All Discussions > Steam Forums > Help and Tips > Topic Details

This topic has been locked

niet3sche77 Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:39am

[SOLVED] How to buy a game I own and gift it to myself or put it in inventory for later gifting?

Title says it all. The last responses found via searching here were from 2015 (no problem!), and Google reports feedback from 2016 (no problem!).

Now, though: problem.

How do I buy Spelunky (which I already own) and shove it into my inventory? I want to have a copy on-hand for future gifting, not necessarily to a friend on my list right now.

Last edited by niet3sche77; Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:44am

Something went wrong while displaying this content. Refresh

Error Reference: Community_9721151_

Loading CSS chunk 7561 failed.
(error: https://community.fastly.steamstatic.com/public/css/applications/community/communityawardsapp.css?contenthash=789dd1fbdb6c6b5c773d)

Showing 1-15 of 15 comments

FFL2and3rocks Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:39am

You can't anymore.

Steam News Announcement May 4, 2017

STEAM GIFTING CHANGES

Today we’re announcing changes to gifts on Steam. The gifting process has had a bunch of friction in it for a while, and we want to make it easier for you to share the games you love with friends.

Last edited by FFL2and3rocks; Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:40am

Vɪᴛᴏ Sᴄᴀʟᴇᴛᴛᴀ Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:40am

I don t know

GRIMM Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:40am

You can't anymore. Steam disabled this feature.

When you buy a game as a gift, you must immediately give it to someone else (and it WILL be activated on their account). If you send it to an alt to store it for later use, it will activate on that account, so beware.

Last edited by GRIMM; Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:41am

niet3sche77 Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:42am

Sad-face. This (SOL) is the conclusion I had reached but feared.

niet3sche77 Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:43am

Originally posted by FFL2and3rocks:
You can't anymore.

Steam News Announcement May 4, 2017

STEAM GIFTING CHANGES

Today we’re announcing changes to gifts on Steam. The gifting process has had a bunch of friction in it for a while, and we want to make it easier for you to share the games you love with friends.

Thanks for the link! Ah, so close too.

GRIMM Jun 3, 2017 @ 6:45am

You can thanks the scammers for this!

orb` Jun 3, 2017 @ 7:17am

hahaahahhahhaa

lichtqu4nt Jun 3, 2017 @ 8:51am

... grey-market is closed, gentlemen, nothing to see here

niet3sche77 Jun 3, 2017 @ 10:15am

I'm not quite sure what's being suggested here, but I just wanted to buy a copy now while it's cheap, and give it away in a stream some months in the future. *shrug* I'm sad that's no longer an option.

NULL Jun 3, 2017 @ 10:17am

велкелкелкелкел

#10

Cathulhu Jun 3, 2017 @ 10:55am

Originally posted by niet3sche77:
I'm not quite sure what's being suggested here, but I just wanted to buy a copy now while it's cheap, and give it away in a stream some months in the future. *shrug* I'm sad that's no longer an option.

Which is no longer possible due to unscrupulous users hoarding games when they were heavily discounted and then sold them for higher prices on grey market resellers.
This costs Valve and the developers/publishers money and now they've ruined it for everyone, including you.

#11

lichtqu4nt Jun 3, 2017 @ 1:11pm

... not only hoarding, but also transfer wallet credit (e.g. gained by trading/selling cards) into real money by buying gift codes and resell then.

#12

VIRUS Nov 16, 2017 @ 10:20am

this is great. *grin*

#13

Dadude Nov 28, 2023 @ 6:53am

This is kind of true but at the same time not depending on whether you buy it in a pack like I bought viscera 4-pack so I now have 3 giftable viscera clean ups which are in my inventory.

#14