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Astute analysis, Valve's proximity to the secondary market seems to be the issue here. They also appear to allow you to generate keys for games that can then be sold[0][1]. This provides you with an indirect way of cashing out your earnings.

[0]https://www.g2a.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-steam-cd-k... ($7.23 USD vs Steam price of $19.99 USD)

[1]https://www.g2a.com/mass-effect-trilogy-origin-cd-key-global... ($13.66 for all 3 Mass Effect games or $34.99 on Steam)



They don't allow end-users to generate keys for games - that is restricted to the publishers or game creators (in smaller cases).

The keys on those sites are generally sourced from physical copies in cheaper regions (as mentioned in a sibling comment), cheaply sold bundles (Humble Indie Bundle, and other similar sites), and other such sources.

You could possibly make an argument for gift-copies of games[0] being resalable, or games that can be added to third party systems (ME2 gives a CD key that can be added to Origin, for example) though the latter would be limited to one attempt per-game per-account.

[0]http://www.g2play.net/category/24773/factorio-steam-gift/


I'm under the impression those "cheap keys" are from other regions where games are sold for cheaper, and can potentially get your account locked.




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