Ultimate Guide How to
Trade Successfully in CS:GO
| Chapter 1 | The Best Trading Sites |
| Chapter 2 | Basic Knowledge About Trading |
| Chapter 3 | Trading Tips & Tricks |
| Chapter 4 | Conclusion |
In this guide you will learn the basics about trading skins and items in CS:GO. Where should you trade, what is important and what do you need to know.
Which is the Best CS:GO Trading Site for Skins?
The best skin trading website for CS:GO is SkinBay, in my test I was trading on each platform and SkinBay was the one where I was staying. Try it out, sign up, connect via Steam and sell & buy CS:GO skins easily.
CS GO Trading Guide Basics:
How to start with a poor inventory and end up with a knife without paying money? I share my personal experience, make a comment if you agree or disagree! ???? I’ve read a lot of blogs and tutorials and all what the CS:GO trading guides are about is getting to a high level of trading with knifes and expensive items.
Many people share their knowledge how much they got in a short period of time. But there are so many things that can go wrong, I write down a list of stuff to give you a better trading experience.
Everyone is looking for profit
If you want to profit from 1:1 trades you need to stay calm and stick to your strategy. It is important to understand that no one on earth wants to trade down, just to get a beautiful skin.
In the CS GO trading world, everyone wants to make a good deal – making offers with a bad outcome for one trader will just not work.
This is the reason why 90% of all of the trades get rejected, no one wants to downgrade! Everyone in CS GO trading is looking for profit.
If you plan to start your CS:GO trading business think about investing a few dollars. Thousands of traders start with a few cents and need hours and hours to reach a higher inventory. Then people find themselves stuck on a level, or even fall down. The market is full of people with just a few cent items and everyone wants to get a bit more. If you really want to be a CS GO trader, stay away from that shit, invest a few dollars and take the step up – don’t be one of the guys who is hunting for cents. Starting with a few items for 2-3$ can be much more attractive.
CS:GO Trading Language & Words:
In the CS GO trading business there are many words that are important to understand. Also checkout my CS:GO lexicon. 🙂
CS:GO Trading Vocabulary:
| CS GO Trading | Trade items via Steam |
| CS GO Skins | Weapon cosmetics inside CS GO |
| Trade up | Trading Steam items and skins for a profit |
| Market | Steam community market |
| Inspect | Watching the skin inside the game |
| Scam/scamming | People who try to trick other |
| SS | Screenshot of the trade or someting else |
| Overpay | Someone who has to pay more than the value to get a specific item. |
| Lowball | The action of offering a lot lower price than the seller expects. |
| B/O or Buy/Out | A B/O is a 100% accpeted trade. |
| C/O or Current/Offer | Best offer of a person |
| K/k | CS GO Keys (for example 10k = 10 Keys) |
| Weapontype: StatTrack | Skin that counts kills. |
| Battle-Scarred (BS), Well Worn (WW), Field-Tested (FT), Minimal-Wear (MW), Factory-New (FN) | Condition of a weapon, which defines the quality and lead to a higher or lower price. |
| Add | Adding more items to the original trade. |
| QS | Quick Selling: If someone needs a specific item fast he will accept fast. Best case to generate profit fast. |
| [H] | Have (Example: [H] 10k = Having 10 keys) |
| [W] | Want (Example [W] 2k = Wants 2 keys) |
| PS or Play Side | The side of skin which can be seen while playing. |
| BS or Back Side | The other side of the skin, which can be seen while inspecting the item. |
| Mirrored | Play Side and Back Side has the same look. |
| Full Fade Knifes | 100% of the knife is covered in a fade (without grey parts). |
| Blue Gem | A skin that is at least 80% blue. |
| Case Hardened | Clean skin which is case hardened. |
| Autobump | Automatic bump on CSGO Lounge Trades. |
Important for CS:GO Trading:
CS:GO Trading Manners:
Like in real life always try to be polite and gentle, try to be nice:
Don’t just rush for the deal, talk with the other person and try to find out more about him, remember that he is no robot: Where does he come from – start the smalltalk, sometimes funny chats or friendships start to grow here. And if the deal is completed a guy who likes you is really valuable, it can increase your CS GO reputation. And also when it comes to the deal price you can start with a high price and go down slowly.
