Folks,

Bought the DVD retail version of HL2 from Amazon.co.uk (in United
Kingdom obviously).  The game came sealed in a brown box, but the jewel
case itself wasn't plastic shrink-wrapped.

I'm told by the Steam network upon my activation attempts that the CD
key I'm using is a duplicate, already in use with another account.

I have no desire to post my jewel case to the USA and wait a month to
get it back to prove ownership. I've read on these groups that
historically, some users have had luck in contacting Steam/Valve via
email and providing a scan.  Can anyone tell me if they've had recent
success doing this?

Thanks in advance.

Evan