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[KingV]

How do you know the keys were legit, exactly? GMG repeatedly refused to state the source of their keys when asked.

Also, GMG's mission statement says they only sell authorized keys directly from the source, and they were caught selling keys that weren't from the source and they weren't an authorized distributor for CDPR, so they are flat out lying.

GMG got caught, and they only got caught because CDPR spoke up. For all we know, they do more "shady" things but have never gotten caught before.

I would say, again, that GMG has stated that they bought the keys through an authorized retailer and ate the cost of the discount as a benefit to their customers.

If GOG thinks that they are doing something illegal, or violating an enforceable EULA then they should sue them for damages or lock down their distribution in such a way that that is not possible.

Alluding to GMG might have done something illegal with no proof is meaningless. Pubs should put their money where there mouth is.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

But I have no idea about the supply chain of any retailers. It's really not my place to investigate them either. If a given developer or publisher has a problem with a given retailer, they should go through law enforcement, or the courts, to get them shut down. Why would that require my involvement? Either they have no grounds on which to get retailers they disapprove of shut down (which my intuition suggests is the most likely case), or despite having a valid legal argument for some reason they are opting not to pursue it. Either explanation leads me to conclude that pitting all retailers against each other to offer the best value is the best strategy, and is in my users best interest.

Why should developers or publishers interpretation of the law be accepted as fact when it has not been definitively proven in court, and there is zero evidence of law enforcement being on their side? They have a clear vested interest in defining the law in their own favour, how about until legal bodies with any actual power in these areas make a judgement otherwise, I stick to providing my users with the most accurate information over which retailers are currently offering the best value.

To turn a blind eye to a retailer just because a particular developer or publisher objects to their business model would be madness. There are some developers or publishers that object to Steam's business model too, should I turn a blind eye to steam too?

My role is to serve my users, not the industry. I'm happy to perform inventory management for any developers or publishers, and my rates would be fairly reasonable, but to date none have hired me to do so, as such I'll stick to my unwavering policy of fighting for my users before anyone else.

Once again you deliberately choose to disregard any accusations of any illegal or at least dubious misbehaving and instead decide to go with a "but the developers and publishers themselves"-argument, especially with that completely ridiculous Steam "argument", most of which is comparing apples to oranges. If some publishers object Steam for whatever reasons I really really doubt one of reasons was juggling around in the legal gray area. And you have taken your stance, and I guess the same customers who are willing to close their eyes too are more than willing to look for the deals through SavyDeals too, just how I reason to point people to https://isthereanydeal.com/ instead do to my stance.

 

[YianGaruga]

Once again you deliberately choose to disregard any accusations of any illegal or at least dubious misbehaving and instead decide to go with a "but the developers and publishers themselves"-argument, especially with that completely ridiculous Steam "argument", most of which is comparing apples to oranges. If some publishers object Steam for whatever reasons I really really doubt one of reasons was juggling around in the legal gray area.

Could you offer some proof that G2A is doing something illegal or give a percentage of how many transactions on G2A are illegal and revoked later for any reason? Because I feel the burden of proof is on the accuser here.

Simply calling them "unauthorized" and "shady" means nothing

 

[KingV]

Could you offer some proof that G2A is doing something illegal or give a percentage of how many transactions on G2A are illegal and revoked later for any reason? Because I feel the burden of proof is on the accuser here.

You mean like innocent until proven guilty?

 

[SirJackDaniels]

Once again you deliberately choose to disregard any accusations of any illegal or at least dubious misbehaving and instead decide to go with a "but the developers and publishers themselves"-argument, especially with that completely ridiculous Steam "argument", most of which is comparing apples to oranges. If some publishers object Steam for whatever reasons I really really doubt one of reasons was juggling around in the legal gray area.

What about physical games from TheGameCollection or SimplyGames? I can 100% verify that not all their stock is sourced from an official / authorized publisher, therefore gray.

If you are going this route create a topic about them as well.

 

[bigace33]

Mad Max on Nuuvem = 27€.

Well, unless something has changed, Mad Max is $16 on G2A.

