Unable to buy game and put into inventory

[Mymusicmanager]

Hey!
So I recently bought Life Is Strange, and absolutely loved it! And I wanted to buy a few copies to keep in my inventory, so that I can gift out at a later point. But when going to the store page, and clicking "Buy as gift", I have to immediently send it to a person on my friends list.
Why is this? I know that Steam recently updated their policies, making sure that games that are VAC-protected cannot be "stockpiled" in an inventory. But Life is Strange is Singleplayer only, and has no account system. So it doesn't make sense for it to be VAC-secured.

Any tips or explainations?

[HEART]

No longer an option

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1301948399254001159

[MancSoulja]

Valve have changed the rules again since then. You can no longer store any gifts in your inventory. Gifts must be sent immediately at checkout.

[Mymusicmanager]

Well, big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thanks, Steam... This sucks!
Thanks for the help, guys :)

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Mymusicmanager:

Well, big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thanks, Steam... This sucks!
Thanks for the help, guys :)

Well its because so many users stockpilled gifts during sales and then after the sale put them up on shady reseller sites for more then they payed, making a profit out of them.
That is something the Steam Gift system was not meant for.

[HEART]

It also removed the douchebaggery of re-gifting

[Sazzouu]

Originally posted by Mymusicmanager:

Well, big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thanks, Steam... This sucks!
Thanks for the help, guys :)

Yep stupid Steam not letting the blackmarket for games growing on and on... damn you all for giving scammers no chance .....

Just kidding
There are enough good reasons for this and I personally appreciate this decision of Valve (<- the developers of Steam <- A platform)

[Vindred]

Scammers don't actually resell you a game--they're scammers. They take your money and give you no game. So it isn't scammers who are affected by this, since they weren't buying games on sale.

Resellers were. And resellers still had to buy the game at the on-sale price, which is money which still went to the developer. And when they resell it, the price is higher than the devloper's price (which, again, they paid) because it had to be for it to make any sense for them to do it.

As a result, you could buy games for a-little-above-sale-price during off-sale times, like for example if you just missed a sale. That's a legitamate service, and it isn't good for you that it is now gone. It is bad for you and it is bad for the market. It isn't even good for the publishers, though it is clearly intended for them.

1. Do not confuse black markets with grey markets.
   
   
2. Do not confuse scammers with speculators.
   
   
3. Do not confuse pro-publisher policies with pro-consumer policies.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Vindred:

Scammers don't actually resell you a game--they're scammers. They take your money and give you no game. So it isn't scammers who are affected by this, since they weren't buying games on sale.

Resellers were. And resellers still had to buy the game at the on-sale price, which is money which still went to the developer. And when they resell it, the price is higher than the devloper's price (which, again, they paid) because it had to be for it to make any sense for them to do it.

As a result, you could buy games for a-little-above-sale-price during off-sale times, like for example if you just missed a sale. That's a legitamate service, and it isn't good for you that it is now gone. It is bad for you and it is bad for the market. It isn't even good for the publishers, though it is clearly intended for them.

1. Do not confuse black markets with grey markets.
   
   
2. Do not confuse scammers with speculators.
   
   
3. Do not confuse pro-publisher policies with pro-consumer policies.

That argument does not fly since you could always ( and still can) buy Steam keys on sale from legitimate resellers everywhere on the web. The selling of Steam gifts was ALWAYS forbidden bei the Steam TOS. If you want a game cheaper outside of a current sale on Steam then buy a key for it in another store. There is nearly always a sale going on somewhere.
You can still do that without a problem. The only people crying about not being able to store Steam Gifts anymore are the ones who made a profit out if it.

[Vindred]

The fact that you can still do this with keys is good.

The fact that you can't still do it with steam gifts was bad.

The fact that it was always against the TOS is not a point I will dispute. I believe you. But I don't care. I only care about what is practical, and what is pro-consumer. And reducing the number of options by one isn't either of those.

I never made any profit off of it. There is a sale right now for Zombie Army Trilogy, and I want to buy it for my friend, but she and I had a spat not long ago and she is currently not on my friends list, but my other friend sort of mediates from time to time, and she and I played it together earlier this evening and it was fun, so we might maybe get my other friend to play it with us, but I only have a few hours to buy this thing at the sale price for our aforementioned mutual friend, and it wouldn't be a problem if I could just buy it and store it in my inventory, but I can't, because ruletards with no imagination didn't think of my particular situation, so they cut off a whole limb of the market because oh no, people were buying things, and then selling them at a higher price. Oh well, at least we headed that off at the pass.

Oh and by the way, if it wasn't obvious already, I didn't make any profit off of any of the games I ever stored. I stored them in there because I'm a sad middle aged man with only like two or three friends, and they hardly ever do anything with me, so I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ raccoon ♥♥♥♥ hoping to one day be able to convince them to play something I enjoy with me. Is the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ story.

But yeah, decisions been made, so whatever. But I don't have to like it, and I don't have to take someone saying I wouldn't be complaining about it if I didn't make a profit off it. My inventory is a nexus of sad, needy gifts. Not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ profit. So buzz off.

[MeuK]

The only people crying about not being able to store Steam Gifts anymore are the ones who made a profit out if it.

That's not true, I never have had profit for my games in the inventory, I like to buy games for me and mi friends, I was used to buy the games, store it in my inventory, and for christmas or for the birthday of one of them, give it as a gift for all and play together.

It is a pity not to be able to do it anymore. :(

[Zekiran]

Well you can thank the idiots who were trying to game the system and make money they shouldn't have, for it no longer being an option.

Also this is two full years ago.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by MeuK:

The only people crying about not being able to store Steam Gifts anymore are the ones who made a profit out if it.

That's not true, I never have had profit for my games in the inventory, I like to buy games for me and mi friends, I was used to buy the games, store it in my inventory, and for christmas or for the birthday of one of them, give it as a gift for all and play together.

It is a pity not to be able to do it anymore. :(

You can schedule delivery dates, change the dates or even cancel and refund the gift if the friend gets the game or whatever as you wish.