"The Steam Holiday Auction" Event Announced - December 15th-18th

[Omnomnick]

Christmas has come early for Steam this year, as a brand new event known as "The Steam Holiday Auction" has been revealed. The event, set to properly begin on December 15th 2014, will allow users to recycle unwanted Steam Community items of varying values (trading cards, backgrounds, emoticons, etc) in order to manufacture "Gems" from their Steam Inventories which can then be used to bid on selected games or items being auctioned off. The highest bidder on each item will win that round, counting down until there are none of the 100 copies remaining.

Come December 15th, a new auction will begin every 45 minutes as players bid to win one of a number of free games, software, and items. Three days later on December 18th, the final auction round will end at 10am PST. For now, players may collect gems and place their bids on nearly 2,000 support titles in order to get a head start for Monday. As usual, gems can also be purchased from the Steam Marketplace should you not have any spare items laying around. Spare gems can also be used to craft Trading Card Booster Packs for games in the user's library. Placing a bid on an item will also award the user the unique "Auction Participant" badge and 100 XP for their Steam profile.

It's an interesting new take on Steam mini-games that is definitely worth checking out if you're looking for free or cheap games. Be sure to also check out the event's own comic and the full FAQ for more information. Just be sure not to spend too much money on extra gems, as it's looking likely the annual Steam Holiday Sale will begin shortly after the conclusion of the auction next Thursday. Happy Bidding!

 

[HeadClot]

Interesting

 

[Wheaties-Of-Doom]

Nice way to filter out some of the overstock in the community market.

 

[User With No Name]

Never thought I'd see the day where a Steam sale would get it's own comic from Valve.

 

[Wheaties-Of-Doom]

It strikes me... four days of people bidding and out-bidding one another... the top gem bids are going to skyrocket. Unless what you want is unassuming, unheard-of, or unloved, don't get your hopes up.

... also, the booster pack crafting system appears to be a little lopsided. I used 40 cents worth of gems to make the equivalent of a dollar in trading cards.