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| How To Make Money On Steam |
Steam trading cards
To make any money from Steam, you need to first acquaint yourself with
Steam trading cards. These are cards you can trade, or sell on the Steam
market. There are two basic types of cards, game cards and holiday/sale
cards.
Each game on Steam has its own set of trading cards, provided that it is
fully integrated with Steam and supports trading cards. To check if a
game supports trading cards, visit its store page, and look for its
Steam compatibility in the right sidebar.
Additionally, you can see a list of all games owned by you that support
trading cards by going to the badges page under your profile.
Another type of trading card is the holiday/sale card. Steam runs a sale
on holidays and special occasions all round the year, and the most
common of these sales are the Summer and the Winter sales. Right now,
the Summer sale is underway.
How to get trading cards?
There are quite a few ways to get a card. Game cards are dropped
randomly while you play a game. Each game has a collection of cards, but
you don't get the whole collection this way. You only get roughly half
of the collection for free. For a game with 10 cards, you might be
allowed a maximum of 5 card drops. You can see how many card drops are
left for each game under the Badges section in your profile.
Here's a trick: If you don't have time to spend on playing a
game, you can keep the game minimized while you do your work - the cards
will still drop!
This only applies to games that you purchased. For Free to Play games
such as Team Fortress 2 or DOTA 2, you have to make purchases in-game to
earn card drops.
There are two types of game cards - normal and Foil. Foil cards are
rare, and hence more valuable. So keep a special eye out for them.
You can get holiday/sale cards while making game purchases during a
major sale (Summer or Winter etc). Every $10 spent on a sale will get
you a card (they're called Summer Adventure cards for this sale by the
way). If that seems like much, you can get a card by participating in
the community voting. Every 3 votes in the 'Community Choice' deal get
you a card. You can vote once in 8 hours during a sale, which usually
lasts 10-15 days, giving you plenty of time to make a collection.
You can also get cards by buying them from the Steam market, or trading them from your friends.
Badges and Booster packs
Getting all the cards drops available for a game makes you eligible for a
booster pack. You don't need to complete a collection for it. Once you
complete a collection, you can craft a badge. So what are these badges
and booster packs?
A booster pack contains 3 random cards, which might include a foil card
(more valuable). Booster packs are awarded rarely, but randomly,
provided that you are eligible (i.e. have gotten all card drops for a
game). You don't have to play a game to win a booster pack - you just
need to log into Steam at least once a week.
If you have purchased a game, but have not gotten all the card drops,
then I'd suggest you do it as soon as possible. The more booster packs
you're eligible for, the higher your chances of being awarded one.
When you complete a collection, you can use it to craft a badge. Badges
give you experience for leveling up on Steam (which is also important),
along with a chat emote, a background, and sometimes a voucher.
So, how to make money off all this?
I know all this might be confusing for beginners, but you'll soon get
the hang of it once you familiarize yourself with Steam. Making money
from steam is simple. You can sell all cards, badges, and booster packs
for money on the Steam market. Now here's where it gets a
little.....mathy.
Normal trading cards are very cheap, unless the game is new. They'll
usually fetch you less than a dollar. Sometimes, only a few cents. A
card's price rises and falls over time, like a stock market. It all
depends on the supply and demand. You can search for a card in the
market and look at its price history to get an estimate on what the card
is worth.
Here's a look at the price history for one of the Summer Adventure cards this summer.
Foils cards are rare, but they usually go for a lot more money -
sometimes up to 10 times as much as normal cards. Just like normal and
foil cards, there are normal and foil badges. But it's often not worth
crating a foil badge. You'll make more money by simply selling the foil
cards.
Now Booster packs go for a lot of money as well. Once you're rewarded
with a Booster Pack, you can either open it or sell it. If you sell it,
you'll get some decent money. But if you open it, and find a foil card
in there along with other cards, you'll get even more money! But be
advised that foil cards in booster packs are rare, so choose what you
want wisely.
Sell games
Selling cards probably won't make you rich, but can give you a small and
steady income. You can use that money to buy games for friends, who can
then pay you in person. You cannot cash out the money you have in your
Steam wallet.
Or here's another idea. During the sale, you can buy games at a much
discounted rate. You can then sell those games for more money (but less
than the official price) once the sale is over. A lot of people buy
games outside of sales, so you can hit communities and connect with
people to find interested buyers. You can even earn hundreds of dollars
if you're willing to invest!
Considering that the Summer sale is currently going on, I say why not
take these theories and put them to the test? I've already got a game
minimized as I write this, hoping to get some card drops. And I'll be
buying some more games from the great Summer deals as well. It's a great
time to be gaming this time of the year - you can get some money off
it!
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