Make more physical Steam Gift cards and distribute them to all major stores

[Hexxed]

Every year around this time of year (Christmas) we run around and try to find Steam Gift cards for our kids and niece and nephew. For the 3 or 4 places that actually carry them, they always sell out. This year, not a single store in our 100K Canadian city from Gamestop to BestBuy to 7-11's and gas stations have had any for months.

WTF Steam? For the largest PC distribution platform in the world why aren't they available everywhere? Who is in charge of your sales department and do you not see how much money you're losing?

I literally saw 2 people standing next to me looking for them as well and when they asked the salesperson they said they haven't had any Steam cards in ages (and this was one place we found them every year though they usually sell out early). So instead, one bought an Xbox gift certificate and the other bought an iTunes gift card. That was in a 2 minute window and when I talked to the salesperson she said she's asked that many times a day (and this was a month ago!). That's just one store in one city. How much money are you leaving on the table?

Next I figured I'd just grab them a digital gift card and print it out but no, I need to send it to them directly. Yeah, I'm going to have them log into their account Christmas morning as they're opening their other presents and say hey, go check your email and then your Steam account, Santa sent you a digital present.

Also what about my nephew and niece? I have no idea what their usernames are. Luckily I have an account but most parents and grandparents have no idea. So, what's happening is I'm giving my kids cash or a VISA prepaid card (horrible Christmas present BTW since their major ask was for Steam gift cards) and they will have to convert that into Steam funds down the road.

That is, unless they decide to spend their money elsewhere and frankly, with all the free giveaways at Epic and all the free games they get with Microsoft GamePass maybe they'll be smart and save that money for somewhere else.

[Gwarsbane]

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

I do realize that stores are often responsible for their own stock however the manager I talked with said they were having trouble getting any in. That leads me to believe that the line is broken somewhere.

Secondly, there are often distributors that take care of making sure a store is well stocked. I had friends who worked with Nabisco and another with Coca Cola that would drive around and see what stores were displaying, help them optimize their placements and fill the managers in on new products and upcoming promotions.

Also, often it's 1 distributor that handles all of a certain product, like giftcards. They're not contacting all 100 restaurants, stores and whatnot everytime they need 20 more Tim Horton giftcards or Home Depot cards around Father's Day.

Just saying that somewhere in that line there's a disconnect and that Steam, who I think generally does a good job as a service, needs to follow it up. If you think that they don't have sales managers and such who's sole job is to help promote more sales then you've never worked in a large corporation.

I love PC gaming so Steam works well. They just need to make it easier for people not in the system to get on board. Even allowing people to buy digital giftcards that aren't tied to a specific account like every other retailer in existence.

Also, we have literally bought stacks of Steam giftcards over the years. We're constantly buying them for birthdays for friends and family. We just haven't seen any around in months at any of the usual places we get them so we ran out.

We started looking in late October so this isn't a last second run out to the 24/7 drugstore or late night 7-11 looking for a last minute gift. Just expected them to show up at some point at one of the usual places and no luck this year. Steam needs to talk to their giftcard distributors and make sure they're available to the masses.

Ya, its called supply chain issues... EVERYONE is having them.

The stores tell Valve they need X amount of cards.
Valve tells the card makers they need X+N amount of cards.
The card makers order X+N+H amount of card stock with X+N+I worth of ink and X+N+L worth of shipping boxes.
The card stock makers order X+N of raw ingredients to make the card stock
The Ink supplier orders X+N of raw ingredients to make the ink
The Shipping box makers orders X+L worth of raw material to to make the boxes.

The raw ingredient makers tell all those people.. ya its going to take a few weeks longer because they can't get the shipping containers to put the raw materials in and they are slow getting the raw materials because they have to spread their workers out more because of the pandemic thats still happen....

Because the shipping of the raw materials takes longer, EVERYTHING else takes longer. Then you have the fact that in all those other places they also have to spread people out and shipping of stuff takes longer and thats not including the time for the raw materials to get there....