Always stay calm and be fair, especially if you charge a higher price, you will not be able to kid & trick anyone just with words or aggressiveness. Try to get a bit more than the value and then everything is fine. 😉
Scamming in CS:GO:
Many people in CS:GO and also on the CS:GO trading platforms like CSGOLounge try to scam other people to get their inventory.
In most of the cases CS:GO Bots message you, send a link to you and try to steal your Steam account.
Here are a few quick tips to be prepared against scamming:
- Never click on links from people you don’t know.
- Don’t use third party software or any tools for trading like Hust or UsF.
- Never lend anyone your Steam account.
- Always distrust people you meet online, don’t give them personal information or items.
- Only use the Steam-login on CS GO trading platforms.
Safety Rules & Impostors
Big and popular CS GO traders always have many fakers around them who try to look exactly like them to trick other people.
- To be safe, always check if the Steam64_id is correct (the number at the end of the steam profile link).
- Check the CASHREP thread (Steam community group) and take a look on the reactions.
- Be careful with paypal transactions.
How to become a good CS:GO Trader – how to trade up?
So, how do I get a better CS:GO trader? Here you can find all of the tips listed!
Be aware that you can only be a good trader if you have something to trade with that has some value. Start with popular CS:GO skins like Redline, Asiimov or Case Hardened, check if they have a good quality and invest a few dollars.
Most important CS:GO Trading Tips:
Here is a list of the most important CS GO Trading tips:
- Try to reach a high Steam level, level 10 is great to get trust (Steam level 1 accounts look like scammers). Invest the 3 dollars to profit from a higher Steam level.
- Trade with popular skins (Asiimov, Case Hardened, Cyrex, Redline, and so on) and watch out for CS GO Stickers they make the skin even better!
- Don’t have a VAC Steam ban on your account it just looks bad.
- Take the time and create an awesome Steam profile with trading links, images and a nice information about you. Create some extra trust and gain a better reputation.
- Never accept a friend request from private profiles, inventories, infobox layers from OPSkin traders or similar stuff, these guys are probably scammers.
- Simple rule: If someone is interested in one of your items, don’t accept the first offer (unless it’s very high). Always send him another offer with a small overpay to give you more value for the trade!
Advanced CS:GO Trading Guide, Tips & Tricks:
CS GO Trading Guide – Extra tips to step up the trading game:
- Be careful the market values can change fast, before making a deal it is good to check the price value again.
- Be nice and meet amazing people, don’t just focus on the profit, try to have a good time and meet new people.
- Decide if the item is useful or valuable, some skins with a high price can be shit and no one wants to have them, decide if the skin looks great or not.
- Do not send quicksells for your dream items, there will be a good offer somewhere else.
- Don’t overpay for Case Hardened Knives or Crimson Web. Only do that if you want to use the skin by urself, because you love it. Same goes for any knife: Do not overpay for any knife, always try to get it much cheaper, there will be an offer at the right time.
- Give others a +rep this is important and if it is a friend he will give it back. Every +rep counts!
CS GO Items & Skins to stay away from:
Here is a list of CS:GO skins, that are bad for trading. It is not impossible to trade with these items, but much harder.
Some CS:GO Stickers can add value, but some are just shit. These items are bad because the price will go down slowly.
Hard to sell:
- Dual Berettas
- UMP-45
- M249
- MP7
- PP-Bizon
- Nova
- Sawed-Off
- XM1014
- MAC-10
- MAG-7
- G3SG1
- SCAR-20
- Negev
CS:GO Items with a great potential:
Here are some CS GO items that are nice for trading. It can change over time, but just watch out for the fact that the price will increase and you are good to go.
