What's the reason for deflation of Steam trading cards?
I personally don't see this as a problem.
Why? We often find ourselves forgetting that cards (in general) do not have any actual monetary value. I only farm cards to craft badges, so to me, the cards being worth next to nothing does not bother me - However, I still have a feeling people see cards too much like a reliable source of income; which it is not.
The reason cards aren't worth crap isn't the "provider's" fault, really - Valve provides users with the feature. Developers provide the games, the cards, and if they choose to make a giveaway and/or bundle their game, you can't blame them either.
No, instead, I blame the users, the card farmers. Not for farming cards, not for using bots, but for expecting to turn a "profit" from a game they got for free or very cheap. You implied it yourself - a drastic drop in cards pricing on the marketplace is typically the effect of a game being given away, or sold in a bundle. Most full-priced games will have cards worth something.
So, I ask you; Should someone acquire Steam wallet by selling cards from a game they got for pretty much nothing? Should we feel dissatisfied with settling for less than we anticipated, when we're the ones expecting too much?
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sure, we are not entitled to anything. still, we got introduced to this system. we used it and got used to it for years now. for some people it turned a nice profit every month. why should we not talk about why that profit is getting less and less? i used to make ~30€ a month for doing next to nothing (since so much of the process is automated with tools). so that's either a new AAA game every 2 months or 3-10 indie games or discounted games. that's a lot, considering it is just a bonus thing. people with very little money will even value it a lot more. aside from trash games that exists purely because of the cards, the system is a win-win for everybody. people can buy more games. devs get more customers. and valve makes their cut, of course. having said that, i think it's very valid to talk about how people get less money out of it lately.
You implied it yourself - a drastic drop in cards pricing on the marketplace is typically the effect of a game being given away, or sold in a bundle. Most full-priced games will have cards worth something.
that's not the whole truth. cards of full-priced games also dropped in value by a lot. if you had a brand new AAA game in the past, you could easily get 20-30 cents per card, while today you might just get 10 cents.
So, I ask you; Should someone acquire Steam wallet by selling cards from a game they got for pretty much nothing?
sure. why not? you can critizice games that were created for the sole purpose of selling cards. absolutely. but if you are a customer that for some reason (bundle...) got this game - why should he not make the most out of it and sell those cards?
Should we feel dissatisfied with settling for less than we anticipated, when we're the ones expecting too much?
you have to think about where those expectations came from. valve introduced this system years ago, and people got used to it. i will try to give you a comparison (it's not quite the same, i know): there are people on youtube that got a little money each month on their small channel. they never had big numbers, but it was a little extra income and that motivated them to go on and make more videos. now youtube takes that away. those small channels will not get any more money. and i am sure many are angry and disappointed about this. and why should they not? youtube got them used to that income, as little as it might have been. now they take it away, and people have a right to complain about that.
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But the point is exactly that - I think it's petty to be angry with not getting what you used to have when things eventually change. I used to make Steam wallet off cards too, and believe me, it's not like I had money to buy games at the time (not that I have much more today). Change is inevitable. Remember Playfire? That was great, you could make good and easy money by unlocking achievements in Steam games weekly. But eventually, it died. Just because something used to be good doesn't mean it'll always be.
Unlike Youtube, Valve did not change anything to have Steam cards are being distributed, or their marketing. Youtube made a decision that hurt small Youtube channels, so of course, people will be angry, and their anger is justified. Valve did nothing to affect the marketplace pricing - that's 100% on the developers and the users. Considering developers can bloody well do as they please, I don't blame their giving away games for the drop in cards price. You got the game for free, so making profit from said game would be ridiculous.
Yes, the system is broken. Yes, cards are not worth much anymore. But the fact is, it would be extremely silly to go around throwing accusation towards any involved party. If Valve didn't want bots, they should remake the cards dropping feature. If developers wouldn't want cards to be worth nothing (which I doubt they care about at this point), they shouldn't make giveaways, or bundles. If users wouldn't want cards to drop in price, they shouldn't farm them. But the truth is, what we've done is what we want. Valve apparently doesn't care. Developers neither. Users want in on the "easy profit", none of us certainly feel guilty in contributing towards the market crash, and yes, even selling a few card is contributing to that.
