A Carefully Wrapped Guide

A quick guide on how to wrap gifts in Team Fortress 2!

Introduction

This guide may or may not be obsolete, but I am leaving it up as an archive for all of you TF2 players out there. If you have updated information on this feature, feel free to leave it in the comments. Thanks!


Ratings are appreciated!

Acquiring Gift Wrap

There is a way to legitimately trade certain non-tradable items (including most promotional items) with the use of Gift Wrap that can be purchased in the in-game store, or on the Community Market. Gift Wrap is a Tool item represented by a blue, spotted roll wrapping paper, a roll of red ribbon, a scotch tape dispenser, and a Description Tag. Gift Wrap is also a limited use item, and is used like any other one use item within your TF2 backpack. When used on an item in your backpack, the item is replaced with A Carefully Wrapped Gift containing the item, which can then be held in the user's backpack or sent to a player on the user's friends list instantly.

Gift-Wrapped

If you can find someone willing to part with their non-tradable items, you can walk them through gift wrapping the item. When you receive A Carefully Wrapped Gift and open it, the gifted item will have a description indicating who sent the gift (which matches any future name changes), the date and the time of acquisition.

Any specific item that is wrapable can be gift wrapped more then once, so if you received a gift from a friend and you wanted to pass it on, you can rewrap it later!

Also of note, if you do rewrap a gifted item and trade it off, it replaces the sender information from the last time the item was gifted with your steam name and date/time details.

The recipient of a gift cannot resend a gift to someone else as the 'Send Gift' action will be replaced with the 'Unwrap' action. Once unwrapped, the gift will not become untradable unless the item was originally untradable. Once wrapped the item cannot be unwrapped by the person who wrapped it.

I will also note that during a trade session there should be an icon of the item (that has been gift wrapped) in the lower right hand corner of the gift box icon as seen below. This will let you know what is in the gift your trading for if you need to do a secure trade.


As you can tell from this image, I actually tested out the gift wrap system during the creation of this guide so that I could illustrate how it works.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Q I need help.
A If you followed the steps in this guide and the item still cannot be traded, there is nothing I can do to help you, and I'm unfamiliar with the item. Try contacting Steam Support or visiting the official TF2 forums.

Q I cant seem to be able to gift an item even after wrapping it.
A The gifted item needs to be sent through a trade like any other item trade.

Q If its supposed to be able to be "gifted" to an offline user, how the hell is "A The gifted item needs to be sent through a trade like any other item trade" a suitable response to someones confusion as to why their gift cant be sent to offline users.
A That responce clearly wasn't meant for offline users. If someone is offline, you will need to send an offline trade offer, obviously, by going into your own Steam Inventory, clicking the trade offers button, and setting up a trade with the offline user of your choice.

Q I just bought a gift wrap and wrapped something up for my friend but the issue is he can't trade so thats why I bought the gift. But it won't let me send it. Do I have to wait until the Non-Tradable time wears off?
A If the player has a trade ban, you will not be able to send the gift wrapped item as it needs to be traded to him like any other item.

Q Can Achievement Items be wrapped?
A Yes. As far as I know all achievment items can be gift wrapped. In the screenshot above, the Black Rose was used as an example of a gift wrapped item.

Q Can i use gift wrap to make my black rose tradeable?
A At the time this guide was created, yes. At this time, the Black Rose is no longer acquirable, so I don't have a definitive answer as I cannot test it again without trading my own, which I won't do.

Q Oh, and on the tf2 wiki it shows gift wrap was removed the store. RIP giftwrap trading?
A As far as I know it's still there, but they may have temporarily removed it to make changes to how it works. I've read that valve made it to where achievement items cannot be traded, which is a bummer to say the least, if it is true.

Q My friend tried to gift wrap black rose and he cant, why?
A I've heard rumors that they have patched out trading non-tradable items with gift wrap.

About This Guide

This guide is the result of new users asking how to trade promotional items on other guides I have created. I know this seems like a simple everyday thing in Team Fortress 2, but obviously not everyone knows how to do this and thus this guide is written.

If you appreciate this guide please feel free to give me a rating and add it to your favorites!

Sources

Some of the initial research for this guide started at the official TF2 wiki, and they deserve a shout out here. As always, I'm just giving credit where credit is due!

The Leaky Spigot

If your TF2 inventory is on the dry side you can join The Leaky Spigot Giveaway Group for a chance to acquire some items for free. On the flip side, if your inventory is so full it's about to blow a pipe, you can offer up some of your extra items to the group. Let's bust out the gift wrap and get into the Leaky Spigot spirit of giving!

Decennial Guide

This guide was first published in 2013. See for yourself! You can check the dates on the top right pane of this guide. As we are heading into 2024, that makes this guide over 10 years old. The term for a 10 year anniversary is Decennial and I am now calling this a Decennial Guide.

If you appreciate this guide helping out the player base over the last ten years, throw it a Steam Award as a thank you! I'd really appreciate it!

Team Fortress 2 Guide Index

This guide is part of the TF2 Guide Index, a master guide pointing to all published guides specifically for Team Fortress 2 that Mr. Jester has contributed to.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2382445788
"Stab, Stab, Staab!"

Other Published Steam Guides

You can check out all of my Published Steam Guides here, the following guides I feel are related in one way or another.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=202362272

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2183349877

[https://www.twitch.tv/ronjester]

Decennial Guide section added.

[Carbohydrations]

If anyone has a Spiral Sallet, wrapped, i'll trade for it

[OP哥]

valve fix

[https://www.twitch.tv/ronjester]

All questions in the comment section have been answered in the new FAQ section of this guide.

[Nanochip]

Here's a reddit post I found related to the bug: https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/3zq9ca/the_gift_wrap_bug_is_ruining_birthdays/ however there is no source for the explanation, so I'm not sure exactly.

[Nanochip]

For some reason, I'm trying to wrap an item, but the item never gets wrapped. I found a video that describes the issue, but didn't find a solution. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8XEA5mXIfM

[SINFUL CREATURE]

I carefully wrapped this guide up and shipped it off to Mann Co.

Hale likes it!