game from your library doesn't actually delete it. It just gets hidden from you. You can contact Steam support to get it restored.

You ndion't even need to do that. You can just go to the game's store page and the option will appear.


So no OP.
If you rebuy all that will happen is you'll just get the old license you had before.

[PocketYoda]

If you refund a game you can actually buy it again, just saying.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Valve changed it a few years ago to tell you to restore the game you removed instead.

[battlezoby]

Originally posted by Kenpoleon Bonaparte:

The option for "removing" a game from your library doesn't actually delete it. It just gets hidden from you. You can contact Steam support to get it restored.

Thanks. So the next question is: Can you delete and rebuy it after playing it too much to get a fair refund or abusing the refund policy

[Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥)]

Originally posted by battlezoby:

Originally posted by Kenpoleon Bonaparte:

The option for "removing" a game from your library doesn't actually delete it. It just gets hidden from you. You can contact Steam support to get it restored.

Thanks. So the next question is: Can you delete and rebuy it after playing it too much to get a fair refund or abusing the refund policy

The refund restrictions apply the same since the game is not actually removed from your account.

2 weeks of owning it or 2 hours of playtime, whichever comes first.

[battlezoby]

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

If you remove the game, you're not going to be refunded for it. So there is NEVER a time when removing an already purchased product (without using the refund system while being eligible) will net you a better deal. If you could do that, you'd be throwing away money already spent in an attempt to get a better deal buy spending more money on the same product....

Actually, it might. Send me a friend request if you want the hypothteical.

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

Does not compute.

Paraphrased out of order from The Good Place:

Jason: And Janet's a robot.

Janet: I'm not a robot, I'm an anthropomorphize vessel on knowledge.

[...]

Janet: Does not computer! Does not compute!

Janet: I'm just kidding guys. I mean it doesn't compute, but I'm not going to blow up or anything.

[Crazy Tiger]

The license remains tied to the account permanently. Even back when you could rebuy removed games, all it did was reactivate the original license. All stats, like achievements and playtime, remain.

No, you can't remove and rebuy a game to try and dupe the refund system.

[battlezoby]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

The license remains tied to the account permanently. Even back when you could rebuy removed games, all it did was reactivate the original license. All stats, like achievements and playtime, remain.

No, you can't remove and rebuy a game to try and dupe the refund system.

Please don't get confused and tangent onto "dupe the refund system."

I'm trying to discuss about paying for the "original purchase" twice, and not talking about any refunds whatsoever, other than to point out that I'm not trying to discussing how to get any refund whatever.... [Although I do have ADD and just went there before updating this post to remove my own comment about the refund system a few seconds after posting.]

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by battlezoby:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

The license remains tied to the account permanently. Even back when you could rebuy removed games, all it did was reactivate the original license. All stats, like achievements and playtime, remain.

No, you can't remove and rebuy a game to try and dupe the refund system.

Please don't get confused and tangent onto "dupe the refund system."

I'm trying to discuss about paying for the "original purchase" twice, and not talking about any refunds whatsoever, other than to point out that I'm not trying to discussing how to get any refund whatever.... [Although I do have ADD and just went there before updating this post to remove my own comment about the refund system a few seconds after posting.]

I'm not confused. You posted a question, I answered it.

Removing and rebuying a game won't reset the refund window as the license does not actually get removed.

[Psychlapse]

I'm a bit confused as to why anyone would want to do this? I'm not sure if it's the wording of the question or what exactly it is you're going for, OP, but we (read I) might need some clarification here.

I read it that you've bought a game that is now yours - past the refund point - so it's now in your library so now youre say £40 down. Now you want to delete the game, and then buy it again? So paying another £40 again just to own the same game you already had? Or buy a game for £40, get a full refund after 1,000 hours, then maybe buy it again later?

♥♥♥♥ me my head hurts. I'm not being a ♥♥♥♥ here, OP, I'm genuinely struggling.

[Crazy Tiger]

There is no need to comment on my profile, OP. If you don't want something talked about, don't ask the question in your OP and posts.

[Kenpoleon Bonaparte]

AFAIK, once you are past the refund window, the game is now permanently tied to your account. Therefore, there's no way to buy it again on the same account.

[battlezoby]

Originally posted by Psychlapse:

I'm a bit confused as to why anyone would want to do this? I'm not sure if it's the wording of the question or what exactly it is you're going for, OP, but we (read I) might need some clarification here.

Yea, Steam can do that to you.

Originally posted by Psychlapse:

I read it that you've bought a game that is now yours - past the refund point - so it's now in your library so now youre say £40 down. Now you want to delete the game, and then buy it again? So paying another £40 again just to own the same game you already had?

Yea, except for the fact that I'm trying to keep it hypothetical[www.merriam-webster.com] you got that right.

I don't want to start discussing an specific game or publishers, but the theory is that some might, for example, sell you a game for £40 when it doesn't have much DLC yet.

Years later, it might not only be on sale for £10, but for £10 it's also include £30 of DLC that isn't on sale for £10 or less.

So if you can reverse that original purchase of £40, you could [hypothetically] rebuy it for £10, along with that extra £30 of DLC they since added to the base game.

If you can't reverse that original purchase, you end up paying £30 for DLC. That £30 DLC plus the original £40 purchase = £70.

By comparison, buying the original for £40, reversing the sale without a refund, and then buying the whole thing for £10 is a total of £50. That's £20 more than if you just bought the DLC.

The problem is that, hypothetically, they might not let you buy that £10 version if you already bought to £40 version.

Honestly, I have dsylexia, so I can't be 100% sure I've seen that sort of thing, but I think I have and I wasn't able to buy the newer version because I bought the older version. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I knew I could "unbuy" something I played without abusing the rules, I wouldn't be barred from buying the newer version like I think I was, and hypothetically might be in the future regardless of whether or not that's happened in the past.

In real life, I am reluctant to buy some game(s) now because I really am worried that this sort of thing might happen later. If that would never happen, maybe it's worth discussing, but I was hoping I would at least have the option to potentially just "unbuy" the game without a refund at a later time and not worry about that sort of thing.