Thank you for the link.

This is why people shouldn't buy from these shady resellers. We simply don't know where their keys come from. Official stores like Amazon, GMG, Gamersgate, for example, get their keys directly from publishers.

Good luck trying to convince people that cheaper is not automatically better, too much people nowadays are unable to assess risks. :)

It's only a crime if you're preventing corporations from using cheap child labor in other countries. If you're trying to prevent consumers from buying cheaper products, then it's perfectly fine.



Anyway, this whole Official Retailer™ thing is a load of shit. Do the people shilling this only ever buy from Walmart and other huge corporations, never from some smaller store? Go to Amazon and look at all the choices of where to buy a game. The vast majority of them are small Unofficial Retailers™. It's okay and legal to buy from smaller stores and eat from smaller restaurants.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=9b2235ea4bb6e4fda6d7a40f438becdd&t=3249851

7000 keys revoked on Steam

...*cough*Age of Wonders 3*cough*...

If you look at the immense price diffenrences for the preorder (not talking about the summer sale, price for CE of AOW3 was the same for everyone), you can see that even on the SAME store there can be a price difference of 18 to 50 $.

You too are only buying from stores certified to sell whatever they're selling you. Whenever you buy something from a reseller, like from eBay, you're doing so taking a risk. So yes, it works pretty much the same.

But that's wrong. At least in the USA. Excluding some things like alcohol, pretty much anyone can sell anything. Don't have to be "certified" or "official" or anything.

I was under the impression that even a lemonade stand needed a permit. Then again, such knowledge was gained from "The Simpsons" and "According to Jim". Is that not the case?

I'm talking about for selling specific items. A store can sell whatever they want, with few exceptions, but yeah, pretty sure you have to have a permit to open a store. You just don't need a permit to sell toilet paper, paper towels, video games, movies, CDs, frozen pizzas, ice cream, ect.

And you definitely don't need to be certified individually for every single brand.


edit: And then people tend to do garage sales or ebay sales and shit from their house in small quantities without a permit.

Not sure about the US, but in Canada I believe you technically do need a permit for a lemonade stand (not that anyone would enforce it against some kid). I think anything having to do with serving food requires a permit. I have to think it's similar in the US.

I was questioning the suspicions about GMG being a shady retailer. Then I mentioned I've got many games from there already.

I thought you were getting worried because of what frustrated losers said!

Tasty...

Steam retailers need permit to sell Steam keys, not a permit for specific items. Of course stores need permit to sell alcohol, food and whatever.

Yes, and every single time you do that, you run a risk of purchasing stolen or otherwise damaged goods.