Introduction
Steam is a marketplace for Steam items, particularly for CS2 skins and items.The platform was founded about 21 years ago, onSeptember 12th, 2003. Steam is currently operated byGabe Newell and Mike Harrington, with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, US.The Steam marketplace and company have been vetted by CSGOSKINS.GG anddeemed trustworthy by all our standards.
Popularity
Steam is rated 1.8 out of 5 with over3.4K reviews on Trustpilot.The Steam platform received approximately172.7M visits during the last month.There are currently 21.3K different items available onthe marketplace, with a total of 42.9M listed offers.Additionally, the combined value of all CS2 skins that are currently available on the Steammarket amounts to $10.9M.
Market Type
Steam is a P2P (peer-to-peer) marketplace. That means when an itemis sold on Steam, it is traded directly from the seller’s Steam inventoryto the buyer’s Steam inventory. This has the advantage that sellers can list theiritems on multiple marketplaces at the same time, since they don’t need to depositthe skins to a single marketplace. The downside is that when an item is sold, theseller must manually approve the trade which causes a delay for the buyer. P2Pmarketplaces have some benefits for sellers but the buyer experience is not as smooth.
The Only Official Marketplace
The Steam Community Market (SCM) is a virtual trading platform by Valve and theonly official market for CS2 weapon skins and all other Steam items including trading cards, Steam emoticons,backgrounds, or game-specific items. The Steam Market was released in May 2013 alongside the release of Steam tradingcards that are used to level up Steam profiles. It is also considered to be the safest place to purchase or sell CS2skins since the market is owned by Valve themselves and the chances of getting scammed are practically null.
Users And Popularity
It goes without saying that the Steam Community Market is the most popular marketplace to purchase or sell skins forCS2 or any other Steam game. Millions of players use the platform every day to buy and sell virtual items from allgames across Steam. The Steam market is preferred by a huge portion of big and small traders alike due to its swift andhassle-free process and an ever-growing user count. Items in the Steam Community Market are generally priced at anywherebetween $0.03 to thousands of dollars.
Seller Fee
The Steam Community Market charges a "Steam Transaction Fee" for 5% of the item value for every item sold on the Market.On top of that, there’s also a "game-specific fee" of 10% for certain games like CS2 and DOTA 2, which stacks on topof the 5% Steam fee. The combined fee of about 15% discourages many users from transacting on the Steam Community Marketsince a bunch of third-party websites like BUFF163 allow players to sell skins with significantly lesser penalties.
Buying & Selling Items
The Steam Community Market enables its users to buy and sell items in a simple and hassle-free way which makes theplatform a great choice for traders who are looking to sell their items for some quick wallet funds. Buyers can top uptheir wallets through real money and spend their wallet balance to buy skins from the market, while sellers can placeany marketable item from their Steam inventory for sale on the market at their will. Once an item is sold, the funds areautomatically added to the seller’s Steam wallet in their native currency.
These Steam wallet funds can then be used to purchase other skins from the marketplace, games from the Steam store, orany other content available for purchase on Steam, but can’t be converted into real money.
Advantages Of Using The SCM
There are plenty of advantages that users enjoy when buying or selling skins on the Steam Community Market. Theseinclude:
Fast Selling Times
Since the Steam Market is the most popular marketplace for trading skins, items are sold at a much faster pace thanother third-party marketplaces. Users also have the option to "quick sell" items at "buy order" prices toinstantly sell their items at a lesser value, which is an extremely useful feature when in need of urgentfunds.
Wide Variety Of Skins
With the exception of someextremely high-tierskins, almost all items can be easily found in the Steam Marketplace in significant volumes, making the platform agreat choice for users who face difficulties in finding their desired skins on other third-party marketplaces.
Risk-Free
The SCM being the only official market for trading CS2 items, it enables users to trade skins in a risk-freeenvironment. Trading on third-party marketplaces can often put newer users at risk of getting scammed, which is whymany users choose to spend the extra transaction fee for a hassle-free trading experience.
Easiest Way To Trade Skins
Trading on the Steam Community Market doesn't require users to input their account information on any third-partywebsites as the marketplace can be operated through the Steam client itself. This is why many consider SCM to be theeasiest way of trading skins, and it’s also one of the key reasons behind the widespread popularity of the Steam Market.
Disadvantages Of Using The SCM
The list of advantages users enjoy when using the Steam Community Market can certainly be appealing to new traders atfirst, but there are also a good number of reasons to look for other alternatives. Let’s take a look at thedisadvantages of using the Steam Community Market for buying and selling skins:
High Transaction Fees
The whopping 15% transaction fee on selling any CS2 skin on the Steam Community Market is undoubtedly the biggestreason that pushes traders away from the Valve-owned marketplace. As mentioned earlier, third-party marketplaces oftenoffer users a much lighter transaction fee, which make them better alternatives for traders who are looking to make themost amount of profit per transaction. The largest third-party skin marketplace, BUFF163 allowsusers to sell items with a measly 2.5% selling fee per transaction.
Inability To Cash Out
The Steam Community Market doesn't allow users to cash out their Steam Wallet for real money, which means that users arelimited to using their wallet funds for purchasing items through Steam. On the other hand, most third-party marketplacesenable users to cash out their funds in real money, which make them better alternatives for traders who are looking tosell their inventory to make some cash.
More Expensive Skins
Generally speaking, items on the Steam Community Market are more expensive than on other third-party marketplaces. Thisis a direct result of the fact that users can’t cash out their Steam Wallet funds but can do so when trading on othermarketplaces. Due to the aforementioned reason, cashing in your real money on Steam Wallet funds to purchase skins mightnot be the best idea. Items on the Steam marketplace being higher priced than other marketplaces, purchasing weaponskins from third-party markets using real money is likely to provide more value for your money than cashing in throughSteam itself.
Unavailability of Certain Skins
High-tier CS2 skins like the AWP Dragon Lore or Medusa are often seen tobe out of stock on the SteamCommunity Market. However, they’re available in abundance on some third-party marketplaces like BUFF163. This forceshigh-tier skin traders to avoid the Steam Marketplace and resort to websites like BUFF to make trades.
We’ve compiled a list of questions that are frequently asked about Steam.
Yes, Steam is legit! There are several factors which let us confidentlysay that Steam is a trustworthy platform:
Steam has its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, US.
Steam is owned by the company Valve Corporation, which is operated byGabe Newell and Mike Harrington.
The fee for selling items on Steam is 15.00%.
There are several CS2 marketplaces which are a viable alternative to Steam, including:
Steam was founded 21 years ago, on September 12th, 2003.
Steam does not support payouts, meaning you can not cash out your balance at all.
