Games that have cards drop have a limited amount that drop (half -1, there are charts out there, I'm sure someone will post here for you). Some games that have in app purchases like cs:go you can get extra drops from spending up to $9 USD's (I think, have no checked that in years so make sure).

The rest you need to trade and buy from the Steam market, you may be able to craft boosters with gems too (3 cards, random what you will get).

Regular badges have 5 levels and foils have 1 level.

I'll copy my post from reddit here regarding boosterpacks, but lots of it will explain things for cards too.

To summarize all info regarding booster pack drops:

They only drop if you've gotten all trading card drops a game can give you by running the game. They will always drop half the amount of cards you would need to craft a single badge rounded up.
So a game having 5 or 6 total cards, gives you 3 drops.
A game having 7 or 8 will give you 4 drops and so on.

Once you've gotten all the drops, you're eligible for that game to recieve boosterpack drops, which will only drop ONE pack when someone else on Steam is crafting a badge for that specific game randomly distributed between all eligible users. So boosterpack drops aren't global, they're divided per game.

The main reason people aren't getting many drops or none at all, are vast, but understandable:

- The more users have the game, the more people compete for each pack.
- The more levels your account has, the higher the chance. You gain a bonus 20% dropchance for every 10 levels you have and there are a lot of accounts in the hundreds of levels by now. Some accounts even have thousands of levels.
- The more popular the badges for these games are, the more badges will be crafted and the more drops will be spread.
- The older a game is, the more people have already crafted their badges, so less and less drops are being distributed between the users.
- Conversely, the newer a game is, the more people want to craft the badges, so a higher chance of drops.

You can trade for more cards or buy additional cards from people selling their card drops on the market. You can also buy boosterpacks on the market or craft boosterpacks yourself using gems, so it is always possible to craft the badges by doing that instead of trading or having to rely on the cards on the market themselves.

Keep in mind that many boosterpacks will be sold above their worth and conversly, many will also be much cheaper than buying the cards on its own. You can easily check it by the amount of total cards a badge needs to be crafted.

Crafting Boosters Cost: 6000 divided by the number of cards in the set:

6000 : 5 = 1200 Gems
6000 : 6 = 1000 Gems
6000 : 7 = 857 Gems
6000 : 8 = 750 Gems
6000 : 9 = 667 Gems
6000 : 10 = 600 Gems
6000 : 11 = 545 Gems
6000 : 12 = 500 Gems
6000 : 13 = 462 Gems
6000 : 14 = 429 Gems
6000 : 15 = 400 Gems

Last thing I want to mention are the summer and wintersales. As they drop bonus salecards when crafting badges during these sales (or a week prior to it) many people wait to craft their badges for either of these sales. So your highest chance of actually getting a drop is during those two sales.

If you actually manage recieve a boosterpack drop, it'll just popup into your inventory like a carddrop from a game, indicated with the little green icon on the bell icon in the client.

Originally posted by Dan5000:

I'll copy my post from reddit here regarding boosterpacks, but lots of it will explain things for cards too.

To summarize all info regarding booster pack drops:

They only drop if you've gotten all trading card drops a game can give you by running the game. They will always drop half the amount of cards you would need to craft a single badge rounded up.
So a game having 5 or 6 total cards, gives you 3 drops.
A game having 7 or 8 will give you 4 drops and so on.

Once you've gotten all the drops, you're eligible for that game to recieve boosterpack drops, which will only drop ONE pack when someone else on Steam is crafting a badge for that specific game randomly distributed between all eligible users. So boosterpack drops aren't global, they're divided per game.

The main reason people aren't getting many drops or none at all, are vast, but understandable:

- The more users have the game, the more people compete for each pack.
- The more levels your account has, the higher the chance. You gain a bonus 20% dropchance for every 10 levels you have and there are a lot of accounts in the hundreds of levels by now. Some accounts even have thousands of levels.
- The more popular the badges for these games are, the more badges will be crafted and the more drops will be spread.
- The older a game is, the more people have already crafted their badges, so less and less drops are being distributed between the users.
- Conversely, the newer a game is, the more people want to craft the badges, so a higher chance of drops.

You can trade for more cards or buy additional cards from people selling their card drops on the market. You can also buy boosterpacks on the market or craft boosterpacks yourself using gems, so it is always possible to craft the badges by doing that instead of trading or having to rely on the cards on the market themselves.

Keep in mind that many boosterpacks will be sold above their worth and conversly, many will also be much cheaper than buying the cards on its own. You can easily check it by the amount of total cards a badge needs to be crafted.

Crafting Boosters Cost: 6000 divided by the number of cards in the set:

6000 : 5 = 1200 Gems
6000 : 6 = 1000 Gems
6000 : 7 = 857 Gems
6000 : 8 = 750 Gems
6000 : 9 = 667 Gems
6000 : 10 = 600 Gems
6000 : 11 = 545 Gems
6000 : 12 = 500 Gems
6000 : 13 = 462 Gems
6000 : 14 = 429 Gems
6000 : 15 = 400 Gems

Last thing I want to mention are the summer and wintersales. As they drop bonus salecards when crafting badges during these sales (or a week prior to it) many people wait to craft their badges for either of these sales. So your highest chance of actually getting a drop is during those two sales.

If you actually manage recieve a boosterpack drop, it'll just popup into your inventory like a carddrop from a game, indicated with the little green icon on the bell icon in the client.

Wow thanks a lot for clearing that all up! I badly wanted the persona thing (huge fan) after reading your explanation with only a few cards in my inventory I just went ahead and bought them from the market.

I will try not to care for other cards from other games I like, because it seems impossible to complete it on the natural way.

Maybe one day steam will make the system more rewarding for lower levels!

Thanks again for explaining it so much in detail, I appreciate it a lot!

Happy holidays!

I doubt the system will change very much as it's been around a little more than a decade now with a few additions/changes here and there. This system allows Valve (not like they need it) and developers to make little more money.

Originally posted by B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t:

I doubt the system will change very much as it's been around a little more than a decade now with a few additions/changes here and there. This system allows Valve (not like they need it) and developers to make little more money.

Ah well, it is what it is!