If you’ve been on Steam for a while and played a bunch of games, you’ve probably got a notification saying that you got a new item in your inventory – a trading card. In this guide, we will delve into the world of Steam Trading Cards, explaining what they are and how to make the most of them.
So what are Steam Trading Cards?
Understanding Steam Trading Cards: Steam Trading Cards are digital cards associated with specific games available on the Steam platform, first introduced back in 2013, These cards showcase unique artwork, often representing characters, scenes, or objects from the corresponding game. By collecting and crafting full sets from a game, gamers can earn various rewards, such as badges, profile backgrounds, emoticons, and even discounts on other games in a form of coupons. as you craft badges you level up your profile. every 10 levels, you get a bonus showcase that you can use to customize your profile. additionally as you level up you unlock more friend slots, so if you want to add every player you meet in a server, you would need to complete some trading card sets.
Foil trading cards vs normal trading cards
There’s two types of trading cards, a common card and a foil. the difference in them is purely visual, though the foil is much rarer. the drop rate of a foil card is around 1%, making it much more expensive if you wish to craft a full set. by crafting a foil set you get the exact same rewards as you would get from a common set.
One more difference between the cards, is that you can craft a common card set 5 times, while a foil set can be only crafted once. additionally foil cards can be broken down into more gem compared to their common counterparts (keep reading to learn about gems).
If you don’t care for profile customization, selling steam trading cards on the market is a good way to earn free steam wallet funds that can be used to buy games on the steam store, or other items on the community market.
How to get Steam Trading Cards?
There are several ways to acquire Steam Trading Cards:
Playing Games: Steam Trading Cards are typically obtained by playing eligible games. As you play, you have a chance of receiving card drops, which occur at specific intervals defined by the game developer. by default you get a card drop every 30 minutes of gameplay. You only get half of the set by playing eligible games, the rest you would have to acquire by either:
Trading: Utilize the Steam Trading interface or interact with fellow gamers on forums, groups, or trading websites to negotiate trades and complete your card collections, and exchange duplicate. When you visit a badge page for a set you wish to complete and scroll down, you can see if your friends have spare cards that you are missing.
Purchasing: If you’re eager to collect specific cards or complete sets quickly, you have the option to buy them directly from the Steam Community Market or trade with other players.
Getting cards from booster packs: another option of getting trading cards is by receiving a booster pack. Once you have received all of your card drops, you become eligible for a booster pack containing 3 additional cards. Booster packs are granted randomly to eligible users as more badges are crafted by members of the community. to maintain eligibility you must log in to steam each week. The more badges you craft, the higher your chances of receiving a booster pack.
Crafting Badges and Earning Rewards using steam trading cards.
The main objective of collecting Steam Trading Cards is to craft badges. To craft a badge, you need to collect a complete set of cards for a specific game. Typically, a set consists of 5-15 cards. Once you have a complete set, you can create a badge, which will be displayed on your Steam profile.
Crafting badges comes with several benefits:
Profile Customization: Crafting badges allows you to unlock various customization options for your Steam profile, such as unique backgrounds, emoticons, and profile showcases. the items you get come with a random rarity level, from common to rare, with the latter being harder to acquire.
Experience Points (XP): Crafting badges awards you with XP, which increases your Steam profile level. each badge nets you 100 XP. Higher levels unlock additional customization options and increase your chances of receiving booster packs (additional card drops). every 10 levels the XP requirements to level up increases.
Steam Rewards: Crafting badges may also grant you random rewards, such as coupons, or special sale event trading cards during major Steam sales.
Selling Steam Trading Cards
If you find yourself with duplicate cards or cards you do not wish to keep, you can sell them on the Steam Community Market. This way, you can earn Steam Wallet funds, which can be used to purchase games, items, or more trading cards.
to sell a card, navigate to your inventory, select the card you wish to sell and set your price. it’s recommended to undercut the seller by 1 cent (or less if you’re from a different region) to sell the card quickly. if you want to earn more sell it at a higher price. but that may take a while to sell.
If you have many cards and want to automate the process, there’s a very useful chrome extension that is called Steam Inventory Helper. the tool can automatically place your trading cards on the market, as well as other items such as skins from other games, such as counter strike source.
Turning Steam Trading Cards into gems
If you do not wish to sell a trading card, lets say because the price is too low, or a game got banned from steam. you can break them down your trading cards into gems. gems are a form of currency that Steam users use for trading. after collecting 1000 gems you can pack your gems into a Sack and sell them on the market. or you can use gems to craft additional booster packs. prices of booster pack depend on the number of cards in a set. the more cards are in a set, the less the booster pack costs
You can create only 1 booster per game every 24 hours. sometimes creating a booster pack can be cheaper then buying certain cards on the steam market. so do your research before using this feature, to not waste money.
Trading cards from banned games
Steam is an open platform, which means any developer can release a game on steam for a low price of 100$. which means sometimes shady developers release asset flips, stolen games, or simply break the rules by writing fake reviews and so on. if a game gets banned from Steam, any trading cards associated with that game will become unmarketable. which means you won’t be able to buy or sale cards on the Steam Community Market. your only option for completing a set from a banned game would be going to a trading site and trading for your missing cards. and if you’re not a people person the best option is simply scraping your cards into gems.
Tip if you’re a patient gamer
If you want to get the most out of your trading card badges you should only craft during major Steam sale. (like the winter or summer sale). when crafting a badge during a major sale, instead of getting a discount coupon, you get a special sale trading card, so basically you will be getting a free card with each badge craft.
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