Trading
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Trading is an in-game system that allows players to swap items with other players. Introduced in the Mann-Conomy Update, the system allows players to swap weapons, hats, misc items, and tools with other players. Players who have free accounts are limited to receiving items, and cannot give items to other players until they upgrade to premium status.
Contents
Mechanics
- Up to eight items from a user's backpack can be traded from one player to another in a single transaction. The user's trading boxes appear on the upper right side of the screen. The user may select and drag items from their backpack, which is displayed on the left, into the trading boxes. The trading boxes at the lower right display the other user's trade offer. The trading window also shows the color of the item's rarity as a background and outline.
- Both users can communicate via the private chat box under the backpack section. The chat box also displays notifications about the quality and default name of added items, as well as tips to help avoid being scammed.
- After reviewing the items offered in the trade, both users must click the "Ready to Trade" check-box. If the offer is changed by either party, the users are required to click "Ready to Trade" again. Once both users are ready to trade, clicking the "Trade Now" button completes the trade.
Audio cues
There are several small sound files that play to alert the traders to certain events:
- Items in the trade have changed.
- The trade was cancelled.
- Both players have accepted the offer.
- Trade complete.
Steam Trading
Steam Trading is a feature that was introduced on August 9, 2011 as an open beta. 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.[1] The beta updates were added to the public Steam client on September 6, 2011. With Steam Trading, a user is able to trade their in-game items for other in-game items and/or gift copies of Steam games. Trade requests can be initiated through Steam chat boxes or via the Friends List window.
Features
- Although at first the Steam Trading window shows only 8 slots to trade, when the 3rd slot on the last line is filled, more slots appear. This allows for up to 256 items to be traded at once, virtually removing 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 screen, 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 Backpack and Steam Inventory, ready for immediate use.
- 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 and Steam gifts (games bought but not yet redeemed).
Trading tips
Note: Keep the following tips in mind while trading.
- Pay attention to the background color of the items being traded, signifying Rarity.
- Always re-check items being traded before finalizing the trade.
- Trades should be conducted without any pressure; don't give into another player's pressure if they're pushing you into a trade you're not comfortable with.
- If you feel that you are paying too much, ask a friend or another player. Many trade servers also offer "price guides" to give an idea on the value of items being traded (though these are often subjective).
- Keep in mind that the order that items appear in Steam Trading is not the same order that they appear in your Backpack. In Steam Trading, inventory items appear in the order in which you obtained them. This can be confusing if you own more than one of a particular item. Be sure to preview items by hovering over them in the inventory or trading boxes to make sure you are adding the correct ones. Also note that the inventory ordering (left to right = oldest to newest) also applies to items filtered by searches.
- Respect goes a long way in a trade.
- Avoid trades in-game that involve more than eight items or are split up into separate trades; use Steam Trading to trade more than eight items at a time. For example, if you were selling an item for 19 Refined Metal, a scammer could give you eight Refined Metal for the item in the first trade and then not engage in additional trades for the rest of the items. Also, do not trade with someone if they tell you to send them an item(s) and then they will send one back - on almost all occasions, they will not send you an item back and will either ignore you or leave the server after you have given them an item(s).
- Be aware of renamed items, as a scammer could rename a common item as a rare item. Look out for notices in the private trade chat window that tell you if a certain item has been renamed with a Name Tag; renamed items always have quotation marks surrounding the name.
Tradability
Permanent
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- 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 bypass the untradability.
- All items purchased from the Mann Co. Store cannot be traded or used in crafting. Self-Made, Community, and Valve are also untradable and uncraftable.
Temporary
- Tools that are bought in the Mann Co. Store, such as Paint Cans, Mann Co. Supply Crate Keys, Gift Wrap, and Backpack Expanders, are untradable for a period of two days. Afterwards, they become tradable like other normal items.
- Additionally, items that are awarded in Genuine quality for 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Made most tools tradable.
- Fixed Ellis' Cap and the Frying Pan not being tradable
October 27, 2010 Patch (Scream Fortress Update)
- Gentle Manne's Service Medal is now tradable.
- The Earbuds and Gentle Manne's Service Medal are now gift wrappable.
- Added a note in the trading dialog to let you know when your trading partner is typing.
- Updated the RIFT pre-order items to be not-tradable until the RIFT pre-order period is over
February 24, 2011 Patch (Community Map Pack Update)
- [Undocumented] Fixed trades only displaying one of the items traded to the server.
- Updated the Sharpened Volcano Fragment and the Sun-on-a-Stick so they can be traded.
- Updated The Shogun Pack items to be tradeable.
- Hero's Hachimaki now tradable.
May 5, 2011 Patch (Replay Update)
- [Undocumented] The Hetman's Headpiece, the Janissary Ketche,The Dead Cone, and The Brain Bucket were made craftable, tradable, and could be found in drops.
- Made the Three-Rune Blade, Hero's Tail, and Sign of the Wolf's School tradable.
- Made the Conjurer's Cowl and Maul tradable.
- Made the The Original, The Dragonborn Helmet, The Anger, The Pip-Boy, and The Wingstick tradeable.
- Made the Manno-Technology Bundle tradable
- [Undocumented] Item server update made the tournament medals untradable.
- [Undocumented] Made the El Jefe tradeable.
Notes
- When first released with the Mann-Conomy Update, the trading system had 4 slots for players to trade with. This was changed to 8 slots in the October 20, 2010 Patch.
- 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.
- It's possible to continue playing and leave the trading screen in the background by pressing the 'Esc' key. Pressing 'Esc' again returns to the trading screen.
- A player wishing to block all trade requests can do so using the game options.
- There is a 30 second waiting period between unsuccessful trade requests.
- After trades, the transaction details show up on the server messages.
- If a player sends multiple trade requests to another player who denies them, there is a 2 minute waiting period between each trading request to prevent spamming.