 

[YianGaruga]

What about physical games from TheGameCollection or SimplyGames? I can 100% verify that not all their stock is sourced from an official / authhorized publisher, therefore gray.

If you are going this route create a topic about them as well.

Yeah it's strange that this discussion is only happening in the digital space.
TGC and SG are selling UAE and nordic copies of their games for cheaper and no one cares

What about me importing much much cheaper UK copies to mainland Europe (through ebay, to have something comparable)

 

[SirJackDaniels]

Yeah it's starnge that this discussion is only happening in the digital space.
TGC and SG are selling UAE and nordic copies of their games for cheaper and no one cares

This. I'll also dedicate a section in my price discrepancy topic. Already written up 2 A4's. LOL

 

[YianGaruga]

This. I'll also dedicate a section in my price discrepancy topic. Already written up 2 A4's. LOL

I always wanted to hear some details about the UK online retail space, it seems very unique

 

[Tacitus_]

Well, unless something has changed, Mad Max is $16 on G2A.

Because of a 70% discount on their weekly sale.

 

[TerryLee81]

I'll try and elaborate to clear things up as there is so much confusion about key sellers.
The 2 biggest are G2A and Kinguin-Group, both originally Polish companies although in the past they were registered in Hong Kong and Operating from Poland.

Kinguin is owned by VIWA Entertainment: http://viwa.me/en/
They run sites like Kinguin and many localised portals like fast2play, acheterlecle etc.

I supply both G2A and VIWA. For bigger releases like MGSV our business does like 50.000 - 80.000 units. Smaller releases a few thousand on Day 1.
I buy directly from ALL publishers. I do not exclusively sell games but other stuff as well like merchandise, computers, sporting goods , jewelry. We basically trade all kinds of goods. If there's demand we supply.

How they got big:

As everybody is aware of there was a huge price discrepancy between western boxed retail games and Polish/Asian and Russian retail games. The fact that publishers didnt region lock game keys at the start gave G2A and VIWA a big advantage.
Also there was a VAT Loophole. In Europe non-EU companies selling digital goods to EU consumers didn't have to pay VAT. G2A and VIWA profited enormously from this as they registered in Hong Kong and had a 20% (VAT) extra margin to price lower than competitors.
This was completely legal until last january. Cheaper games + no VAT in the early days = very cheap games.

As the EU got its shit together by by introducing this new law (VAT MOSS) last january:

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/telecom/index_en.htm

and Publishers locking down on retail pricing or locking keys out in western territories G2A and Kinguin saw their current businessmodel on shaky grounds.
Regarding region locked keys, EA games nowadays for example are all region locked, Warner Bros games are still wild wild west. EA games prices are fairly stable but Warner Bros is shit, you can get a key within a week of release for 10 euros.

What G2A and Kinguin both did was change their businessmodel instead of selling the keys they created a marketplace a la eBay and Amazon marketplace. Take a average 10% commission of every sale. All older titles are available on these marketplaces. As far as i know G2A and Kinguin-group only sell new games which havent been released yet, which they buy for me.

Kinguin allows pre-orders for marketplace sellers but on their own sites they sell their own stock, which could be sourced from me. G2A locks out all other marketplace sellers for Pre-order titles. So basically all the pre-orders on G2A are sold by G2A, which i sometimes supply.The following question that arises is how can i supply titles to G2A/Kinguin which still allows G2A/Kinguin to sell for below marketprice?

Ladies & Gentlemen: The publishers allow me to.

In the EU almost every publisher has its own local branche. EA UK, EA France, EA Germany, EA Spain etc. Each of these offices have performance targets for each title. Local offices opt to sell me games at dealprices at bulk qty's if they do not reach their sales target.

For example for a certain MMORPG releasing soon, we sold an extra few thousand to G2A at a special lower market price given me by the local publisher.
The title didn't meet their pre-order targets but they needed to reach HQ targets. Local publisher calls me, i need to sell xxxx units more, what can you do at what price?
The local offices dont want to know who i am selling it to as it could put them in a nasty situation as they disrupt (global) marketprices. Ignorance is bliss for them.

