Steam Trading Cards discussion

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue May 21, 2013 11:16 pm

If anyone wants to arrange a trade with the new Steam Trading Cards, we can arrange it here.

I have Portal card 8 and want Portal card 5 or 6.

My son and I are gunning for creating the Portal badge for him and the Half-Life badge for me. We've both got all of our Portal drops, and he got two copies of 8, and I got one copy of 8.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue May 21, 2013 11:31 pm

What are these cards you speak of?

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue May 21, 2013 11:45 pm

Steam just started a beta version of the profile/community that includes a revised profile page and trading cards. You just had to join the Steam Trading Card group and hope to get added to the beta. If you did, you also received invites to send other folks. I got it and sent my son and my brother invites, and sold one for $0.01 on the Market (because selling an item in the market got you a tick towards the updated community badge). Once you're in, your profile and activity pages and your badges look different. They include slots for cards (tradable images) to drop from participating games if you play them. Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 drop cards if you play (and Don't Starve, I think). Other games like Dota 2 only drop cards if you spend real money in-game.

For Portal 2 and Half-Life 2, there are 8 cards each. Playing the games will drop 4 each in just a couple of hours. You have to trade for the others. You really do give up a card when you trade it away, but the goal is to get all the cards for one game. Then you can craft them into a badge (and background and emoticons) for your profile. I haven't gotten to do that yet.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed May 22, 2013 8:30 am

Interesting. What's the badge do? Is it just an avatar?

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Wed May 22, 2013 11:09 am

You just attach it to your profile so that people can see how cool you are. But I'm all about meta-gaming.

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Wed May 22, 2013 11:42 am

Of course I want to collect these because they are silly and I must have silly things.

So far I have played a bit of Don't Starve but I haven't gotten any cards

Not sure if they are supposed to just drop in game or what.

EDIT: Oh wait, you have to get added to the beta? I thought you just had to play the games that are in the beta. Maybe that explains it? I'll do a little research.

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Wed May 22, 2013 11:46 am

OK, I see now - joined the group. Fred, do you have any spare invites?

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Wed May 22, 2013 1:18 pm

Nevermind, I was able to get an invite off GAF.

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Thu May 23, 2013 9:04 am

OK, so I got in yesterday and played HL2 enough to get all the drops I was entitled to. Then I spent a couple of dollars to fill out the rest just out of curiosity's sake.

What I don't get is how you get in the position to trade without buying? I can think of one possibility:

1) You have dropped cards from a game and you would rather get the badge from a different game? This doesn't make a lot of sense because if you ever want to get the badge from game #1 you'll have to buy that card back. So why not just buy the card you are looking for? Unless both cards are oddly rare, but at this time everything costs less than a dollar.

Outside of that, the only way to get more than your initial dropped cards for a game is to buy them. It makes more sense just to buy the card you want than buy some other card and then trade.

Maybe I am missing something?

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu May 23, 2013 12:27 pm

I wondered the same thing, but I think we're thinking like the completionists we are. Once there are more games and it's out of beta, I don't think it's meant to be easy to get all the cards for everything. Some you have to trade away. That's why my son and I figured that between us, we could trade around for enough for one badge each.

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Thu May 23, 2013 9:54 pm

OK, I found a reason for trading - I got a duplicate drop in Don't Starve. I didn't realize it would do that.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu May 23, 2013 10:30 pm

Yeah, so between my son and me, we have three of the same Portal card. Again, I have Portal card 8 to trade and want Portal card 5 or 6.

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Thu May 23, 2013 10:38 pm

JetFred wrote:Yeah, so between my son and me, we have three of the same Portal card. Again, I have Portal card 8 to trade and want Portal card 5 or 6.

I feel like I just played Portal, but apparently it was 2 years ago. Weird. Anyway, maybe I will fire it up tomorrow and get my drops out of it and see if I have anything to trade.

EDIT: Ah, I can't read. Portal 2, not Portal. Anyway, same story.

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Fri May 24, 2013 1:05 pm

I still have one Portal 2 drop left, but I already have one 4 and two 8

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Fri May 24, 2013 1:07 pm

I'll take an invite (please) if there's one around (Pyperkub on Steam...).

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri May 24, 2013 2:32 pm

I can send you one. It was pointless to send it to my brother since he plays none of the games involved in the beta.

Icebear? Fretmute? Y'all are in the beta, have you messed around with it at all?

