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Game banking prices?


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What's up with the ridiculously low priced games for Game Banking?
HL2 on Steam - $10.00

On Game Banking - 1 Key, 7 ref - about 3 bucks-ish (1 key = $2.50/15ref)

So, that means, depending on what Scrap.tf buys at, they lost at least 6 dollars. They'd have to buy it from users at less than 1 key 7 ref to make a profit...

so is Scrap.f trying to lose money or something?

 

Other example:

Sid Meyers Civ V: 3 Keys, ~7 ref (less than 10 dollars) on Game Banking, 30 dollars on steam.

 

tl;dr

what's up with these margins?

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What's up with the ridiculously low priced games for Game Banking?

HL2 on Steam - $10.00

On Game Banking - 1 Key, 7 ref - about 3 bucks-ish (1 key = $2.50/15ref)

So, that means, depending on what Scrap.tf buys at, they lost at least 6 dollars. They'd have to buy it from users at less than 1 key 7 ref to make a profit...

so is Scrap.f trying to lose money or something?

 

Other example:

Sid Meyers Civ V: 3 Keys, ~7 ref (less than 10 dollars) on Game Banking, 30 dollars on steam.

 

tl;dr

what's up with these margins?

They buy games when Gaben puts discounts on them and resell them at a profit.

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Steam prices a game in USD, then prices differently in other currencies.

 

For example, Russia gets significantly lower prices on games.

 

When a game isn't region-locked to Russia, people in Russia can pay the equivalent of, say, $3 for the game that is $10 in USD. They can then sell that for the equivalent of $4 USD to a person who would otherwise have to pay $10USD (or more if they live in the UK, where it isn't uncommon to pay the equivalent of $12USD for a $10USD game). This leaves all the consumers happy - the Russian gets a slight profit, the person from the USA/UK gets a significant discount on their game and Valve gets exactly what they asked for.

 

Arguably this is is unfair to VALVe, but I don't see a problem with it considering that unlike the other people in the equation, Valve makes millions of $USD from the games they run, so they can afford the slight loss (and since they are having people pay exactly what they're asking them to pay, they can also pass it off to the publishers/developers of the game as the game being sold in a less-developed place, so the big boys VALVe has to appease are happy. Thanks, VALVe!).

 

The other way this can happen (for example, if the game is region-locked in less-wealthy countries to prevent this (for example, Russia, Africa and Asian copies are all region-locked and EU West, EU East and US copies are all unlocked (as these are some of the most wealthy places and places in which it is likely for prices to be set as above the USD 'baseline') is for there to be a significant Steam Sale. Let's say there's a Summe Sale and The Binding of Isaac and expansion pack were on a 90%-off sale for 24 hours. Many people would buy it, even if they already own a copy, as they know that after the sale wears off people will still want new copies of the game, perhaps because ttheir friend bought it on the sale and encouraged them to get it. They don't want to spend £5 on the game and another £4 on the expansion, they want it as cheap as their friend got it - 90% off!

 

So they go find a trader who will give them the lot for 1 key and 4 Refined. This comes to about £1.50, about 80% off the original price. He buys the game and plays it with his friend. Both are happy, since they got a fun game for a very low price. The person that bought it at 90% off when they already owned it is happy, as they sold it for more than they paid for it.

 

And thus ends Tweets' Guide To Why Buying With Keys Is Cheaper.

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