Marketplace is a different monster. Kinguin and G2A are dealing with an influx of suppliers whose sources can not be tracked. Keys could be stolen etc.
How G2A/Kinguin deals with them is their own. However for they games i supply i can confidently say they are 100% legit. I made a lot of money off you guys ^_^

If there are more questions just let me know i'll try to anwser them.

Just out of interest, do you do this professionally as your main income or more as a hobby?

 

[nynt9]

I would say, again, that GMG has stated that they bought the keys through an authorized retailer and ate the cost of the discount as a benefit to their customers.

If GOG thinks that they are doing something illegal, or violating an enforceable EULA then they should sue them for damages or lock down their distribution in such a way that that is not possible.

Alluding to GMG might have done something illegal with no proof is meaningless. Pubs should put their money where there mouth is.

Where have they stated that they buy retail copies? I have not seen and can't find such a reference, and it still doesn't justify them breaking their own terms of conduct.

GOG doesn't think they're doing something illegal. A community manager (iirc) was asked and responded about the issue. They just pointed out that GMG isn't an authorized retailer.

 

[KingV]

Where have they stated that they buy retail copies? I have not seen and can't find such a reference, and it still doesn't justify them breaking their own terms of conduct.

GOG doesn't think they're doing something illegal. A community manager (iirc) was asked and responded about the issue. They just pointed out that GMG isn't an authorized retailer.

Here is GMGs response from May.

http://www.pcgamer.com/green-man-gaming-hits-back-over-witcher-3-key-row/

 

[nynt9]

Here is GMGs response from May.

http://www.pcgamer.com/green-man-gaming-hits-back-over-witcher-3-key-row/

You don't think that GMG didn't declare their keys were in breach of their own terms of conduct before getting called out, that their keys were significantly lower priced than literally every other retailer, and that they refused to disclose their source when directly asked is shady, if what G2A does is also considered shady?

Too good to be true price? Check.
Unknown source? Check.
Unauthorized dealer? Check.

Those are the arguments people have been using against G2A in this very thread.

 

[Lord Phol]

Very interesting thread and lots of good and informative posts from all sides. I've mostly avoided sites like these in fear of breaking some law or getting my steam account banned. Reading this thread though actually makes me want to perhaps give them a try. From what I can tell and have learned there's no real proof of anything illegal going on and this kind of business practice is nothing groundbreakingly new either. It's just not something we are used to in the digital game market. If things like these sites can provide better prices for consumers in a legal way then let's see where it leads. It's not wrong to be weary of things that might seem to good to be true though, and I still feel like being cautious with these key sellers might be a good idea. But to dismiss them outright in belief that their business practices are morally wrong or not legal without having any concrete evidence proving so is not yielding anything productive.

Time will tell though, like the moderator said, we might be heading towards a world where buying from sites like these becomes the norm or at least less frowned upon, and people will have to adapt their moral compasses. Or it could go the other way and crash horribly never to be seen again.

 

[KingV]

You don't think that GMG didn't declare their keys were in breach of their own terms of conduct before getting called out, that their keys were significantly lower priced than literally every other retailer, and that they refused to disclose their source when directly asked is shady, if what G2A does is also considered shady?

Too good to be true price? Check.
Unknown source? Check.
Unauthorized dealer? Check.

Those are the arguments people have been using against G2A in this very thread.

Do I think that a retailer buying keys from an authorized source and then reselling them to me as a loss leader to keep loyal customers is shady? No.

I don't think what G2A is doing is any more shady than what Ebay or Uber does. They are merely operating a business similar to EBay in an area that is not well defined via regulation or established lawsuits. Publishers can absolutely control second party reselling of keys, but choose not to.

 

[lyrick]

If there are more questions just let me know i'll try to anwser them.

So consumers should feel no extra guilt preordering from these sites than they do when ordering international edition textbooks?

 

[nynt9]

Do I think that a retailer buying keys from an authorized source and then reselling them to me as a loss leader to keep loyal customers is shady? No.

The problem here is that we only have GMG's word on this, we can choose to take them on it, but considering the context of them making this statement is them getting caught lying and breaking their own terms of use, taking them at their word is a shaky prospect. If they had disclosed their sources the issue could have been cleared up easily.

