should posts about serial key reselller sales be permitted?

[hitbyambulance]

technically, key resellers are against the terms of service of Steam and other digital distribution platforms, since they're reselling game serial #s intended for other countries with lower currency buying power at a profit.

however, this is a grey-market activity, which i've never seen prohibited on the boards here - whereas something like game piracy is straight-up illegal.

i understand that discussion itself is always permitted, but should links to resellers and specific game 'sales' be posted? personally, i'm against it, but what's the moderator decision?

[LawBeefaroni]

The following is just my personal opinion, not a moderator declaration.

1. I don't buy these keys. It's not worth risking my Steam account over.

2. I though keys were region based anyway. Shouldn't these keys not work?

3. While the keys may be against Steam's TOS, I don't think they're illegal. I wouldn't even call them grey-market like abandonware, etc. It's more like rooting an iPhone or something. They don't want to you do it and you could lose their service and access to the product/account, but it's not going to result in anything more.

4. My opinions aren't based on extensive research. I'd have to look into it a bit more to chime in responsibly as a mod.

[Blackhawk]

Not a mod anymore, but I certainly don't have a problem with it. Illegal stuff shouldn't be on the forums, but we shouldn't be policing content based on EULAs.

[paulbaxter]

3. While the keys may be against Steam's TOS, I don't think they're illegal. I wouldn't even call them grey-market like abandonware, etc. It's more like rooting an iPhone or something. They don't want to you do it and you could lose their service and access to the product/account, but it's not going to result in anything more.

I don't really care about the issue at hand, but I wanted to point out that this sort of thing is EXACTLY analogous to gray market transactions in the piano market. The larger piano manufacturers, particularly those in Asia, make pianos specifically for different markets and price them differently. Thus certain folks will buy a shipment of pianos made for the Philippines or Indonesia and import them to the US to sell at a substantial profit while still undercutting standard retail prices here. The difference in the piano industry is that the wood in these pianos is often treated to be sold in high humidity environments, so when they get sold in the US, they will sometimes have issues with warping and the manufacturer won't cover it under warranty.

[Daehawk]

I buy from G2A all the time and have not had any problems. They are real keys that were paid for. The company the seller and me all got our stuff. Its not illegal. So why not? Ive saved tons of money.

[Giles Habibula]

... gray market transactions in the piano market. .

All these years on the internet, and this is the first I've heard of such a thing! I can't say it really surprises me now that you've mentioned it, but the thought has just never occurred to me.

[Kraken]

Wouldn't even have occurred to me that there's still much of a piano market. They were a fixture in middle class homes in my parents' day, but I thought that day was long past.

[paulbaxter]

Wouldn't even have occurred to me that there's still much of a piano market. They were a fixture in middle class homes in my parents' day, but I thought that day was long past.

It isn't quite dead yet, but piano sales in the US have been in pretty steady decline since 1978.

[PLW]

I recently bought a key for Pillars of Eternity from a reseller. I don't think it was taking advantage of regional pricing differences. I think someone kickstarted on spec and took a profit in the resale market. I guess that's a little shady, but it also seems efficient. They made a market play and it worked out.