With that said, a few notes about a few things you've said I want to address/clarify for the sake of argument:
[...] why should we not talk about why that profit is getting less and less?
[...] i think it's very valid to talk about how people get less money out of it lately.
[...] people have a right to complain about that.
You seem to imply I'm against the idea of discussing the matter (if not, disregard). If that is the case, I just want to clarify - Everyone is free to share their thoughts and opinions on the topic. All I'm doing is debating OPs view on the issue since I disagree with the general attitude of the community towards the cards pricing "issue". Also because I'm bored and have nothing better to do at the moment. :P
cards of full-priced games also dropped in value by a lot. if you had a brand new AAA game in the past, you could easily get 20-30 cents per card, while today you might just get 10 cents.
Fair point, and one I cannot deny. I stand corrected.
but if you are a customer that for some reason (bundle...) got this game - why should he not make the most out of it and sell those cards?
Because they have bought a game to play it, not to farm cards. Nobody is stopping anyone from selling said cards - You just won't make much. If you bought a game with the expectation of turning a profit, you are a part of the entire problem; Everyone who does that causes the market pricing to drop.
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oh no, this is becoming one of those discussions. i seriously don't have the time for long answers today. have a lot of actual work to do at work. xD oh well, i started it... ^^ i will try to keep it short.
But the point is exactly that - I think it's petty to be angry with not getting what you used to have when things eventually change. I used to make Steam wallet off cards too, and believe me, it's not like I had money to buy games at the time (not that I have much more today). Change is inevitable. Remember Playfire? That was great, you could make good and easy money by unlocking achievements in Steam games weekly. But eventually, it died. Just because something used to be good doesn't mean it'll always be.
right, but i still understand why people would get angry about it and feel the need to discuss it. if they relied on the money for a few years, and now it's getting less and less, that's something to get angry or disappointed about. i am not even saying that i personally am angry about it. i am really not. i am not rich by any means, but my salary is enough to buy a few games each month. i don't need the cards. it was a bonus, nothing more (still is, just not to the degree it used to be). but i understand that for some people this situation just sucks.
Unlike Youtube, Valve did not change anything to have Steam cards are being distributed, or their marketing. Youtube made a decision that hurt small Youtube channels, so of course, people will be angry, and their anger is justified. Valve did nothing to affect the marketplace pricing - that's 100% on the developers and the users. Considering developers can bloody well do as they please, I don't blame their giving away games for the drop in cards price. You got the game for free, so making profit from said game would be ridiculous.
yeah, it wasn't the best comparison. valve is not to blame, that's true. i am not even sure who is. ^^ this would be more comparable to when valve removed the feature of buying games as gifts.
You seem to imply I'm against the idea of discussing the matter (if not, disregard). If that is the case, I just want to clarify - Everyone is free to share their thoughts and opinions on the topic. All I'm doing is debating OPs view on the issue since I disagree with the general attitude of the community towards the cards pricing "issue". Also because I'm bored and have nothing better to do at the moment. :P
so was i. xD don't worry, i think we're on the same page here.
Fair point, and one I cannot deny. I stand corrected.
i said something correct! woohooo! ^^
Because they have bought a game to play it, not to farm cards.
so they bought the game to play it and that somehow means they should not sell the cards? i don't think you meant that, but that's how it reads for me. ^^
Nobody is stopping anyone from selling said cards - You just won't make much. If you bought a game with the expectation of turning a profit, you are a part of the entire problem; Everyone who does that causes the market pricing to drop.
but is that really so? we already established that all cards dropped in price significantly. not only the trash games that exist purely as card generation programs. also the big AAA games. the trash games can hardly have any influence on the price for AAA game cards. doesn't it make more sense that maybe the farming tools play a role, since people get the cards as soon as possible. so for AAA games that means as soon as they are released, everybody is "playing" them and getting the cards. so all put their cards on the market at the same time. price drops immediately. and after that happens, the price naturally stays below a certain threshold (since there is a constant stream of new ones).
