After what seemed like a very short beta period the steam trading cards has been released to the general public, perhaps partly for some of the reasons mentioned in the video and perhaps also because people were initially buying up copies people were listing for 3p and selling them on for £1-2. This was short lived when the second day of the beta steam released 200k new members and the price shortly crashed, however people were still out to make a profit by any means necissary, and this would now involve making dodgy deals in the trading forums to ensure they came out with a profitable deal no matter what, often trading thier one card for 2-3 or even more cards so they could accumulate a sizeable collection, and now these traders hold 500+ cards and still make these deals hopeing to control the system.
There are regular people on the trading system and it is a nice deal where you get card drops for playing the games and as a reward if you collect a full set you can craft a badge which increases your steam level (which grants minor privileges and status) and also gives you emoticons you can use and also a background for your profile, with the rare chance to earn some dlc (or a mystery card) or you will recieve a coupon for a percentage off a random game on steam, which can be applied on top of daily discount rates etc so they can be useful but often will not be.
I’m not being negative about the system or valve, it is a nice thing they have done and it encourages people to purchase and try games they may not have tried or heard of before, but its the people who take advantage of this that need to be kept in check and controlled, as these people creating discontent within the system end up causing valve to stop doing nice things like this and will eventually lead to the end of summer sales and nice treats because theres always the few that spoil it for the many.
What needs to be done is a single account for one person (really who needs multiple unless you’re taking advantage or screwwing valve over) and some sort of regulation over the way people trade and spamming of trade posts to bump themselves to the top, needless to say many arguments go out constantly, one even stating he was not being dodgy like some who offer 1:2 deals, yet he was asking for 9 tf2 cards for one mystery card, which you get by crafting like I just did, and he wanted the entire set so he could craft a new one, just to take advantage of people.
Maybe Im just a cynical brit, but I just don’t think its right to behave like that and take advantage of others to make money off something that is supposed to be a nice treat from valve