Trusted Steam Key Re-sellers ?

MindfulPlayer · 29 Apr 2017 at 20:10

Hello,

I want to support developers who made games as much as I can but unfortunately some prices are too high. I have Googled around and it appears that G2A and Ebay are the shady areas for getting such keys for Steam as not only developers loose money but the game might be removed from your account. Do you guys know any trusted sources for getting a cheap keys for both new and older games ? I have stumbled upon :

https://www.greenmangaming.com
https://www.humblebundle.com
https://www.cdkeys.com

Are there any other ones you guys would recommend ? I might have some catching up to do with older games so it would be useful if I can get cheap deals on those games. I have noticed that CDKeys have barely something old for sale as most of the time they only have newer games for sale and rarely something old.

A bit off topic in here but I will ask since I'm confused:
The ending question is this: how can developer run out of Steam keys ? I'm a bit confused because some re-sellers say that they have run out of the keys.... I mean, it's digital so it's not like you need to invest into manufacturing physical discs. Also, if developer want to get a key for example Steam, do they pay for each key or what ?

MindfulPlayer · 29 Apr 2017 at 23:52

TommyV said:
I've always found cjscdkeys to be good

LOL, are they legit ? I have found The Witcher 2 Assasisn Of Kings over there for £1.99 which is suspiciously cheap ...

Fishbait said:
On gog forums, someone stated that you needed to enter a mobile number to use cdkeys. Not sure if just for some things or all though as I gave them a miss.

CDKeys.com have the same mechanism as I have bought some games from them. When you navigate to a page with cdkeys from e-mail links, they will ask for a code from our smartphone (2 Factor Authentication) which was sent to us as we entered the page for a cdkey. They try to stop unauthorised access for keys in case when your e-mail account gets compromised or the links from your e-mail get stolen/leaked. That makes sense why they are using Two Factor Authentication in this case.

What I really found annoying about CDKeys is that they are not using a real SSL Certificate but the free one provided by CloudFlare and security wise it's not secure at all, if you fancy something in depth about "Free CloudFlare SSL Certificate" here's Article 1 and Article 2. I don't really feel safe using their website with my login details, thank god to PayPal that they provide a proper SSL Certificate for payments.

MindfulPlayer · 30 Apr 2017 at 09:03

Epoch said:
Greenman gaming, gog and humble bundle are legit sellers. The others are grey market sellers I think, so you'll probably be fine.. but buyer beware.

What do you mean by the rest of them ?

MindfulPlayer · 8 May 2017 at 22:43

modo77 said:
Many of them are dodgy like g2a, cdkeys, they use keys from stolen cards, cheaper regions etc. You are probably fine with your purchase but it hurts the devs (cc chargebacks) and a few of them said you are better just pirating than using these grey sites that most people seem to have no issues with.

gog, greenmen and humble are all fine.

I still don't understand how cdkeys are dodgy ... most of the time they have retail prices and rarely something is cheaper, well except holidays like on Easter etc but then again, when holidays are coming, everywhere there are good deals for steam.

Mercutio said:
CDkeys, I think, are buying physical copies in cheaper regions and harvesting keys.
Grey market for sure but the devs are getting paid at least.

How's that grey market ? Isn't that called a business ?

Disco_P said:
A bit of googling and you'll find authorised retailers for large publishers and the sites listed usually charge close to rrp. Most of cheap cdkey sites are grey market and your money probably isn't going to the dev or very little is.

However for most AAA games I couldn't care less.

As long as the key is guaranteed to work without having to pay for buyer protection and comes from the site itself rather than a 3rd party seller. To that end I have always been happy with CDKeys, plus their customer service has been fast and effective for me.

So in your opinion what's the best way to buy games very cheap but in the same time still support the Devs ? I guess in this context, steam itself is out since they charge you so much and take some % cut from the money you pay for the game anyway.

Tho, why you don't care if it's AAA devs while buying such cdkeys from whatever ?

TommyV said:
I've used them a few times and never had a problem, LOL

When it comes to that Witcher 2 game which is suspiciously cheap (£1.99), I have read in the comment section that cd-key is Russian but still works if you are from Europe etc as well as all the languages are present in the game like English, Polish etc. Very strange and suspicious if you ask me.

I just started to wondering if you activate too many games from different regions, can Steam lock your account or is it impossible to do? Also, in which case Steam can block our account ?