Trading

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Trading is an in-game system that lets players swap items with other players. Introduced with the Mann-Conomy Update, this system allows players to swap weapons, hats, misc items, tools and more with other players. Later on, Valve also added the ability to trade items from different games to each other.

Steam Trading

A screenshot of Steam Trading.

Steam Trading is a feature that was introduced on August 9, 2011 as an open beta. Steam Users that opted into the Steam Trade Beta were also given the ability to "Tag" people on their Friends List and organize them into Common Groups. The beta updates were added to the public Steam client on September 6, 2011. With Steam Trading, players are able to trade their in-game items for other in-game items and/or gift copies of Steam games. Trade requests can be sent through Steam chat windows or via the Steam Friends List window.

Features

• At first, the Steam Trading window shows only 8 slots to trade, when the 3rd slot on the last line is filled, more slots will appear. This allows for up to 256 items to be traded at once, eliminating the need for successive trading.

• Items can also be searched for by using the search tool, making trades quicker and easier to conduct. As with the in-game trading menu, a chat box is also available and items are color-coded according to rarity.

• Once a trade is made, any received items are placed into the user's in-game Backpack and Steam Inventory, ready to be used.

• Items from other games can also be traded by clicking the inventory drop down menu and choosing a supported game's inventory. The current inventories available are Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, Spiral Knights, Crimecraft: Gang Wars, Super MNC, and Steam gifts (games bought but not yet redeemed).

Trading inside TF2

Trading in-game opens up a Steam Trade window in the overlay, which can be toggled to return to the game and vice versa. After a trade is complete, any items a player receives are posted to the server's messages if they are in a server.

F2P players can not trade TF2 items with a few exceptions, such as tools like the Name Tag and the Description Tag, sometimes Miscs they may have found, and any items traded to them by premium users.

An option to filter trade requests is in the game's Advanced Options menu. This option can be set to Anyone, Friends Only, Friends and In-Game Players and No-one.

Trading tips

Note: Keep the following tips in mind while trading.

When trading for a Strange or Unusual item, look out for the quality colors to avoid being scammed. Note that the Free to Play account cannot give any items in the trade.

• Check the person's Steam profile to see if the person is on trade probation by Valve, or has a reputation for being a scammer.
• Pay attention to the quality of the items being offered.
• Always review the items being traded before finishing the trade.
• Trades should be conducted without any pressure; don't give into another player's pressure if they're urging you into a trade you do not want to be in.
• If you feel that you are offering too much, ask a friend or another player. There are many "price guides" available online that estimate the value of items being traded (though these are often subjective).
• Inventory items appear in the order in which they are arranged in your backpack. Be sure to preview items by hovering over them in the inventory or trading boxes to make sure you are adding the correct one(s).
• Always respect the player you are trading with. Being polite, courteous and honest are very important aspects of trading, and are reflected on in real life trading too. Common courtesy is an important aspect.
• Be aware of renamed items, as a scammer can rename a common item to appear as a rare item. For example, a Vintage Pyro's Beanie can be renamed to appear as an Unusual Pyro's Beanie. However, the hat will retain its blue lettering. The chat box will show notifications about renamed items to help avoid confusion.
• Check if the items you receive in the trade are craftable. After the October 13, 2011 Patch, items bought from the store are uncraftable, but can be traded.
• Make sure the items you are receiving are not duplicated.
• If you are trading for a strange weapon, its current kill count will be reset to 0, unless the strange item is gift-wrapped.

Permanent

• All items in the game are tradable with the exception of the items above and achievement milestone weapons. If metal is crafted using any achievement weapon, it becomes untradable. Anything crafted using untradable items also becomes untradable. However, most of the above items are gift-wrappable, providing a way to trade normally un-tradable items.

• Self-Made items, Community items, and Valve items are permanently untradable and uncraftable.

Temporary

• With the Manniversary Update, all items purchased from the Mann Co. Store will become tradable after two days, as long as the Steam account has made another purchase at least 30 days prior.

• Additionally, items that are awarded in Genuine quality upon pre-ordering a game on Steam are initially untradable, but generally become tradable once the game is released.

Update history

September 30, 2010 Patch (Mann-Conomy Update)

• Added trading system.

October 6, 2010 Patch

• The Trading dialog now starts with the chat window having focus.
• Gifted items are now craftable and tradable.
• Community, Self-Made, and Valve items are not tradable or usable in crafting.

October 20, 2010 Patch

• Added some anti-scam advice to the chat window.
• Increased trading slots to 8 slots per person.
• Added item rarity colors.
• Added the item’s original name to the item description.

January 19, 2011 Patch

• Added a note in the trading dialog to let you know when your trading partner is typing.

February 24, 2011 Patch (Community Map Pack Update)

• [Undocumented] Fixed trades only displaying one of the items traded to the server.

June 14, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Steam inventory/trading not showing the correct item level for some items.
• Fixed Steam inventory/trading sort order not matching the in-game backpack.

October 20, 2011 Patch

• Fixed "Not Usable in Crafting" text not appearing under certain conditions on item tooltips in the trading UI.

November 16, 2011 Patch

• Fixed an exploit that allowed untradable items to be traded with Steam trading.

November 23, 2011 Patch

• [Undocumented] Fixed a Steam Trading bug that allowed items to be duplicated.

December 15, 2011 Patch (Australian Christmas 2011)

• [Undocumented] Players with free accounts can now trade items that have been traded to them.

February 14, 2012 Patch

• Updated the in-game trading system to use the Steam trading menus.

September 4, 2012 Patch

• Added a notification to Steam Trading when a user's backpack is full

Bugs

• If a player is kicked from a server while waiting for a trade request, the timer at the home screen will show over 10,000 seconds.

Notes

• If you have been scammed, you can file a Steam support ticket and explain the situation. It helps to provide evidence of the scam, such as conversation logs or screenshots/videos of the scammed transaction. Valve has clearly stated, however, that they will not do anything to recover your items if you are a victim of a phishing scam.
• There is a 30 second waiting period between unsuccessful trade requests.
• If a player sends multiple trade requests to another player who declines them, there is a 2 minute waiting period between each trading request to prevent spamming.

Gallery

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  In-game announcement of Steam Inventory

See also

• Gift Wrap
• TF2 Backpack Examiner
• TF2 Trading Post
• TF2 Outpost
• TF2 Warehouse
• TF2 Metal Market
• SteamRep

External links

• Official Team Fortress 2 Item Trading Guidelines
• Steam Trading FAQ page