might be to do with the utter devaluement of trading cards and the scummer market for trading in game items from premium games bought with stolen details.

doesnt matter to me - nearly hit my selling limit so will now give the remainder of my cards away as the odds of winning on the auction are... now near nil - unless you want bundleshit!

They wanted to give value to that crap that no one buys (chat icons and backgrounds) so now that is worth it since it gives you a lot of those gems, then you can use those gems for the auction (or those those booster cards).

Problem is, the market is now broken, only people with high number of those gems will get the games and the rest will sell the gems dirty cheap.

Meh, at least i got some gems from that crap that no one buys and i'm going to use it on booster cards so that i can make money with the cards...

Oooor... you can go and check the absurd prices at which 1000x Sacks of Gems are going. The market is definitely broken, just not quite as you think :P

I know, it was what i've said, people with those gems but that aren't aiming for the auction games will flood the market, that's why you see those bags for 0.5$.
People with lvl 100 (or whatever) have tons of those garbage so they already convert it and have enough gems for the auction house, they probably are stocking on those dirty cheap gems for the booster packs.

Basically the gems are devalued, people will use the gems for booster packs and cards will flood the market, again, devaluing the cards price (more that they are now).

I don't know, it feels pointless, there was this Christmas where Steam had this system with games or coal, i think that was better than this system.

yup... utterly devalued already. I'll be giving the rest of my crap away for those that want it I think.


Edit: would it be wrong to suggest someone pool our own (as GOGlodytes) gems and transmuted crap to bid? - i'd be happy if someone got a game they will play (if they regulate the forum and are not a known twat).

Actually that would be interesting, make a thread for it and i'll donate my 2k gems.

What I don't get is didn't they think this through with how peeps would "game" the system? Or...more evilly, how they could devalue trading cards so that people could not stockpile Steam funds from selling them and then use those funds to buy "free" games. Yeah, that makes more sense... flood the market, devalue cards, less steam wallet funds from selling cards - all equal more actual cash spent on the sale. :-(

Anyway, sorry for derailing this thread....

What confuses me is:

0.03€ for 1k gems

CS GO Top bidding is 300k

300k (gems) = 9€

During sales the price of CSGO goes for... what? Around 3€?

And this only really starts in 3 days...

Yeah. Right now, I'm effectively buying booster packs for 2-3 cents. It'll be interesting to see how the gem prices for games stack up with the regular ones.

Anyone know where those Sacks first appeared from? I don't think it was people recycling gems, then bundling them - that would put them at at least $1.00-2.50 in value; they certainly wouldn't have flooded the market quite so. They must have been directly dumped from Valve.

It will be interesting to see how the gem prices compare to the cash ones, when the bids are final.

It is kind of like gambling, I suppose... once you're in then you need to keep raising your bid to stay on top. It's not about the cost of the game, it's about winning... apparently at all cost. Plus if you have a crapton of those items, you didn't buy gems - you just converted them into gems for free. Or sold trading cards to buy them - also no out of pocket money (except that you no longer have steam funds to buy "free" games.

once you have enough gems you can make a "sack" of them - then put them on the market. I tried as an experiment minutes after Genkis post - system was broken. Evidently the scummers got onto it quick.
As a side note: this "deal" on the sale also favours everywhere that doesnt share european timeframes it seems.

What astounds me is this item;

2014 Holiday Profile
Celebrate the season in style with this decorative holiday profile! Your heart may just grow 3 sizes as you are bathed in Holiday cheer!

Grants a gold effect to avatar and persona name.

Winners of this item can enable or disable the 2014 Holiday Profile by selecting the item in their Steam Inventory and selecting the Enable or Disable action. This item is not tradable nor can it be listed on the Steam Community Market.

This item is good for a limited time and will expire Jan 16th, 2015.

The top bid is 1,327,200 Gems...for an item that will expire!

As in, it doesn't take 1000 gems to make a sack of 1000?

Didnt appear so at first - might have been what broke the system and the concurrent devaluation.

Either ways I'm off to bed. Bollocks to this load of old Gaben gubbins knacker-tats!

Imma drink ta dat!