Every CS2 skin has a price chart, which is exactly why selling one confuses
people. The number on the Steam Market is real — thousands of people pay it
every day — and it is also not money: it is Steam wallet funds, which buy games
and other skins and cannot be withdrawn. The first decision in selling a skin is
not "how much" but "what do I want to end up holding": wallet balance, or cash.
Everything else follows from that.
This is a guide for the seller. If you want to list here, the application is at
/sell/apply?offer=items. For a rough number before
you start, the CS2 item value calculator
returns a directional cash range from the float, pattern and stickers you
describe.
Steam Community Market. The highest nominal price and the lowest effort.
Valve takes its cut on every sale, the buyer waits seven days before the item
can move again, and the proceeds land in your wallet, not your bank. For a
seller who plans to buy other skins or games, this is the right answer and
nothing below applies.
Third-party cash-out sites. They pay real money and they pay it below the
market chart — the discount is their margin plus the liquidity risk they take
on. For liquid skins the discount is modest; for a rare pattern or a sticker
craft it can be steep, because their pricing is a formula and a formula does
not know what a Katowice holo on the right placement is worth.
A marketplace with escrow. You set the price, the buyer pays into escrow,
you send the trade offer, the buyer confirms, you receive the money. The
commission here is 0% — you receive exactly the price you set. The trade-off
is time: a listed skin waits for its buyer instead of selling on the spot.
The honest comparison is not the percentage on each site's fee page but the
cash that reaches you for the same skin. Compute that once and the choice is
usually obvious.
A buyer paying cash can also buy the same skin on the market with wallet funds
they already have. So the cash price for a liquid skin is the market price
minus roughly what it costs to turn cash into wallet funds and back — the
market fee, the seven-day hold, the hassle. That gap is not a marketplace
being stingy; it is what wallet funds are worth in cash.
The gap narrows for skins that are hard to find on the market — a specific
float, a specific pattern, a sticker craft — because there the market price is
not a real alternative for the buyer. It widens for skins that sit in thousands
of listings.
Buyers of CS2 skins are precise, and a listing that leaves the details out is
priced as if the details were bad.
- Float and wear. On skins whose look changes with wear, a float near zero
is a different product from the same skin at the top of Factory New. Quote it
to the fourth decimal.
- Pattern index. Case Hardened blue gems, Marble Fade fire-and-ice, Doppler
and Gamma Doppler phases are priced by pattern, not by name. If you do not
know your pattern tier, look it up before listing; the buyer will.
- Stickers and placement. Katowice 2014 and 2015 holos on the right slot can
be worth more than the skin. Scraped stickers subtract. Most modern stickers
add nothing.
- StatTrak and souvenir. StatTrak is a modest premium on popular skins.
Souvenir packages are priced by the event and the sticker set.
- Trade status. A skin on trade hold, or on an account with a trade ban or
without mobile authenticator, sells at a discount for the wait — or not at
all.
- List the skin with the float, pattern, stickers and a screenshot of the
in-game inspect. The listing is checked by moderation before it goes live.
- The buyer pays. The money goes into escrow — not to you, not to us.
- The order appears in your seller cabinet at /seller/orders
with the buyer's trade link. You send the trade offer to that link and mark
the order delivered.
- The buyer accepts the offer and confirms. Your money moves to hold.
- It sits on hold until the warranty window ends, then lands on your balance.
Two rules that protect you: never send a trade offer before the order shows as
paid, and never send it to a link that is not the one on the order page.
Every skin scam that works is a variation on one of those two.
Name tags. Most applied stickers outside the classic holos. Graffiti and music
kits, which are real items with tiny prices. A high float on a skin that looks
the same at every wear. And a bundle: two mid skins rarely equal one skin of
their combined value, because the buyer wanted one of them.
Start from the market chart, subtract the wallet-to-cash gap, then adjust for
the details above. If the skin has a rare pattern or craft, the chart is a
floor rather than a guide — price it against comparable crafts, not against
the base skin. The item value calculator
is a fast way to get a directional range from a description before you commit
to a number.
Apply once at /sell/apply?offer=items. Listings go
through moderation before they reach the storefront — the check is about the
listing being accurate, not about you proving anything — and after that you
set your price and edit it as the market moves.
Roblox
Valorant