This discussion has steered too much off topic though.

It seems like G2A are sponsoring a large esports tournament in the maldives, they're holding a fifa 16 and PC giveaway sponsored by MSI and paypal. As I said earlier they're partnered with Symantec and Hi-Rez. It seems like they're associated with a lot of big players. Does this not give them more legitimacy?

 

[SirJackDaniels]

So consumers should feel no extra guilt preordering from these sites than they do when ordering international edition textbooks?

As far as i know, they shouldn't. G2A sells keys they bought from distributors like myself.If you check the fallout 4 page you see you only have one offer, which is G2A itself.

Kinguin are marketplace sellers, so i cant exactly say.
But what i have heard from other code traders is that Kinguin fines marketplace sellers pretty hefty if they dont supply pre-order keys. Something like € 500 + a certain procent of the sales amount (dont know for sure). However not everybody can sell pre-orders on Kinguin, you need a good feedback rating.

Just out of interest, do you do this professionally as your main income or more as a hobby?

Professionally.

 

[diamount]

I don't and never will buy from unauthorised resellers, if i can't find a good price on isthereanydeal.com then I will wait for a steam sale.

 

[RageWaffles]

huh, Timely. I just got an email from Humble Bundle saying that someone from Ukraine [I'm not Ukrainian] tried to access my account. As in, they got my password and just needed the emailed code. I think I now have a better idea now where some key resellers get their steam keys.

that was the fastest I've ever changed a password (and enabled a better two-step verification)

reseller stuff

Very interesting post. Thanks for it.

 

[twozerotwo]

lol I think that's how most people who buy there feel (including me), I most of the time try to buy from the legit sellers (Steam, Amazon) but sometimes the prices are just to good and I'm a weak person

Yeah, I try to stick to Steam and sometimes go with GMG or Humble but I am a simple man of weak will. I'm sure I could've waited until the next Steam sale and I could've found the same deal but I got bored.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Once again you deliberately choose to disregard any accusations of any illegal or at least dubious misbehaving and instead decide to go with a "but the developers and publishers themselves"-argument, especially with that completely ridiculous Steam "argument", most of which is comparing apples to oranges. If some publishers object Steam for whatever reasons I really really doubt one of reasons was juggling around in the legal gray area. And you have taken your stance, and I guess the same customers who are willing to close their eyes too are more than willing to look for the deals through SavyDeals too, just how I reason to point people to https://isthereanydeal.com/ instead do to my stance.

Just curious, do you have any actual legal authority or source that says g2a is operating contrary to the law?

 

[Durante]

The problem here is that we only have GMG's word on this

We only have the publisher's word on the other side in pretty much all cases. I don't see how they are any more trustworthy, just like the resellers they have a clear stake in the argument.

I mean, the TW3 case was particularly obvious, it was clear that they were doing their darnedest to control the marketplace so that the single cheapest price was at GOG.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US you have the right to resell something you have lawfully purchased. So you can buy something and resell it at a higher price and I can't think of any reason that would not apply to a code for a game download.

 

[Disaster Nebraska]

G2A is the natural progression of the Steam Sale free-for-all cluster**** known as mainstream PC gaming. People have been praising Gaben and enjoying Steam sales with no real forethought to how it affects smaller developers and PC gaming in the long run, but now that a company is really scraping the bottom of the barrel people have an issue with it?

Cool. Eagerly awaiting more threads about how PC versions of multiplats always get the shaft.

EDIT: to be clear, I'm not implying that's GAF in a nutshell. Some GAFers fall into the above category. Some don't. But it is a fairly common mentality among PC gamers around the internets.

 

[LewieP]

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US you have the right to resell something you have lawfully purchased. So you can buy something and resell it at a higher price and I can't think of any reason that would not apply to a code for a game download.

The argument against that (one which I think has little merit) is that reselling typically breaches the EULA.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

The argument against that (one which I think has little merit) is that reselling typically breaches the EULA.