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Shit, I thought this argument was over. :D
Well, most of this is already answered in my replies to GrimPhantasia, but allow me to summarize:
I think it's silly and petty to be angry with cards dropping in price, but I want to clarify that I understand how and why anyone would be annoyed with that. I mean, it's free "money" we won't get anymore. Of course it sucks. But the fact remains, cards were never meant to be sold for profit, else I'm sure Valve would have set minimum prices on items to keep the values up. It just kind of happened, because people listed them for more than they are actually worth (nothing - remember that these are virtual items you get for doing nothing, aside from owning a game). But I totally get it. It's just that even when I understand the reason for being angry, I still think it's silly to be so.
so they bought the game to play it and that somehow means they should not sell the cards? i don't think you meant that, but that's how it reads for me. ^^
You literally just quoted me saying otherwise right after that. :P
What I'm saying is; You can buy a game, then sell the cards. The thing is, the cards aren't obligated to be worth enough to satisfy your expectations. The game, developers, and Valve don't owe you "cards of [value] or more" - that would be hilarious, though.
Now, tackling the reason behind the drop in cards value, it's a pretty complicated topic since we actually don't know for sure. But throughout this discussion, I've come to realize that there can be quite a few reasons this is happening - to begin with, I just want to say that my point about card sellers being "part of the problem" was kind of a prompt to give you a different perspective of the issue.
For example; A game goes on sale. Many people buy it, and then, remembering that cards are probably worth something, immediately play/idle it to sell the cards. Alone, one person won't change the value of the cards. But now, imagine if everyone who bought the game that day idle and sell the cards that same evening - everyone undercutting each other until the cards aren't worth shit.
But I now realize that this isn't a very good example or explanation for the drop in card prices.
No, I have a much better theory.
To put it simply, the amount of cards being distributed greatly surpasses the badges being crafted.
Imagine this; Steam decides they'll remove every cards for every game and only keep Bad Rats ones. Anyone who wants to craft badges must now rely solely on Bad Rats cards. I, for one, would stop crafting badges entirely if that were the case, but I'm positive many would still buy and craft Bad Rats badges.
So in other words, suddenly there's a huge demand for Bad Rats cards - the cards are selling like crazy, and lower-priced cards go out within hours. Now, cards are super expensive, but collectors and addicted completionists keep buying them. The listing price grows and grows, until it reaches the point where the buying/selling ratio is 1:1. It fluctuates back and forth based on demand, but it'll stay expensive as long as people keep buying.
Leaving this rather comical dimension, let's go back to the current state of Valve and the marketplace. There are currently over 8,000 games offering Steam trading cards, most of which are rather cheap, with others being more expensive. Unless you're interested in the badge itself, I'm willing to bet most of us would simply buy and craft the cheapest badges first, because why spend money on cards that are just as good as the $0.05 ones?
Similarly to my example, Steam used to have less cards in general but these numbers are growing at a mad pace. More games are released on Steam every day, most of which bear cards. As cards get listed on the market, the demand for new card sets decreases, and nobody really cares about that one AAA game's cards because we damn well know the price will drop eventually. Just wait it out and craft another "Old Blood" card set.
So what happens now is:
That would explain the gradual drop in pricing on the marketplace. A simple issue of lack of demand for how many cards are being distributed on Steam. So who's fault is this? Like I've said before, no one, really, because cards have never meant to turn a great profit - sure, at one time it did, and now it doesn't, but nobody ever said it was supposed to be, even if we're used to it by now. Or perhaps everyone. Valve made a shitty feature. Developers contributed to making their cards have no value (giveaways, etc). Users started farming cards, in hope of a profit.
