Are you allowed to buy "steam games" from other websites?

[N]

I see a website that is selling call of duty for a lower price and it says you can use the steam key to download it from steam, is that allowed? It's for a pretty high reduced price so im wondering if those are legit copies and if your account can be banned for that

[shiel]

Depends on the site. Humble Bundle for example is legit reseller.

[HK]

e

[SillyWalk]

Steam gifts are only sold on Steam itself, so if you see gifts being sold outside Steam, that's because someone bought them here and is reselling them outside, which is against the terms of use and may lead to problems (problems to you), because they might be bought with a fake credit card, with one previously used to scam, the guy who bought them might revoke the payment he made to Steam, etc.

Redeemable keys (like in serial codes, AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD) are generated by the devs of the game and sold first-hand to store websites in order to be sold by them to the general public. You can find authorized legit sites like humble bundle, bundlestars, indiegala or greenmangaming amongst others, who got the key directly from the devs, but, the same as with the gifts, there are also shady sites were people resell keys that they got elsewhere; they might be leftovers they don't want from a bundle, a key bought in a fraudulent way, or even bought from a country in which the game is cheaper and forces you to use a VPN to simulate being in that country in order to activate it (which is also agains the terms of use), etc.

The same as with the gifts, you have the risk of getting scammed or worse things with keys, so avoid those sites and stick to the legit ones; with all the legit sites that there are there, there's always pretty much one or more with deals.

[BossGalaga]

Be wary *what* sites you get keys from. Especially any three letter websites and any penguin themed websites. These sites have been known to sell fraudulent/stolen keys and have had tens of thousands of keys revoked.

Good sites:
http://www.humblebundle.com
http://www.bundlestars.com
http://www.indieroyale.com
http://www.indiegala.com

Also, http://www.isthereanydeal.com which aggregates sales both bundle and individual across various websites. Also, http://www.epicbundle.com/game is another one.