Typically an EULA doesn't apply until after you install or actually use the software, example:

BY INSTALLING, COPYING, AND/OR OTHERWISE USING THE GAME SOFTWARE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT AS SET FORTH BY...

http://store.steampowered.com/eula/eula_39190

 

[Corronchilejano]

The argument against that (one which I think has little merit) is that reselling typically breaches the EULA.

Already illegal to say that in the EU, and probably most of the world if someone would be arsed to fight it in court.

G2A is the natural progression of the Steam Sale free-for-all cluster**** known as mainstream PC gaming. People have been praising Gaben and enjoying Steam sales with no real forethought to how it affects smaller developers and PC gaming in the long run, but now that a company is really scraping the bottom of the barrel people have an issue with it?

Cool. Eagerly awaiting more threads about how PC versions of multiplats always get the shaft.

EDIT: to be clear, I'm not implying that's GAF in a nutshell. Some GAFers fall into the above category. Some don't. But it is a fairly common mentality among PC gamers around the internets.

Keys from unidentified sources and huge discounts aren't entirely related. When you buy a game with a 90% discount on Steam you still know most of the proceeds go to the developer. When you buy a key from G2A you literally don't know it's source. It could be a key from a different market where the game is cheaper, a free game code obtained from the purchase of hardware or a key bought with a stolen credit card.

Honestly I don't know if G2A gives you a different key if the one you used turns up invalid or revoked, so that's my only qualm with using their shady service.

 

[YianGaruga]

How do people feel about GAF's own BST thread? Should selling digital games be banned there as well?

You have the same issues, it's impossible confirm the source of the keys, many of them are sold for profit using regional or other price differences and we already had one (or multiple, I only remember DmC right now) cases of keys being revoked after a while.

How is this different from G2A?

 

[PetriP-TNT]

How do people feel about GAF's own BST thread? Should selling digital games be banned there as well?

You have the same issues, it's impossible confirm the source of the keys, many of them are sold for profit using regional or other price differences and we already had one (or multiple, I only remember DmC right now) cases of keys being revoked after a while.

How is this different from G2A?

Well, Stump had this to say few pages back:

RE: Buy/sell/trade thread, personally I find the fact that the thread has gotten increasingly filled with software and game key sales to be pretty unfortunate. It's going to be a moderation nightmare some day.

For you question itself:

How is this different from G2A?

The biggest difference is that NeoGAF doesn't gain profit from keys sold in the B/S/T-thread.

 

[YianGaruga]

Well, Stump had this to say few pages back:

For you question itself:

The biggest difference is that NeoGAF doesn't gain profit from keys sold in the B/S/T-thread.

I was asking for people's personal opinion regarding the BST thread and key selling, not the stance of the admins. It's pretty clear that so far key selling has been completely fine on GAF. And I don't see how your point changes anything about the legitimacy. So if G2A didn't make any money off it it would be a-ok? You're dodging the question.

 

[Disaster Nebraska]

Already illegal to say that in the EU, and probably most of the world if someone would be arsed to fight it in court.


Keys from unidentified sources and huge discounts aren't entirely related. When you buy a game with a 90% discount on Steam you still know most of the proceeds go to the developer. When you buy a key from G2A you literally don't know it's source. It could be a key from a different market where the game is cheaper, a free game code obtained from the purchase of hardware or a key bought with a stolen credit card.

Honestly I don't know if G2A gives you a different key if the one you used turns up invalid or revoked, so that's my only qualm with using their shady service.

You're thinking they're different because you're viewing it from a corporate perspective, not a consumer's perspective. Endless Steam sales have created an expectation within the PC gaming market. A big chunk of PC gamers surf the sales and spend a lot of money when Steam sales hit (cue "praise Gaben " gifs). This has gone on for years, and now the Early Access discounted price pushes people to buy games early, too.

But these sales are restricted to what Steam dictates. Suddenly, a third party steps in and says "why should someone pay $30 for a game on Steam when they can pay me $10 and I make a $5 profit?" They find a -- as far as has been established in this thread -- perfectly legal channel of providing a cheaper price to an eager market.

So, are GMG and G2A to blame, or are they simply playing Steam's own game better than they do?

 

[Agent_Carnage]

I know a few streamers advertise G2A in their streams. One of them I like which is Quickybaby he does World of Tanks stuff.

