He's probably using the cards to get a cheap high ranking by selling a legit and easy to pack/post product. That is why they are all rockbottom prices without any research as to their worth within the community.
He then cleans up profit on the steam activated games (where he is either selling the same activation code over and over or simply charging more than steam itself for the games which are actually out - won't snare steam users, but will snare anyone buying for others or who don't read the description). Then he makes his 100% profit on the games he does not have - trusting that the negative "The game didn't exist/I didn't get my game" rankings to get lost in his general "good sale of cheap card" results.



least that might be his policy - thus far his ranking is 0 so its not going too well already for him ;)

Still, it's a shipping scam through and through. That's how people make money selling penny books on Amazon.

I don't see it as a scam if the shipping cost is upfront to the buyer - at that point the cost of the full purchase (item and shipping) is known. At which point its up to the buyer to decide is there is a cheaper alternative to buy.
I've often seen items in Amazon which appear cheaper than retail - then realise that the cost is made up then through the shipping. If there is no difference in the total price it won't matter - if the total price is less than another legit retailer I might shop with them instead - if the combined price is still less then - I get the Amazon one.


I'd only count it as a shipping scam if the shipping costs were higher than those advertise to the buyer (eg shipping without putting enough on the parcel to get to the destination and thus forcing the buyer to fork out to the mailman to get their package).

well I'm guessing that you don't pay commission on the shipping so the scam there would be aimed at amazon

I hate seeing scammers like this ... I hate it even more when I see how long it takes for the sites to take action.

On ebay a couple of years ago some jackass was selling open source software and games (such The Gimp, paint.net, some games that I can't think of etc.). I naturally reported to ebay and the various developers which then also complained to ebay. It took 3 months before the listings and the seller was removed.

The reply I got from Steam Support was "You should contact the publishers of the games". Why am I not surprised at their spectacular magnitude of laziness? Well, I tried, and I'm tired.

{EDIT}
I've sent an email to Bethesda, Square-Enix, Deep Silver, and THQ, telling them about RAGE, Deus Ex 3, Dead Island, and Metro Last Light, respectively. I'm pretty sure there are others, but the attention of four big publishers ought to be enough to shut this guy down.

To be fair to Steam its not their problem as such. They have no jurisdiction of sales through Amazon and whilst the sale of accounts or content sold on steam to 3rd parties is not allowed, without details of the users account(s) there is nothing much Steam can do.

Also because of professional competition between Amazon and Steam the advice might be well sighted since the developers might well have a bigger influence with preventing this kind of abuse through Amazon than Steam themselves do.

Wow, that's pretty shady. I think Amazon should be contacted about the listings.

Right, but the merchant claims to be selling Steam versions of the game. Like, if one were to pay him or her money, he or she would "gift" you that game.

Anyway, I've already gotten a response from Deep Silver (it's signed Jon Shutts, Senior Producer, but it's probably an assistant or something), so it won't be long now.

And naturally, THQ are as scatterbrained as usual.

"THQ does not publish or sell the 'Clear Light' version of Last Metro. We don't know who does. Sorry. (Fake support rep name meant to protect their identity here)"

"Clear Light"? It "clearly" says "Last Light", and "THQ" is also "clearly" labeled on the concept box art on that product page.

hehe and that is what comes of probably outsourcing your support department to non-native english speaking countries.

They really seem to be dragging their heels. Just today this guy got his first (negative, obviously) review, reading: "Awful service, did not recieve any help when trying to ask about the item. Item was not as described. The disc was burned and was not a used retail version of the game as shown in the picture."

Well, I did my part and notified all the publishers as well as Steam (since this guy claims to be selling Steam versions, as in selling "Gift vouchers" or something) and Amazon. If they want to dick around while other idiots who don't read the descriptions of items before purchase waste their money, then it's their decision to make themselves look bad.