Steam Community Market Guide (Tips and Tricks) (Cashing Out to Real-World Money)

[ItsWREK]

Steam Community Market Guide

Have you ever wondered how you could pay for your games, by playing games? If you are new to Steam, or haven't browsed the features, there some things you should know. There is a Steam Community Market, which is a place where you can buy and sell different in-game items.

There are many different games that have in-game items, but many games' items, aren't worth more than a few cents. Some of the more well known games with advanced item-economies include, Counter Strike: Global Offensive (aka "CSGO", which has recently gotten updated,) PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS (Developers have recently shutdown the PUBG trade system) Team Fortress 2 (aka TF2,) DOTA 2, Rust, and H1Z1. (There are many lesser known titles as well, but the main item markets are in these games.)

The games that I have played, and specialize in are CSGO, PUBG, TF2, and Rust
(I have played H1Z1 as well, but never got into the Item Market for the game.)

The games that have payed for themselves with their item drops (in my experience) are CSGO, TF2, and PUBG.

Where My History with Skins began

Team Fortress 2

(Free Game)
Back when I was playing TF2 (around 2013-2014) I was trying the "newly released" Man versus Machine mode, and upon completing the MvM campaign, I got rewarded a Rare Item. The item was a "Strange Australium Knife", a golden butterfly knife (I didn't realize how much it was worth at first, but it turned out to be worth $60.) When I realized I had gotten a $60 item from a free game, I was amazed. That was the first item that I had ever received that was worth more than a few pennies, and what sparked my interest in the item market.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

($14.99 Game)
I got into Counter Strike: Global Offensive in 2013, it was my "primary game" for a while (with almost 2k hours) and is still one of my favorite competitive games. Although it's trading has been slowed down and the 3rd party gambling of the skins have recently stopped, CSGO remains to be one of the top games, in terms of their large variety of in-game items and complex rarities.

My first memorable drop from CSGO was a CZ75 "Chalice", $27. Getting this CSGO Weapon Skin is rare, but completely possible for anybody who plays frequently. You will likely receive garbage skins from "rank-up item drops" but you have the potential to get any skin as a drop. I have also witnessed somebody get a M4A1-S "Hot Rod" which was $120 at the time. You can find videos of people who have gotten $300 and $1200 item-drops as well.

Grinding for Profit in CSGO

When Valve releases a new CSGO weapon-skin case, you can grind matches, to try and level up, and what frequently happens when you level-up is you will get either a random skin, or one of the recent Weapon Cases. Considering that a new case will cost around $10 on the first day of release, and about $2 to $4 weeks after release, you can: Grind Levels > Get Drops > Collect New Cases > Sell the Cases on the Steam Market (Read Below) > Make Money!

PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

*While Typing this, PUBG's Item-Trading Function has been Disabled* (Updates Soon)
Read More: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791457492425/announcements/detail/1651010346588615246

Your Guide for Selling New Items on Steam

When you are trying to make profit off of cases, or new items, you must keep some things in mind when selling. First off, if you happen to get a new weapon-skin case in CSGO, on the night of its release, it would be safe to list it on the market, for slightly below the lowest deal, in order to increase the chance of selling.

Why List a New Item Cheap?

Lets say that Valve just released a new case... You finish playing a match, and get the new case as a drop. You rush to sell it, and see that the lowest price that its selling for is $12.48. If you were to list it for $12.48, it wouldn't likely sell, due to the fact that any potential buyers are going to wait for a better deal. Additionally, there will be the "high-rollers" that purchase cases on the first night, to try and get a good skin before anybody else. These high-roller buyers, are going to buy the cheapest listings, so if somebody lists a case (or cases,) lower than yours, it is hurting the probability that your case will be bought at all. And after that first night, cases will likely be sold for about 30-40% of what they were, hours prior. Therefore, to be safe, and have a much better chance at making money, you will want to list your case at around 90-95% of the other listings (if not more.) Keep in mind that, the lower your listings price, compared to other listings, the better your odds of selling are going to be. So an item that is listed by other sellers for $12.48, you should list around $1. If the price is going to drop to around $4, the next day, listing the item (the night its released) for anything greater than $4 would technically be profit compared to selling it the next day (Anywhere from $0.01 to $8.84 profit, all depending on what you are willing to risk.)

