Trade & $ave

A Beginner's Guide to Steam Games Trading

Get Cheaper Steam Games by Trading!

Do you want to get more games from your wishlist without spending more money? This essential guide will give you a solid foundation to trade like a pro!

As your games wishlist keeps growing, paying the full retail price on the Steam store might force you to wait a long time for a sale. But there is an easier way to satisfy your gaming addiction without waiting for sales or going broke - learn how to trade!

This beginner's guide will explain the core aspects of games trading in the Steam community with some extra advice on how to trade safely and find the best deals.

Update #1: Added Game Key versus Game Gift.
Update #2: Added Trade Restrictions.
Update #3: Updated Trading Currency.

Introduction to Game Trading

If you have previously traded via Steam groups, you might have come across some topics where people were also trading Steam games. But trading for games is not as straight-forward as trading for other Steam items, like Steam cards. There are several things to consider, but first...

• Where to find Steam game traders?
  There are several Steam groups and other websites dedicated to games trading. Just do a quick search on Steam Community groups or use Google. You'll find many Steam games offered at lower prices relative to the Steam store retail prices. The traded games are identical to the same titles sold in the Steam store, especially if you are trading for Steam game gifts which are bought exclusively from the Steam store. This explains the popularity of games trading.
  
  
• How to find the games that you want?
  In Steam groups and other trading websites, the trade topics are usually sorted in order of most recent activity. You can browse through those or if you know exactly what games you are looking for, it's better and faster to just use the search box.
  
  If you come across lengthy games list in a trading topic, the game titles might be listed in alphabetical order but you can also use your browser's search feature by pressing Ctrl+F and then type in the game title that you're looking for.
  
  If it's not a popular game, the search results might be disappointing but keep hunting in other trading groups/forums and eventually you should find someone offering it. Otherwise, you can reply to a trade topic or create a new one and ask traders about their price for a specific Steam game that you want - this might not always be the best deal but it's worth a try.
  
  
• How to proceed with the trade?
  After finding the game/s that you want and agreeing on the asking price of the trader, you will need to know how to pay the trader to get your game. It can be quite confusing if you don't understand what exactly the trader is asking for and/or how to proceed with getting the needed item/s in order to complete the trade. So, you should first familiarize yourself with all the different payment methods for a safe, quick and smooth trading experience.

How to Trade Safely

These are the 3 most popular and safe ways to pay traders for their games:

1. Trade the specific Steam items requested by the trader - this is the most common and recommended option. Among all the tradable Steam items, there are some specific items which are commonly used as standard trade currency. So, these items are accepted by most traders. If you trade often, you can stock up on these commonly-accepted items to make your trading experience easier and faster. Read more in the next section, titled Understanding Trade Currency.
   
   
2. If you don't have those so-called currency items and instead want to offer other Steam items, it might work out but you should always ask the trader. You should also be aware that your offer might be declined even if the total value of your random Steam items (based on the Steam market) is equal to the trader's price. In some cases, you could be expected to overpay. Ultimately, it depends on the agreement between you and the trader. You can ask the trader by posting a reply to the trade topic. More details in the section further below, titled Offering Random Items.
   
   
3. If you do not have the seller's requested items, you can search and buy them from the Steam Community Market or in-game store (such as Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, etc) but you should be aware that due to Steam's purchase and trade protections, there is a waiting time of 7 days before you can trade any purchased items. So, if you do not want to wait 7 days to do a trade, you can buy certain commonly-used trade items and keep in them in stock for when you want to do a trade. This also helps so that someone else does not buy it if the trader's stock is limited.

The payment methods described above are the safest and recommended since they operate entirely within the Steam trade ecosystem. There are other trade options which involve cash payments via PayPal, Bitcoin, Skrill, etc, but these can be risky due to the possibility of getting scammed if you are not very careful. So, make sure to do your research and check the trader's reputation, etc. But even then, nothing is 100% guaranteed, especially if high value items or big money transactions are involved, so proceed at your own risk!

Important: Whenever you are trading outside of the conventional Steam trading system, that is, the items given and received cannot be added in the same trade offer window (for example: Steam game codes, Steam funds, gift cards, etc) it is entirely your own responsibility to take all precautions and use your common sense before sending any items or money, in order to avoid getting scammed.

