A bug on Steam allowed you to buy unavailable games and items

A recent update to the Steam shopping cart system accidentally allowed users to purchase items and games that were no longer available in the store. This unexpected feature was quickly noticed by attentive gamers and was followed by a surge in unauthorized transactions.

The new Steam Cart update introduced a significant bug: it allowed the purchase of previously deleted items. Customers could add these non-existent items to their carts and proceed to checkout, which was previously not possible.

This glitch especially attracted users with the prospect of purchasing the coveted “Katowice 2014 capsules.” However, the items available for purchase were mostly marked as "DLC" from the 2016-2017 sticker collection, rather than rare old items.

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Steam has already started refunding money for these purchases. According to a well-known data miner, Steam is also removing these items from users' inventories to fix the problem.

The glitch highlights ongoing challenges in managing digital stores and raises questions about the control of legacy content on major platforms such as Steam. This incident may prompt a thorough review of the Steam Recycle Bin functionality to prevent similar issues in the future.