You do know that there was ships waiting outside of container powers for upwards of 2 or 3 months right? They could not get the container ships in to unload them because there was no room in the ports. There was no room in the ports because everything was slowed down AND people had been order LOTS more stuff online, which required even more containers. Because they don't like shipping back empty containers (waste of money and no one is paying the container ships to ship back air) they either had to wait for them to show up or make new ones, both take time, both costs more money.


Seriously, getting mad at Valve, blaming Valve in anyway for a store not having the cards is dumb.

And then you (specially seeing as how you are in BC), should remember what happen just a couple of months ago in the BC area. All those roads and highways washed out that took a long time to rebuild, that they are still rebuilding in some places pretty much brought shipping of some stuff to a grinding halt.


So since you are in Canada, use a debit card or debit credit card. Connect your bank account up via paypal or get a special account all on its own just for that so that you can buy stuff on steam for people.

Open your eyes to whats happening around the world and realize it all does actually effect local stuff to you.

Butterfly effect.... a butterfly flaps its wings in africa (raw materials somewhere else are slow to be extracted) causes a hurricane in the US (causing items you ordered to take longer to be made and longer to be shipped).


There is literally NOTHING Valve can do to speed things up if the ones selling the cards don't order early, don't order enough, and if something happens like massive amounts of rain washing out roads that takes months to fix and raw materials not being shipped to the makers fast enough, there is nothing that Valve can actually do about it.

[Hexxed]

There were tons of every other giftcard there and all a giftcard needs to be made is cardboard so not like a chip shortage is going to affect it. I do realize that Covid has affected every segment (including my primary business of travel) however that's a weak argument. They had months to sort it out and even pre-covid Steam giftcards have always been tough to find around here.

Considering they're always one of the first giftcards to sell out around the holidays, I'm continually amazed by their scarcity. Perhaps it's just the stores who aren't ordering them in however that might also have to do with Steam not making them available enough or even their marketing team not pushing it aggressively enough.

[MoonC A T]

I don't know where you live but they are literally everywhere where I live. I've never seen a rack of Steam cards sold out.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

There were tons of every other giftcard there and all a giftcard needs to be made is cardboard so not like a chip shortage is going to affect it. I do realize that Covid has affected every segment (including my primary business of travel) however that's a weak argument. They had months to sort it out and even pre-covid Steam giftcards have always been tough to find around here.

Considering they're always one of the first giftcards to sell out around the holidays, I'm continually amazed by their scarcity. Perhaps it's just the stores who aren't ordering them in however that might also have to do with Steam not making them available enough or even their marketing team not pushing it aggressively enough.

The retailers order X amount of cards. If the retailer does not order cards, then cards are not shipped to them. I suggest you complain to the store and their corporate offices.

Stores want you to buy from them, not someone else. Retailers don't make much money off of a Gift Cards, with the exception of their own. They make money if you buy things from them.

Covid has impacted MANY things, not just electronics. There are supply issues everywhere.

[Gwarsbane]

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

There were tons of every other giftcard there and all a giftcard needs to be made is cardboard so not like a chip shortage is going to affect it. I do realize that Covid has affected every segment (including my primary business of travel) however that's a weak argument. They had months to sort it out and even pre-covid Steam giftcards have always been tough to find around here.

Considering they're always one of the first giftcards to sell out around the holidays, I'm continually amazed by their scarcity. Perhaps it's just the stores who aren't ordering them in however that might also have to do with Steam not making them available enough or even their marketing team not pushing it aggressively enough.

As has been told to you a number of times....

YELL AT THE PLACE SELLING THEM FOR NOT ORDERING ENOUGH.

How do you not understand that it is not Valves fault that the store YOU buy them from didn't order enough.

If they are always selling out that means they are not ordering enough correct? Thats not up to Valve to say "we're going to send you 30% more cards just because we feel like it." The store has to ask for them, it has to tell Valve how many cards it wants.

If they know they sell 100 cards a week during the holidays because thats all they ordered and the shelf sits empty for half the week, then they should order 200 cards.

Valve doesn't know their shelf is empty. Valve doesn't know if they want more. Valve doesn't just send more cards than the store can handle. If the store says send 1000 cards, they will send 1000 cards. If the store says send 2000 cards, they will send 2000 cards.

