14 DAY TRIAL // Original: Valve has unveiled the Steam Holiday Auction, a special event taking place on its worldwide digital distribution platform Steam, enabling users to nab even more games on the cheap.
There are plenty of folks with a ton of inventory pocket lint, and the special event aims to make a little order and offer some games on top of that. If you have a lot of stuff lying around, this might be the best time to roll up your sleeves and get crafting.
The auction is set to take place from December 15 through December 18, with each round ending after 45 minutes. There will be a total of 200k games put on auction, around 100 copies of nearly 2,000 games, and one of each will be awarded to the top bidder at the end of each bidding round.
You needn't worry that your bid will go to waste, should someone offer more than you on any particular item. Once a bidding round ends, the top bidder wins a game, and all the other bids carry over to the next round.
Bidding is done through a special currency called Gems, which can be created by recycling Steam Community items, which you can find in your Steam Inventory. You can see the eligible items and their Gem value by going to your inventory, selecting the Steam tab and choosing Community from the drop-down menu.
In order to recycle an item and get the respective amount of gems, all you have to do is click the button next to each item.
Sweet deal, I want to find out more
Gems can also be used to craft Steam Trading Card Booster Packs, in case a bidding war is not something you want to get involved in.
If you do though, once you think you're ready and have enough gems in your pouch, you can simply select a game from the Auctions list and enter your bid. The gems will be removed from your inventory, and should the bid be canceled, they will be returned to you.
Canceling and managing bids is done through the My Bids sections, where you can simply click the bid you want to cancel or increase. However, you can't cancel your offer if you're the current top bidder.
Bids will carry over after each auction round, unless you manage to win the war and nab the game. After all bidding rounds are completed on December 18, all Gems from outstanding bids will be returned to your inventory.
You will still be able to use Gems to create Booster Packs after the event closes, so your work won't be in vain even if you manage to lose each of the bidding rounds.
Furthermore, Gems and Booster Packs are regular Steam Inventory items that can be traded or sold on the Steam Community Market, so you can simply turn them into real currency if you can't be bothered to take part in the Steam Holiday Auction.
Update: Valve has temporarily closed off the Auction, due to a Gem-related exploit that some pesky imps were taking advantage of. Fortunately, the elves are hard at work fixing things.
