Valve has made all games purchased as a gift untradeable for 30 days, in an effort to prevent customers who trade for another game having their new product revoked due to payment issues with the original purchaser.
You’re only prevented from trading, so you can still gift the item in question to another user. Should help clear up both unscrupulous activities and honest mistakes with the trading system.
“All new games purchased as a gift and placed in the purchaser’s inventory will be untradable for 30 days,” Valve writes. “The gift may still be gifted at any time. The only change is to trading.”
“We’ve made this change to make trading gifts a better experience for those receiving the gifts. We’re hoping this lowers the number of people who trade for a game only to have the game revoked later due to issues with the purchaser’s payment method.”
It’s not going to solve the problem of illicit trades completely, but it should provide at least some protection for customers.
