I feel like I need a money making Steam system too…although sadly I don’t really play those sorts of games.
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In the very beginning I was like, “I wanna get higher Steam Levels”. But after I got to level 25, by crafting cards and in most cases buying the ones I needed, I just said fudge it. And now I’m just crafting level 1 event Badges whenever I get a chance 
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https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/cVwJv/11-auto-accepting-steam-card-traders-list-both-asf-and-regular-bots
-“manual” trade my friend, (can manual trade via stm too, but you might be right that it wont list those either without an initial scan like the mass trades, have never tried)
anyways, set your inventory to “friends only”, and manual trade with these, i might have a couple of more that maybe isn’t on there, (some are probably duplicate entries tho), they usually have a trade token/link in their profile somewhere
Steam Community :: Error, Steam Community :: N!vq | 1:1 Trading Bot, Steam Community :: ArchiBot, Steam Community :: John Bastion [STM Trade], Steam Community :: Dr Nibble 1:1 trade bot, Steam Community :: Viwu's Card Trade Service, Steam Community :: Deps, Steam Community :: Paty Tabacão BOT, Steam Community :: ✪ GFG Trading Bot ~cross set, Steam Community :: VanillaBot, Steam Community :: Peritus | 1:1 Trading Bot
mind you, only 1:1 same set trades, +nothing “speculative” (usually around foils/“rares”), so “be nice” or you risk getting blacklisted if trying to get all “profiteering” on the poor bots 
some might only do “event”/sale cards 1:1 in some periods, varies/depends, usually most do all available same set cards 1:1,
a few even do emotes/background 1:1 same-set
(most only do “authenticator”/instant trade only tho, a few at time accept trade holds with some further stipulations, usually always detailed on their profile)
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I do this too. Crafting badge is supporting the dev in a small way. They get a cut of the card sales (and emote and background sales too?), and it’s a way of showing that you were willing in invest in showing off that game. Other people might not be so discerning though. ^^
Initially I wanted to reach lvl 100 since many of the people I associated with at the time had higher levels. Then I reached it. Now I just make badges for games I like (and the cards aren’t over 1€) or where making the badges is cheaper than getting the emote or background I want.
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Wow. That’s something that I’d never even considered so thanks for opening my eyes to that. Definitely going to have to rethink my approach.
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I decided 42 was a pretty profile level and decided to leave it at that. 
Now I’m selling all my cards and I have ALMOST enough to buy 2 more games I really want this sale:
Transistor (which I played through family sharing but I want to own) and Dex.
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sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell
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Earlier this year, I used my low-power living room pc to farm cards. Those cards paid for these games:
I have way too many games to play, so I cut down on buying games. Selling cards helps scratch the game buying itch.
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How is it even possible to earn that much? If you bought them earlier this year you didn’t even have the benefit of the Summer Sale prices.
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loooads of cards (sevae is a “library biggie” if i remember)
-or regional pricing 
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My general strategy is craft badges for games I like, sell cards if their average price is at least $0.05, and otherwise turn cards into gems. I just think it’s better to save up gems and sell the gem sacks for ~$0.65 than to sell cards for only a penny, especially if it’s a Steam sale event where you’re gonna get a buttload of cards that are worth a lot of gems, but aren’t worth much money (although it’s possible that my math is completely off there and I’m wasting a lot of potential cash 
).
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Just about every game I picked up throughout the year was the Summer Sale price or less.
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y which is exactly why i was quite disappointed at these sales, haven’t rly seen much of anything that we couldn’t get earlier at the same price
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Wut? How are you only lvl 55 then?
I only used my steam balance (which was max 5 euro in total) and card drops to get to my current level.
Did you use card bots to level up? I would expect to get more badges that way than directly buying cards from the market.
I don’t sell the cards because it takes me more time to sell them than it actual gives me back in money. I get like 3 cent on average per card I guess. So my inventory is still probably 60 bucks worth of cards.
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Wrong approach I guess. I farmed cards, and for games that has typically 5 cards, I would buy the two that don’t drop if I have 3 out of 5. Or if I have duplicates, I try to use the trader bots to get three different cards. Then completing the set with marketplace purchases… I use the “buy rest of the cards on the market” and so sometimes I paid probably more than I should, but was too lazy to try to figure out differences for a while. I didn’t even know that you could put purchase orders for a long time… 
I am completely new to steam, thus making the newb mistakes… But I am done with getting levels and such, don’t really feel the need to increase…
My first full set of cards was Velocibox, then I splurged and got Gungeon, then Stardew Valley, and everything was downhill from there… When I started I didn’t know about the traderbots either, just left duplicates in my account…
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To be frank though, I did buy a lot of shit games which were like 10-20 cents per game and had like 20-30 cents card drops. So I wouldnt be surprised if my actual wasted money would be much higher.
Traderbots and steamtradematcher are definitely a blessing when it comes to crafting badge, even for specific ones just to get the set together.
Often I also bought a cheap card from a set to trade it with a higher value one. If you are missing card 2 which is 10 cents and card 1 is 7 cents. Just buy 1 and trade it for 2 with a bot.
I think the best value you can get from cards it trading them in lump or trading them for games or something with someone who collects cards/wants badges. With selling on the marketplace you lose roughly 1/3 of the value. I don’t know about gems though and trading with that.
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depends a lot on the bot/lvl up service. Some has “such” a high key “price”/amount attached to X sets/lvls, it’s cheaper to buy the sets manually…
(but then again that would take the cost of “time”. +potential market fluctuation that could trip things up too)
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I thought about doing this, but it just seems like a lot of work, and what if the one card I need the bots don’t have? I didn’t really bother too much with this, but I understand the idea…
Farm cards? Like, from other games you have? Are you aware of the total price of all those games even in their best sale combined?
I picked up those games for $139.39.
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