Steam Gems – Auction Holiday Event – from Dec 15th to the 18th.

Gems were first created on the 11th for the auction. The auction hosts 2000 games with 100 copies each = 200,000 copies of games to bid for.

Is steam gems a new currency?

Every 1000 gems you can make a bag to trade in the market. You can buy them from the market.

Note: The gems can be made during or after the event and will not disappear.

How does one get steam gems?

Steam gems are earned by converting the items in your steam inventory. (10-100 range per item)

Cards
Backgrounds
Emoticons

One purpose of steam gems is to convert items normally worthless (3 cents items) into something you can use to bid.

What can I use steam gems for?

They are used for only three things.

One: Bid for games in the auction
Two: Use gems to craft booster packs
Three: Trade in Market

Note: If you place a bid and do not win, the gems will be refunded back to you.

How does the auction work?

Once the auction starts on Dec 15th 10:00, every 45 minutes the next highest bid will be displayed and if the person is still highest they get the copy. So every 45 minutes is a copy given away to highest bider.

Note: It says first auction ends at 10:45.

Auction Rules for Bidding?

“Steam will automatically increase your bid up to this amount to keep yours the highest bid. Your bid will never exceed that max (unless you increase it later).”

“You can increase your bid at any time. You can cancel the bid to return the Gems to your inventory as long as you are not the top bidder.”

Why was it up on the 11th and taken down after a few hours?

The reason its not up yet, even though it was last night on the 11th was because of a huge issue with people duplicating the gem bags and selling them for dirt low prices.

They will likely have to back-roll the servers or reverse transactions to redeem this issue.

Is this the steam winter sales?

No, that will take place right after the auction ends on the 18th.

Is there badges for the auction event?

Yes there is about 3 badges.

To create gems
To bid on a game
To win a bid.

(Added questions and answers I think would help clear up any additional questions)