Collections of weapons/misc with potential:
- Assault, Aztec, Arms Deal 1
- Major event capsules (katowice, esl)
- Baggage, Bank, Alpha
- Cache, Cobblestone, Winter Offensive
- Dust 1, Militia
- Nuke, Overpass, Vertigo
- eSports 2013, Bravo, Arms Deal 2
- eSports 2013 Winter, Arms Deal 3
- Phoenix
Trading with CS:GO Keys:
In CS GO, the keys are like a currency for trading.
You can pay with money or CS GO keys (or other trading currencies).
Facts & Tips for CS:GO Keys:
- CS GO keys are very stable in the price.
- Having a lot of CS GO keys is very good if you are a trader.
- With keys you can buy and sell CS:GO skins & items quickly.
- High tier items like knives often are priced in CS:GO keys!
- Warning: Selling for keys can often end in an overpay.
- Warning: Offers for a dream item with keys can end in an overpay fast too.
- The Key price can be calculated: In Euro: Item (€) x 2.5 = keys. or in Dollar: Item ($) x 2.7 = keys.
CS GO Float Values:
Ever heard of the CS:GO float values?
The float values (fv) are a number that define the condition of a skin. A low float value means a good skin condition. You can find the float values of any skin through CSGOexchange or CSGO Zone. Search in the database to check the CS GO float values. Good traders always have an eye on the float values, these skins can be sold higher. Be careful: Some skins have a high float value but still no one wants to have them. 😉
Useful CS GO Tadring Plugins:
There are some extras for CS GO to make trading more easy:
- The Steam Inventory Helper (SIH) comapres the price of CS GO items in the trade box. It display a float value.
- The CS:GO Lounge Destroyer is able to filter CSGOLounge offers, it reduces the spam offers. It can also provide notifications and an auto-bump function! Another option to try is the CSGO Lounge Assistant.
- Google Chrome offers more addons which can make your trading business easy. A good thing is a Domain Blocker/Mispelled Website Blocker, this will protect a bit more against scam links.
- The Chrome addon CSGOLounge Multiple Accounts is useful to work with different accounts.
- The Steam Community SteamRep Integration Addon can help to check Steam profiles and will alert if the guy is a marked scammer on steamrep.
Getting a high CS GO Reputation
For traders in CS GO the trust and reliability is an important key fact to make a deal. But how does CS GO traders get trust and how can you see if a trader is no scammer?
In the CS GO trading business it became a standart to leave a +rep comment in his comments to show that the deal was fair and without problems. This increases the reputation of the trader and the next trader partners can see the recognition of the trader in his profile. Always check the profile to see what is happening there! 😉
You can also check the group CS:GOREP, each user can create his own thread for his personal cashrep (cash reputation). For bigger traders this is a must have, it is the perfect place to show that you are a well known trader and that there will be no problems. Cashrep works as a single platform and does not belong to +rep comments in profiles. The cashrep reputation & feedback requests need to be created by your own.
Opinion & Conclusion about CS GO Trading:
That’s it! I hope you enjoyed the CS GO trading guide and it will help you as a CS GO trader.
Tell us about your up trade: I was able to trade from a 80$ inventory to a 900$ inventory but it took me very very long, because the start was really bumpy and discouraging.
What about you, did you managed to trade up with 1:1 trades?
CS GO trading will not make a living for anyone of us, remember that is is for fun, it is just a hobby. I saw many people who take trading really serious, thats funny. 😀 It reflects the CS:GO trading business, everyone thinks he is the best trader. But only some are succesful, if they stick to the easy rules and strategies…
What is your inventory value and trading story?
If you havent signed up yet for a CS:GO trading site, use these two options:
- CS Money to simply get money for skins (no knowledge needed).
- Skinbay to trade on a longterm basis.
That’s it! I hope you had fun reading, leave a comment below. 🙂
Find the the best trading site here: Skinbay review and guide.