You are ranting at the wrong people, you need to go to the store where you buy them, as has been mentioned many times in this thread already and rant at the store to order more.

[Hexxed]

Except when a store can't get any cards in even though they've tried. I also appreciate that Covid has destroyed supply lines. I also know that wildfires and floods have destroyed roads and since I live in the interior of BC, we were literally cut off from Vancouver and the west coast for over a month. This was before the floods and after the wildfires though and is a common issue.

Now maybe it is completely a regional thing. Maybe the local retailers don't see a need for it or have decided not to waste their precious store space with cards that don't sell but I've been buying them for years and it has always been an issue here. I can't speak about other cities except the 4 major ones I've lived in the past 15 years or the dozens I've lived in around the world as I travelled for months/years at a time however finding Steam cards isn't easy in a lot of places.

They're also hard to find in Winnipeg and Calgary and my extended family stopped buying them last year for my kids since they couldn't find them either and now just send money and let me deal with it.

So, I pretty much know from solid experience that Steam gift cards are hard to find in Western Canada. Even before Covid and all the current world supply issues. While stores are ultimately in charge of what they put on the shelves, I also blame Valve for either not pushing their products harder or not making them more available.

All this could be easily rectified though if they just let me go their site or any of the dozens of sites that let me buy giftcards online and buy a digital giftcard from them that isn't some scam site overcharging for them. Don't believe me, go check Amazon or Best Buy. I can buy digital Apple giftcards, Xbox and Playstation giftcards but where's the Steam ones? If you think Steam hasn't consciously decided not to go that route then you're not paying attention.

Even if they allowed me to log into my Steam account that's been 100% verified, has 50+ games, that I've had for a decade, and allows me to buy any games on the site with my credit card to just buy a digital card that sent me a virtual pin like you find on any giftcard that anyone can buy anywhere I would be happy. But no, they force you to select a recipient. I don't know my sons friends username however he asked for a Steam giftcard for his birthday last year. I couldn't find one last minute so had to give him cash which he may or may not have used to then buy a Steam game. Wasted opportunity by Steam for guaranteed income.

So this rant isn't just about not having stock in the middle of a epidemic crapfest. It's about Steams entire approach to buying giftcards, both online and in store. I believe Steam is the best PC gaming platform by far and it pains me to see that they're squandering so many opportunities to be even bigger and better. With their SteamDeck on the horizon and them wanting to go toe to toe with both mobile gaming and established handhelds like the Switch they need to make buying a game or a giftcard as easy as all the rest.

Grandma shouldn't have to create a Steam account and figure out her grandson's username just to buy him a damn giftcard for his favorite system. It's just weak and all arguments for it are weak as well.

[{ИЯm} Keith]

It's just so darn hard these days...
https://www.amazon.ca/Steam-Gift-Card-20/dp/B00FN50BYC

The Epic gift games are nice, EPIC is loosing money doing this. However you don't get to "pick" a game from EGS, you just get what is currently free. I've never even seen an EGS gift card here. So at the end of the day steam cards beat a non-existent EGS card.

I'd also go so far as to suggest that Steam has the largest variety of games available anywhere, so sure avoid steam if you like but...

Also parents not having steam.. ? There are 120 million steam users, steam has been around since 2003. (it's an adult now) So I wouldn't be surprised at all to find there are a rather large number of parent age steam users.

[my new friend]

Publicado originalmente por {ИЯm} Keith:

It's just so darn hard these days...
https://www.amazon.ca/Steam-Gift-Card-20/dp/B00FN50BYC

Valve does not sell them on Amazon. Only 3rd party marketplace resellers do.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

So, I pretty much know from solid experience that Steam gift cards are hard to find in Western Canada. Even before Covid and all the current world supply issues. While stores are ultimately in charge of what they put on the shelves, I also blame Valve for either not pushing their products harder or not making them more available.

Except they are readily available for those who wish to carry them.