Understanding Trade Currency

Trade currency items are very useful and highly recommended when trading games, since it allows quick, reliable and safe trading for both buyers and sellers.

Which items are considered as trade currency?
The Steam Community Market works like a virtual economy. The prices of certain items are fixed by Valve in their games, so their Steam Community Market prices stay practically the same all the time. For example, if you buy a Team Fortress 2 Key from the in-game store, it will cost a fixed price of 2.49 USD (depending on your Steam region currency, the price will be equivalent based on the Steam currency exchange rate). So, the price of the key on the Steam Market will always be about the same value.

Note: Sometimes, there are slight fluctuations in the market prices, such as during a Steam Sale, when people are quickly selling their items on the Steam Community Market for Steam funds. But most of the time, trade currency items will keep a steady value.

The main benefits of trade currency items:

1. External payment methods are not involved which simplifies the trading process and also makes trading safer.
   
2. Currency items retain their value through countless trade transactions made by different traders.
   
3. Easily and quickly top-up your Steam funds at any time by selling the trade currency items on the Steam Community Market.

You can buy trade currency items and keep them in your Steam inventory for whenever you come across a good deal and want to trade. This approach is highly recommended since you will be able to trade instantly by avoiding the 7-days trade lock for newly purchased items. In most cases, traders do not want to wait 7 days for your currency items to become tradeable, which means that the trader could trade the game to someone else and you'll sadly be missing out on a great deal.

List of Common Trade Currency Items

These are the most common Steam items used as trade currency:

• Team Fortress 2 (TF2) Key
  There are many different types of TF2 Keys and they all have about the same value, but the most common and widely used/accepted is the standard Mann Co. Supply Crate Key, as linked above.
  
• TF2 Refined metal (commonly referred to as, Ref) cannot be bought from the Steam Community Market since it is not a marketable item but can be directly obtained by crafting TF2 items while in-game.
  
  Here is a quick memo on how to craft TF2 metal in-game:
  
  • 1 TF2 Scrap metal = 2 x craftable TF2 weapons (same class)
    
  • 1 TF2 Reclaimed metal = 3 x Scrap metal
    
  • 1 TF2 Refined metal = 3 x Reclaimed metal
  Therefore, you need a total of 18 craftable TF2 weapons to make 1 Refined metal.
  
  Refined metal is a central part of the TF2 economy as it can be exchanged for TF2 Keys. For example, 1 TF2 Key is worth a certain number of refined metal (the exchange rate often fluctuates due to supply and demand). So, you can easily trade refined metal for a TF2 key and vice-versa. For that same reason, many traders accept refined metal as payment for games. If you need Refs, you can either play TF2, collect the free item drops and then craft them into refined metal. Or just get refs the easy way by trading your purchased TF2 Key. You could use the following two well-established and popular TF2 trading websites: https://stntrading.eu/tf2/keys and https://backpack.tf
  
  
• Tour of Duty Ticket
  This is another popular Team Fortress 2 (TF2) item. 1 Tour of Duty ticket is also worth a certain number of refined metal based on the ongoing exchange rate. Depending on the trader, it could also be evaluated as half the value of 1 TF2 Key.
  
• Sack of Gems
  From your Steam inventory, you can convert certain items (trading cards, emoticons and backgrounds) into Gems. Gems can be used to create card booster packs (3 random trading cards for any supported game). If you have at least 1000 Gems, select them in your inventory and choose "Pack Gems into a Sack". This allows you to sell the Sack of Gems on the Steam Market but it can also be used as trade currency. The exchange rate will depend on its current Steam Market price. For example, 1 TF2 Key is equal to a certain number of Sack of Gems.

Note: The trader might have a preference for a certain type of key or item. So, it is highly recommended to always ask the trader before you buy/acquire any item to trade.

Other Trade Items

If you do not have the common Steam trade currency items, below are some alternatives:

• Steam Games - probably the most straight-forward transaction where you can trade your Steam games for other Steam items, including games. But the games which are already in your Steam library cannot be traded - you can only trade games which have not yet been redeemed. Whenever you buy a game from the Steam store, you will see the option to send it as a gift to someone in your Steam Friends List. But you need to consider the geographical region of the other person as not all regions are compatible. For example, if you live in Russia, you cannot buy a game from the Steam Store as a gift to trade with someone who lives in the United States. This limitation has been set by Steam to account for the weaker Russian currency causing a significant price difference between those different regions.
  
