For a long time now, skin trading sites have been a crucial part of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s gaming experience. And while the Steam community market is very welcoming to pro and new traders alike, the entire trading process isn’t a simple procedure. In this CSGO trading guide, let our team give useful trading tips in your journey to be a successful trader.
CS:GO Trading 101: How Do You Earn and Where
to Start?
How to Earn From Trading on CS:GO
If you want to start trading skins with minimal investment, the most timely advice our resident CSGO players could tell you is to play a lot. However, it’s also important to note that finding rare skins with a good value would take time.
If you’re the type who doesn’t have much time to waste, successful traders would tell you to start CSGO trading by investing real money to buy skins. You can trade skins through the Steam market or other marketplaces with a lower price range and more value trade offers.
Games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive conduct yearly summer and winter sales and sell CSGO skins for a lower market price. Once the sale season is over, and the traders are done buying items, they’ll be selling them at a higher price for maximum profit.
It’s also a good alternative to make use of the game’s upgrade and downgrade options to maintain the float value of the CSGO skins. Our resident game experts will discuss these trade techniques at the latter part of the post.
What Do You Need to Start
Before becoming an official game trader of CS:GO Skins, users have to create a profile on the CSGO trading site of their choice and build a good market reputation.
And because these trades involve real-life money and profit, it’s only natural that these sites ask for several requirements before you can buy and sell skins on their trading platforms. If you created a Steam account, your profile has to be at least 30 days old. For existing ones, it shouldn’t be under any trade ban.
On top of that, our CSGO trading experts advise you to install the Steam Guard system and application. Once you have done and had all these, you can freely buy and sell skin in the Steam market and other sites.
Most Common Words and Phrases
To make a good deal out of all your trade adventures, you’re bound to get familiar with certain terminologies used in both the games and the trades. For the basics, CSGO trading is the literal transaction where you trade game items through Steam.
The weapons involved in the trade are called skins, and trading them up means you get to have profits. Expert traders like our team would recommend you learn common trading phrases like B/O, which means Buy/Out trades that are 100% accepted, and C/O that translates to current offer or the best trade offer a user can give.
There’s also the term K/k, which indicates the equivalent of CS:GO keys. For instance, 20K could be equals to the value of 20 keys. If you’re keen on gaining profits fast, we recommend using the terms such as QS short for quick selling or Add if you want to include more items to the original trade.
Best and Worst CS:GO Items to Trade
The most crucial part of this CSGO trading guide is knowing which items from the game’s loot boxes are the best and worst to buy or sell. Before you go to your search box, make sure to avoid hard-to-trade items like Dual Berettas, PP-Bizon, M249, XM1014, Sawed-Off, and other similar skins. While they do have value, their prices are bound to deteriorate.
On the bright side, event capsules like ESL and Katowice tend to go with high demand and price. The case applies to Phoenix, Overpass, Nuke, and Vertigo. Collections from Arms Deal 1 and Winter Offensive have potential as well.
How to Trade and Value CS:GO Skins
If you’re a beginner, you may view these items the same at first glance. However, the way you can profit from their market prices highly depends on their rarity and floats.
The price of a CS:GO skin would vary depending on its rarity levels. If you want to buy at lower prices, Consumer-Grade skins are readily available in the market. There are also the likes of Industrial-Grade in light blue color and Mil-Spec in dark blue shade.
Although it’s relatively easy to fill your inventory with consumer and industrial-grade skin options, the market usually trades them at very low prices. Mil-Specs are cheaper than CSGO case keys, but the next skins that our team is about to discuss will surely rack up your inventory value.
Restricted skins are the ones that are rare enough to sell and make a profit from. This skin type is colored purple, while Classified skins can be identified by their pinkish purple color. You can also sell Covert skins, which you can also sell according to market prices.
Last but not least, skins marked as Exceedingly Rare and colored yellow are the ones in a higher price range and often incur the biggest profit.
On the other hand, these trading items come in fixed float values as well. When you view your inventory, skins valued at 0.00-0.07 are called Factory New, and ones at 0.07-0.15 are Minimal Wear. There are also items under Field-Tested criteria valued at 0.15-0.37 and Well-Worn ranging from 0.37-0.44.
When trading, the Battle-Scarred skins with 0.44-1.00 float values definitely caught the attention of our resident gamers. From its visual perspective, you’ll be able to differentiate it from a Factory New float value of the same item. So, as you expect, they’re bought and sold higher than the rest.
