What happens if I activate a product key on Steam for a game I already own?

Question

I have a Steam product key for Just Cause 2 I got for free with the purchase of my video card. However, I already have a copy of this game attached to my Steam account. What will happen if I try to activate this other key on my account? Will Steam give me a copy of Just Cause 2 to gift to somebody else? Will it simply refuse to add it? Or will it eat the key rendering it worthless?

I don't want to try this only to have the latter happen, but it would be useful to be able to add it and gift it to somebody else.

Answer

It really depends on the game. Even for Valve's own games, only some allow giftable copies: Half-Life 2, Hale-Life 2: Episode 1, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2.

For non-Valve examples: I should own the game Overlord twice, as I picked up one copy when Overlord was on sale and one when the entire series was on sale (for cheaper than I could buy Raising Hell and Overlord 2 separately).

I never got a giftable copy of it.

Conversely, I got a giftable copy of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition when I bought Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition as the second game's preorder bonus.

You're better off just giving them the key, like corroded suggests and avoiding the ambiguity.

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