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Fri May 24, 2013 5:37 pm

I have not... Been trying to finish the HoMM 6 campaigns for the uplay points to buy some goodies in AC3

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri May 24, 2013 9:34 pm

I dared to enter the Steam chat room and actually traded for what I needed. I feel like my IQ was damaged permanently, though.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Sat May 25, 2013 3:40 pm

Now that I've crafted a badge, gotten a background, and added a showcase, you should check out my profile and see how it looks.

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:11 am

They've added cards for Borderlands 2.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 8:49 pm

More games:

Really Big Sky (3/6 drops for playing)
Monster Loves You!
Faerie Solitaire (5/9 drops for playing)
BIT.TRIP RUNNER 2

Windows95 · Post by **Windows95** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 10:38 am

I've got lots of duplicate cards and some emoticons that I'm happy to trade, even if it's just to get the trade achievement. Most should be visible on my Steam profile.

Borderlands 2: Cards 1, 2 and 6.
Portal 2: Cards 2 and 3x 3's.
Counter-Strike GO: 2x 1's.
Half Life 2: Card 6.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 12:07 pm

When we're both online later, I'd be happy to give you Faerie or Really Big Sky cards for the Portal cards, if you want.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 6:14 pm

I'm finding that no one in the Trading room wants Faerie cards for anything. Now I'm glad I didn't stick Windows95 with all of mine because I'd feel bad.

Windows95 · Post by **Windows95** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 6:45 pm

I'm fine with the trade.

Even if you’re having no luck trading your cards, you can always sell them. The marketplace lists the going rate for everything, with most trading cards selling for about 75 cents to a dollar. Sell the ones you don’t want then buy the ones for the games that you do. Once you craft your badge, get a few more item drops that you can sell, pretty easy to break even.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:18 pm

Okay, they sold immediately, just at half the price of most cards. Guess nobody is jonesing for a Faerie background for their profile.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:24 pm

They just added more games:

Left 4 Dead 2
Sanctum 2
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Triple Town
Cubemen 2

And this update:

The other change we've made is removing the Level 10 minimum requirement to get Foil Trading Cards - all users have an equal chance now.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:35 pm

I'll be after my Left 4 Dead 2 drops now, if anyone would like to take them and help me accumulate another set of Half-Life cards.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:23 pm

This was funny. While I was slogging through the trading chat room, someone who couldn't communicate in English asked for my Ellis' Cap for TF2. I tried to trade it to him for just about anything because I never even paid any attention to the TF2 items. He kept telling me to accept the trade for the trading card beta invite when I already (of course) have it. I said I'd take as little as an emoticon for it. He tried to give me some other TF2 boots and said "boots is emoiaticn" or something. "Accept" "Accept"

I don't think I'm going to do that again. I've lost 2-3 hours to that crap-fest and although I actually accomplish some trades, and I think now I'll just buy and sell cards, like Windows95 said. If I keep a running tally of what I make/spend, it'll be like trading. It certainly won't be any worse than reading through that crap to trade with people I don't know.

Speaking of cleaning out my inventory, apparently I have two TF2 items that are tradable. If anyone wants them for free, help yourself. They are Ellis' Cap and The Frying Pan. I don't even know what they are for.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 8:59 am

I am hoping that during the upcoming sale they give out card drops as part of the promotions. I like the idea of getting random cards, but I cannot bring myself to buy them (even when they're being sold for $0.37). I would gladly trade them away if I could accumulate more, but I see that Faerie Solitaire isn't in demand either.

I am also beginning to think the marketplace is phase one of STEAM's plans to let people sell their games back for credits. Call it a hunch.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 12:00 pm

I lied, I went back to the awful chat room. Don't know why any of this is worth the trouble. That are dancing on my OCD.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 2:47 pm

More games just added:

FTL: Faster Than Light
1... 2... 3... KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby)
Strike Suit Infinity
Zach Zero
Tower Wars

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:03 pm

Heck yes I have two of those.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:18 pm

Teggy wrote:OK, so I got in yesterday and played HL2 enough to get all the drops I was entitled to. Then I spent a couple of dollars to fill out the rest just out of curiosity's sake.

What I don't get is how you get in the position to trade without buying? I can think of one possibility:

1) You have dropped cards from a game and you would rather get the badge from a different game? This doesn't make a lot of sense because if you ever want to get the badge from game #1 you'll have to buy that card back. So why not just buy the card you are looking for? Unless both cards are oddly rare, but at this time everything costs less than a dollar.