How to Trade and Value CS:GO Keys
As you may already know, keys are the currency you’ll be using when playing CSGO. While you can pay for skins with actual money, our resident gamers would like to note that rare and high-level items can only be bought through game keys.
These game currencies are calculated by multiplying the price of the item in collars by 2.7. Although trading with keys is convenient and efficient, our team would ask you to be careful in these deals as it can end up with overpay.
CS:GO Stickers
For players who like to personalize their in-game weapons, this CSGO trading guide recommends getting stickers. Besides personal preferences, these add-ons make your item more valuable. However, as enticing as it is, the skin and sticker must go hand-in-hand to preserve its market value.
Platforms to Trade CS:GO Items
Steam Marketplace
One of the best trading sites you can consider for convenience is the Steam Marketplace. However, once your Steam credits enter your gaming wallet, they cannot be used as real money outside the system.
Third-Party CS:GO Trading Sites
The major perk of trading under third-party sites is the capability of withdrawing in-game money to your bank account. Besides having great deals like the Steam market, these platforms provide different options to make the transactions easier and faster.
CS:GO Communities
Another way to create profits from item trading is through the CS:GO communities. This process bears no service or extra fees at all but is bound to be riskier as you have no safeguard of fair dealerships. Our resident gamers recommend being keen and observant when making these transactions.
The Best Tips to Trade Efficiently and Safely
Tip #1: Earn a Good Reputation
To make real money in the CSGO trading community, you must have a great reputation. Your gaming profile will show +rep comment, and it will reflect whether your deals wrapped up well or not. With high rep points, our expert traders assure you that buyers will flock to your profile.
Tip #2: Utilize Plug-Ins
CSGO plug-ins are especially useful to make trading not only easier but safer. We recommend making use of the Steam inventory helper to display the items according to float value and price. There are certain Google Chrome add-ons as well that block access to scam links.
Tip #3: Trade In-Demand Items
Developers of these games would often host events that would boost the popularity of specific items, so our team advises you to be alert. Once it goes in-demand, you can seize the opportunity to make profits.
Tip #4: Always be on the Know of Item Values in the Market
It’s no secret that CSGO will always release new items and offers, so it is important for you to learn how to fix the Counter Strike:Global Offense “Failed to Retrieve Your Items From the Server” error if ever you experience it. Get your head in the turn of events, and you’ll surely get yourself an amazing deal in no time. Keep in mind that the market and pricing could change any given time.
Tip #5: Be on the Look for Rare Items
Most rare items come from events and tournaments, and these offers come at a limited time. If you got these rare collections, we suggest waiting a bit longer before selling. You may not know it, but its value may grow considering how rare it is,
Tip #6: Open Cases During the Right Time
The most common mistakes beginners make is not waiting for the right time before opening cases. Given that CSGO has the tendency not to give away items easily, it’ll be a bit lighter on you when you open cases after earning enough trading profits.
Read more:
Key Details to Know About CS:GO Trading
Trading Etiquette
More than anything else, it’s important to remember that every trader is looking for a profit. If you want to succeed in negotiations, you have to accept the reality that almost no one would trade for a downgrade.
Fake Users
With approximately 802 thousand concurrent players on Steam alone [1], CSGO didn’t only become an avenue for more money; it also evolved into a market where fake users lurk around.
Like other games, expanding your friends’ list enhances both your game and trading experience. However, this CSGO trading guide would like to remind you that accepting invites from private profiles is a risk you wouldn’t want to take when investing real money in this game.
Safety Reminders To Avoid Scammers
Considering the healthy trading economy, it’s not a surprise for our team to find out about the scammers in CSGO. The best you can do is not click on unknown links from people you don’t know and never give out personal info. Even in third-party sites where you trade, it’s safer to use your Steam log-in.
FAQ
How can I be a good CS:GO trader?
You can be a good CS:GO trader by increasing your reputation. Accounts with low points or levels are often perceived as scammers, so it undoubtedly helps if you have that. Besides that, never engage with deceiving transactions as this would reflect on your CSGO trading profile.
Conclusion
Following this comprehensive CSGO trading guide sure is a great headstart for a beginner like you. If you want to find trading success in this gaming environment, our trade experts advise you to observe patience and learning how to strategize. While it’s enticing to invest money, it’s always smart to start with something small to feel the market.
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