Or... we can just imply that farming softwares and bot networks are to blame. Yes, even for AAA games, because everyone gives AAA games to their hundred of farm bots. (I jest, I jest... but fair point as well - bots are very unlikely to be contributing to the drop in expensive AAA games, so this may also imply bots may not be the reason for cards price drop in general, either. But who knows.)
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Glad you could find entertainment in my huge walls of text. :P
Cheers. ^^
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Just for argument's sake as I don't care about the deflation of cards: There is a inimum price set on cards and items although indirect. You can transform them into gems and as such the minimum price is tied to the gem price. That is the reason why you will never see Steam Sale items go below 7 cent because it would be worth more to just transform them into 100 gems. However, how the gem value of cards from games is determined I have no idea. I'm not sure if there is any reasoning behind it at all.
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Correct, but the implementation of cards was before the implementation of the gems feature though, which suggests that cards had no set value before that point in time. It's a good argument though, I hadn't considered gems value.
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i actually had this tab open all the time and always wanted to find the time to answer you. now it's like several weeks, and i still didn't do it. i also feel like it doesn't make any sense to continue this, now that it took me so long. i would assume it's in our both interest that i don't. i am very sorry. what can i say - i am a lazy bastard. ^^ i also was extremely busy and on several business trips, which lead to the initial delay. but i won't lie. in the end my lazyness is to blame. ^^
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Take my +1, too.
There are two sides to the equation: supply and demand. Supply in general is saturated, with lots of cheap games with cards. The farmers are responsible for their share of this, but normal users contribute as well. I imagine demand is low in general, but what demand exists is probably for a) cheap cards just for gaining levels, and b) nice games, for the players who care what badges they collect. 'A' drives other sets down towards the floor price (until it's better to destroy items for gems), while 'B' boosts the value somewhat of certain sets -- but it's only a substantial boost for a small fraction of games.
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Why not? Cards were made for that, weren't they? I mean, you can craft badges or you can sell the cards and give Valve their %, that's what they want, after all. I remember you said you never sell them. Well, if that's not your focus, ok, but you can't deny that is the focus of a lot of people. So if it's not your problem, it doesn't mean it's not a problem.
I don't see as "users expecting to get profit" from cards. C'mon, you mostly pay for games, trading cards are a little compensation that most of times don't even reach 5% of the value of the game. Beside that, you can't say they don't have monetary value. I don't totally disagree, but following that logic, Steam wallet has no monetary value as well. Because when they created the card system, cards didn't sell themselves: somebody started to use their wallet (which was recharged with money) to buy the first card, or else the system wouldn't work. Thus, even if you didn't spend any money to sell a card, somebody spent to buy.
(Of course, we can discuss the fact that Steam wallet values cannot be converted back to money, so if you give up using the money you put in your wallet, you can't get it back, so it loses monetary value)
Well, you can't deny that some years ago a bundled game could easily have cards which worth at least $0.07. Nowadays, they worth less than $ 0.03 in a matter of minutes. Cards from the called "decent games" were worth $0.15 or even $0.20. Now they worth $0.07. There is some change there, even if it doesn't affect you. Again, I'm not saying we're not responsible for that. By the way, I imagine that for badge crafters, it's better if you have sets costing much less than before. That's not bad, but many people don't see the point of crafting badges and prefer to sell them, since crafting badges is too much work (and money) just to get some purely cosmetic features for your profile.
So I don't think we are the ones who "expect too much". Games distributed for free are just a few, but bundles and sales are many. People are spending their money and, if the system exists, I think it's fair to get some value from cards, since you can sell them. If you couldn't sell them, it would be expecting too much, 'cause you would expect something that's not planned for the system (just like people who trade games for money on PayPal).
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Aside from the Steam wallet thing (and I won't go into that direction since there's no agreeing whether or not wallet is money or not), I've covered pretty much every of my arguments in the reply above.