Outside of that, the only way to get more than your initial dropped cards for a game is to buy them. It makes more sense just to buy the card you want than buy some other card and then trade.

Maybe I am missing something?

There may be an answer:

Upcoming changes:

Booster Packs: these will drop randomly for users who have received all their card drops from playing any given game, and who are continuing to participate in the community. Each booster pack will contain three cards for that game, and may potentially contain foils. The rate of drops will be based on how often cards are being used, to prevent too many flooding into the economy.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:44 pm

The whole "economy" is silly anyway, with people in the chat room laughing if you propose to give a Portal card for a Borderlands card, like there is some huge disparity in worth. I can picture the 9-year-olds on the playground. I've now started treating it like a game on the market section of Steam, like I'm trading pennies worth of stocks. It's fun to remove people from the equation. Then it's just a single player strategy game. I do love meta-gaming.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:33 am

There is another funny aspect, though, and that is when cheap games drop cards, you could get your money back by selling cards. As long as there is a perceived worth, Steam gets a cut every time people keep reselling the same thing that Steam gave them, the card.

Example: crafting a badge, I got a Strike Suit Infinity coupon. That game is cheap anyway at $7, presumably to promote the real game, Strike Suit Zero. But now it drops cards. So if I use the coupon from the card drop, I get it for $3.50, and if it drops 4 cards (I really don't know), I could probably sell them for $0.70 each immediately within 1.5 hours of playing and then the game cost me $0.70. If it dropped 5 cards, I'd break even. Of course then I wouldn't have any cards.

Because even I, who love cheap-as-free games, see some value in the meta game of card collecting and badge crafting to personalize my profile page, I keep a separate tally of the pennies from buying and selling cards, to be sure I break even. So while I haven't lost anything, I could have made about $15-$20 so far if I hadn't bought cards with the same money. Instead, I'm $0.16 in the black on trading. So I guess I'm saying I've gotten $15-$20 of enjoyment out of the meta game in the past couple of weeks, and Steam has made money. Bizarre. I don't even pay $15-$20 for a AAA title if I can help it.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:20 pm

Five more games -- they're totally gearing up for the STEAM Summer sale...

Monaco
A.R.E.S.
Trine 2
They Bleed Pixels
Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten

And this tidbit:

Thanks to game developers and playtesters for joining in! Participation is up to them, so if there’s a game you’d like to see trading cards for, you should let them know.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:16 pm

Alright, since you all know how obsessive I am, I'm going to continue this conversation with myself.

I'm having second thoughts about selling future cards just to buy cards. I have 4 badges, 4 backgrounds, and 4 emoticons for the $20 or so I could have kept. Suddenly I'm seeing this meta-game to be more fun if I was trading for games instead of what is essentially social media decoration. I'm not into the social aspect of gaming, so why would I want more badges? Only if Steam started giving some sort of game promotion for higher Steam experience levels, but I can't see that happening since you can buy cards to craft badges to get experience. So you can now buy experience points in Steam, and the levels mean even less than they already did.

With 700 games in Steam, I stand a good chance of having a couple of games in every new round of games added to the trading card system. As long as people are buying cards, I could be earning wallet funds for playing games I already have.

Also, you can pull the url off of the cards you have, pull up the full picture on the web, and save the artwork for good. I haven't found a way to do that for backgrounds, but the cards basically grant game art to keep.

So that's that. I could see earning a badge for some game I especially love, but I think I'm going to play for games now. I played Trine 2 and Monaco for maybe an hour this morning and made $2. Monaco will drop another $1+ worth. That's another game in a sale. Let's see how long the economy of cards holds up. In the meantime, if anyone wants cards I'm earning, catch me and I'll trade them to you. I don't care which cards I sell. I'm not going to quibble over $0.20 like the cool guys in the trading chat room.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:35 pm

That's sort of my philosophy now -- unless something changes. It's unlikely that I'll earn enough cards to craft a badge, and I'm sure as hell not going to pay money to get missing cards to do so. I'd rather give what I have to someone here that needs them or sell them for pocket change to purchase cheap games...and hopefully get more cards. I already earned about $3 selling random TF2 hats that have been sitting unused in my account for years.

I do think a lot will hinge on what the plans are (if any) for the trading card system they've created with respect to the upcoming summer sale.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:45 pm

I have over 200 hours in TF2. It seems silly for me to have to grind it out to get "cards."

If these are sellable, I'm seelling every single one I get.