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Define "profit"

If you don't change your computer power usage (i.e. only leaving it on to idle), it's basically free money. It's not a lot of money, but it's something.

The real question is if it's worth all the clicking you have to do. But really, what else are you doing with your time?

No., probably not. But for people (like me) who leave their computers on all day everyday, any profit = better than no profit.

Just leave it running while you work or even play with you PC.
That way at least you are not solely using electricity for card farming.

But if you can, use a laptop if you want to focus on card farming.

If you launch your PC purely for ASF, then you're doing it wrong.

You should be running ASF when you're using your computer, for example via an autostart. Then it doesn't cost you anything as you're doing something else in the meantime, and if you ask about resources then ASF has the most optimized resources usage - you don't even need to have Steam client running. Most of the time ASF spends on... idling - doing nothing, waiting for card to drop, so it's not like it's using 100% of your CPU doing some shady things behind your back. If there is any extra electricity usage, it's so negligible that it's not even worth mentioning, it's probably not even a second of actual PC running per month. Unplugging your mouse or keyboard will result in more energy being saved than not running ASF.

I coded ASF to be as transparent as possible, which means that you should run in once, make sure it connects and works, and minimize it. Even if you start playing, disconnect your internet, go away, return back with food or watch porn - it doesn't matter, and ASF automatically resumes it's thing when possible. Stop bothering with it - add to autostart or similar, and let it do it's thing, while you're doing other ones. There is literally no reason to not do that, assuming you have PC already running.

I have ASF running on my dedicated server 24/7 - it works whole time. I don't restart it, I don't check what is going on - it's there, farming, listening for events, doing it's thing. I coded it specially for this purpose, and I'm happy that I don't have to bother with it. You can do exactly the same on your PC - make ASF running for the whole time you use your PC, doesn't matter if used for steam games, internet, or cute cat pictures.

Stupid question because you think everyone using IdleMaster or ASF when leaving the computer and let the PC on only to farm... While I am writing ASF is running and I am watching a movie. When I stopp typing I will go and read some articles and inform myself about whats going on in the world. And oh wonder, ASF will still run...

kinda if you have large library, if you really want to best return on your electricity for your computer. Go mine cryptocurrency (not bitcoin, they're too hard for now), I.E: DGB-skein.

Currently doing 15cents/hr on my 980TI

I pre-ordered a Steam Controller using only card money, plus bought a lot of other games, so I'd say yes. This was before the mobile app approval thing went into effect, though, so it would be a pain in the ass to do now.

Idk anything about fram card , but I do know that farming cards is profitable at least for me

If you live with your parents, then yes otherwise no

Honestly if you wanted to make a profit from farming cards, you would have 2-3 "family" accounts, buy bundles in bulk to give to all the other accounts, then use a NAS / Media server with ASF or something similar, to idle all the accounts while they are not being used. Personally though, I am that crazy person that buys all your leftover cards to complete badges for games that I own. =)

I've been thinking about using idlemaster (and maybe SAM, for a few bugged achievements that I should have but don't), but I'm concerned about how safe they are, in regards to steam "rules" as well as my personal security. I've heard conflicting accounts for all of that.

Electricity is included in the rent where I live now. Even so, I often use idlemaster when I'm surfing or doing other stuff. I can also still play DRM-free games outside of Steam while it's on without making it go slower.

Let me tell a short story. Towards the end of 2014 I became unable to spend money online on account of the government freezing all online payments in my country, so I turned to selling cards, cards can be quite profitable, as the summer sale of 2015 approached, I decided to farm over a 1000 thousand games to get cards and ended up making around $80.

Every day games are given away for free on numerous promotions, sometimes steam makes a game free to add to your library for 24h, Indiegala gives games for free quite frequently and a ton of gleam.io promotions, those games add up and can net you decent money in cards, even if just farm them just during the time your PC is normally on.

Well, if you farm some cards, sell them, turn them into Paypal money, order a team of hamsters, hook them up to wheels producing electricity, the cost ratio is 0! All profits baby!

No, it never is. There are only a few hundred games that ever went for so cheap in bundles or on sales where the individual game price was near the value of the card drops. Everything else, including bundle games, cost more than you can claim for its cards on the market.

Now, people would bring in booster packs, but you have to consider something: unless you have at least 1000 eligible games and Steam level 50, you'll see maybe 4-5 boosters a year. And the amount of money you need to invest to reach a level where boosters drop more often tahn once a week, you already spent over a thousand US dollars on your account to be able to do that. So yes, in 10-12 years, you might start making profit. Unless Valve fucks up their own non-CS economy even more for funsies.

Card farming and selling only returns you a profit if you buy a game you want to play, play it, then sell the cards it drops. Then that small value is a bonus, yes. But if you want to make it into some money making machine, then you need to buy specific games, a shitton of gems, and do the booster crafting, where the possibilities to make good money is there (well, good money as in possibly over USD 2.50/day), but it depends on the whim of the market. Also, gem prices nearly doubled in the past year, so even there the profit margin melted considerably.

first off you aren't making any profit from selling cards as you have to buy the game. Assuming you get nothing but free games and sell them, you're still not making much profit as those cards are cheapo cards chilling in the bargain section at .04 - .06 cent a piece.

A few exist where you can maximize your profits on selling cards if you know what you're doing.

Also Look into a game like Ultimate Arena.. The game cost 1.99 per copy, and the cards are selling for .50 - .80ish cent a piece. 3 cards means you're practically getting the game for free. (It was also recently bundled which means you can find copies going for pretty cheap)

You can go even further and try to finish up the badges and hope you get one of the two emoticons which are selling through the roof.. Donald Trump, or the anime one which are both priced over 10 dollars..

Also has Hilary and Bernie Emoticons which sell for over a buck a piece..

Port Royale 3 is another one, if you can somehow pull down the Weed Emoticon, it's selling for over 5 dollars last time I checked.

I've made well over $400 from selling steam cards. So it's been profitable for me.

I tend to use it when I already have my PC on.
Which is a lot. I could be watching movies. Playing games (I have multiple accounts so I can farm on one and play on other), studying, reading, chatting, etc. Basically I set idlemaster in my startup, and I don't even realize its there. It just does its job in the background. At no point do I leave my PC running specifically for the cards.

You can buy GTA V selling cardz™

If you're intending to buy a game and sell the cards for profit, probably not.

If you already have a game and you're just intending to sell the cards as money on the side, then probably.

My guess is that if you have anything remotely approaching a decent paying job, the time you spend setting it up and managing it isn't anywhere close to worth the value of the cards you get.

But some people do it for fun, just because it's nice for it to feel like you're getting something "free" even if the time isn't really worth it.

I farm usualy when surfing internet or play non-steam games. I never run my PC just for farming

Considering the fact that I do not pay the electricity bill and use the card money to buy games, then yes it's very profitable to me. :)