Concerning the Holiday Sale 2014 Trading Cards Expiration.

[Geirilius]

Firstly I'd just like to say that there was hardly any way for Steam to have done worse in their approch of shutting down the 2014 Holiday Trading Card thingy.

For starters they shut it down before it was due apparently or so I've read past half an hour our so from others.

Second. If you don't sell your cards, use them or turn them into gems they are stuck in your inventory forever forcing you to look at that foil elf mocking your stupidity. Can't market them, can't trade them. And if you lack any of the cards you can't even make a badge out of the scraps.

Third. No grace peroid after the Holiday sale for people to get rid of their cards? For ex. if someone buys games worth $50 two hours before the official deadline of the cards (one hour unofficialy if what people are saying is true) that same someone has to either sell their cards right quickly to get rid of them which is unlikely to succeed with an ocean of cards on the market. Buy the 5+ cards that are missing which is fine for people that like to spend on badgecrafting or turn them into gems. God rue that you are unaware of the expiration and elves stain your inventory forever after.

Since I think it is highly unlikely that Steam will open up trade or marketing for those cards again I'd petition that they either re-enable turning the leftover cards to gems OR give the option of DELETING them. Having to look at those elves mock me is too much to bare.

[kdodds]

The bright red warning was there all along, not just the day of expiration. The notification was also on the front page and on the holiday badges page. Insinuating that you were somehow unfairly treated because Steam did not send a representative to your front door to inform you of the facts in person is completely ridiculous. The information was there, and quite easy to find, had you even looked ANYWHERE. The fact that you don't see that warning now is completely irrelevant to the fact that IT WAS THERE THROUGH THE ENTIRE AUCTION EVENT (started 12/15, though I believe the first cards began appearing on 12/12) and carried on THROUGH THE ENTIRE SALE. This is like someone on eBay buying a "free energy pack" for $1 and complaining that it was only some wacky set of instructions in pamphlet form even though the list clearly stated that this is exactly what they were buying. Nobody is responsible for your refusal to read the easily found information but you.

[kdodds]

And, on vetoing a discussion... if you vote for a candidate based solely on that politicians' health care platform and then find out later that that platform will be funded by immediately commuting all federal life sentences to capital punishment to be enacted expediently, thereby saving cost of care... well, it really is your fault for not investigating that platform further, now isn't it? Where are all the threads from these 20/20 hindsight, victimized folks asking, "What does this expiration stuff mean?" Or, "When should I expect to lose marketability of Holiday Cards?" So yes, the fault still lies on the user.

Look at the gem debacle. All of a sudden my 3¢ items started selling after a year or more on the market. I immediately pulled everything down and investigated what was going on. Did I whine about the couple/few/dozen items I "lost"? Hell no. Why would I? I listed them at 3¢, they sold at 3¢. Did I jump on the unrealistic 3¢ bag of gems and massive trade off? Hell no. Prudence is never a bad thing. You may miss out on some opportunities, but you're also saved from woeful mistakes (and scams). Nope, I had patience, converted my items to gems, bid enough to win six auctions and made a ton of booster packs.

This isn't kindergarten. There aren't unlimited do-overs. Ignorance is not an excuse. And no one is going to be your advocate but you. So, yeah, it does render the discussion kind of pointless. And any (doubtful) action taken by Steam/Valve to appease the few complainants would only be greeted with, "Well it's about time," from the majority of them anyway. So when you're dealing with ingrates, why bother dealing at all?

[Geirilius]

I think the point has been made that the expiration date is clear to most. If not before then by now. But kdodds you forgot to criticize my criticism that for those that buy on the last 1-2 hours of the sale don't get much time to partake in the merriment of badgecrafting.

Personally I don't much mind losing out on the badgecrafting but I still feel that they should have extended the time to +1 day after you stopped getting elf cards from buying in the steam store.

The inventory thing apparently fixed it self which leave being stuck with two badge progressions that can never be achieved. One problem fixed shining a light on another one. And yes this is a problem. Ask lots of people...specially people with OCD.

Calling people lazy, stupid, childish, impatient or multiple other things in a negative way as you have done kdodds leave something to be desired. The tone of your writing reeks with condescension. But perhaps I am unworthy and should accept any judgement made by our overlords in silence.

Anyway Imma leave this cancer to grow and hope to see the badge progress thing resolved in the next few days.

[krazak111]

kddos is a childish moron, who think's he is alway's the right one and wise one well he is not either and he certaintly is the idiot one.

[Hazmat Pat]

I've met tons of people like that. Claim to be experts at everything. They're a lawyer/developer/author/musician/scientist/[whatever] whenever it suits their purpose to try to be more knowledgeable than anyone else. They're really probably in some low rent mcjob where they're constantly under what they see as a micromanaging, domineering and incompetent boss, but they're really just inept employees doing a poor job.

They take out their frustrations on people on the internet because they think the annonymity brings them power and the appeals to authority that they make can't be as readily disproven as in real life.

[krazak111]

I agree totally 100% with you "Orangutan" that "kdodds" is a frustrated, childish, immature, know it all smarty pant's who probably has no real freind's.

[Geirilius]

I think this thread has outlived it's usefulness having come to this. I'm sure all of you are fine people and this is more of a lost in translation situation. Communication through hasty writing sometimes does that. English is not my 1st language so I'm sure I've done my fair share of that here myself.