I wish the streamers would know who they are dealing with.

 

[YianGaruga]

But these sales are restricted to what Steam dictates. Suddenly, a third party steps in and says "why should someone pay $30 for a game on Steam when they can pay me $10 and I make a $5 profit?" They find a -- as far as has been established in this thread -- perfectly legal channel of providing a cheaper price to an eager market.

Steam doesn't dictate discounts, devs/pubs have complete freedom over when to put their game on sale and for how much.

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

Gamers don't give a shit where their keys come from as long as they get their deal. The definition of 'legit' to a lot of people is purely 'does the key work or not'.

 

[KingV]

G2A is the natural progression of the Steam Sale free-for-all cluster**** known as mainstream PC gaming. People have been praising Gaben and enjoying Steam sales with no real forethought to how it affects smaller developers and PC gaming in the long run, but now that a company is really scraping the bottom of the barrel people have an issue with it?

Cool. Eagerly awaiting more threads about how PC versions of multiplats always get the shaft.

EDIT: to be clear, I'm not implying that's GAF in a nutshell. Some GAFers fall into the above category. Some don't. But it is a fairly common mentality among PC gamers around the internets.

Smaller devs are, for the most part are responsible for this themselves. They produce the keys for humble bundles, streamers, giveaways, etc. and then somebody else exploits the price disparity. If you don't want your game on G2A, only sell through steam/GOG, don't participate in bundling, don't do giveaways and so on,

It's that easy.

Yes there is credit card fraud, but the vast majority of keys aren't getting revoked, so I'm assuming that most of them are legally bought and resold.

 

[LewieP]

Smaller devs are, for the most part are responsible for this themselves. They produce the keys for humble bundles, streamers, giveaways, etc. and then somebody else exploits the price disparity. If you don't want your game on G2A, only sell through steam/GOG, don't participate in bundling, don't do giveaways and so on,

It's that easy.

Yes there is credit card fraud, but the vast majority of keys aren't getting revoked, so I'm assuming that most of them are legally bought and resold.

Yep. For the most part, devs (either consciously or unconsciously) decide that the benefits of flooding the market with discounted keys for their games outweigh the costs. As such they voluntarily flood the market with discounted keys.

They could very easily opt to not do this if they preferred, but that is not the preferable strategy for most devs.

 

[Corronchilejano]

You're thinking they're different because you're viewing it from a corporate perspective, not a consumer's perspective. Endless Steam sales have created an expectation within the PC gaming market. A big chunk of PC gamers surf the sales and spend a lot of money when Steam sales hit (cue "praise Gaben " gifs). This has gone on for years, and now the Early Access discounted price pushes people to buy games early, too.

But these sales are restricted to what Steam dictates. Suddenly, a third party steps in and says "why should someone pay $30 for a game on Steam when they can pay me $10 and I make a $5 profit?" They find a -- as far as has been established in this thread -- perfectly legal channel of providing a cheaper price to an eager market.

So, are GMG and G2A to blame, or are they simply playing Steam's own game better than they do?

Again, I've no problem with the sale of legal items. It's the keys from illegal origin which I believe tarnishes this businesses' reputation.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

I was asking for people's personal opinion regarding the BST thread and key selling, not the stance of the admins. It's pretty clear that so far key selling has been completely fine on GAF. And I don't see how your point changes anything about the legitimacy. So if G2A didn't make any money off it it would be a-ok? You're dodging the question.

Oh, you were asking me. If G2A didn't make any money off it, G2A would be a-ok. If I think about if I am ok with someone selling keys on the B/S/T thread, I'd say that supplying keys to other GAFfers from other regions on demand, like DunderHassan did, is okay. Going to B/S/T thread and selling 100 NVidia MGSV keys is not. Going to B/S/T and selling Humble Bundle keys is another no-no. Going to B/S/T thread and selling a single NVidia key would also be okay to me. So the answer is: it depends.

 

[LewieP]

Again, I've no problem with the sale of legal items. It's the keys from illegal origin which I believe tarnishes this businesses' reputation.

