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GI: Retailer Scam Re-Sells Humble Bundle Games, Reaps Profit Off Charity

People here on gaf do it all the time. Take a gander over in the buy/sell thread sometime.

And yes, it is fucking disgusting that the staff here let it happen.

Um, excuse me? I haven't seen any of that in the buy/sell/trade thread. If someone happens to be selling something way over the price they can get it somewhere else, no one will buy it or sometimes people will point out that the game is on sale elsewhere.

I'm a little annoyed that you're trying to lump the b/s/t thread with this issue.
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
Capitalism.

ienB0m6ZJWY8n.gif
 

Darknight

Member
Um, excuse me? I haven't seen any of that in the buy/sell/trade thread. If someone happens to be selling something way over the price they can get it somewhere else, no one will buy it or sometimes people will point out that the game is on sale elsewhere.

I'm a little annoyed that you're trying to lump the b/s/t thread with this issue.

Well they accumulate keys for a while then go to sell them. They dont open house when the bundles are being sold to avoid being called out. Just keep an eye out a few days after a Humble Bundle ends, then those keys show up with their other keys for sale at a higher price. (but less than what it goes for on Steam etc) Scummy.
 
I have zero problem with this. If you bought it , you get to resell it. If they stole the keys that's different.

The difference is, many people pay more for the bundles since they feel like rewarding the developers (or giving to charity). These companies pay the absolute minimum, so that the developers are ultimately paid less.

It's probably not illegal, but it's a shitty way to exploit a good deal, like many other things shitty companies do.
 

ccbfan

Member
People on the gaf buy/sell does it all the time.

And not just one key but a ton of keys.

Sometimes even when the sales is going on.

One time 3 different people were selling every game in a humble bundle separately for a marked up price (each game costing more than the entire humble itself) while the bundle was going on. I made a post against it and telling people about it and a bunch of people attacked me for it.
 

pa22word

Member
Um, excuse me? I haven't seen any of that in the buy/sell/trade thread. If someone happens to be selling something way over the price they can get it somewhere else, no one will buy it or sometimes people will point out that the game is on sale elsewhere.

I'm a little annoyed that you're trying to lump the b/s/t thread with this issue.

hahaha that's cute

Just how long have you been browsing bst? Codes from the THQ bundle that people hoarded pop up basically weekly over there.

Pretty weak. Hope the sites doing this get shut down.

You know that includes this site by proxy, right ;)
 

ampere

Member
Before the Citizens United SCOTUS case, I would have said something like "a 'person' and a 'company' are not the same thing."

Yeah.... Although it might not be allowed for an individual to resell keys they get from Humble Bundle, regardless of whether the practice is common. It would be a pretty difficult thing for Humble Bundle or the devs to regulate.
 

Stitch

Gold Member
I used g2play several times, now they are on my shitlist.

Yeah, I bought some games there too but since they changed to a new website design (which is awful) and started to sell bundle keys I've been avoiding them.

They got really expensive in the last few months anyway. It's much cheaper to trade or buy a key on GMG.
 

Zafir

Member
How exactly are they able to resell games if Humble Bundle does not give out keys?

You can buy it as a gift, and the person buying it can just redeem the gift link which is done by humble bundle. It'll then be tied to their account instead of yours. Following that it works just like it does if you'd have bought it yourself.

Don't really go in BST, but in the Steam thread, everyone just gives away dupes, and so do I. *shrug*
 

Shiggy

Member
For people that don't believe its done on the B/S/T topic.

Also not only is it encourage but when people speak against it they get attacked.

read this page (100 post count) (easy for me to find since I was one of the people calling it out). This is only one of many.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=506332&page=61

Well, there's the rule not to whine in that thread:
3. No need to whine

Everyone involved is just either looking to buy, sell, or trade something. If someone wants a certain amount of money for something, whether it is worth that amount of money will be determined by the people willing to pay for it. There's no need to guilt people for selling things they got for free, or making a big fuss out of perceived overcharging. It's a free market.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=506332
 

pa22word

Member
I mean more the sites reselling keys on a larger scale.

Why should this site be any different? The administration has decided that the selling of these keys is acceptable, which facilitates hoarding, which results in hoarded keys being sold, which brings you to the same end as these paysites.
 

