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Trade Lock: locked items

Steam temporarily blocks some skins from being passed on. Here you can both buy and sell them — usually they're cheaper than the same skins without a lock.

Two different locks
Trade Protectiontrade protection, 8 days

The skin is already in your inventory, and you can use it and play with it in game. You can't trade it away, sell it on Steam, change stickers, or put it into trade-up contracts.

Trade Lockafter a Steam purchase, 7 days

Can't be traded.

For the seller

Locked items sit in the Trade hold tab in the Sell items section, each with its own countdown. You can list them right away — the buyer sees the term and decides for themselves.

Don't press "Reverse trade" in Steam

The button returns the items to their owners, but both accounts get a 30-day trade and market ban. If something has gone wrong — message us first.

For the buyer

The Trade Hold slider on the left sets how many days of waiting you're willing to accept. By default every item is shown.

After the purchase, the item appears on the Delivery page with a countdown to the unlock.

When the lock lifts, you'll have to accept the offer

We create the offer ourselves, but accepting it is on you — it won't accept automatically.

Don't accept in time and the deal is cancelled with 5% of the purchase withheld. Keep an eye on the timer on Delivery.

The security deposit

When you list a locked item, you temporarily freeze 5% of its value on your balance.

The logic is simple: the buyer pays today and gets the item several days later. The deposit is your promise that you'll hand it over.

The money comes back if you delist the item, if the lock expires and the item is never bought, and of course after a normal deal.

The money stays with us if you don't hand the item over after the lock lifts.

The frozen amount and its return date are shown under "Expected releases" next to your balance.

Why locked items are cheaper

The buyer pays less precisely for the wait. For the seller it's a way to avoid sitting on the item for a week and list it straight away instead.

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