Steam Community Market Guide: How It Works, What Sells and the Rules
Summary: The Steam Community Market is Valve's built-in marketplace where Steam users buy and sell game items, trading cards and other community items with each other for Steam Wallet funds. Game developers decide whether their game takes part. Identical "commodity" items trade through buy orders and can be listed in bulk with Multisell, while items with their own wear or pattern are sold one listing at a time. Steam adds a 5% transaction fee (some Valve games add 10% more), all purchases are final, and the money stays in your Steam Wallet. This guide explains each piece and links to the detailed pages.
The Steam Community Market is the part of Steam where players buy and sell items with each other. It's where a spare CS2 case, a Rust door skin or a pile of trading cards turns into Steam Wallet credit. This page is the overview: what the Market is, how prices get set, what you can and can't sell, and what Steam takes. Each section links to a deeper guide when there's more to say.
Every rule on this page comes from Valve's own pages, listed under Sources at the end. Steam changes its rules from time to time, so if Steam shows you something different, trust Steam.
What the Steam Community Market is
You'll find the Market at steamcommunity.com/market. Valve's Steam Subscriber Agreement calls it a "Subscription Marketplace", a place to trade items "with, to or from other Subscribers". It names "the Steam Community Market and the Steam Trading functionality" as its two examples.
Two points from the agreement are worth knowing before you sell:
- Items are licenses. The agreement says items acquired in a Subscription Marketplace "are license rights" and that "you have no ownership interest" in them.
- Only Steam counts. Valve "does not recognize any transfers of Subscriptions ... that are made outside of Steam."
In practice, the Market is the official way to sell an item, and the buyer is always another Steam user. Steam doesn't buy items from you itself.
Which games are on the Market
It isn't automatic. The Market FAQ says "It is up to the game developer" whether a game uses the Community Market. Some of the biggest are Valve's own Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2. Others include Rust, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, PAYDAY 2, newer games like s&box and Bongo Cat, and older ones like Hero Siege.
Steam also has items of its own, under the "Steam" tab of your inventory: trading cards, booster packs, profile backgrounds, emoticons and Sacks of Gems. They sell on the same Market. See how to sell Steam trading cards.
Even in a participating game, not everything is sellable. The FAQ gives examples: newly purchased Dota 2 treasures are locked for a time shown on the item page, Dota 2 timed drops can never be sold, and some third-party game items may not be marketable after purchase. The item's description says so.
Listings and buy orders
The Market has two sides:
- A listing is an item someone has put up for sale at a set price.
- A buy order is a standing offer to buy an item at up to a set price.
Each item's Market page shows both, along with a chart of recent sale prices. The Market FAQ describes buy orders as a way to "see what other users are willing to pay for an item, and you can choose if you want to do a lower price to sell immediately; or go for a higher price and wait".
How Steam matches them, per the FAQ:
- When a buy order is placed, Steam finds the cheapest matching listings, then picks the oldest of those.
- When several buy orders could fill a new listing, the oldest buy order wins.
- A buyer's open orders can total up to 10 times their wallet balance. Orders without enough funds are cancelled automatically.
- Prices are converted between currencies before matching. Sellers list in their own wallet currency, and the FAQ says exchange rates update daily.
So if you want to sell right away, price at the highest buy order. If you match the lowest listing, you join the back of the queue at that price.
Commodities vs one-of-a-kind items
This is the distinction that decides how fast you can sell. The Market FAQ defines a commodity as an item where "all the items are identical, and can be traded interchangeably". For commodities, buyers don't pick a specific copy. They place an order and Steam fills it.
Other items have their own properties. CS2 weapon skins are the clearest example. Each one has a wear level, and the Market lists each copy separately. You can see this in Steam's own data. When we searched the Market on October 26, 2026, Steam flagged every AK-47 | Redline variant (Field-Tested, Minimal Wear, StatTrak™, Souvenir and so on) as a non-commodity, and flagged the Fever Case as a commodity.
Why it matters:
| Commodity items | Individual items | |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | Cases, keys, capsules, stickers, most Rust and s&box cosmetics, trading cards | CS2 weapon skins, many Dota 2 cosmetics, TF2 war-painted weapons |
| How buyers buy | Buy orders, filled by Steam | Pick a specific listing |
| Bulk listing | Steam's Multisell page | One at a time |
| Price discovery | Highest buy order and lowest listing | Compare similar listings |
Steam Bulk Sell only handles commodities, because that's what Steam's Multisell page accepts. More on the difference for CS2: CS2 skins vs commodities.
Who can sell
Steam's account rules, from the Market FAQ:
- a successful purchase on the account that is more than 7 days old but not older than a year, and
- Steam Guard enabled for the last 15 days.
Redeeming a gift doesn't count. Plenty of other things can also block you for a while, such as a new device, a password reset or a cancelled trade. Our selling requirements checklist covers the rules, and why you can't sell on the Steam Market works backwards from the error you're seeing.
What Steam takes
The Market FAQ lists a Steam Transaction Fee of 5% (minimum $0.01). It "may be increased or decreased" and is paid by the buyer on top of your price. Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, Dota 2 and Artifact items carry a further game fee, currently 10%, "determined and collected by the game publisher". The confirmation page shows the split before you submit. Our fees and holds explainer shows how the $0.01 minimum works out on cheap items.
Holds: why a listing isn't live yet
If your account hasn't had the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator for at least 7 days, Steam can hold a new listing for up to 15 days before buyers see it. Once the authenticator has been active for 7 days, you confirm listings in the Steam Mobile App instead. Details, including how CS2's Trade Protection differs: trade holds and market holds explained.
Where the money goes
Sales pay into your Steam Wallet. The Market FAQ says these funds "cannot be withdrawn or transferred to another Steam account or to a bank/3rd party account", but you can use them to buy gifts for other people. Other limits from the same FAQ:
- The wallet is capped at $2000 (or about the same in other currencies). You can't create a listing if your balance plus its price would go over the cap. The highest price for a single listing is about $1800.
- All purchases are final, with no refunds or reversals.
- Steam doesn't issue 1099 tax forms for Market sales and doesn't ask for tax information. Any income tax is your own responsibility.
If you're hoping for cash, read can you sell Steam items for real money? first.
Your Market history
Your Market activity shows at the top of the Community Market page and on your Account Details page, and Steam emails a receipt for each transaction (Market FAQ). If a listing isn't where you expect, check there first.
Where to go next
| If you want to… | Read |
|---|---|
| Sell your first item, or a few dozen | How to sell items on Steam |
| List many commodities at once | Steam Multisell guide |
| Know exactly what Steam deducts and holds | Fees, holds and restrictions |
| Fix a missing Sell button or an error | Why you can't sell on the Steam Market |
| Estimate what an inventory is worth | Steam inventory value |
| Look up a term | Steam Market glossary |
| See which games have bulk-sellable items | Games with marketable commodities |
Ready to list? Pick your game on Steam Bulk Sell, load your public inventory and open a Multisell link for your commodities.
Sources
- Steam Community Market FAQ
- Steam Subscriber Agreement
- Trade and Market Holds FAQ
- Trading and Market Restrictions FAQ
- Steam Community Market search results for "AK-47 Redline" and "Fever Case" (commodity flag), retrieved October 26, 2026