With the highly anticipated Steam Summer Sale now live, there’s no better time to share my personal guide to maximising deals and securing the best bargains during Steam sales.
First thing to do, when a Steam sale is on, is to complete your discovery queue daily. This is beneficial, as once you have completed a discovery queue; you can receive a free trading card. These trading cards are available for a limited time. If you complete a set, you will get 100xp each time, so it is handy for levelling up your account. However, even if you don’t get enough cards, you can always trade, sell or scrap cards for gems. I will also add that if there are game events on (such as a quiz or clicker game). It is wise to take part in them, as they often give you cards or even a badge for your profile. Also, the trading cards you get from normal games, I would complete any full sets at this time too, as you get cards for the sale event for doing so.
Now that I have discussed what to do regarding events held during the sale. I will show you the 5 rules for purchasing items in Steam sales (at least in my eyes). Granted, these apply to purchasing anything else, especially luxury or expensive items, in the real world.
1. Only Purchase What You Will Actually Play On and Make a List of What You Want
This rule seems really simple: buy only what you play. Since intentionally buying games for the hell of it is stupid and wasteful. But people buying items for the hell of it isn’t as uncommon a practice as you may think. This is because 37% of games on Steam accounts haven’t been played. Granted, I imagine many of these are bought in bundles, but in some cases, they aren’t. What I do is have a list of anything I’m after at any given time, and then I buy what I want.
2. Check the Prices of the Games and Check the Bundles on Offer on Each Product
If you find that a game that you are after is on sale. Your first thought may be that I would like this game. You click the first one you see as a reaction to something you want, and then you get it. Actually, before you buy anything, if you look around. On many instances, it is actually cheaper to get them in a bundle with other games. Sometimes you can even get the game with a season pass.
Take Lego Batman 3 (as pictured above) as a perfect example of this. At the time of writing, you can get all 3 Lego Batman games for only £2.99 (or £1 each, rounded up). However, you can get Lego Batman 3 on its own for £4.99. As a result, you are being paid £2 for taking the trilogy over this bundle. But let’s say you want the season pass, you can get it in the dedicated bundle for £5.99. Alternatively, you can buy the trilogy and Lego Batman 3’s season pass for £5.18. Buying the trilogy and the Lego Batman 3’s season pass will save you 81p and essentially get 2 games for free.
3. Don’t Fall For Advertisements
Just like above, checking prices is essential since advertisements are plastered everywhere on the Steam storefront page. More often than not, they will provide you with a mixed selection of games on offer. Complete with an X% off to try to entice you to purchase a product. If you see something you like, check a price comparison site such as https://www.steamdb.info for the best price for a given product, as some games are cheaper at other times of the year. Sometimes games can slowly come down in price, so it is wise to wait it out.
4. Check Reviews and What Others Are Doing
Seems like a wise idea to see what others are buying and/or playing on. Whether it comes from your Steam friends list or even Steam curators. Check reviews from anyone/everyone you can. See what others are doing, and even ask them for their opinions on things. This may seem like a silly idea. However, you can find a niche indie game that you have never seen or heard of. Sometimes buying indie or obscure games is a good thing. Namely because they can turn out to be the best game you have played on in a good while.
Also, don’t limit yourself to just looking at items that have a positive review status. I say this because there are plenty of products with mixed reviews.  However, every product will have its own pros and cons. Even genuine reviews don’t define a product’s quality. At times, a game is plagued with technical problems. It could have obtained bad reviews if it had a poor release. Perhaps people are irritated about something related to the product.  Sometimes grievances can have nothing to do with the product itself. Whilst basing your opinion of a product on the top reviews provides a good general idea of what to expect, it’s not the only way to get a sense of what to expect. Reviews aren’t always 100% accurate. Don’t dismiss anything just because it has mixed opinions, and always check it yourself.
5. Buy Sooner Rather Than Later if you know what you’re after
Whilst it may seem contradictory to all the advice I have given. However, this is because buying your products sooner rather than later (after you have looked at them, of course) is better. I say this because it has many benefits. Fundamentally, the main reason for doing this is that if a product isn’t any good or is unsuitable, you can get a refund. To get a refund, you have to fulfil certain criteria. Firstly, you have spent less than 2 hours using it. Secondly, you also have to refund it within the 2-week warranty period from the date of purchase.