• Steam Trading Cards - the cheapest option. Most Steam games support trading cards (you can check on the game's Steam store page) which appear in your inventory after you play or idle them for a certain number of hours. These trading cards are free item drops but they are limited so you will only get a specific number of card drops per game. You can check on your Steam Badges page to see which games have cards and how many card drops you have left. You can sell these cards on the Steam Market for funds to buy trade currency items or possibly trade them directly for games.
  
• Steam in-game item drops - when playing certain games, you get timed item drops (other than Steam Trading Cards) which can also be traded. These are some of the most popular Steam games which give free tradeable in-game item drops: Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2. These in-game item drops depend on your playtime (for example, every 1 or 2 hours) but the drops are limited per week.
  
  Note: In the special case of Team Fortress 2 (commonly abbreviated as, TF2), you will initially be unable to trade the item drops since the game is free-to-play so all the items will be restricted for your own personal use only. In order to trade TF2 items from your inventory, you will need to have a premium Steam account (add a minimum of 5 USD or equivalent) and become a premium TF2 player by making a one-time purchase of any item in the in-game TF2 Mann Co. store. You can buy the cheapest item (sort the list by price) or even better, a TF2 key for trading. Then, you will unlock a lot of great features. Your premium TF2 status is permanent, so you will be able to trade TF2 items indefinitely.

Steam Game versions: Serial? Code? Key? Gift? Gift Link?

In many game trading topics, you will see Steam games listed as code or serial or key or gift or gift link - but what does it all mean? Which version is better? And how to proceed with the game activation in your Steam account? Read on to learn more!

• Steam Game Serial is the same as a game code or game key. It was bought from a Steam games reseller. To activate it, you will need to enter the serial into your Steam client.
  Example of a Serial: 1AB2C-D3FGH-456I7
  
  
• Steam Game Gift is bought exclusively from the Steam store. Several years ago, it was possible to buy Steam game gifts from the Steam Store and keep the games in the Steam inventory as tradeable items, but this option is not possible anymore since Valve has changed the game trading rules. Now, when you buy a Steam gift, you will only get the option to send it directly to someone in your Steam Friends List.
  
  
• Steam Game Gift Link refers to a URL or link, which then reveals the serial bought from a re-seller. The gift link will show a webpage where you will be required to enter your name and email address. You could enter any name if you prefer, but make sure that the email address is correct as the game serial will be sent to that email address. Sometimes the game activation email might take a few minutes to arrive or it could be automatically filtered to your Bulk/Spam folder.
  Example of a Gift Link: https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=ATcwFCV7KUvBuPRt

Note: If the same Steam game is available as a code/key/seria/gift/gift link, then all versions are indistinguishable, meaning that whichever version you activate in your Steam client, you will get with the same game. The difference can be the price, for example, serials are commonly cheaper than gifts.

How to activate a Steam game key/code/serial?

• Launch the Steam client software or browser and log into your Steam account.
  
• In the top menu, click on Games.
  
• Click Activate a Product on Steam...
  
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

Limitation: Game keys/serials/codes/gift links cannot be added to the Steam trade offer window except for tradeable game gifts. You should therefore be very careful and trade game keys only with trusted traders to avoid getting scammed.

Caution: The term "key" can sometimes be misleading in a trade topic, since it could also refer to, for example, TF2 keys, which are commonly used as trading currency. So, if you are not 100% sure, always ask the trader to avoid complications or disappointments.

Good Deal or Not?

This section is the 'heart' of this guide which explains how to recognize a profitable deal, that is, a lower price than what you would otherwise pay to buy the same game from the Steam store.

Here is an example of a common trade topic title format:
[H] Garry's Mod [W] 1 Key

What does this cryptic title mean?
[H] = Have (what the trader is offering to sell).
[W] = Want (what the trader wants as payment).
Garry's Mod = In this case, it's the title of the game for sale.
Key = Generally, this refers to a tradeable Mann Co. Supply Crate Key.