Yep I think everyone can agree with the notion that credit card fraud and/or theft are bad things which should be against the law. Publishers who feel their profits are being being negatively impacted by these should take measures to protect themselves from them, by increasing security across their supply chain. They should also take legal action against parties engaging in fraud and/or theft where applicable.

Parties which are not actively involved in any such fraud should not be punished or demonized. Be them retailers or customers.

 

[Corronchilejano]

Is there really any way at all to find out who sold you a key in G2A?

 

[fertygo]

Is there really any way at all to find out who sold you a key in G2A?

No. only country flag and item sold is pretty much your seller ID

 

[Corronchilejano]

No. only country flag and item sold is pretty much your seller ID

Then how is this in any way like eBay or amazon?

 

[MUnited83]

Then how is this in any way like eBay or amazon?

It's not, in the slightest.

Also, want to check a seller's feedback? Well, you can only check three ratings at a time, and you can't organize them in any way, so you can't easily see the negative feedback and check what happened in those cases.

 

[Mad Season]

I know a few streamers advertise G2A in their streams. One of them I like which is Quickybaby he does World of Tanks stuff.

I wish the streamers would know who they are dealing with.

A legal institute

 

[Brawndo Addict]

So, how do i get signed off and the paper trail? Well accounting magic.

If the general cost price for Starcraft is say 20 euro's to all wholesalers. I obviously need a lower price to sell these additional 2000 units for example 15 euro's.. Sales managers need to avoid a paper trail, as 15 euro's will immediately raise questions and the order will be bounced. Each local publisher has a trade marketing pot or several other ways to give out money on the books to a buying party. This is usually used as it says for marketing purposes etc. Local publisher allots trade marketing worth of 10K euro's on 12000 units SC2.

They book the 10K as marketing cost and the 12000 SC2 for 20 euro's. Deal is signed off and i have 2000 SC2 for 15 euro's.

This isn't magic so much as it is hiding the losses in a way that violates GAAP/IFRS. It just shifts the discrepancy over to marketing because the money wasn't actually used to acquire ad buys, a fact which would become obvious if they were to be audited. They can't just use the marketing budget as a slush fund, it has to be documented and match up just like inventory does. Are you providing them any documentation about what you'll be providing marketing wise in exchange for the 10k or are they just hoping no one ever takes a closer look?

 

[KingV]

This isn't magic so much as it is hiding the losses in a way that violates GAAP/IFRS. It just shifts the discrepancy over to marketing because the money wasn't actually used to acquire ad buys, a fact which would become obvious if they were to be audited. They can't just use the marketing budget as a slush fund, it has to be documented and match up just like inventory does. Are you providing them any documentation about what you'll be providing marketing wise in exchange for the 10k or are they just hoping no one ever takes a closer look?

Typically trade funds are booked as reduced net sales in the 10K, at least for companies that sell a lot of retail goods. My company, for example sells food. Typically we might have a wholesale price of $5 say, but Walmart, for example never actually pays $5, they will see a $1 discount per unit on their invoice as trade funds. Those trade funds necer actually change hands, we just book $4 as revenue. No GAAP problems with that. In fact you would probably get into problems by booking $5 and then writing off $1 somewhere else, as its misrepresenting your actual revenue.

Regardless, it doesn't violate GAAP unless you actually report it that way on your public statements. You can use whatever weird ass rules internally that you want as long as you keep a set of GAAP books too.

Typically most publically traded companies have three sets of books (at least!).

1) everything aligned according to GAAP/IFRS
2) everything aligned according to what the IRS wants to see for tax purposes
3) everything aligned in the way that makes the most sense for actually running the business (basically for internal use only).

Also, there is no requirement to report marketing separately in public statements according to GAAP. It's all rolled into SG&A.

lastly, I doubt regional sales guys would even know what GAAP is. Very few people at most companies are thinking much about GAAP unless they are corporate finance.

 

[quesalupa]

This thread has way too many G's.

 

[Kaleinc]

If there are more questions just let me know i'll try to anwser them.

Is Jack Daniels your real name?


And a follow up. If you're selling 10k keys to g2a you email them in a txt file or how does it happen?