Is it just me or does it look like the beginning of the end for grey markets?

Pika! Pika!

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Is it just me or does it look like the beginning of the end for grey markets?
« on January 21st, 2020, 01:29 PM »Last edited on January 22nd, 2020, 06:56 AM
In the past I used to buy games at G2A and Kinguin every now and then, but nowadays prices at both platforms have increased dramatically. In addition to that, Kinguin does not seem to have much supply anymore and also seeks to hit buyers with a 'platform development fee' which is rather strange as they also created a crypto (of which its buyers seem to feel ripped off), so one would think they would have enough funds. Maybe Kinguin also lost a lot of sellers after it incurred significant problems with paying them in a timely manner. It also no longer always accepts wallet credit.....certain cheap sellers require cash only......so the wallet credit is no longer equal to cash at Kinguin. Relatively speaking, things have not taken such a turn for the worse at G2A, but still prices have increased.

Is this the beginning of the end for platforms such as G2A and Kinguin? Does anyone know what happened to its prices? Nowadays it seems it is perhaps more interesting to just buy all games via the official channels. Did Steam fix crossborder keys/gifts in a way that relative currency value no longer plays the same role? It also seems that G2A no longer allows bundled games to be sold there (or at least not when the bundle is ongoing). For example Stardew Valley is more expensive at G2A than the entire Humble Bundle costs which includes it......in the past something like that would have never happened. I suppose it is a good thing for game developers if that is the case......I am just curious what happened that I missed.

[Lestrades.com] Nao 尚

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I don't know, I haven't bought a game at g2a in ages, all I know is that I keep doing trades, so as long as money isn't involved, the gray market is still very much alive to me.
My dreams of turning LT's into a proper store are long gone, but I'm pretty sure any newcomer could make it work as well. Not everyone is as greedy as those other websites.

Annoyer13

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G2a and kinguin have so huge traffic, that even the increased prices (probably from additional fees) won't matter that much. Also, there's other key selling websites with much more competetive prices and ofcourse official stores that on promos have prices that are usually lower than everywhere else.

(Sosa)Wayne

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[Lestrades.com] Nao 尚

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No, there are still 250-300 unique accounts logging into it every month (I'd say about 150 unique accounts per week, or so..?), it's not much compared with its beginnings but I'm not really fussed about it, the trading system has really never been the main feature of the site to me. It's all about managing your library, tradables etc with easier tagging than on BVG while remaining compatible with it, and basically it's about making things easier, since it couldn't gain enough traction to make the trading section really take off.

So, basically, people would tell me, "I would trade more on Lestrade's if there were more users to trade with", then they say "I can't find enough users, I'm sorry but I'm leaving", and then that's it, we lose users.
Not a big deal, again.

As for whether or not I'm working on the site -- nope, I'm afraid not. I still come on a daily basis (sometimes I'll miss a few days), if only to fix imported bundles and the likes, and I'll also fix bugs if they're reported (or if I can find them in my error log.)

A website is only dead when it no longer has any users and/or it's actually unplugged from the Internet. ;)