Before trading, if you have any questions or doubts, you should reply to the trade topic or add the trader to discuss. Sometimes, a trader might have already sold out on what you are looking for. So, you should confirm the availability of the game and make sure that you understand the specific item/s requested by the trader as payment before you proceed with buying/obtaining the necessary items to do the trade.

Here is a simple 3-steps checklist to help you recognise a profitable deal:

1. Identify the game being sold in the trade topic. Search for it in the Steam store. Note the price.
   
2. Identify the item/s being requested by the trader. Search for the requested item/s on the Steam Community Market. Note the price.
   In some cases, the requested item might not be available on the Steam Market. For example, TF2 refined metal (commonly abbreviated as Refs) is not marketable. You can check the current Refs exchange rate for 1 TF2 Key on stntrading.eu or backpack.tf
   
3. Finally, compare the current Steam store price and the trader's selling price for the game.
   Generally, you should be making a nice profit. Many games are often traded at heavily discounted prices. This provides a strong incentive to trade.

Let's apply the above checklist to the trade topic example described earlier:
[H] Garry's Mod [W] 1 Key

• Game being sold: Garry's Mod - Let's assume that the current store price is $9.99.
  
• Item requested by trader: 1 TF2 Key - Let's assuming that the current market price is $2.47.
  
• Comparison: You're getting a $9.99 game for only $2.47. Your Profit = $7.52

And that's quite simply how you can easily save money by trading!

Trade Restrictions

In 2014, Valve implemented a series of significant measures to limit trading to combat fraud and scams. Some of these changes completely changed the way trading previously worked and severely affected the ability to trade game gifts across different regions of the world.

Here is a list of important changes made to trading items and game gifts:

• All items (including TF2) bought from the Steam market or in-game stores cannot be traded for one week from the date of purchase.
  It is very common for game traders to list their prices in terms of TF2 keys. As a buyer, you would visit the Steam market or in-game store, purchase the required items and then expect to be able to trade instantly. But this is no longer possible since there is an automatic cool-down of one week on all recently purchased items.
  
  
• Disabling cross-region game gift trading.
  Steam is a worldwide network of game distribution, which comprises of different stores based on the currency and economy of the country or region. So, depending on your country of residence, you will only have access to one specific regional Steam store. With the recent Steam policy changes, most Steam stores have now been locked, so you might not be able to redeem game gifts bought from a different region. This means that you should only trade with people who use the same regional Steam store or who offer region-free Steam gifts.
  
  Here is the list of unrestricted (ROW or Rest Of the World) regional Steam stores:
  
  • Japanese Yen
    
  • Norwegian Krone
    
  • New Zealand Dollar
    
  • Canadian Dollar
    
  • U.S. Dollar
    
  • British Pound
    
  • Euros
    
  • South Korean Won
    
  • Swiss Franc
  If you live in a region not listed above, then all game gifts that you purchase from your Steam store will be locked by default and cannot be redeemed/played outside of your region.
  
  How do region-locked game gifts affect trading?
  1. If you live in one of the above-listed unrestricted regions, you can freely buy any game and trade them with anyone on Steam since your game gifts can be redeemed in any region of the world. If a game happens to have some language restriction, there will be a notification displayed on the game's store page or you can verify the game's list of supported languages.
  2. If your Steam store is restricted, you should be cautious when trading with random people since someone from a different region than yours might not be able to redeem your game gift. So, before you make a deal with someone, you should click on the game gift in the inventory and read its description. If the game is restricted, you will see a message like this (depending on the region, the list of countries shown will vary):
  

  Notice: Gift purchases for {game title} can only be added to the gift recipient's library if they are in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

  Here is the official FAQ from Steam support concerning Region Restrictions: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1266-QFZC-2141
  
  
• In 2015, Valve introduced yet another hurdle to trading which involves having to use the Steam mobile authenticator app in order to confirm trades immediately. This is meant to make trades more secure due to a growing number of hijacked Steam accounts, etc. But if you and/or the other trader do not use the Steam app, the traded items will be held for 15 days. Here is the official FAQ for the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8625-WRAH-9030
  
  
• In 2016, Valve added a condition to some specific games purchased from the Steam store which prevents all VAC and Game Ban enabled games to be stored in the inventory. So, if you are trading for a VAC and Game Ban enabled game bought from the Steam store as from August 2016, you will be given a Steam gift link instead of a tradable gift. This change was implemented by Valve to make it more difficult for hackers to use multiple accounts. Here is the full FAQ: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1327-WUJX-5722

Safety First

Before you run off to trade, remember to always take these basic precautions:

• Never tell anyone your Steam and email logins. Steam support will never ask you!
  
