Many of you know about Steam trading cards. These cards are "dropped" according to an algorithm after a certain amount of time in-game.

Some people may be less interested in playing a game than getting the cards from the game, or need the cards for a trade. These people might employ a technique called "farming". What they do is leave the game idle just to get the cards from the game. For some games, they wouldn't even have to run the game to get the cards: They would merely have to idle in the game launcher. Steam registers this as "in-game" for these games.

Do you farm? I employed this tactic for a long time, but no longer use it very often due to power costs exceeding the worth of the cards. I only use it when it's necessary, like when I wouldn't have the money to afford a game I'd want to trade for.

I think calling it "farming" is a huge push... 

You simply get cards for playing a game (if it has them). Farming is where you just do the same thing over and over again to usually make your character stronger or richer in games. 

There's no effort really involved in getting them either.... Plus if one was truly to "farm" cards they'd end up spending more on games that have cards than the actual value of the cards itself.

Let's say an average game is about $10.. Most games with card sets have between 5-10 cards in a set.. Which means you will get up to 5 cards total (The amount of cards you get from a game is equal to half the amount needed to make a badge, E.G 5-6 card sets will give you 3 cards, whilst 7-8 card sets will give you 4 cards)

Most cards sell for around 20 cents... So yeah... It's not really farming... it's more a tiny little perk to possibly redeem some money spent.

All in All if you want to level up your steam account (for whatever reason) your best just buying the cards from the market...
If your game has cards great, you can get some money back from the cards... but not a lot..
But buying a game because it has cards is redundant.. Your just wasting your money...

Anyway sorry that got a bit off track but i wanted to share some information that many people seem to ignore... 

DO I FARM CARDS?
Nope, I just play games... I didn't even realise i had 214 cards until someone was speaking about them... All i know is that having a high level or a lot of cards is more trouble than it's worth... Especially if you don't enjoy people randomly adding you just to ask you for free things... that is all.

Nope, I don't really care for the cards, because they don't do too much for me. All I want to do with them is sell them. I would try to get the achievements, but not the trading cards...

I haven't heard of this. I only sell cards i have multiples of, and even then I've only made about 40 cents off of them. I also don't think i will try it, it just doesn't sound like my thing. I'd rather obtain cards through a normal means.

I have heard of this, but I don't know if I would actually do this one I get my laptop at around Christmas time. I have heard that people do it in exchange for games, so who knows. 

My understanding is the cards randomly drop at a miniscule percentage against each game you have ever played, hence you don't need to be in game or launcher.
Unless you can c also get cards from in game.
I know you get 3 from each title before it locks up and only gives out every now c and then.
I don't know that I have ever received a bonus card. And every card I have is common, so I have little interest in using the damn things.

@thenumberone.
You're a tad bit wrong. Basically you get card drops (I wanna say every 30 minutes-hour) in a game. You can get around half the cards it has (most games have around 6-7 so 3 is the common number, but some have up to 15!). You can't get cards outside game but you can get booster packs based on how much badges you have (I think).
Booster packs have 3 cards each.

DARKANINE :
That would be why I get around 3 then.
It's not necessary to 'farm' for them, I always have them within an hour.
Not a Single complete set to date.

This seems to have lost a lot of interest and hasn't been much active.

*closed*