PSA: Be Wary of "Pre-Steam Sale" Markups
One of the most popular tactics of physical retailers (marking up a product and then putting it on sale for the original price), is starting to plague Steam.
Steam's frequent, massive sales, like the current reddit [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141121-Valves-2015-Steam-Summer-Sale-Has-Begun] have noticed that quite a few publishers are taking advantage of the sale, utilizing an old retail trick known as the "pre-sale markup".
Essentially, what retailers (especially fashion retailers) would do, is take a product that normally sells for, say, $20. They would mark it up 100% to $40, and then immediately have a "50% off sale", during which the product is "on sale" for its regular price. It looks like Steam is no stranger to this, as Gaijin Entertainment [http://steamcommunity.com/app/236390/discussions/0/], among others, have raised the price of their games only to discount them during the sale.
There's also some shady stuff going on with Rockstar and GTA V [http://store.steampowered.com/app/271590/], in which the game appears to be on sale, but is only actually discounted when purchased together in a bundle that contains some in-game cash (essentially making the game "full price but with some free in-game cash").
The legality of this kind of tactic varies from country to county, but I think we can all agree that even if it is not illegal, it is still a dick move.
If you're interested in seeing which titles have changed price recently (in advance of the sale, specifically), be sure to check out the Steam Prices tracker [https://www.steamprices.com/us/tracker].
Source: Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/39ckjx/some_companies_are_raising_prices_on_their_steam/]
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One of the most popular tactics of physical retailers (marking up a product and then putting it on sale for the original price), is starting to plague Steam.
Steam's frequent, massive sales, like the current reddit [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141121-Valves-2015-Steam-Summer-Sale-Has-Begun] have noticed that quite a few publishers are taking advantage of the sale, utilizing an old retail trick known as the "pre-sale markup".
Essentially, what retailers (especially fashion retailers) would do, is take a product that normally sells for, say, $20. They would mark it up 100% to $40, and then immediately have a "50% off sale", during which the product is "on sale" for its regular price. It looks like Steam is no stranger to this, as Gaijin Entertainment [http://steamcommunity.com/app/236390/discussions/0/], among others, have raised the price of their games only to discount them during the sale.
There's also some shady stuff going on with Rockstar and GTA V [http://store.steampowered.com/app/271590/], in which the game appears to be on sale, but is only actually discounted when purchased together in a bundle that contains some in-game cash (essentially making the game "full price but with some free in-game cash").
The legality of this kind of tactic varies from country to county, but I think we can all agree that even if it is not illegal, it is still a dick move.
If you're interested in seeing which titles have changed price recently (in advance of the sale, specifically), be sure to check out the Steam Prices tracker [https://www.steamprices.com/us/tracker].
Source: Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/39ckjx/some_companies_are_raising_prices_on_their_steam/]
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