That was an often-quoted value in the forums. Now 50c per coal is relatively high and usually trades treat coal around about 40c.
I would expect in the last couple of days of this promotion the price will plummet further because most Steam users appear to be of the opinion that there is no point keeping coal for the end-of-promotion contest (the prize giveaways) because odds are negligible anyway, and so supply will increase.
I expect the price of coal will level out at a point that reflects the average value of items won from crafting (or to be precise, 1/7th the average value of items won from crafting).
I guess so. That's exactly why Humble Bundle Inc ended up having to enforce a minimum price of $1 for Steam keys to be given with their bundles. Not a lot of people knew but GetGamesGo were even giving out Steam keys for free (their recent bundle could be bought for $0 an unlimited number of times until they noticed the abuse).
IMO the number of people who'd do that on a scale to 'farm' the coal would not be high enough to put an upper limit on the value of coal. And I think towards the end of the promotion it would lose its viability anyway.
It's probably under 10%. Maybe about 5%. It's hard to tell.
I traded some cheap games to get some coal and then have used coal to buy up some coupons very cheaply. For instance I got a -33% Bethesda coupon for 3 coal (about 80 cents worth), and if Skyrim goes on sale for about $40 again that coupon would represent more than $10 value (if buying the game of course!). It's a tiny bit of a gamble because I'm basically hoping games that I'm interested in will go on sale in the next two months, but when they do go on sale, I will have coupons that will apply over the top of the discounted price.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4210-YIPC-0275
What's especially interesting about all these coupons ending up on the market is that a lot of people don't appear to realise these coupons will be stackable with discounts in the next two months. Most coupons can be picked up for 1 coal or usually less. Only some of the very sought after and expensive games (e.g. Skyrim, MW3, Saints Row 3) are managing to keep their coupons at 3 coal or more, but even those are a steal if there's a moderate to reasonable chance you'll be picking up a game on sale in the next 2 months.
Some people I've seen throughout my trading appear to be on to a similar idea and have upwards of 4 pages of their Steam inventory taken up by coupons. Since these coupons will have trading value for the next two months, it would be amusing if these people end up making real cash from them. It's a risky investment, but for a few dollars spent during the sale, IMO worth it.
. There's been a bit of a storm going on in here