Valve doesn't push things, they let stores decide. Stores can't be pushed to sell a product. Valve already takes a 10-15% loss from the sale of the card, with so much going to the store and so much to the company that manages the cards for them. Developers still get their full 70% from the sale, even when using such cards. Valve can't really incentivise it more then they have.

And if the store make more from a gift being sold, then from the sale of a gift card, they have little reason to order them for resale.

So, again, I suggest complaining to the store and their corporate offices. If enough do so, then hopefully they would order more Steam Wallet Cards.

[Gwarsbane]

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

Except when a store can't get any cards in even though they've tried. I also appreciate that Covid has destroyed supply lines. I also know that wildfires and floods have destroyed roads and since I live in the interior of BC, we were literally cut off from Vancouver and the west coast for over a month. This was before the floods and after the wildfires though and is a common issue.

Now maybe it is completely a regional thing. Maybe the local retailers don't see a need for it or have decided not to waste their precious store space with cards that don't sell but I've been buying them for years and it has always been an issue here. I can't speak about other cities except the 4 major ones I've lived in the past 15 years or the dozens I've lived in around the world as I travelled for months/years at a time however finding Steam cards isn't easy in a lot of places.

They're also hard to find in Winnipeg and Calgary and my extended family stopped buying them last year for my kids since they couldn't find them either and now just send money and let me deal with it.

So, I pretty much know from solid experience that Steam gift cards are hard to find in Western Canada. Even before Covid and all the current world supply issues. While stores are ultimately in charge of what they put on the shelves, I also blame Valve for either not pushing their products harder or not making them more available.

All this could be easily rectified though if they just let me go their site or any of the dozens of sites that let me buy giftcards online and buy a digital giftcard from them that isn't some scam site overcharging for them. Don't believe me, go check Amazon or Best Buy. I can buy digital Apple giftcards, Xbox and Playstation giftcards but where's the Steam ones? If you think Steam hasn't consciously decided not to go that route then you're not paying attention.

Even if they allowed me to log into my Steam account that's been 100% verified, has 50+ games, that I've had for a decade, and allows me to buy any games on the site with my credit card to just buy a digital card that sent me a virtual pin like you find on any giftcard that anyone can buy anywhere I would be happy. But no, they force you to select a recipient. I don't know my sons friends username however he asked for a Steam giftcard for his birthday last year. I couldn't find one last minute so had to give him cash which he may or may not have used to then buy a Steam game. Wasted opportunity by Steam for guaranteed income.

So this rant isn't just about not having stock in the middle of a epidemic crapfest. It's about Steams entire approach to buying giftcards, both online and in store. I believe Steam is the best PC gaming platform by far and it pains me to see that they're squandering so many opportunities to be even bigger and better. With their SteamDeck on the horizon and them wanting to go toe to toe with both mobile gaming and established handhelds like the Switch they need to make buying a game or a giftcard as easy as all the rest.

Grandma shouldn't have to create a Steam account and figure out her grandson's username just to buy him a damn giftcard for his favorite system. It's just weak and all arguments for it are weak as well.

Here in Nova Scotia I can find lots of them of all different sizes. I seen shelves filled with them at walmart today. I'm sure if I bothered to look at other stores I know sell gift cards I'd find them too.

Again there are supply chain issues, did you ever stop to consider that what ever store you are buying them from ordered X amount and the sold out of X amount and now its just taking longer for the next batch to get to them because its taking longer to get them made because the raw materials are taking longer to get? Just like everything else in the world at the moment?

Again its not Valves fault if your store keeps selling out of cards before you can get them. Either tell them to order more or see if you can get a few on hold for you next time a batch comes in.

You are getting angry with the wrong business. Stop blaming Valve for the failing of your store and/or the problems with the supply chain that effects everything world wide. For all you know, Valve (and other companies) were told they can only order X amount of cards because the company that makes them for Valve has low resources so can only keep making the average amount that they have been for them and all the other companies that they make stuff for.

Again yell at the store, its up to them to order more, if they can't or won't, they might tell you that they can't or won't.