Orca

Member
On one hand it's a scummy thing to do. On the other, it's kind of weird to see people here so vehemently against the idea of reselling games that were legally purchased.
 

Camp Lo

Banned
Say a lot about this site doesn't it?

Gaffer purposely tries to ripe off other Gaffers.

Instead of trying to help the innocent Gaffers from getting ripped off? They try to stop the Gaffers trying to help the innocent Gaffers getting ripped off.

eddie-murphy-nodding.gif
 
Why should this site be any different? The administration has decided that the selling of these keys is acceptable, which facilitates hoarding, which results in hoarded keys being sold, which brings you to the same end as these paysites.

I really haven't seen what goes on here regarding key sales, but yeah, if people are selling large quantities of keys it's pretty much the same thing and shouldn't be allowed IMO.
 

vg260

Member
On one hand it's a scummy thing to do. On the other, it's kind of weird to see people here so vehemently against the idea of reselling games that were legally purchased.

Yeah. Spirit of this aside, the freedom to resell your digital goods or anything you buy for that matter is something people supposedly want.
 

pa22word

Member
I really haven't seen what goes on here regarding key sales, but yeah, if people are selling large quantities of keys it's pretty much the same thing and shouldn't be allowed IMO.

Well, as I said, you can buy the Red Faction games and the Darksiders games every other week in the bst thread and that bundle was like 2 years ago now...
 

Shiggy

Member
Say a lot about this site doesn't it?

Gaffer purposely tries to ripe off other Gaffers.

Instead of trying to help the innocent Gaffers from getting ripped off? They try to stop the Gaffers trying to help the innocent Gaffers getting ripped off.

I couldn't find anything on the page you linked to, though I have no doubt that it happened. Yet there are always to parties: The one that rips off and the one who's stupid enough to get ripped off. If there's a HIB happening and people still buy overpriced second hand HIB codes, then one shouldn't really worry about these innocent Gaffers...
 

pa22word

Member
Yeah. Spirit of this aside, the freedom to resell your digital goods or anything you buy for that matter is something people supposedly want.

Difference here being (and a pretty fucking apparent difference to anyone who's not being blinded by their own agenda) that these games are being offered deliberately undervalued to support a charity. It'd be like walking into a soup kitchen and going through the line 50 times and then turning around and selling the soup to homeless people after the shelter closes down.
 

coughlanio

Member
Eh, aren't Fast2Play/Kinguin both marketplaces? As in third parties provide the keys and they're just a middle man? I've used Kinguin a good few times and that was the case.
 

vg260

Member
Difference here being (and a pretty fucking apparent difference to anyone who's not being blinded by their own agenda) that these games are being offered deliberately undervalued to support a charity. It'd be like walking into a soup kitchen and going through the line 50 times and then turning around and selling the soup to homeless people after the shelter closes down.

Yeah, I know re-selling the keys is crappy, obviously. That's why I said " Spirit of this aside" in my post. I'm just not seeing the legality arguments. The site does deserve any flak they get, but I don't think you can say they shouldn't be allowed to do it, even though they shouldn't for obvious reasons of it being a crappy thing to do. If one argues for the right to resell anything they buy, I don't think this is technically any different. It's just a case of someone potentially spoiling a good thing as a result.
 
That's shitty as hell!

The proper thing to do with extra humble bundle keys is to donate them somewhere or do giveaways. Trying to profit off them is just the lowest.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
I don't see the problem here. Resellers do this all the time. They purchased the keys, funding the charity and then resold them later. So fucking what? Would people prefer that they did not buy the games in the first place? I suppose you could argue that it hurts the dev as people who wanted to buy it outside the bundle would have instead paid a higher price through Steam, but at the end of the day, the charity they wanted to support was in fact supported at a slightly higher level because of this practice.

That's shitty as hell!

The proper thing to do with extra humble bundle keys is to donate them somewhere or do giveaways. Trying to profit off them is just the lowest.

The lowest! Jesus fucking Christ. There are far worse things that supporting a charity and then pawning the gifts.
 
The lowest! Jesus fucking Christ. There are far worse things that supporting a charity and then pawning the gifts.

The way I see it it's taking advantage of the goodwill of the devs to try making the most obscene profit possible. If they were doing it because they actually wanted to support the charity that would be one thing (as in donating a lot of money then giving away the gifts) but doing it because you know that you can get games for pennies and sell them for way way more? That's taking advantage of someones goodwill to screw them over.
 

