Selling your Steam games for cash or value

[Looopeeeeeee]

Hello.
I'm making this thread so that 1. Google clearly caches and indexes this thread based on keywords and 2. allow other peoople looking for the same answer to arrive here.

I'm no longer interested in videogames and wish to sell what I have previously purchased in exchange for something of useful value or better yet, cash. If I am unable to sell my used Steam games for cash then perhaps I can exchange them for something in which I can then sell? I find it frustrating that such information is sketchy at best and often blocked by Steam under the guise of "Forums are under construction" (sure.....). I am happy to sell these used games on Steam and the buyer then pays a small license key from Steam to activate them. I'm not asking for alot of money. Something is better than nothing for assets I paid for, that now do nothing of good here.

Any links and advice is much appreciated.
Thank you for reading.

[PentaPenta]

If you read the Steam Subscriber Agreement that you agreed to when you bought your first game, you would know that it says you can't sell or trade your used games.
It's not Steam problem if you won't read the stuff you sign up for.

[Curtis@HeroesofTalon]

Originally posted by steventheslayer:

If you read the Steam Subscriber Agreement that you agreed to when you bought your first game, you would know that it says you can't sell or trade your used games.
It's not Steam problem if you won't read the stuff you sign up for.

Agreed. Its exactly why these kinds of threads will never change Valves stance on it.

[Looopeeeeeee]

So the physical copies I bought in a shop are infact worthless from the moment of pruchase? The 2nd user cannot just purchase license key?

[Curtis@HeroesofTalon]

Originally posted by thejoyrider:

So the physical copies I bought in a shop are infact worthless from the moment of pruchase? The 2nd user cannot just purchase license key?

That license key was valid for one account on Steam only, the account it is activated on is the only one which owns that game and therefore it cannot be resold.

[Looopeeeeeee]

Originally posted by Curtis@HeroesofTalon:

Originally posted by thejoyrider:

So the physical copies I bought in a shop are infact worthless from the moment of pruchase? The 2nd user cannot just purchase license key?

That license key was valid for one account on Steam only, the account it is activated on is the only one which owns that game and therefore it cannot be resold.

Incredible. This is quite unfortunate. Fortunately this is a lesson learned not to pay for downloadable content.

[Looopeeeeeee]

It would appear that there's possibly dis-info spread to prevent others from selling their games on Steam. There are many who wish to sell their games and in discussions such as these, there appears to be such a solution which doesn't violate the terms which readers where perhaps to be misled in the posts above.

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/846939071169489267/

[PentaPenta]

What sort of disinfo are you talking about? That thread looked pretty straight forward to me.
You will be able to trade any of the games in your inventory once the servers are done with maintenence.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by thejoyrider:

Incredible. This is quite unfortunate. Fortunately this is a lesson learned not to pay for downloadable content.

Nowadays, almost any new game (Retail or not) is tied to some sort of service one way or another.
Steam, Origin, Uplay, GFWL...
Buying retail won't save you from that.

Every owned game copy traded away is a new user playing the game without the publisher seeing a dime from it. It's understandable that they do their best to avoid second had market.

[Looopeeeeeee]

Originally posted by steventheslayer:

You will be able to trade any of the games in your inventory once the servers are done with maintenence.

That's better. That's the info I'm looking for.
Thank you :)

Originally posted by Tito Santa is coming to town:

Nowadays, almost any new game (Retail or not) is tied to some sort of service one way or another.
Steam, Origin, Uplay, GFWL...
Buying retail won't save you from that.

Every owned game copy traded away is a new user playing the game without the publisher seeing a dime from it. It's understandable that they do their best to avoid second had market.

This is very true and sad. More sad that the costs keep spiralling up for almost no extra difference in quality or contant. I don't want to derail this thread into a used game robs the author dicussion as it's old hat and debunked.

[Thordred]

Originally posted by thejoyrider:

Originally posted by steventheslayer:

You will be able to trade any of the games in your inventory once the servers are done with maintenence.

That's better. That's the info I'm looking for.
Thank you :)

Don't confuse inventory with library. ;)

[Satoru]

If you buy a game a retail it will ALWAYS go ino your LIBRARY. Which is not tradeable in any way

If you buy a game on steam you can buy it as a gift to go into your INVENTORY. You can then gift or trade it.

Ensure you understand the difference

[TeKraken]

Originally posted by thejoyrider:

It would appear that there's possibly dis-info spread to prevent others from selling their games on Steam. There are many who wish to sell their games and in discussions such as these, there appears to be such a solution which doesn't violate the terms which readers where perhaps to be misled in the posts above.

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/846939071169489267/

This guy will get banned (or temp banned, or if lucky just have his thread locked) from the forum if he attemps to trade those items on the Steam forum. If he is somehow successful his Steam account may be permanently locked.
Accouts or activated games are not tradeable.

[Satoru]

Those are cd keys and not trading from your library. That's a separate thing and is not "dis information" a word only used by those who have a untenable agenda to try and uphold without actual facts.

[chris]

Originally posted by thejoyrider:

So the physical copies I bought in a shop are infact worthless from the moment of pruchase? The 2nd user cannot just purchase license key?

Technically, you can sell your physical copies, but they will be worth very little since no product code comes with it. The only reason that I would see someone actually want to buy a physical copy of a game with no product key is that they own the game on Steam, but they don't have fast internet or they just don't want to download the game, so they want to install the game via DVD.

Originally posted by thejoyrider:

That's better. That's the info I'm looking for.
Thank you :)

The discussion that you linked to in post #6 is talking about the person's gift inventory, not their Steam library. Every game that you have in your Steam library is stuck there.

[gnoj]

Bottom line is that items in your inventory can be gifted/sold through the trade window. CD keys that have not yet been activated/tied to your library can also be gifted or sold, but outside of Steam (so you'll really have to trust that the recipient will pay you or give you promised items if it's a trade, or get written documentation to that effect). Keys to games already activated/registered in your library cannot be resold or transferred to another account, both because it violates the Steam Terms of Service, and b/c there's just no way to do that within the current system.

While some jurisdictions, like the EU, treat digital goods as themselves being ownable (rather than just a license to them), this may eventually change. In the United States, the principle of the "first-sale doctrine[en.wikipedia.org]", is currently under review by the SCOTUS in the case Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. Valve and other digital distributors have attempted to skirt any rulings that strenghten the first-sale doctrine by claiming that we don't buy games, we buy access to a subscription service that is itself extended with each new game purchase. Whether they will be able to continue treating it that way will depend on the outcome of additional litigation in the years ahead.

Relatedly, there is the question of whether you can pass along your account as an inheritance (so no sale) even in the extreme event of your death or incapacitation from being able to play games. Certain laws would imply you can, but again it will take litigation or legislation to guarantee that right. Steam's ToS, which forbids an account from being accessed by anyone other than the one who opened it, implies you cannot do that. There is no easy way to enforce that, however, and people have done it before, albeit surreptitiously. Just bear in mind you'd be violating the Steam user agreement and entering a murky legal realm.

In the meantime, while we wait for the law to evolve, only buy games when they are 75% off, for then that can be thought of as a fair trade-- at the cost of not being able to trade-in or resell used games, we can get initial access to the games at a lower rate- essentially a rental price.