The beginning of the Steam Holiday Auction has had some issues with Gems and is now temporarily closed.
Update: Valve has updated the Steam Holiday Auction page. It states the auction will return shortly. All gems that were created by you will return to your inventory in Steam, and all gem purchases in the community market will be reimbursed. Auction bids are being reset, and Valve is investigating trades involving gems on a case-by-case basis. A representative from Valve had nothing more to add.
Original story: Valve’s new event on Steam, the Holiday Auction, is on hold less than a day after it began. Valve has not stated yet when the auction will resume.
The Holiday Auction allows Steam users with trading cards, which you collect by playing the games and from other Steam users, to turn them into Gems. With those Gems, you bid on games in the auctions area. After each 45-minute period, the highest bidder wins the game.
The auction page is closed for “some issues with Gems,” as Valve states. However, some reports appearing on Reddit point to possible exploits of gems, in which people could earn large amounts of Gems and throw off the economy. This also, of course, allows people exploiting Gems to bid an absurd number and increase their chances of winning free games.
One Reddit user notes 100 gem items were valued at $0.03 around the beginning of the event, and then soon tanked to ridiculously low prices.
Additionally, users in the Steam subreddit have said their gems have disappeared, which is especially unfortunate for people who were converting their trading cards into gems. We have reached out to Valve for comment.
Valve stated the auction will resume as soon as issues are sorted out. It’s unknown whether the event will still go according to plan, ending on Dec. 18.
Source: Steam