The thing is, you seem pretty headstrong on believing that you are a victim of circumstances (such as the value of cards being "unfair" to you) and that something should be done in your favor, when really, this entire thing is affecting everyone equally. I too would love for my cards to sell for a lot of virtual money - Everyone would, I'm sure. I stopped selling cards when the time and effort spend listing them wasn't worth the meager profit accumulated through them (so I'm pretty confused why you think selling them is less work/effort, but that's entirely another thing and off-topic so I won't go there).
C'mon, you mostly pay for games, trading cards are a little compensation that most of times don't even reach 5% of the value of the game
Exactly my point - Cards shouldn't be the focus of purchasing/owning a game in the first place. If a game is too expensive that you need to sell cards to make ends meet, then you should wait for a sale, or reconsider where you spend your money.
I'm not denying that having some bonus wallet from cards isn't enjoyable, nor that the entire system is broken (see the reply above), and not surprising since this is Valve we're talking about. The problem is how petty it is to think we're entitled to better prices when nothing actually happened (such as Valve changing the system to hurt users) to affect them. It's like complaining because prices are increasing (in real life), when we know it's inevitable. The system was poorly designed to begin with and absolutely guaranteed to be a failure since it launched. We were just lucky to be the first people to have been there when it was at its best.
To be honest? The only real solution at this point would be the removal of the trading cards entirely, and I'm positive you wouldn't like that, as with everyone else. If I had to pick between "useless, worthless cards but entertaining feature" or "no cards", I'd rather Valve keeps this feature enabled for users to enjoy, even though it isn't as profitable as it once was.
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Uh... yeah, that's exactly what I said: it's affecting everyone.
There are many things that should be done in our favor, sure: a better chat system; more transparency from Valve; less crappy games being promoted by shadowy groups. Even so, we stick with Steam. Why? I'll definitely make a thread about that some day.
Beside that, you don't look worried about giving a real clarification of a point of view, but pointing your finger, as you claim I'm doing. I don't remember making such a drama to talk about cards prices and about being a victim: for real, I said I'm responsible for that too. I just want to discuss that, since I've been seeing a lot of users talking about that, but, still, they keep on farming. There are good things and bad things about that situation, as I just said.
And... you're wrong. I wouldn't be unhappy with the removal of trading cards. It doesn't mean it's the solution, I'm just saying it would not affect me so much: I'm getting nearly nothing from selling cards and I'm not into crafting.
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My bad, didn't mean to be an ass. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning so my mood may have reflected poorly through my writing, and I kinda got into this discussion a bit too much. Didn't mean to start any kind of drama or fight. My apologies.
What clarification do you wish for me to provide? Most of your points were repeated arguments I've replied to earlier so I had not much to add to the discussion at this time other than clarify a bit why I disagree with changing the trading cards implementation (in general, anyways).
I wouldn't be unhappy with the removal of trading cards
I'm confused. How would you not care about its removal when you are actually making a thread implying you care enough to want changes to be made to the trading cards feature? Or am I misunderstanding?
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I guess you're misunderstanding. I don't really demand something must be done, I just want to understand what new variable entered the game to change drastically the situation, since users have always been part of the equation, since the very beginning. And, of course, I'd like to know what users who complain about that had to say, since they still farm cards and, thus, are part of it.
I don't think there are abusers as well, they only do what Valve allows with, like you said, a system which is a failure. The word "abusers" was inserted for the poll sake (in the option I least agree and which is winning right now). As people here repeat incessantly, it's supply and demand (which couldn't be more obvious in any prototype of economics environment). Of course Valve won't change a thing if they benefit from that. I'd like to know, though, if they really do and what kind of indirect benefit they get from it ((which was already partially answered on the thread).
But the second option I least agree is that it's not a problem. I still think you are blaming the users for wanting some money from cards. Like you said, it's natural and everyone would like it, so I don't think it's wrong complaning as well. If people don't get what the system should supposedly provide, they complain.
P.S.: Although I said I don't think something must be done just because of me, I personally do enjoy changes. I would really be interested if changes were made. The removal of the cards could be one. If I worked for Valve, I wouldn't do that, though, since people wouldn't like it (and especially because Valve wouldn't profit so much).
