Steam’s recently introduced trading card system might just be the most brilliant consumer loyalty program ever devised within the video game industry.

Hyperbole? Maybe. But Steam trading cards are the real deal. Even if you’re a gamer that hates microtransactions, Valve’s innovative card marketplace might just change your mind now that you’re the one raking in the cash.

Let’s run this down:

How it Works

When you play trading card-enabled games on Steam, that game’s cards will randomly “drop,” automatically adding them to your Steam inventory. The number of free drops you can get just by playing is equal to half of that game’s total number of cards. So if a game has 10 cards, you’ll get 5 free card drops.

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After that, you become eligible for a random booster pack drop, which provides three more cards for that game. Booster packs are awarded randomly to any Steam user that has received all their free drops and remains active on Steam.

Once you complete a set of cards you can redeem them for a nifty profile badge and a variety of other digital rewards. The more Steam users turning in cards to create badges increases that game’s booster pack drop rate, smartly regulating the card supply.

Got it? Good. Let’s take a look at what makes this so brilliant, and why it puts Microsoft and Sony’s marketplaces to shame.

Real Rewards

Steam trading cards score one over on your Xbox or PlayStation account because collecting and redeeming them actually earns you exclusive digital rewards. Things like silly Steam chat emoticons, profile wallpapers, and, potentially, coupons for other Steam games.

My snap judgement was that these rewards were pretty lame. Emoticons? Wallpaper? Really? But then I remembered that Microsoft and Sony have been selling gamers UI skins and other virtual trinkets for years. Want that sweet Bikini Woman Waving an American Flag theme? Sure thing - just pay $2.99. The Xbox Avatar Marketplace will let you advertise Turbo Racing League on a T-Shirt for the low price of $1.00. Gross.

Just $2.99 everyone!

At least Valve has turned these digital goods into a collecting meta-game that’s free to participate in.

And if you truly don’t care about any of this digital miscellany? That’s fine, too. Just sell it.

Digital Profits

Fair enough if you don’t go in for digital card collecting shenanigans, don’t know how many platinums you’ve earned, and have no idea what your gamerscore is. You're just in it for the fun. But you almost certainly care about your bank account balance, right?

Here, too, Valve’s new system wins out. If you have zero interest in Steam trading cards, you can keep playing PC games as you always have. When you earn one of the random card drops you can sell those cards for real money.

Yes, it works. And yes, other gamers are participating. Through normal Borderlands 2

Not exactly enough money to retire on. But if you’re a curmudgeon that doesn’t care about “digital goods,” you can still check your inventory every six months, sell whatever cards you’ve earned, and nab FTL or Terraria for free with the profit.

My experience was not an isolated one. The Steam Community Market includes historical price data for all the items up for sale. Yesterday, July 22, 115 Borderlands 2 trading card booster packs were sold at prices ranging from $1.57 to $2.01. This is a market with real liquidity.

Wins All Around

Valve isn’t operating this Marketplace out of the goodness of its heart. The company takes a 5% cut of every transaction, and a 10% cut goes back to the game publisher (encouraging widespread adoption of the trading card system). So those 115 booster packs sold yesterday? They made Valve $10 and 2K Games $20, as well as $175 for gamers directly. Of course, the "profit" gamers make goes back into each seller's Steam wallet, ensuring Valve eventually gets a bigger payday.

$20 doesn’t sound like much, but individual Borderlands 2 cards and items are also for sale, to let people fill gaps in their collection. Around 2,000 were sold yesterday alone, for around $0.30 each. That’s another $40 for 2K and $20 for Valve. Around 225 ultra-rare “foil” Borderlands 2 cards were also sold yesterday, for around $1.85, generating $36 for 2K and $18 for Valve

Suddenly, these numbers aren’t so small. Totaled up, Steam users selling Borderlands 2 digital goods generated $96 for 2K and $48 for Valve in a single day. That’s $35,040 a year for 2K and $17,520 for Valve. For one game. There are 144 (and counting) Steam games that support trading cards. This has potential to be a million-dollar business for Valve, if it isn’t already.

The new normal.

It’s a brilliant system that exposes the lack of imagination at Sony and Microsoft. The two console makers have been content for years to sell overpriced digital add-ons directly to their audience. Meanwhile, Valve has devised a fun way to give away the same type of digital goods for free, let gamers profit from these items, and likely make more money for itself along the way by taking a small cut.

Eight years ago when Microsoft revealed the Xbox 360, the company announced that gamers like Velocity Girl might not even need to play games at all. They could make money by selling virtual items like stickers, boards, or even entire skate parks. In the end, Valve beat Microsoft to the punch. And you don't even need to put your creative skills to use to make a profit. Just play games on Steam.

It’s very rare to come across such an elegantly designed system that represents a win for everyone involved.

Justin Davis is the second or third best-looking Editor at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @ErrorJustin and on IGN