The community marketplace on Steam is a feature that probably not many of you actively use. Especially the emoticons offered there are rarely purchased for a few euros. However, Brian Haugh does not just buy them, he collects a very specific one, and you could even make him rich by selling the special emoticon.
Which emoticons are we talking about? Brian Haugh collects Steam hot dog emoticons created by Valve to promote the Steam Summer Sale 2016. The “:2016weiner:” emoticons, as they are called on Steam, look like a hot dog. This hot dog has little arms and legs and even wears shoes.
How many hot dog emoticons does Brian have? Brian Haugh told the online magazine Kotaku.com that he has spent over $250 on hot dog emoticons and currently owns 2,525 (as of June 30).
Brian causes price spikes through bulk purchases
What impact does Brian have on the Steam market? Brian Haugh has the curious goal of owning all hot dog emoticons on Steam. According to Kotaku, he keeps track of his over 2,500 acquired hot dog emoticons in a spreadsheet called “Wieners purchased over time.”
Brian even made bulk purchases in his quest for hot dog emoticons, which could in turn influence the Steam market. Through Steam’s data visualization combined with his own spreadsheet, Brian reportedly has evidence, according to Kotaku, that these bulk purchases led to price spikes of the emoticons.
He cites the example that on days when he would have bought each individual emoticon worth $0.03 to $0.10, the next day only emoticons worth $0.11 would have been sold.
Will Brian get rich from his hot dogs?
How could you make Brian rich? The number of hot dog emoticons on Steam is limited. Brian already owns 2,525 pieces and Steam records a total of 2,696 purchases – 2,605 purchases for $1.18 or less and 92 purchases of $1.50 or more (as of July 4, 2022, 1 PM).
Even though there is no exact number of how many “:2016weiner:” emoticons are available, these numbers suggest that Brian owns a large portion of the hot dog emoticons. If Brian were to actually own all of them someday, he could freely determine the average selling price of the wiener emoticons.
Given the fact that “:2016weiner:” emoticons are limited, it is quite possible that the value of the hot dogs could significantly increase in the distant future if other collectors suddenly develop interest in the sausages.
There is potential for the emoticons to become a digital investment. A concept that vaguely resembles the NFTs that are hotly debated in gaming.
Thus, we do not know whether the hot dogs with tiny shoes will become a valuable collector’s item, the price of which would depend on a single person – Brian Haugh – if he owns them all. However, it may be that Brian has created a valuable asset.
A sausage monopoly, if you will. If enough other collectors jump on the bandwagon, high prices are certainly conceivable, and the investment of $250 could easily multiply. But that remains pure speculation.
Hot dog emotes are more expensive than Payday 2
What value do the emoticons have? The price for the “:2016weiner:” emoticons has recently risen significantly when they are offered.
While most sales of the hot dog emoticons at 2,501 were made for under $0.41, the most recent sale was for $1.24. By comparison: that is still more expensive than the popular co-op game Payday 2 in the Steam Summer Sale 2022 costs.
In general, some Steam users seem to be reacting to the report from the website Kotaku and want to exploit Brian’s collector’s desire.
The report from Kotaku went online on Friday, July 1. Previous sales were at $0.07 and $0.05. On Friday, the price shot up to as much as $4.73. A total of 16 “:2016weiner:” emoticons were sold for over $4.40 that day. Even after that, the price remained well above $0.41 or $0.07.
At a price of $4.00, Brian’s approximately 2,500 sausages would already be worth over $10,000. As Kotaku reports, there is even a hot dog emoticon that is offered for $400. If Brian successfully sells his 2,525 emoticons and adjusts the average price to around $400, he would realmente be a millionaire.
Why does Brian collect the emoticons? When Brian was 16 years old, he played Mount and Blade: Napoleonic Wars as part of a group. In the summer of 2016, the hot dog emoticon was released, which he was totally excited about and spammed, as Brian told Kotaku.
Spamming the emoticon annoyed the game master, so he prohibited the use of emoticons and revoked Brian’s right to use the hot dog emoticon.
As a form of revenge, Brian and his friends decided to troll the server’s admin with the emoticons and spammed “:2016weiner:” emoticons until they were kicked from the server, he recounted. To celebrate the successful trolling, Brian then began to buy the emoticon in large quantities.
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