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I guess it's really a matter of perspective; Looking at trading cards as a supposedly source of income vs seeing trading cards as a source of entertainment, with the bonus being able to sell them on the market.
I am not exactly "blaming" users who want money from trading cards (it was perhaps a poor choice of wording), but my opinion is that anyone who wants cards to be worth more so that they can sell them is wrong in doing so, because it is not their primary purpose.
I'd like to put it in perspective so that my point of view is more understandable;
Let's pretend there is no marketplace for trading cards. If you want trading cards, you must trade with other users. Now, most users will trade their cards to complete sets, but some of us don't want to craft badges - We want some quick cash to fund our gaming, even if a couple of dollars for a bunch of cards. We don't use them anyway.
So what do we do? Simple, we trade with users as some people trade games and community items. We exchange cards for other (marketable) items, games, or even Paypal. But then more people start doing that, and as time goes on... the value of cards may drop as traders decide they are no longer worth it.
But instead of that, Valve simply allowed for trading cards to be exchanged for wallet directly through the marketplace, since it was easier and turned up a profit for everyone involved. But the same events unfold - as time goes on, the cards volume increases; Probably because the cards dropped vs the badges crafted ratio is out of wack, which is also probably because there are more games that drop cards, and therefore a decreased demands for cards in general. If there was only 1 game which dropped cards, the cards would be very expensive since there would be a huge demand for them - with every new cards-bearing game released, that demand decreases.
But let me get back to my point; In other words - and solely in my personal opinion - while cards may have had any kind of value at one time, I don't think cards should be worth anything. Remember the very first card listed on the marketplace had no value limit - It is the users who have chosen what the value of cards should be, not Valve, not the developers (although both have affected the end result), but only the user. We kind of have the control over the marketplace, really. All Valve wants is their cut, but they never set any predetermined pricing for items, so their value is solely in the hands of the users... who have decided to make them worthless.
What I'm getting at is, while Valve's system is shitty, it's working exactly as intended. Users make the pricing, and Valve doesn't care about anything other than everyone getting their fair cut from the transaction. Sure, they don't get a bigger cut by transaction as they used to, but on the other hand, there are far more transactions by the minute being made on Steam, resulting in a bigger profit overall than years ago.
As for the developers/publishers, yes, lower cards value means less profit with cards marketplace transaction-wise. On the other hand, cards value drop is the direct result of having many users owning the game, which in turn increases the cards volume for said game. If a game has so many players, it's a good thing because it either means:
And wow, that got longer than expected. It's a bit hard to conglomerate every of my thoughts in one, single post. But yeah, that's the gist of why I initially disagreed with the idea of wanting profit from trading cards.
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The card market is long dead unless u have a ton of bots
Valve takes 1 cent off of each card, so yeah its obviously worth it for valve they are literally making money out of nothing
the consequences are a ton of shovel-ware on steam but that's about it
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And I think you just hit the nail on the head as to why cards even exist at all. Like jbondguy007, I only use cards to craft badges, but there is no real need to do this. (except level you steam account - which there is no real reason to do - except more friend slots and increase the % rate of card drops - which we don't really need.........)
Otherwise, why bother?
Personally, 3c cards sound great, I wonder if we can get them to two?
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Remember that 3 cents is the lowest value for selling a card. There's no way to sell for less, since it means that you'll get 1 cent, and Valve 2. So when we talk about "selling a card for 3 cents", that doesn't mean you get 3c, but 1c instead.
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you are wrong, all regions with a currency cheaper than the dollar can sell card less than 3 cents
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My net market total is -3.05; I'll never recoup those losses, I'm afraid. And I see I can't even sell my rare Doctor Who background because the game's been removed. What is this world coming to?
I imagine Valve is somewhat in the same "meh" boat: cards are literally free money for Valve. At the same time, skimming one cent off every card isn't what's actually making them rich, so they don't care a whole lot. Less volume also means less server load, which directly translates to less maintenance costs. If one whale buys a rare skin for 100 bucks, that's more money for Valve than 1000 cards sold by the little folk. I'm guessing Valve isn't too upset about what the card market's doing. Total market gains might very well be going up.