Tripon

Member
Except for the developers since they don't get any revenue from the reseller's sales, only from the much lower humble bundle purchase. Plus if they're paying the minimum steam key amount and reselling at several times that, charities won't be benefiting as much as they should. The retailer wins and possibly the consumer too if there is no possibility of the game being removed from their library, but that's it.

The consumer doesn't win because they're being mislead where the true source of the steam keys are coming from. You don't think consumers love to know that there's a reputable site like the Humble Bundle where you can get all of these games on the scam site for less than what they're offering?
 

Amagon

Member
The consumer doesn't win because they're being mislead where the true source of the steam keys are coming from. You don't think consumers love to know that there's a reputable site like the Humble Bundle where you can get all of these games on the scam site for less than what they're offering?
It's not the resellers responsibility to inform the consumer where they can find the best deal that is not coming from their website.
 
Remember the Charity involved in paying what you want

There's a difference between selling something you bought for a profit, and purposely paying the bare minimum (that is given to you as an act of good faith for a cause) so that you can sell it for a profit
 

pa22word

Member
Would people prefer that they did not buy the games in the first place?

Uh, yes? You do realize that if you buy at the min the humble guys actually lose money due to paypal fees/amazon instant fees and bandwidth costs of the game actually being downloaded?
 

scitek

Member
The way I see it it's taking advantage of the goodwill of the devs to try making the most obscene profit possible. If they were doing it because they actually wanted to support the charity that would be one thing (as in donating a lot of money then giving away the gifts) but doing it because you know that you can get games for pennies and sell them for way way more? That's taking advantage of someones goodwill to screw them over.

Unfortunately, that's the risk you run with all forms of goodwill. Some people will always try to find a way to take advantage of it.
 

MUnited83

For you.
Irks me when people say that Humble Bundle is for "charity". It isn't. It's part of it, sure, but it's a business too. If it was for charity, the default split for charity would be more than 20%. If it was for charity, they wouldn't let you have the option of not giving anything for charity at all. (like I do when they only put EFF and Child's Play as the only options.)
 
Well maybe the buyer should do some research finding out where to get the best deal instead of getting ripped off.

Just because someone lets themselves be exploited out of ignorance does not make it any less shitty for you to actively exploit them. Exploiting people who've done nothing wrong is a dick move.

Unfortunately, that's the risk you run with all forms of goodwill. Some people will always try to find a way to take advantage of it.

Yeah, sadly. Doesn't mean I can't dislike the people who do it though.
 
Irks me when people say that Humble Bundle is for "charity". It isn't. It's part of it, sure, but it's a business too. If it was for charity, the default split for charity would be more than 20%. If it was for charity, they wouldn't let you have the option of not giving anything for charity at all. (like I do when they only put EFF and Child's Play as the only options.)

That may be true but it's a business with the intent of being charitable

And ignoring that is ignoring the whole point of the business.
 

Shiggy

Member
Remember the Charity involved in paying what you want

There's a difference between selling something you bought for a profit, and purposely paying the bare minimum (that is given to you as an act of good faith for a cause) so that you can sell it for a profit

I'm not sure how many people buying these bundles actually care about the charities involved. At least I don't and set the full amount to the HIB guys, so that they can improve the website, and - if I expect the game to be any good - the developers.

But then I also don't really trust these charity organisations and don't feel like doing proper research about a particular organisation.
 

Valnen

Member
I couldn't find anything on the page you linked to, though I have no doubt that it happened. Yet there are always to parties: The one that rips off and the one who's stupid enough to get ripped off. If there's a HIB happening and people still buy overpriced second hand HIB codes, then one shouldn't really worry about these innocent Gaffers...

So victim blaming is suddenly okay now?
 

NEO0MJ

Member
On one hand it's a scummy thing to do. On the other, it's kind of weird to see people here so vehemently against the idea of reselling games that were legally purchased.

It isn't ethical. Plus, some devs might now be unwilling to offer their games on humble bundle.
 

Shiggy

Member
So victim blaming is suddenly okay now?

Calling people who buy overpriced things "victims" is a bit far-fetched. I think everyone can do some research and look around where to find a game for the cheapest price. If a person can't, he or she can still ask in the cheap ass gaffer threads.
 
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