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.
Contents
Mechanics
- A maximum of eight items from a player's backpack can be traded from one player to another in a single transaction. The player's trading slots appear on the upper right side of the trading menu. The player may select and drag items from their backpack, which is displayed on the left, into the trading slots. The trading slots at the lower right show the other player's trade offer. The item icons also show the items rarity color.
- Both players can negotiate the trade in the chat box under the backpack inventory menu. The chat box also shows notifications about the quality and default name of added items, and tips to help avoid being scammed.
- After negotiating the deal and reviewing the items offered in the trade, both players have to click the "Ready to Trade" button. If the offer is changed by either party, the users are required to click the "Ready to Trade" button again. Once both players are ready to trade, clicking the "Trade Now" button completes the exchange, and the traded items appear on the screen.
Audio cues
There are several associated 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.
- Trade request recieved.
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.[1] 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 and Steam gifts (games bought but not yet redeemed).
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.This example shows a Unique Garlic Flank Stake and a strange Gloves of Running Urgently
- 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. Many trade servers also offer "price guides" to give an idea on the value of items being traded (though these are often subjective).
- Remember 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 using the search field.
- Always respect the player you are trading with. Being polite, courteous and honest are very important aspects of trading.
- 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.
- Be aware of renamed items, as a scammer could rename a common item as a rare item ( a Unique Pyro's Beanie made to look like an Unusual Pyro's Beanie for example). The chat box will show notifications about renamed items to help avoid confusion and scams.
- Check if the items you receive in the trade that they can be craftable. After the October 13, 2011 Patch, the items brought from the store will not be able to be crafted. But they can be traded.
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 trade normally un-tradable items.
- All items purchased from the Mann Co. Store cannot be used in crafting. With the Manniversary Update any item purchased from the Mann Co. Store will become tradable after a few days. Self-Made, Community, and Valve are also untradable and uncraftable.
Temporary
- As of the Manniversary Update & Sale, all items (including weapons and tools) that are bought in the Mann Co. Store are untradable for 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 tradable.
- Fixed "Not Usable in Crafting" text not appearing under certain conditions on item tooltips in the trading UI.
Notes
- When trading was first introduced 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 declines them, there is a 2 minute waiting period between each trading request to prevent spamming.
- While trading with another, the item being traded does not show if it cannot be crafted.
- 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.