[Hexxed]

Ok, see I'm being attacked from all sides so I'll reiterate the problems:
1. You can't buy a Digital Steam Gift Card from Steam or anyone else that isn't bought from an existing Steam account or being gifted to a specific Steam account. Steam has 100% control of that decision and loses zero money to anyone by selling this way. If you think parents, uncles and grandparents have or should have to have an account to purchase it then you're obviously too young to reply to this comment.
2. The Amazon gift cards on Amazon are third party sellers and I'm not dropping $179 for a $100 giftcard or even $29 for a $20. That's ridiculous.
3. In terms of comparing Valve's game costs and monetisation is no different than Xbox, Playstation or Switch. They all have to pay the respective companies their cut for games so no idea what you're talking about. It's the cost of doing business and from what I gather, Valve charges delevopers even more than the console equivalents.
4. The only 2 Walmarts in my city had zero cards even 2 months before Christmas and I saw none restocked within a few weeks of Christmas. That your store has some today means zero to me since I had family look in both Winnipeg and Calgary pre-Christmas and no one found any. Not sure what stores they all checked but they found zero and they all said there were tons of Xbox and all the rest.
5. The idea that a supplying company has zero control over store stocks is kind of funny. Stores that are waiting for supplies and don't get them is due to under supply at supply stations. Yes, it happens to everyone and more so during the pandemic but I've never seen it so consistent as with Steam giftcards, hence this original post.

If you completely disregard the fact that I personally can't find Steam gift cards to give to people then at least take away that my gripe isn't purely about that. I'm 100% fine with being able to buy digital giftcards either from Steam or other online retailers that give me a nice pin code that any user can then enter into their personal Steam account. I don't care if I have to write it down myself and hand them a card with it scribbled on it next to Happy Birthday but please Steam/Valve, give us that option at least. You're just hurting yourself by making it so difficult.

[-Dare Devil/x/]

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

Ok, see I'm being attacked from all sides so I'll reiterate the problems:
1. You can't buy a Digital Steam Gift Card from Steam or anyone else that isn't bought from an existing Steam account or being gifted to a specific Steam account. Steam has 100% control of that decision and loses zero money to anyone by selling this way. If you think parents, uncles and grandparents have or should have to have an account to purchase it then you're obviously too young to reply to this comment.
2. The Amazon gift cards on Amazon are third party sellers and I'm not dropping $179 for a $100 giftcard or even $29 for a $20. That's ridiculous.
3. In terms of comparing Valve's game costs and monetisation is no different than Xbox, Playstation or Switch. They all have to pay the respective companies their cut for games so no idea what you're talking about. It's the cost of doing business and from what I gather, Valve charges delevopers even more than the console equivalents.
4. The only 2 Walmarts in my city had zero cards even 2 months before Christmas and I saw none restocked within a few weeks of Christmas. That your store has some today means zero to me since I had family look in both Winnipeg and Calgary pre-Christmas and no one found any. Not sure what stores they all checked but they found zero and they all said there were tons of Xbox and all the rest.
5. The idea that a supplying company has zero control over store stocks is kind of funny. Stores that are waiting for supplies and don't get them is due to under supply at supply stations. Yes, it happens to everyone and more so during the pandemic but I've never seen it so consistent as with Steam giftcards, hence this original post.

If you completely disregard the fact that I personally can't find Steam gift cards to give to people then at least take away that my gripe isn't purely about that. I'm 100% fine with being able to buy digital giftcards either from Steam or other online retailers that give me a nice pin code that any user can then enter into their personal Steam account. I don't care if I have to write it down myself and hand them a card with it scribbled on it next to Happy Birthday but please Steam/Valve, give us that option at least. You're just hurting yourself by making it so difficult.

-Why do allllll of that when you can just talk to your store?

[Mad Scientist]

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

Ok, see I'm being attacked from all sides

This is how you basically admit you have nothing to say and no proper response to the users showing you where the issues are, when you say you're "being attacked".

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

If you think parents, uncles and grandparents have or should have to have an account to purchase it then you're obviously too young to reply to this comment.

Except there's physical wallet codes. More than 1 option to achieve the same thing.

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

2. The Amazon gift cards on Amazon are third party sellers and I'm not dropping $179 for a $100 giftcard or even $29 for a $20. That's ridiculous.

