Are steam Cd keys and steam gifts the same thing?

[cELLOPHANE]

title.

[Cathulhu]

No.

[cELLOPHANE]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

No.

What are the differences or which one is better?

[FFL2and3rocks]

A CD key is a key that you receive elsewhere and activate to your account, a Steam gift is a gift copy of a game that you buy from Steam that you can send to someone else or trade (or activate yourself if you want).
CD keys can't be traded, people who say "Send me your stuff and then I'll give you the key afterwards" are usually scammers.

[cELLOPHANE]

Originally posted by FFL2and3rocks:

A CD key is a key that you receive elsewhere and activate to your account, a Steam gift is a gift copy of a game that you buy from Steam that you can send to someone else or trade (or activate yourself if you want).
CD keys can't be traded, people who say "Send me your stuff and then I'll give you the key afterwards" are usually scammers.

but say I were buying either of these from a trusted website, would they work the same. I know so far that if it were a cd key it would have to be from my region or global. So basically they are the same except a gift can be traded where as a cd key is activated immideatly?

[Cathulhu]

How can a website be trusted when the Steam Subscriber Agreement explicitly forbids the sale of Steam Gift items?

[shoma]

Originally posted by ǾCEANUŜ Trading:

Originally posted by FFL2and3rocks:

A CD key is a key that you receive elsewhere and activate to your account, a Steam gift is a gift copy of a game that you buy from Steam that you can send to someone else or trade (or activate yourself if you want).
CD keys can't be traded, people who say "Send me your stuff and then I'll give you the key afterwards" are usually scammers.

but say I were buying either of these from a trusted website, would they work the same. I know so far that if it were a cd key it would have to be from my region or global. So basically they are the same except a gift can be traded where as a cd key is activated immideatly?

Hello CEANUS,
Lets say you bought a steam gift from one of these "trusted" sites, they would typically send the steam gift in a link or as a trade to YOUR steam account.
But, lets say you bought a Steam CD-key, then they would:
A. Send the key to you via email
or
B. Send it via steam messages
I hope this resolves your question, if you have further questions, feel free to ask.

[Cathulhu]

And after they got your money, they do a chargeback and get their money and yours. Leaving you with no game and no money.

[shoma]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

And after they got your money, they do a chargeback and get their money and yours. Leaving you with no game and no money.

Yeah, thats pretty much it, this is the reason to ONLY buy steam games from... well, Steam.

[Cathulhu]

You can buy your games from authorized resellers, you know a legit business.
They are easy to find and you can even search for the best deal with sites like http://www.isthereanydeal.com

[shoma]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

You can buy your games from authorized resellers, you know a legit business.
They are easy to find and you can even search for the best deal with sites like http://www.isthereanydeal.com

This is true, sites such as https://www.humblebundle.com/ are good examples of this.

[cELLOPHANE]

I mean I'm pretty sure we all know who these trusted websites are.....the team that used to be a csgo pro team....... the other website that pretty much every huge streamer/youtuber has a code for.........

[Cathulhu]

Exactly that website which is known to sell stolen goods, like those FarCry 4 keys that were purchased from Origin with stolen credit cards.