Someone just broke the Steam Trading Card economy to buy a Steam Deck — and to everyone’s surprise, it worked.
X user @Ringler_SSBM, also known as The Sovereign Netizen, tweeted on February 3: “My goal is to buy a Steam Deck entirely with Trading Cards.”
His plan? Collect as many trading cards as possible from his Steam friends — no matter their value or quantity — just as long as he has something to sell. His goal was to amass 52,000 trading cards, enough to reach the Steam Deck’s retail price: $399 for the 256GB LCD version, $549 for the 512GB OLED, and $649 for the 1TB OLED.
@Ringler_SSBM has documented his journey extensively, keeping track of every step toward his goal. Each update freaked him out. Since then, he has steadily grown his Steam Wallet using only Steam’s Trading Card Market.
For the uninitiated, Steam Trading Cards exist within Valve’s marketplace, allowing players to earn small amounts of revenue from the games they play. It’s a random drop every time a user plays a game. These cards can be used to craft badges that increase a player’s Steam Level, or they can be traded and sold for real money.
Most Steam Trading Cards sell for as little as $0.03, but rarer cards — especially from newer games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 — can go for $4 to $8 each.
When @Ringler_SSBM first started, he only had a measly $57 in his Steam Wallet. After a short nap, he woke up to find his balance had doubled. That was enough to get him hooked on the thrill of watching the numbers rise. Soon, friends and strangers alike began donating cards to his cause, with over 16,000 flooding his inventory. He even joked that someone at Valve might be panicking as he slowly destabilizes this niche economy.
As of today, he has amassed $650 — enough to afford the most expensive Steam Deck, the 1TB OLED model. In total, he has sold over 22,000 trading cards, and at this rate, he will likely exceed the console’s price in just a few hours. Any extra funds will be donated to hospitalized gamers who don’t have access to a Steam Deck. A true hero.
If you’ve been following his journey on X, it’s been a wild ride. Call it crazy, but gamers will do just about anything for the thrill of it. All he wanted was a Steam Deck — and now, he’s made it happen.