If you're literally invested in cards, you're a bit like someone rooting in the garbage trying to eke out a living. It's a marginal existence, and the people on top won't care if the trash heap disappears because the mob's dumping it in the ocean. If you'll pardon my colorful expression.
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Am I supposed to be sad or something for what happened to the trading cards market?
I just see it as something natural, they had a higher value when they were a rare thing dropped by a few games, but as soon as valve opened the doors for all devs to add them to their games this became the logical outcome. If you're given the chance to squish a bit of money out of what's basically a single day of work (cropping some art assets and uploading them) would you say no?
As soon as people realized there was money to be made from trading cards a lot of unscrupulous "devs" jumped into the gold rush and dryed the well as fast as possible, then valve stepped in when it became an unmanageably large issue. Nothing last forever, is just that what we saw was something analogous to hyperinflation, and that's not supposed to happen but it happens all the time when you have a badly planned economy.
This doesn't mean that we as farmers aren't guilty as well, but I can hardly complain considering that I got a nice amount of wallet (that I turned into backlog asap) and level ups out of it. So I regret nothing even if my two bots were nothing more than a spit in the ocean. They brought it on themselves by releasing such a system into a crowd of gamers, the kinda people that's used to min-max the sh*t out of systems.
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It's like you said, it's basic economics. Just wanted to know users' opinions about the causes.
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Palmdesert has stopped levelling up, that's the real reason...
(I'm kidding)
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I would like to see that Valve removes these crap completely... thanks... :)
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Well it's like any market. When supply outweighs demand, the prices drop so yeah it's because it was never designed as an economy model and when people start buying games just to get cards they can sell, prices drop. It's simple economics but then the opposite is true. The dropping prices may drive away some people, and the prices will rise again.
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Regarding Valve's Profit: Why should they care if a card is sold for 3 Cents or 10 Cents? In the lower pricing regions the minimum they get is 1 Cent. So for 3 Cents their part is up to 33 % instead of the 5 % at higher prices. So lower value of cards will most likely profit them as more transactions will be made and they get a higher cut (in reference to percentage).
Other than that: Why is it a problem that the prices are decreasing. As I don't farm cards it is better for me if I want to complete badges. It will reduce my costs. Card prices are of course lightly tied to the games value. If it is available in large masses to low costs of course the costs for the cards will drop. There are still many games with card prices higher than I prefer like: Va-11 Hall-A, Mega Man Legacy Collectio 2, Gal*Gun: Double Peace .... The only people who "suffer" from this deflation are those who abuse the system. So why should I care?
Also I don't think that fake game developers have much influence on the card prices of games other than theirs. The price drop is mostly a consequence of user behaviour, nothing more.
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The problem is all of you "abusers" who do not want to get a full collection for your badges, by buying my cards. How dare you sell them instead of collect and buy from me?!
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I don't think there are abusers. It's just a matter of economics
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Ive been flipping more than 4k cards now on the community market, so I think I can safely say that it has became a rush to the lowest bottom.
Do I undercut prices in order to sell my stuff? absolutely. Do I feel bad about it, no, not exactly.
It sucks but thats how the ball rolls currently, us complaining about it wont change a thing when the majority are still contributing to the problem. Offer and demand, just as simple, I play the market because it makes me profit.
I dont put moral and ethical questions into this because its beside the point. Just because you wait 2 hours instead of idling doesnt mean the card prices would get any saner, not when there is a high influx of them on the market. Offer and demand, once again.
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Nah, there is no moral about economics. It is really that simple. But there are surely responsibles for that. That's the matter.
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Since when are secondary accounts "fake accounts"? Very biased wording.
most of cards had at least a decent 7 cents price, but now a lot of them can't even be sold for 3 cents.
No. Only decent games have decent prices for their cards. Shovelware where you get the game free or for a few cents were always (at least for the past few years) at 3 or 4 cent.
