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[Gozan]

Nah, thats like just a 540ish percent increase in drop rate over base. Would be like a pack every 2-7 days or so.

...on 400+ games. I mean, I get about a pack every two weeks with level somewhere in the 20s on about 30-40 games.

 

[Vibranium]

Why do people give a shit about these card and badge things?
Do they do anything special?

I just sell them or give them away all the time

Me too, but I think it's that nagging feeling that someday Valve will actually run a better event where Badges have a more active role in getting rewards. Of course, they'd need to find a solution to cheating and farming.

 

[Oracle Dragon]

Geeze, even the friends on his visible list are lvl 200+...

 

[FyreWulff]

Why do people give a shit about these card and badge things?
Do they do anything special?

I just sell them or give them away all the time

Because they're intentionally designed to make people emotionally invested in a store and lock you in to the Steam system. You're less likely to switch to another store or use another one if someone feels they're "leaving behind" hundreds of dollars of .jpgs.

 

[Grizza]

I wanna meet this guy and be his best friend. If he can afford some worthless STEAM cards, he should be able to buy me a dune buggy. Everybody likes dune buggies.

 

[SonyToo!™]

Those holiday sale badges were too few in number, there wasn't a single game I wanted to play and for some reason I ended up with about 5 Footy Manager & 5 Surgeon Simulator globes and bugger all else.

 

[Ravensmash]

I'd like to say 'fair play' to this guy - if he can afford to spend $3000 (!) on virtual icons for a digital store profile then he's obviously financially well off.

Saying that, seeing how some people react to Steam sales (buying everything for the sake of it), I also feel like this may impulsive spending to a whole new degree.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Japanese,Male,Customer,Common ppl,No skill,32 yo

defuq

 

[Levyne]

A fool and his money...

 

[SonyToo!™]

Because they're intentionally designed to make people emotionally invested in a store and lock you in to the Steam system. You're less likely to switch to another store or use another one if someone feels they're "leaving behind" hundreds of dollars of .jpgs.

I've a funny feeling that stream badges and achievements will only get more popular when ppl realise they don't vanish when they upgrade their PC's unlike console.

 

[SirNinja]

And they say PC gaming is dead in Japan...This guy's carrying the whole country by himself!

http://steamtradingcards.wikia.com/wiki/Holiday_Sale_2013#Badges

Dear god. There's unique artwork for a level 1,000 badge. Meaning they actually anticipated someone making one...

Gabe, you crazy mad genius.


(Other notes: I wonder if all those badges actually got him an Unparallelled item? Those have sold for HUGE amounts of money, which he could have used to further his card-buying spree. Speaking of which - as insane as this feat is, both his regular and foil Holiday Sale badges combined don't even account for a third of his total steam XP.)

 

[Orayn]

Because they're intentionally designed to make people emotionally invested in a store and lock you in to the Steam system. You're less likely to switch to another store or use another one if someone feels they're "leaving behind" hundreds of dollars of .jpgs.

Or you can transmute the cards into cash back on games that have them, and quite a bit in some cases. Record of the Agarest War was on sale for ~$7, and the full set of its cards was going for nearly $5 not too long ago.

One of my friends has made $50 since June and even derived a little entertainment value from the selling itself.

 

[TheGamer]

Wow, I thought I was crazy spending $ 0.46 to purchase a few cards to get my steam level up to level 5. $3,000 is an unbelievable amount to spend on something like this.

 

[Ravensmash]

Or you can transmute the cards into cash back on games that have them, and quite a bit in some cases. Record of the Agarest War was on sale for ~$7, and the full set of its cards was going for nearly $5 not too long ago.

One of my friends has made $50 since June and even derived a little entertainment value from the selling itself.

Damn.

Wish I had a bundle of cards now considering the amount of smaller titles I want to pick up.

I'm tempted to just put up my remaining globe card for an extortionate amount in the hope someone buys it

 

[BennyBlanco]

guy has a ton reviews for pretty obscure and old school pc exclusive games

i'm riveted

 

[mnz]

So this guy has 2000 games and 39% achievement completion rate? How is that possible?

 

[Orayn]

Damn.

Wish I had a bundle of cards now considering the amount of smaller titles I want to pick up.

I'm tempted to just put up my remaining globe card for an extortionate amount in the hope someone buys it

Hard to say what will happen to Snow Globe card prices. They might go up if people really want to do last minute badge crafts for the non-expiring rewards, or down if the rewards don't prove motivating enough and people just want to offload them.

 

[namDa65]

He's on my friends list. This is pretty funny

 

[Flandy]

I used to live/live near a town called Palm Desert. Wonder if this dude is from there.

 

[Gbraga]

Used card sales are ruining the card industry.

Best post

 

[Lotto]

Not surprised to see it be PalmDesert. Valve implementing a superfluous level for your Steam profile; it was bound for someone to try to be the highest level. The thing is, I don't think there is a definitive end to the levels so the fight for the top will always exist.

At least this guy played games for most of his levels though. Dude is (mostly) legit.

 

[Dolor]

If he can spend that kind of money and he enjoys it, good for him. In a way guys like him are subsidizing games for the rest of us, as they buy our cards and we buy games with that money.

Yep.

I find this more interesting than someone spending much more money on some huge SUV or something.

 

[Sorcerer Supreme]

This is just gross.

