Steam/Origin Keys

[J4MES OX4D 10,033]

I have been looking at buying BF4 Premium and there is a seller on eBay with nearly 16,000 code transactions with a website that seems very reputable and has the Origin key for £27 as opposed to £40 on the actual Origin store. The feedback is 99.5 positive and the site has not been questioned or taken down. It's a great offer but is this process entirely safe? I only purchase through the stores usually but seeing a saving of £13 for essentially the same thing seems too good to be true as with many other products from Key/Code distributors. How do these sites get codes and afford to off them at such a cheap rate and why would the likes of Origin allow a trader to sell on behalf when someone who wants something is tied to buying through their store at a fixed price of their choice?

 

I've read a few stories of people getting banned for this process but there does seem to be some 'legit' code sellers out there but I am not sure if this is a fancy scam or if they have permission to distribute on the publishers behalf.

 

Here is the seller in question http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Battlefield-4-Premium-Service-PC-Add-On-BF4-Key-EA-Origin-Download-Code-/131019454670?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e815e38ce

 

and the website http://www.gamecard.mobi/

[Jason 1,245]

I've never heard of this, just commenting as a "bookmark," so I can see what happens. Lol

[Aitchy 8]

I have been looking at buying BF4 Premium and there is a seller on eBay with nearly 16,000 code transactions with a website that seems very reputable and has the Origin key for £27 as opposed to £40 on the actual Origin store. The feedback is 99.5 positive and the site has not been questioned or taken down. It's a great offer but is this process entirely safe? I only purchase through the stores usually but seeing a saving of £13 for essentially the same thing seems too good to be true as with many other products from Key/Code distributors. How do these sites get codes and afford to off them at such a cheap rate and why would the likes of Origin allow a trader to sell on behalf when someone who wants something is tied to buying through their store at a fixed price of their choice?

 

I've read a few stories of people getting banned for this process but there does seem to be some 'legit' code sellers out there but I am not sure if this is a fancy scam or if they have permission to distribute on the publishers behalf.

 

Here is the seller in question http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Battlefield-4-Premium-Service-PC-Add-On-BF4-Key-EA-Origin-Download-Code-/131019454670?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e815e38ce

 

and the website http://www.gamecard.mobi/

 

 

Seen that seller on ebay also, can not say if they are licenced or not, my guess is they get them direct from cheaper regional licenced stores, stores like Nuuvem and then resells them on ebay. Or they have a conection and are getting the code/voucher code promotions from the AMD GPU's.

 

My guess would be the the region liceneced cd key retialers (game prices are cheaper in other regions) and many publishers and drms's including steam and origin will adjust the prices according to region. For example Nuuvem is a brazillian store so keys they get direct from the publishers will be priced according to that region even though many people outside that region will buy them to save money. (There is suggestion that they are not intended for international buyers but from what I have seen many people will buy this way) Sometimes they will region lock codes like this but that depends on the actual publisher choosing to do that.

 

Other example would be a connection in the cryptocoin industry or hardware industry who will be supplying them with bulk AMD voucher codes for the game beacuase they are mass buying AMD gpu's to build crypto coin machines or building PC's to sell. ( this is aimed only at battlefield 4 )

 

In short the seller you linked will be selling legit codes from one of the two methods above is what I woudl speculate.

 

Here is that brazillian licenced store http://www.nuuvem.com , they get game keys direct from publishers, make sure to transale the website and check for any region lock warning if you decide to buy from sites like this. If you convert the prices back to GBP you will see that a lot of games will be cheaper.

 

For example they offer Battlefield 4 for 109 Brazilian Real right now, that equates to about £28 GBP, they will of most likely had a discount promotion in the past thus making it even cheaper, or ebay stores like you linked might make a deal to buy  bulk codes from sites like this that get the codes direct from the game publishers at reduced region prices.

 

If you want the best deals on games from licenced sellers and you use reddit I recommend keeping an eye on http://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/ they will include deals from all region stores. And explain about any regional locks etc

 

Its likely that ebay sellers like you linked if not licenenced are cutting deals for bulk codes from these kind of sites.

 

There is a few other websites that will give you the best gaming deals from around the globe also.

 

Also installing http://www.enhancedsteam.com/  (web browser add on)  will show you pricing history of games on yoru browser when viewingt the steam store, it will include licenced cd key sellers such as Nuuvem.

 

What enhanced steam will show you on your web browser http://i.imgur.com/8smdFnJ.jpg

 

When you click info it will direct you to this page and show you lowest prices from all the legit cd key sellers http://i.imgur.com/B0RpfOs.jpg

 

Nuuvem had Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition for just over £6 !!

 

This site will show you all current deals from licenced retailers and historical low prices http://isthereanydeal.com/

 

As for a site like Nuuvem well I have not bought from them personally buy know a few people who do, I do not think they take paypal but will take credit card and going by the gamedeals section on reddit lots of other people do as they are always in the hot section with people saying they bought in the comments, I do not think they are suppose to sell to people outide that region technically, but Im just suggesting where these cheap codes come from. And no you won't get banned for buying a code and activating it from anyone, even if you bought a code from ebay from a new ebay seller that happened to buy codes with a stolen credit card then resell them on ebay your game would just get removed from your account. This has happened with humble store games on mass recently, your game would just get removed from your library.

 

I do not think there is much stores like Nuuvem can do to stop international buyers, I mean they have to take a payment method which is widely used, and they only way they can stop international buyers is the publisher puttign a region lock on the code, which does happen with some games.

 

Its the same with Amazon digital sale games for PC, many of these codes on Amazon will be cheaper on the US store but state only for buyers with an American billing address, there is an easy way around this which many people use, to get the the region free codes from the Amazon US store

 

Old post but thought I would give some info and share the best place to always see the best daily deals, (/r/gamedeals)  they also post console game deals there btw