Let's stop before this thread leads to personal hostilities or namecalling. That is not what this thread was about.

[kdodds]

Publicado originalmente por Geirilius:

I think the point has been made that the expiration date is clear to most. If not before then by now. But kdodds you forgot to criticize my criticism that for those that buy on the last 1-2 hours of the sale don't get much time to partake in the merriment of badgecrafting.

Personally I don't much mind losing out on the badgecrafting but I still feel that they should have extended the time to +1 day after you stopped getting elf cards from buying in the steam store.

The inventory thing apparently fixed it self which leave being stuck with two badge progressions that can never be achieved. One problem fixed shining a light on another one. And yes this is a problem. Ask lots of people...specially people with OCD.

Calling people lazy, stupid, childish, impatient or multiple other things in a negative way as you have done kdodds leave something to be desired. The tone of your writing reeks with condescension. But perhaps I am unworthy and should accept any judgement made by our overlords in silence.

Anyway Imma leave this cancer to grow and hope to see the badge progress thing resolved in the next few days.

The entire reason for the one-hour market shutdown is to allow for badgecrafting prior to expiration, for those who can't seem to get it all done until the 11th hour. I'm simply shining light on the ludicrous, baseless complaints. The facts of the matter are what they are and are likely to remain in place for sales to come. All of the terms and conditions were listed, including, on Steam's market page, its right to halt trading on any item. The badge completion "problem" will resolve itself on its own, I am sure, as it has in the past. While this may be a problem for some for their own personal reasons, it is not a Steam problem and discussion on that matter should probably take place in a more appropriate venue than a Steam Forum where the dysfunction can be actually aided or alleviated.

As to everything between the quoted post and this, I feel sorry for you guys' losing your stuff. But that loss is undeniably solely your fault. The details were there, the time to do what you needed to do was there. It requires neither "know-it-all" nor friends nor any particular occupation to point out these self-evident truths.

[Thaiden]

To make the cards expire seems very nearsighted. I do hope they remedy the situation somehow..

[krazak111]

You are right in that it was very nearsightedness on the part of steam and like you also said i also hope they remedy this because that incomplete set of holiday cards and it's 3 duplicate's in the inventory and badge's section pisses me off.

PS Just ignore "kdodd" and he might go away if he has any shame left. I very much doubt it though.

[kdodds]

Hardly nearsighted, they've done this for at least the last three big sales. IIRC, the trading continued to the last second in the first sale with expirations and led to complaints there as well with users not have time to craft badges. IOW, they've experience all of this before. It's also important to remember that you guys are in a severe minority. With 100,000,000 active users, the dozen or dozens complaining here are minority in the extreme.

[Thaiden]

Even still, I have cards from the Summer Getaway Sale 2013 and those cards are still marketable and tradeable and able to be made into gems. If people want to craft a badge for cards they own I think people should be allowed I fail to see why they limit some cards but not others, short of some ulterior motive.

I can understand that Steam wouldn't want any more sales on the marketplace to reduce drastic price inflation but they could at LEAST allow people to trade cards they already own and make them not marketable.
P.s. This is not the case as the Summer 2013 cards are still marketable and did not become over-priced.

Friends or others that have cards to trade (which remember, we all got for as a promotion that Steam themselves created) should be able to trade them.
"Hey here have some cards, oh wait we changed our minds, it was actually to get you to spend more money ;)"

[Hanomaly]

Publicado originalmente por ❖๖ƬᏲα║∂єɴ ❖:

Even still, I have cards from the Summer Getaway Sale 2013 and those cards are still marketable and tradeable and able to be made into gems.

And clearly after the Summer of 2013, Valve changed their minds about the trading cards for holiday stuff. Partly it makes sense. To keep the holiday trading cards (and badges) ONLY for people who were around to celebrate that holiday.

MMOs handle holiday content or special event content the same way. You weren't around to get that special gun during Halloween? Oh well, you're going to have to wait for the next holiday to get it, or whatever.

But Summer 2013 was three big sales ago... for Winter 2013, Summer 2014, and Winter 2014 the cards have all had expiration dates. It's nothing new. A year and a half has gone by since the first change. Plenty of time for people to adapt.

[kdodds]

Again, the Summer '13 cards did not have an expiration. Holiday '13, Summer '14, and Holiday '14 did. Try looking it like this: the past three big sales came with limited edition cards that could be crafted into limited edition badges. Only, said limit is not in a set number released, but rather an ending availability. There's nothing nefarious, no "ulterior motive" in putting out limited editions. They exist across many markets, even the gaming market where we have "limited edition" pre-sale versions of games. You might be able to pick one up at a Gamestop if someone backed out or you get in early enough to get the extras, but they do halt production/release of new copies upon game release. That the Summer '13 cards are still around proves only that they didn't have expirations. As someone else suggested in this thread or possibly another, the definition of expire is not at all interpretive and should be looked up if there's some problem figuring out why the cards are gone.

[Thaiden]

Publicado originalmente por Hanomaly:

MMOs handle holiday content or special event content the same way. You weren't around to get that special gun during Halloween? Oh well, you're going to have to wait for the next holiday to get it, or whatever.

If this was the reason they could still put the effort in to make badges craftable after the fact only for those who earned cards during the sale or for those who already have a badge.

I think it's just a matter of being easier for them. Just saying it would be nice, if someone wants to make the effort and craft a badge after the fact I do not see why that would matter to anyone except the person who is crafting the badge.