will be group buy here when the happy hour is on?

I'm interested in a group buy for this bundle. Will there be one?

Jur, I've heard BTA bundle gives you 'only' 2 copies, not 3: you get one game from 1$ tier and Spearhead is like a DLC addon that also gives you one additonal copy of the game to your inventory.

Originally posted by Zapek:

Jur, I've heard BTA bundle gives you 'only' 2 copies, not 3...

Well, you get three if you don't activate the Spearhead and the Standard keys in the same account.

And I'm also hoping there will be a group buy. :)

Also Jur, may I ask why you think people shouldn't sell the BTA games right now? With the current discount those games (at 0.75$) are almost certainly cheaper than they when both the full price (6$, not 5) and the bonus games are in place.

I've heard Spearhead NEEDS the "base game" in the account for activation. I've heard it's basically a "limited edition upgrade DLC".

Originally posted by Zapek:

I've heard Spearhead NEEDS the "base game" in the account for activation. I've heard it's basically a "limited edition upgrade DLC".

Oh, ok. If that's the case, they're obviously just 2 copies.

Originally posted by Zapek:

I've heard Spearhead NEEDS the "base game" in the account for activation. I've heard it's basically a "limited edition upgrade DLC".

This is incorrect; activating "Spearhead Edition" FIRST unlocks the full game and puts a gift copy into your inventory, you then have the non-bta copy as well.

If someone were to purchase this and enter the codes in order, however they would only have 2 as Steam over-writes lesser editions when entering the key to "complete, GOTY, gold" etc. editions.

If done properly you will recieve a total of 3 keys for Intersteller Marines, not 2. Confirmed on Reddit's /r/groupbuys by multiple individuals as well as myself just now.

Originally posted by RiotBricker:

Originally posted by Zapek:

I've heard Spearhead NEEDS the "base game" in the account for activation. I've heard it's basically a "limited edition upgrade DLC".

This is incorrect; activating "Spearhead Edition" FIRST unlocks the full game and puts a gift copy into your inventory, you then have the non-bta copy as well.

If someone were to purchase this and enter the codes in order, however they would only have 2 as Steam over-writes lesser editions when entering the key to "complete, GOTY, gold" etc. editions.

If done properly you will recieve a total of 3 keys for Intersteller Marines, not 2. Confirmed on Reddit's /r/groupbuys by multiple individuals as well as myself just now.

Well, thanks for information then :)

About a possible group buy, I think there should be some rules as well.

With the January IG bundle we've seen the same bundle offered for $2 and $1.80, later on $1.79. It was a very uncomfortable situation looking at the forums and the opinions of the people involved. This should not happen. Yeah, it's a free world, hello capitalism, demand and offer and stuff! Okay, I get it, but profit is not (should not) the objective of this group or we would be flooded with people trading for profit.

In this particular case this gave me the clear impression the more expensive price was for pure profit due to higher demand, while $1.80 still allowed an error/profit margin to prevent losses, but smaller. But still if you do the math, you see the actual bundle cost was lower than $1.80 (obviously). And later on undercutting by 1 cent would not be the end of the world but sounded a little disrespectful so say the least.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not diminishing the work of the hosts or the people that stepped up to make multiple group buys. I know group buys big like this require work and time, but the main goal is to save money, buy cheap, or no one would be interested in group buys. I suggest there is some sort of rule that establishes the disclosure of how much the bundle actually costs a piece after all the costs included (base price per bundle when bought in IG HH pricing, added the shared cost of the early buyer bundle, plus any fees/taxes, exchange rate conversion charged to the host etc)

For me it would be so much better if there was a "bundle cost" plus "tip" or "error/profit margin" like: "The bundle costs $1.60, and $0.20 is our minimum tip/margin, so we need at least $1.80"

This should prevent annoying and uncomfortable situations for the people hosting and participating the group buy.

But before Happy Hours happens all people that are offering those games have bought gala for it's 'normal' price (4/6$). So those that are posting on forums right now are not trying to profit ;)

K-Boom, I could not have said it better myself. Last time things went wrong. The main reason in my eyes was because of me not wanting to interfere with it at all. That was a mistake I won't make again. This time I'll try to arrange a bit more so these kind of weird situations won't happen again.

Zapek, right now it's allowed to group buy the bundle. After there has been a Happy Hour it will be forbidden to prevent people from making profit.

Originally posted by Jur:

Zapek, right now it's allowed to group buy the bundle. After there has been a Happy Hour it will be forbidden to prevent people from making profit.

So if I bought the bundle when it was locked at $3.99 and want to group buy after happy hour to bring my cost down (not profit) and give others the best deal I won't be allowed to?

Jur I'm not sure why you edited my post to remove the BTA when you said it was allowed to Group Buy now before HH, and yet didn't edit other peoples posts to remove the BTA. Why just me?

Originally posted by RiotBricker:

So if I bought the bundle when it was locked at $3.99 and want to group buy after happy hour to bring my cost down (not profit) and give others the best deal I won't be allowed to?

I'm sure if you do a group buy after HH and put up prices adequate to HH prices (<2$ for whole BTA bundle, ~10c for game) people will buy them from you gladly :)

Originally posted by Jur:

K-Boom, I could not have said it better myself. Last time things went wrong. The main reason in my eyes was because of me not wanting to interfere with it at all. That was a mistake I won't make again. This time I'll try to arrange a bit more so these kind of weird situations won't happen again.

It seems to me that the issue is whether there should be a single, official Group Buy or not.
If not, the situation that occurred with the January bundle simply has to be accepted: multiple sources, potentially different prices and a bit of confusion. Otherwise, better communication and probably even more price transparency would be needed.

The 1.79$ undercutting showed that there was a (small) margin for a (small) profit even on the official 1.80$ price tag, which in turn makes it hard to criticize the 2.00$ the same guy was offering before. I'm absolutely not complaining about the 1.80$ I paid, just to be clear. I just agree with K-Boom that ideally there should be a clear definition of the pure cost of the bundle and what is considered a fair/acceptable/deserved margin.