 

[JSoup]

So this guy has 2000 games and 39% achievement completion rate? How is that possible?

He actually plays his game.
Either a lot of them a little, or a few of them a lot.

 

[Shinta]

http://steamcommunity.com/id/palmdesert/badges/
(keep refreshing)

Foil badge (up to level 100) costs approximately $15.90 each

Foil level 100 = ($15.90 x 100) $1,590.

Regular badge (up to level 1000) costs approximately $1.57 each.

Regular level 1000 = ($1.57 x 1000) $1,570

Edit: HE DID IT. LEVEL 1000.

This is the best argument I've seen recently for higher taxes on the rich.

 

[mrpeabody]

People spend a lot more money on stuff that's worth a lot less.

 

[Durante]

This is the best argument I've seen recently for higher taxes on the rich.

I'm all for top-heavy taxation, but that's just silly. A really rich person spends a lot more on their hobbies.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Looks like he bought a couple foils from my wife. Our small connection to this (in)famous guy.

 

[FyreWulff]

Or you can transmute the cards into cash back on games that have them, and quite a bit in some cases. Record of the Agarest War was on sale for ~$7, and the full set of its cards was going for nearly $5 not too long ago.

One of my friends has made $50 since June and even derived a little entertainment value from the selling itself.

And thus it works as intended. They got you to buy a game from them instead of another store by giving you something that's only worth money in their store.

 

[Dolor]

I'm all for top-heavy taxation, but that's just silly. A really rich person spends a lot more on their hobbies.

I wonder how high his badge could be if he spent as much as a yacht on them.

 

[CryptiK]

And not a single unparalleled item AHAHAHA

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I can't even fathom this.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

More proof that Valve is light-years ahead and more competant than other publishers.

 

[graywolf323]

This isn't the stock market, it's a hobby. People spend inexplicable amounts on their hobbies all the time, only for the return of whatever enjoyment they get out of it. How silly to expect someone to make a monetary return from their hobby else not participate in it. People with more money spend more money on their hobbies, and often things that simply seem foolish to us because we have to value the dollar more; as long as he's not barely scraping by and putting it on a credit card due to a spending addiction then good for him. Odds are he is spending a smaller percentage of his income on this than most here spend on their choice of hobby/entertainment. Everything is relative.

yep, it's crazy but if he can afford it better be spending money on badges than some other things you could waste money on

This is the best argument I've seen recently for higher taxes on the rich.

he lives in Japan, they get taxed on a lot of stuff

 

[Random Painted HIghway]

Wow. Just wow. Addictive personality? Better this than booze I guess.

 

[commanderpepper]

Is this guy on Gaf?

 

[TheSeks]

Did someone get the badge changes/icons as he leveled up? I'm curious to see the progression. IIRC Level 200 started to smother the dude in the snowglobe. So it's interesting the snow left at 1000.

 

[Blearth]

I sell all my cards immediately for one cent less than market value.

Usually adds up to enough to buy an indie game once every Steam sale.

 

[SirNinja]

Did someone get the badge changes/icons as he leveled up? I'm curious to see the progression. IIRC Level 200 started to smother the dude in the snowglobe. So it's interesting the snow left at 1000.

Here are all the badge pics. (Foils too!)

 

[Dex815]

I remember when Valve announced the cards and its market, how a lot of people said stuff like "this is useless! Collect electronic cards? Puff" "Can you even make money with this?".

I wonder how much has Valve earned just in this sales with the taxes of the cards. Probably at least 500k.

 

[jblank83]

And I thought I was wasting time and money when I crafted the level 1 badge.

 

[DarkFlow]

Wonder if the crafts are worth anything.

I got a rare, it's worth 3 cents.

 

[Nome]

I remember when Valve announced the cards and its market, how a lot of people said stuff like "this is useless! Collect electronic cards? Puff" "Can you even make money with this?".

I wonder how much has Valve earned just in this sales with the taxes of the cards. Probably at least 500k.

There's collectors, and also people with OCD. I've dealt with the latter before in the context of virtual collectibles... they really do feel like they need everything, and it ruins them financially.

 

[GavinUK86]

I sell all my cards immediately for one cent less than market value.

That's exactly what I do lol.

 

[GlenChivas]

And yet I still haven't gotten a single foil card since the beta.

 

[Loss for Words]

So this guy has 2000 games and 39% achievement completion rate? How is that possible?

It only counts games you've launched.

 

[emiranda061288]

there are people with higher levels, it is impressive how people like to play the trading card game

 

[xelios]

So this guy has 2000 games and 39% achievement completion rate? How is that possible?

Pretty sure it only counts games you've gotten at least one achievement in, because I have almost the same rate and more games (but he has far more achievements) and there's no way I've gotten that percentage of achievements in all the games I own.

 

[Shanks D Zoro]

So this is what the master race gets up to.

 

[SirNinja]

I remember when Valve announced the cards and its market, how a lot of people said stuff like "this is useless! Collect electronic cards? Puff" "Can you even make money with this?".

I wonder how much has Valve earned just in this sales with the taxes of the cards. Probably at least 500k.

A lot. A whole lot. Valve gets 5% of the money from every single card sold, and that adds up.

The developers of the game on the card also get 10% of the cut.

there are people with higher levels, it is impressive how people like to play the trading card game

Holy shit.

Valve is going to have an uncapped-level card every single major sale now, aren't they?