If you buy a game for real money, you can earn some money back as you could a few years back.
If you buy some shovelware crap that you only buy for +1 and cards and to make profit from it, then you are part of the problem. You are literally complaining, that your "money making sheme" is not working because other people do it as well, or do it more efficiently.
There are still hundreds of games with badge costs above 1 or even 2$... So if your cards are worth nothing you didn't payed much for the games to begin with.
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Ok, bad wording, I'll edit that.
About decent games, that's not entirely true. A bundled game can't be classified as a non-decent game just because it's part of a bundle.
About the last part, yes, I said it in the text: a lot of people farmed cards some time in their life, so I can't pretend I'm not responsible for that.
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About decent games, that's not entirely true. A bundled game can't be classified as a non-decent game just because it's part of a bundle.
Jeha, but a game in a humble bundle will not go down that low. Even the T1 games still rank at 6-7 (at least the good ones).
Even Postal 2, which has been heavily bundled (incluing 2 times IG, one time gogo) and was available for mere cents stays at 6 cent.
So yes, there might be good games, especially if they are unpopular, where the price drops after normal bundle (because noone crafts the badge) but usally that heavy drop to 3-4 cents only holds for shitty games.
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Valve is the one to blame here. They don't care if you sell card for 3 cents or 19, because they will get 1 cent for every such trade. They only care for how many trades will happen, so from their point of view the price of the cards is irrelevant, but they need more trades, because they are making the most money when there is lots of cards for low prices. That is why they are doing nothing against farm bots.
In other words: Lots of 3 cents cards - the biggest profit for Valve. No wonder it is hard for them to do something to make cards more expensive again.
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Cards I used to pay 4-6 cents for start at 8 cents. I cannot remember the last time I managed to buy cards for level 5 badges for cheaper than 7-8 cents/card. Heck, I cannot even make foil badges any more, because the old 10-20 cent foil prices are more in the 40-100 cent range. I'd rather say the average price hiked quite the bit.
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This is the cause, is not it?
Steam Blog http://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1954971077935370845
Fake game. Kusoge. Hell is calling.👿
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Would like to correct you just about one thing from 3 cents you get 1 Valve gets 1 and the game dev gets 1 :)
Now onto my point of view. There is nothing wrong with the cards, the card price is regulated by people who sell them, so the price is not decided by Valve or by anything but by the people who sell and buy cards.
People who are saying that false games reduce the value of Steam trading cards are wrong, they reduce the value of cards for THAT game.
I almost never sell cards on market I use cards to make badges since for me that is the point of the card "system" (at least for now).
But there are people who only "farm" cards from games to sell them, and ofc when a bundle comes out a lot of people with a lot of extra cash buy a few get them to their bots and farm and sell reducing the price of said game cards so they can sell it more quickly for more profit..
The programs may help them a bit but with or without said program they would farm cards and lower the price to sell them just it would take them a bit more time..
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Haven't really dealt with cards since the whole Mobile Authenticator makes me wait 15 days making anything not 0.03 unsellable or super-undercut.
But the reason is probably too much effort for users and too much offer from crapbundles.
People who really want to level it's far easier just to mass-purchase the event cards for 1000s of levels since their value plummeted DRAMATICALLY(due to craftings of said cheap games giving 1 event card) over the years rather than work each 5 levels of a game, then another, then another, then another.
And this suites Valve just fine since they get 2 cents of sales-cards, while game-cards 1 cent goes to developers instead.
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3 cents. nope.
With new regions now it's even less.
I could sell shitty icon for 3 (and receive one cent) back then and now it's 3 gr (and receive 1grosz). 1gr is close to 0,2 cent
On the other hand - cards that were expensive (from most of anime games, expensive AAA or less popular titles) have pretty much the same values.
So I don't see the problem. It's basic economy - the more product on market - the cheaper it gets (production cost nothing as they are just pixels and it's the same amount of idiots customers who buy this stuff).
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