Can I buy keys directly from the publisher?

Realistically no. Publishers work through a network of authorised distributors and sign direct agreements only with very large partners. The genuine entry point for a reseller is an official distributor for your territory, and even there you will need a legal entity, minimum volume and a deposit. A direct publisher contract becomes a conversation worth having once you already have steady multi-month turnover on a specific range.

Why would a key be revoked at all?

The publisher retains the technical ability to deactivate a code if it was issued for a different channel, purchased with a fraudulent payment instrument, or used to circumvent regional rules. Revocation typically happens after your buyer has already activated the game, so the complaint reaches you rather than whoever sold you the key. Legally your direct counterparty is responsible, but there is nothing to recover from an anonymous seller. That is why provenance matters more than price.

What paperwork should a legitimate supplier provide?

At minimum a contract or public offer showing the legal entity's registration details, an invoice, and closing documents for every purchase. You also need an explicit written clause on replacement or refund for revoked and non-working codes, with a stated response window. A good supplier will also explain which tier of the chain they buy at and confirm the issuing region of each SKU. If a supplier cannot issue an invoice to a company, you have no documentary basis for the expense.

Is the grey market ever worth it for the margin?

The price gap exists precisely because the risk has been shifted onto you — no contract, no replacement, no closing documents. Buying codes of unknown origin means accepting not only the chance of revocation but the wave of refunds and chargebacks that follows, plus the risk of marketplace account restrictions. Even a small percentage of revoked codes can consume the margin on an entire batch. Judge a channel by total cost of ownership, not by unit price.

Where to Source Game Keys for Resale — Channel Comparison 2026

"Where is it cheapest" is almost always asked instead of the right question: "what can I prove when the publisher revokes the code". There are five real sourcing channels, and they differ less by price than by code provenance and how much documentation the channel can hand you. Here is each one measured on those two axes.

Five channels and what they actually give you

1. Official distributor

A company holding a signed contract from the publisher for a specific territory and product range. Codes come from the source, the issuing region is known, paperwork is complete.

Price: the best in the chain.
Requirements: legal entity, minimum purchase volume, deposit or prepayment, sometimes channel reporting.
Range: narrow — only the lines the contract covers.
Revocation risk: minimal, and there is someone accountable if it happens.

The barrier here is not price but obligation. You must take the minimum volume whether or not you sold it.

2. Wholesaler or sub-distributor

Buys from distributors in large lots and breaks them into smaller ones. This tier is what most people mean by "supplier".

Price: includes at least one markup.
Requirements: lower — usually a legal entity and a deposit.
Range: broader, because a wholesaler works with several distributors.
Revocation risk: low, provided the wholesaler can name their source.

The critical question to a wholesaler is who do you buy from. If there is no answer, you are effectively buying one tier further down without knowing it.

3. Aggregator

A technology layer over many wholesalers and distributors. The aggregator's product is not a warehouse but a unified catalogue, one contract and one API that routes each order to whichever source currently holds the SKU.

Price: carries a markup, but it replaces the cost of managing several contracts.
Requirements: usually the lightest volume commitments.
Range: the widest, including the long tail.
Revocation risk: depends on how strictly the aggregator filters sources — ask directly.

4. Regional buying

Purchasing codes issued for a market with a lower local price to sell into a more expensive one.

Price: attractive because of the local price-list gap.
Requirements: understanding of SKU-level regional restrictions.
Range: limited to what is actually issued regionally.
Risk: high and structural. Publishers can technically restrict activation by region, and the gap itself is unstable and shifts with every price revision.

This is not a separate source — it is a pricing strategy layered on top of any of the first three channels. The restriction mechanics are covered in region-locked keys explained.

5. Grey market

Buying from private sellers, chats and unverified exchanges. Code provenance is unknown by definition.

Price: the lowest.
Requirements: none.
Documents: none.
Revocation risk: maximal, with nobody to claim against.

The price gap here is the cost of missing guarantees. You are not buying cheaper — you are buying the same goods while absorbing the risk that other channels carry for you.

Channel comparison

Channel	Price	Provenance evidenced	Paperwork	Revocation risk	Entry barrier
Official distributor	Lowest	Yes, up to publisher	Complete	Minimal	High
Wholesaler	Low plus markup	Usually yes	Complete	Low	Medium
Aggregator	Service markup	Depends on source filtering	Complete	Low to medium	Low
Regional buying	Depends on price gap	Yes, but region-bound	Complete	Medium, structural	Medium
Grey market	Lowest	No	None	Maximal	None

Provenance is the deciding criterion

A key is not a string — it is an activation right issued by a publisher to a specific channel. When the publisher finds a code went somewhere it was not meant to, or was paid for fraudulently, it deactivates it — usually after your buyer has already activated the game.

What follows is a standard chain: the buyer returns with a complaint, opens a dispute or a chargeback, the platform records a violation, and repeated incidents bring seller-account restrictions. The loss on one order is not the cost of the key — it is the cost plus the refund plus the payment-method fee plus reputational damage. The full consequence chain and response playbook are in handling code revocation and region locks.

From which follows a simple sourcing rule: if a supplier cannot name the tier they bought at, you are buying risk, not a discount.

What every channel must be able to produce

Judge a channel on documents, not on promises in a chat window:

A contract or public offer with legal-entity details and an explicit replacement-or-refund clause for revoked codes, including a response window.
Invoices and closing documents for every purchase — without them you have no documentary basis for the expense.
The SKU issuing region stated in the catalogue, not "ask us in chat".
A straight answer on their own buying tier — direct distributor, wholesaler, or an assembled pool of sources.

The full request list is collected in supplier documents for game keys.

Choosing a configuration for your volume

Just starting. An aggregator or a vetted wholesaler. Nobody will give you a direct contract, and on the grey market you will lose money faster than you learn to calculate margin.

Steady turnover across 10–20 SKUs. Worth modelling a direct contract for that range. Compare not unit price but unit price plus the cost of the minimum-volume commitment.

Wide catalogue with volatile demand. Hybrid: direct contracts on top SKUs, an aggregator for the entire long tail. This is the typical mature configuration, because maintaining a dozen contracts for rare items costs more than paying a markup.

Assess the legal side of reselling in your own jurisdiction separately — covered in is it legal to resell game keys.

Where to source in practice

For most resellers the working answer is a wholesale supplier with a broad catalogue and a proper documentary base. FoxReload offers 900+ SKUs — game keys, gift cards, top-ups, eSIM and software licences — through a single REST API with auto-delivery and multi-region SKUs, meaning one contract and one integration instead of fragmented channels of uneven provenance. Before your first deposit, run the process in how to vet a supplier before funding your balance.

Bottom line

The cost of a channel is not what you pay per key — it is what a batch of revoked codes will cost you. Compute total cost of ownership: purchase price plus expected problem-code rate plus refunds plus the risk of platform restrictions. On that basis the cheapest channel is almost never the most profitable.