OPSkins - Selling Items for Real World Money

OPSkins is a third party marketplace for in-game items. Here, you can sell your items, or buy other peoples items (from a large variety of popular games.) OPSkins takes a cut of sales, but they allow you to "cashout" your OPSkins balance, to real-world money (paypal, bitcoin, skrill, ethereum.) This is how most people choose to cash out their "game items," and is the most trusted way of doing so.

How to Avoid being Scammed

You must always be careful of scammers, especially if you have an expensive inventory, or you like to use third party sites. You will want to setup the Steam Guard feature, this is 2-step verification for Steam that allows you to make it extremely hard to hack into your account, or steal/sell your skins (in the case you are hacked). You link your steam account to the Steam Mobile app on your Phone, and whenever somebody tries to log in, they need need the constantly-refreshing code that is on your phone. To prevent scams, the 2-step verification will also prevent you from trading your items, or listing them on the market, unless you have your phone, with the updated security code. Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is trying to scam you, but if a stranger tries to contact you, and they offer you a "Great Deal" on something you have, it is almost always a scam. A couple things you should consider when trading: How well do you know the person that you are trading with, and is the trade "too good to be true" because if a trade is extremely unfair for either person in the trade, someone is either unaware of the prices, it is a gift, or it is a scam.


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[999999999]

1. All of this is not needed as that is not something Valve allows.

2. No advertising your Twitter.

3. Read https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

4. Thread might be deleted soon.

[Phantom]

I wouldn't recommend that third-party site whether it's trusted or not.

Else, other things have been documented.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1047-edfm-2932

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3415-WAFH-6433

[ItsWREK]

Originally posted by 999999999:

1. All of this is not needed as that is not something Valve allows.

2. No advertising your Twitter.

3. Read https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

4. Thread might be deleted soon.

Sorry about that, I took my social media off

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by WREK_MANN Twitch:

How to Avoid being Scammed

The best way to do that would be to ignore this entire thread.

[ItsWREK]

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

I wouldn't recommend that third-party site whether it's trusted or not.

Else, other things have been documented.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1047-edfm-2932

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3415-WAFH-6433

:yinyangflip:

You can choose to believe whatever you want, but, there aren't many options for cashing out items to "real" money, and unless your best friend is going to paypal you for your item, you can only choose the most reputable option.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by WREK_MANN Twitch:

You can choose to believe whatever you want, but, there aren't many options for cashing out items to "real" money, and unless your best friend is going to paypal you for your item, you can only choose the most reputable option.

The system isn't meant for that.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by WREK_MANN Twitch:

You can choose to believe whatever you want, but, there aren't many options for cashing out items to "real" money, and unless your best friend is going to paypal you for your item, you can only choose the most reputable option.

This...

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

The system isn't meant for that.

No elaboration required there.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by WREK_MANN Twitch:

You can choose to believe whatever you want, but, there aren't many options for cashing out items to "real" money, and unless your best friend is going to paypal you for your item, you can only choose the most reputable option.

No such thing as a 'reputable option' when it comes to this. Also, you're putting a lot of effort into this... and you're a streamer, right? A cynic might assume that you're being paid to advertise that site you mentioned.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Brujeira:

A cynic might assume that you're being paid to advertise that site you mentioned.

That was my initial opinion on the thread...

[SpunkyJones]

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

Originally posted by Brujeira:

A cynic might assume that you're being paid to advertise that site you mentioned.

That was my initial opinion on the thread... :taloslol:

:yinyangflip:

Agreed. This thread should be deleted as being weak advertising

[ItsWREK]

Originally posted by Brujeira:

Originally posted by WREK_MANN Twitch:

You can choose to believe whatever you want, but, there aren't many options for cashing out items to "real" money, and unless your best friend is going to paypal you for your item, you can only choose the most reputable option.

No such thing as a 'reputable option' when it comes to this. Also, you're putting a lot of effort into this... and you're a streamer, right? A cynic might assume that you're being paid to advertise that site you mentioned.

You give me too much credit, I unfortunately have Zero influence on Twitch

[ItsWREK]

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

Originally posted by Brujeira:

A cynic might assume that you're being paid to advertise that site you mentioned.

That was my initial opinion on the thread... :taloslol:

:yinyangflip:

Nah, just tried to make a cool post. I don't have much of a follower-base at all. FeelsbadMan