The Grey Market: Inside the World of CD Key Sites

[News Portal]

Sites that sell CD keys have emerged as a new force for the thrifty gamer, but also as one that has struggled to lose their reputation of being untrustworthy. James Pinnell dives into the world of CD key sites and speaks to the people behind the stores to understand why and how they do what they do.

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[PalZer0]

Personally, I shy away from these sites due to the risk (no matter how remote) of getting a dud key and/or getting my Steam account disabled.

If a title is price jacked on Steam, I just buy from EB or Game.

[Gamer87]

Personally, I shy away from these sites due to the risk (no matter how remote) of getting a dud key and/or getting my Steam account disabled.

If a title is price jacked on Steam, I just buy from EB or Game.

prob gotten around 20+ keys from sites, never had a issue.
I don't see the point in paying double what other countries charge. and stuff local retailers, they're just as bad

[witcher01]

CJSkeys has a terrible repuation for anyone reading this with no expierence with these sites avoid them.

use cdkeyshere.com or cdkeyhouse.com < 2 sites i stand by and have been using for years..


plus cdkeyshere has aussie staff

[azza1120]

i recently brought Mount & Blade With Fire & Sword Pc from Direct2play.com for $5 COMPLETE SCAM!!! they gave me a key that clearly did not fit the activation box lucky it was only $5.

NEVER have brought from a website like that again don't trust them i have been buying from ozgameshop for the price its worth the wait.

EDIT i contacted their support completely useless

[witcher01]

ozgameshop is GOD for hard copies.. they get A++ from me

[Fireslide]

I've had no issues with CJ's cdkeys. Bought a fair chunk of stuff from there now.

[Slipoch]

I and my former flatmate have both dealt with CJS and had no issues, I had trouble activating my version of civ 5 (due to it being a region locked key) and they activated it for me (I gave a temp password for my steam acc then changed it) I kept a close eye on my account and there has been no problems, that was 2 years ago.

My flatmate had even fewer issues, every code he bought from them worked instantly.

One thing I would be wary of is sites that are misspelled or places that try to get more of a market share by bagging out competitors (cdkeyhouse has done this on quite a few sites now.)

[lordkabab]

Personally, I shy away from these sites due to the risk (no matter how remote) of getting a dud key and/or getting my Steam account disabled.

If a title is price jacked on Steam, I just buy from EB or Game.

You're probably more likely to get a dud key from a retail purchase....

[Syncourt]

Been about a yeah and a half since I've used steam as my primary store. Since then I've bought all my steam keys at G2play.net and if they don't sell the game I want I turn to Ozgameshop and get a retail copy delivered.

Indie games are the only thing I purchase through steam these days. Sometimes occasionally during the steam sales they manage to beat the ozgameshop/g2play prices though.

What I like most about these sites (next to the pricing) is that you get a certain amount of in-store credit with every purchase depending on the price of the purchased game. So after a number of purchases you can pretty much get a free game, or just use the credits to discount a purchase.

[PalZer0]

You're probably more likely to get a dud key from a retail purchase....

The only issue I see with retail keys is if someone else has used the key before me. Nothing that would get my Steam account disabled though.

[Sathias]

I've been using elitekeys for quite some time and their customer service is impeccable. I bought a Skyrim key for the Secret Santa, which ended up being cancelled by Bethesda for some reason (only key I've had an issue with). The owner Floyd just asked to see the email from Valve so he could check the headers to ensure it was legit, then gave me credit no questions asked. The only annoying issue is when you get a Russian language version of a game and have to hack in English language support.

[Yurtles]

i recently brought Mount & Blade With Fire & Sword Pc from Direct2play.com for $5 COMPLETE SCAM!!! they gave me a key that clearly did not fit the activation box lucky it was only $5.

NEVER have brought from a website like that again don't trust them i have been buying from ozgameshop for the price its worth the wait.

EDIT i contacted their support completely useless

I've bought half a dozen or so keys from Direct2Play in the past year, never had any issues worth mentioning.
The only problem I can think of with them is that english doesn't appear to be their first language, so some things can get a little lost in the translation.
That said, Ozgameshop is also my first stop for games after Steam, with cd key sites as a last resort (or if they have something stupidly cheap and NOT Russian in origin)

[TheD]

DD stores like GamersGate and greenmangaming sell some steamworks games (among the games they sell that use there own DRM).
Instead of giving you a download, they give you a steam key (No chance of being scammed or getting your steam account banned, they are major DD game retailers with unique keys).

They also have good sales (and in the case of gamersgate.co.uk , no regional pricing).

[asmodai]

CJSkeys has a terrible repuation for anyone reading this with no expierence with these sites avoid them.

use cdkeyshere.com or cdkeyhouse.com < 2 sites i stand by and have been using for years..


plus cdkeyshere has aussie staff

I'll agree with the review of CJ's, purchased two ME3 keys for a mate and I and waited 5 days after release date, getting mail every 8 hours or so, telling me my keys were available.

Eventually canceled the order (which also took some dicking around) and picked up keys instantly from greenmangaming.com at the same price. Both worked perfectly.

For noting, standard ME3 was 44 odd USD (so 42-43 AUD) rather than 79.99 on origin. Even with the From Ashes DLC, it was still 25 bucks cheaper, so I definitely think there are some good bargains out there that far beat local brick and mortar or online services which have localised pricing, but your mileage may vary.

It's disgusting that with the dollar so high, we can easily pay 40% more than US prices for identical digital products.