Is buying steam codes from various sites legal?

[mystemacc]

I don't want to get banned or anything, so I want to know the official steam policy.

Say I buy a global key for a game on another site and I redeem it, it works, will I ever and under any cirquimstances get in trouble for it? Yes I might get scammed or something but that's between me and that site or my stupidity, but I just want to know in relation to steam and the game devs.

I want to be 100% clean.

Are there sites that steam supports officially?

Also, if for any reason I do get in trouble, what sort of trouble would that be? Just removal of the game or will the rest of the account be affected aswell, maybe banned?

Thanks for reading.

[Ogami]

As long as you buy from authorized resellers that get their Steam keys directly from the game developer/publisher its a 100% safe way to purchase Steam games.
From the 4250+ games on my Steam account i have purchased at least 70-80% as Steam keys.
Never ran into any problems.

To make sure you only buy from legit stores i recommend using this site:
https://isthereanydeal.com/

All stores listed there are authorized and 100% legit and the site will also show you all currently ongoing sales and bundles from those different stores.

There are also some more shady "gray" reseller sites that dont get the keys from the developer but usually from buying cheap retail copies in mass.
They also offer individual users to sell their keys on their store so its indeed possible to run into problems if someone sells you a nonworking or stolen key.

The worst that can happen for you as the buyer is that the key is revoked by the developer/publisher at a later point and you will lose the game and wont get the money back you spend.
So i recommend staying with the legit stores even if they are a bit more expensive.

[mystemacc]

Originally posted by Ogami:

As long as you buy from authorized resellers that get their Steam keys directly from the game developer/publisher its a 100% safe way to purchase Steam games.
From the 4250+ games on my Steam account i have purchased at least 70-80% as Steam keys.
Never ran into any problems.

To make sure you only buy from legit stores i recommend using this site:
https://isthereanydeal.com/

All stores listed there are authorized and 100% legit and the site will also show you all currently ongoing sales and bundles from those different stores.

There are also some more shady "gray" reseller sites that dont get the keys from the developer but usually from buying cheap retail copies in mass.
They also offer individual users to sell their keys on their store so its indeed possible to run into problems if someone sells you a nonworking or stolen key.

The worst that can happen for you as the buyer is that the key is revoked by the developer/publisher at a later point and you will lose the game and wont get the money back you spend.
So i recommend staying with the legit stores even if they are a bit more expensive.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

So if it's not there, it's not legit? Because people are saying some sites are legit and they may not be in that site. Is there a list that steam officially recognises as legit?

Revoking a game is fair and I don't mind, I just don't want the account to be banned or blacklisted or something.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by mystemacc:

So if it's not there, it's not legit? Because people are saying some sites are legit and they may not be in that site. Is there a list that steam officially recognises as legit?

There is no offical page but yeah, from the big reseller site,if its not listed there its most likely a grayzone reseller.
And those sites are BIG and usually have a lot of advertising and Youtubers/streamers promoting them. Does not make them more legit. To be fair even if you buy from those sites in 99% of all cases nothing will happen and you just get your game and thats it.
But those are the sites where something CAN happen and has happened in the past and why risk it?

From the big grayzone resellers i would mainly avoid the one with the three letters and the one with the penguin mascot.
Both of those sides ( who are owned by the same background company) are well known for selling stolen keys in the past or keys that have already been used.
They tried very hard over the last few years to look more legit but the same problems still persist.

Also we have actual developers on record that they prefer you pirate their games then giving those grayzone sites money.

YouTube™ Video: G2A Is So Bad Developers Would Rather You Pirate Their Games Than Buy From It 

Views: 554,828

G2A is a shady website that resells keys for game downloads. The problem with G2A is that it's shady as hell and has been criticized heavily for allowing fraudulent sales that cost developers money.

[MancSoulja]

Just to be clear, although buying from authorised resellers is always the best course of action, there's absolutely nothing wrong with shopping around and buying from grey market sites.

Of course Steam and Publishers like to warn you off grey market sites because they're trying to protect their bottom line, but legally you're well within your rights to shop around and look for the best price.

As Ogami said, not all grey market resellers are the same, some sell stock directly, where as others work more like eBay, but with more scammers and less protection, The penguin site and the one with 3 letters are definitely the worst.

[Mr. Smiles]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Just to be clear, although buying from authorised resellers is always the best course of action, there's absolutely nothing wrong with shopping around and buying from grey market sites.

Of course Steam and Publishers like to warn you off grey market sites because they're trying to protect their bottom line, but legally you're well within your rights to shop around and look for the best price.

As Ogami said, not all grey market resellers are the same, some sell stock directly, where as others work more like eBay, but with more scammers and less protection, The penguin site and the one with 3 letters are definitely the worst.

The big problem with grey markets sites is you can get scammed, and there is no real protection if you do, making the only recourse a charge back.

If you are willing to risk getting scammed, go for it, but I prefer to stick to authorized sellers listed on isthereanydeal.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Just to be clear, although buying from authorised resellers is always the best course of action, there's absolutely nothing wrong with shopping around and buying from grey market sites.

Of course Steam and Publishers like to warn you off grey market sites because they're trying to protect their bottom line, but legally you're well within your rights to shop around and look for the best price.

As Ogami said, not all grey market resellers are the same, some sell stock directly, where as others work more like eBay, but with more scammers and less protection, The penguin site and the one with 3 letters are definitely the worst.

This is like saying "you know its totally ok to shp around for that xbox, and that hobo behind teh dumpster is definitley 'ok'"

Grey market sites are now almost universally scams for a very very good reason. They are no longer reselling 'cheaper' codes from other regions, because you basically can't do this anymore. "Grey" markets literally do not exist now.

[𝓛𝓸𝓸𝓷𝔂~🔥🐕]

I don't think you'd be banned, you'd just receive a yellow alert that the product code has been removed from your account and be out the money you spent and have little to no support options. Honestly I would just stick to Humble Bundle or Steam Store and wait for sales for Steam games to play it absolutely safe.

[mystemacc]

Originally posted by alex:

I don't think you'd be banned, you'd just receive a yellow alert that the product code has been removed from your account and be out the money you spent and have little to no support options. Honestly I would just stick to Humble Bundle or Steam Store and wait for sales for Steam games to play it absolutely safe.

Normally that's what I do, but some games are just not on sale when you want them, and some games are just THAT cheaper in other sites that makes it worth it for you when before they weren't.

Plus there are games that are no longer on steam, like MK9 KE, and there is simply no other way to get them.