Not even worth mentioning as that is just people trying to be scalpers.
The easy solution is exactly that, don't buy it. Not a Valve/Steam problem.

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

3. In terms of comparing Valve's game costs and monetisation is no different than Xbox, Playstation or Switch.

This had little to nothing to do with the subject. This is also a digital distributor, no physical media involved utilizing steams servers, often hsvijg far more valuable optional features than consoles.

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

4. The only 2 Walmarts in my city had zero cards even 2 months before Christmas and I saw none restocked within a few weeks of Christmas. That your store has some today means zero to me since I had family look in both Winnipeg and Calgary pre-Christmas and no one found any.

Still not a Valve/Steam issue for stores not purchasing such items. That or you just have bad timing compared to other shoppers and visit after they're all gone.

Physical stock is finite and stores focus on their major things more than others, I doubt steam cards are as important. Try talking to the manager about ordering more stock. It's up to the HQ, regional manager, or manager to try getting more of something.

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

5. The idea that a supplying company has zero control over store stocks is kind of funny. Stores that are waiting for supplies and don't get them is due to under supply at supply stations.

Stores must order things to get them. They buy/order, someone delivers. Simple concept.

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

Yes, it happens to everyone and more so during the pandemic but I've never seen it so consistent as with Steam giftcards, hence this original post.

Still not a Valve/Steam issue.

Publicado originalmente por Hexxed:

but please Steam/Valve, give us that option at least. You're just hurting yourself by making it so difficult.

Again, not up to Valve to just send stuff to places. That's not how business works, sending unsolicited shipments is largely not a thing. Valve isn't making things difficult, you're just inconvinenced by what your local stores aren't ordering sufficient amounts of.

[Hexxed]

Not sure where the disagreements are coming from however the issue remains. No local stock and no option to buy digital online that's not tied directly to an account.

Talked to several managers and they can't get more cards in. 2 weren't responsible for restocking and said they hadn't seen any cards in a while and 1 said they were having trouble getting any stock in.

I didn't follow up any more than that because I'm not going to sit down with the local manager at Walmart or Best Buy and discuss ordering options.

If this was purely a my town problem then my family from Calgary and Winnipeg would have bought cards and sent them like they do every year. And this year they would have sent extras since I couldn't find any and asked them specifically to buy extra if they found some, which they didn't.

They had actually given up finding any last year so this is obviously not a this year only pandemic blah blah event. If you don't think this is a Valve sales issue then you have zero understanding of business. Yes, stores are ultimately responsible for ordering stock however there is obviously a disconnect somewhere in the chain.

As to the rest, Valve is 100% in charge of letting people buy digital codes online directly from them. Yes, I can log into my personal Steam account, select my kids usernames and send them a gift code that pops up directly in their Steam. Not an easy gift to wrap though.

IT DOES NOT let me buy a digital code for friends and family where I don't know their usernames. IT ALSO DOES NOT let me buy a digital key code so I can print out my own Steam Gift Card to give to whoever I want. It certainly does not let their grandmother go onto their site and buy a digital code easily either.

If you go onto Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, etc you can instantly buy a digital gift code for Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo. It sends you a digital code anyone can enter. Zero reason Steam doesn't implement the same thing and all these sites have a marketplace option that pretty much means YOU put your goods on their store, it's not up to them to "stock the shelves".

So quit being fan boys and realize that Steam isn't making it easy for people to get into their system. The more people buy from them the more discounts we'll all see and the more innovations we're likely to see from them in the future.

With the Steamdeck on the near horizon and the hopes it can get more players onto PC then Steam needs to get competitive. Ease of access into a system is vital to widespread success so make it easy already.

[my new friend]

I think we may have found out a reason for this.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3203748716329770958/
https://www.ontario.ca/page/buying-or-using-gift-cards#:~:text=No%20sales%20tax%20to%20buy,purchase%20using%20a%20gift%20card

https://biv.com/article/2021/09/lawsuit-week-bc-governments-reversal-pst-video-game-gift-cards-created-untenable