• Do not click on any links sent to you or in trading posts/websites unless you are 100% sure that these are safe. Check the URLs carefully. Some scammers/phishers use fake Steam websites with URLs that closely resemble the official Steam websites in an attempt to steal your logins.
  
• When trading game gifts (not applicable to game codes or gift links) or other tradeable items, the entire transaction should ideally be done in the same Steam trade window.
  
• When trading game codes (or game gift links), it is not possible to add the code into the Steam trade window, since it is just a serial number or URL. In that case, make sure the trader is trustworthy before you send your trade offer. The game code or gift link will then be given to you in the chat window after you have added the trader to your Friends list.
  
• Check the trade topic description, otherwise, ask the trader to make sure that you are trading for the Steam version of the game (if that's the version you are looking for), since there are many PC games also available on other platforms, like Epic Games Store, GOG, etc.
  
• When trading Steam game gifts, you should check if they are playable in your region of the world. In game trade topics, you will sometimes see "ROW" mentioned, which stands for "Rest Of the World", meaning that the games being traded are region-free, so they can be redeemed and are playable in all parts of the world. Steam game gifts are sometimes region-restricted. This depends on the Steam store from which the game gifts have been bought. For example, game gifts bought from the Russian Steam store are not playable if you live in the United States. How to check? It's quite simple. Just click on the game gift in the trader's inventory or hover your cursor over the game gift when viewing it in the trade offer window - if the game description says nothing about a region restriction, then the game gift is region-free and you have nothing to worry about. Steam game codes are usually region-free.
  
• Before trading games, you should check if the trader is trustworthy by looking at his Steam profile page. If the trader has a low Steam level and private profile, you are likely dealing with a scammer. Reliable traders will always have a public profile and open inventory, own a lot of paid (not free-to-play or giveaway) games and usually a high Steam level, many high Steam level friends and a fair amount of "+rep" comments left by other genuine traders. You should also search the trader's Steam profile on SteamRep to check for any bans.

Share The Knowledge

I have carefully written and reviewed this guide by including only the necessary information to help new traders with a proper introduction to Steam games trading.

My personal Steam trading experience
I started trading in 2013 when i became addicted to crafting Steam Trading Card badges and leveling up my Steam profile. I traded Steam cards for about a year but i avoided trading games due to my uncertainty and confusion about the entire Steam game trading rules and economy. Back then, if i wanted a Steam game without paying the full retail price, i would just add the game to my wishlist and then wait for it to go on sale, which often took several weeks or even months! Eventually, after a lot of research on various Steam game trading forums, i realised that i was missing out on a lot of great savings and that i didn't need to wait for a Steam sale any more!
Fast-forward to the present: After several thousands of successful trades, i decided to write this guide to help others. Personally, i always first search on several Steam trading websites before purchasing any game directly from the Steam store and by doing so, i have saved a lot of money which i then invested into trading for even more games!

You can start off by browsing the various Steam trading groups and websites. You can find several popular ones that i use personally on my Steam profile. Feel free to share or link to this guide in your trading topic or website, whenever there is a need to explain how game trading works on Steam. If this guide was helpful, please rate it - thank you!

To learn more about Steam trading, check out my Steam Trading 101 - A Practical Guide.

Have fun trading and good luck!

[caleb4est]

Thanks a lot for this man! Helps a lot.

[Leviathan]

Great guide.

[Jmlee19]

Nice guide. I think it will be helpful to my friends who are just now getting into trading and how it works.

[m3lly]

Very nice guide Bravo! Bravo! *crowd starts to clap*

[Doge$]

Nice Guide man very awesome thread :)

[Thojtt Troll Father]

Nice to see you are sharing your knowledge Dragonborn. You have compiled this very well.