CS:GO’s weapon skins such as stickers, gloves, knives, cases, and music kits are extremely popular among players, but how can they trade and sell skins outside of Steam’s marketplace?
When it comes to trading outside of the game developer’s Steam platform, cs.money and other similar websites have become leaders, coming a long way since CSGO’s skin rose to popularity between 2015 and 2016. While scams aren’t common, users should bear a few key things in mind during the selling process.
How To Trade CSGO Skins Outside Of Steam
The first step involves using a reliable CSGO skin website. skins.cash and cs.money are two trusted websites. These websites prompt users to log in through Stream, which is the safest way to do business, although it sounds scary.
Here’s what users can expect while trading and selling skins outside Valve’s Steam. These steps are similar to most third-party sites.
Step 1: Login With Steam
While replicating Steam’s login page isn’t impossible for scammers, they can’t fake the secure connection. Make sure there is a lock icon next to the steamcommunity.com login URL, and it is locked. The certificate should read Valve.
Step 2: Pick the CSGO Skins You Want To Exchange
cs.money adopts a system that works similar to a scale. Players have to place their items on side of the site and add items from the site’s inventory on the other side. Players should try and aim for a trade that ends with the site owing them some money. Alternatively, they can add funds directly to the site to make up for a price difference. After you have added your items and selected items from the site, click Trade.
Step 3: Confirm The Trade Offer On Steam Guard
Many websites use bots to send trade offers via Steam and it’s safer this way since this requires players to verify the trade in their mobile app. Moreover, they have ample time to decline the trade offer. It is necessary to ensure that what the bot has requested is the same item you originally put for trade on the site.
After making sure that everything looks right, players can press the trade button. They are likely to see a popup screen warning them about a suspicious trade, but that’s normal. This usually occurs when a player is trading multiple items for a single item.
Step 4: Confirm The Trade Through Steam Guard And Steam Mobile App
Players should double-check that the trade is exactly what they expected. After clicking trade in the Steam Client, players get a notification on the mobile authenticator. They have to go into the app to confirm the trade for a second time.
Step 5: Flaunt The New Inventory
Once the player click confirms in the mobile app, the new items will be added to their CSGO load out almost immediately. Since some people award screenshots with Steam’s point awards, taking a screenshot and sharing it on CSGO’s community hub makes a lot of sense.
Sites usually have skin stores where players can purchase a new skin by shelling out real money or use their sell option. However, it is worth noting that they can’t sell their skins for real money. The CSGO trading subreddit is a better option for that, but since it involves dealing with real people, sellers should be careful.
Steam Marketplace Isn’t The Best Deal For CSGO Skins
Valve takes a significant 15 percent cut from every single deal that includes CSGO, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 items. Aside from offering less money for their items, the Steam Marketplace has a couple of other issues that encourage users to move to a third-party site instead.
First off, if you are a player based in the United States, Valve will send you tax forms if you sell enough items on the market. This is one hassle that no one wants to deal with. While this is common in America, the developers will also handout forms to players in other countries at a certain dollar amount.
In addition to that, players can’t sell an item on Steam for over $2,000. This makes a lot of difference for players with big-ticket items that might be worth five times the aforesaid amount. While initially, the process was shady at times, CSGO skin sites are now more reliable and trustworthy, and while they still take a cut of the total price, it is relatively less than what Valve takes.
For instance, cs.money takes only 9 percent as a commission fee, and players can bring that down to just 7 percent simply by putting “cs.money” in their Steam handle. If players are cautious while selling CSGO’s skins, these sites are safer than they used to be.
