It's time for the summer sale! Here are the unofficial rules of the summer sale!

If the game isn't a daily deal, flash deal, or community deal, WAIT! Don't buy it yet! It may go on one of those types of deals, which will be the lowest price! Even games that are 50% off or more will get deeper discounts if they go on daily, flash, or community sale!

Daily deals last for about 24 hours. Usually 25, because the sale price sticks around for about an hour after the deal has dropped off the daily sale slot. But don't wait that long, if a game you want is on daily sale, get it.

Community deals and flash deals are new this time around. Vote on games you want to see on sale for community sales, and the one that wins is on sale at daily deal price for 8 hours.

Flash deals appear to be on a 5 hour lifespan. They're cheap, daily deal cheap, and I don't know if any of them will show up again as daily deals, so if there is a game you want on flash sale, get it!

BADGES! There doesn't appear to be a contest or prizes tied to these, so they might just be for bragging rights. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look at my profile and the badges section on the right. They're not making a big deal about these, but I'm a sucker for recognition of the dumb things I do. The Pillar of Community badge is a good Steam tutorial, and the Summer Sale 2012 badge seems easy to get if you're on top of voting for community deals. Also, look at my badges. Look at them. You will never have as many or as awesome of badges as I do.