CSGO Escrow Guide

Before you discuss the specifics of CSGO escrow and how to use it, you should first understand the concept and how it operates. Escrow is an old method used in valuable deals to ensure that both parties in a trade, be it an exchange of items, money for an item, or another variation entirely, are protected.

So, when it comes to the CS:GO escrow that Valve developed, both you and the other player trading put up the items you agreed upon in escrow, which means they are held on Steam’s platform. You can opt to put up money for the trade, but the principle remains the same. The trading items remain in escrow for a set period until the trade takes effect.

There was a long period of time on the internet when players figured out how to make trades of in-game items, be it for other items or for money, when this trading was completely unregulated. While many players came to the market with good intentions and for no other reason than trading for their favorite items, that wasn’t always the case.

Here are the two key reasons why Valve, as a developer, implemented escrow into CS:GO and all its other games.

Protection from Scams

The first reason is quite obvious– escrow is designed to protect you from any misrepresenting player online who intends to scam you out of money or an in-game item. Thanks to the escrow concept, both you and the other party need to put up the agreed-upon items in escrow, which Steam holds.

That way, you will put the item or money up, but the other party won’t receive it until he puts up his end of the bargain and the set time passes. That way, you can be 100% certain that you will get exactly what you’re trading for, and even if the other side doesn’t deliver, you won’t lose anything.

Changing a Decision

While a trade may seem like a good idea at the moment, there are plenty of circumstances that can change in minutes. For example, you might agree to trade a particular knife, only for that knife to become incredibly popular and for this trade value to increase after a CS:GO tournament.

If this happens, this concept allows you to cancel the trade up to the final minute of the escrow. So, even if you change your mind and want to keep the trade item for any reason, or if you decide that you don’t want to pay that much money to get a particular item, CSGO escrow allows you to stop the trade.

Though this is a fairly simple process, we will go through the step-by-step guide to show you how to trade items and use the escrow feature in CSGO. All you have to do is follow each of these steps exactly as they are in the guide and be patient, as the escrow feature does have a fixed deadline.

• Open the Steam program or website on your computer. Depending on which you choose to use, all of the same features are available, though they might look different.
• Hover over the tab that contains your Steam handle, which you can find between the Community and Chat tabs near the top of the screen in the program and the website.
• Click on the Friends sub-tab and then find the person with whom you want to make a trade of items. If this person isn’t already on your Friends list, you can add them within a minute.
• Open their profile, where you will find either a drop-down menu with an arrow pointing down symbol or a button that simply says More. You just need to click on it.
• Click on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in the player’s game library and then select the items that you wish to add to escrow to trade.
• The last step in the first part of a successful CS:GO escrow trade is to make an offer, but only after you add the items that you’re willing to give up.
• Once you send the offer, the other player will receive it and deliberate whether he wants to accept it or not. Depending on the player, this might take days, so you must be patient.
• If he accepts the trade, the items you offered, as well as the items he agreed to trade, will be sent to escrow, which is the neutral zone. That said, you must authenticate the trade through your Steam mobile app.
• Once that happens, you must either wait for the predetermined time to pass or cancel the trade.

Though the CSGO escrow is incredibly helpful and reliable, there are certain limitations and restrictions it carries that might get in the way of your ideal trade. In this section, we will explore what the limitations of the Valve escrow feature are and how they might affect you when you try to trade items.

Time Limitation

The CSGO escrow feature has a fixed period that you cannot skip or shorten in any way for any reason. Once both sides agree on a trade, and both of you verify the trade via mobile authentication, the period of 15 days starts running out. Neither of you will get the items you agreed upon before the full 15 days expire.

Though this period was originally set at 3 days, as a developer, Valve decided it was not enough time, so it extended it. While this period can be useful if you change your mind and want to back out of a trade, it can also get tedious when you’re sure you want a trade.

Mobile Authentication

The mobile authentication is a security measure that Valve implements as a way to ensure there is no fraudulent activity with your account. That said, it can be a nuisance, especially if you don’t want the Steam app to take up space in your smartphone. To complete an escrow trade in CS:GO, you will need to have the Steam mobile app installed on your Android or iOS device and have the mobile authenticator enabled for at least 7 days uninterrupted.

Once you do, you’ll get a code to your mobile device that you can use to verify the CS:GO escrow trade.

Items-only Trading

While you can buy items like skins and weapons on Steam and trade other items for the skins and weapons you like, you can’t use the CSGO escrow feature to trade money for items. This restriction limits the options of what items you can get, especially if you don’t have any sought-after items in your own inventory, as initiating a trade is harder.

Both of these features operate on the escrow concept, but the key difference between them is the way you trade the item. While escrow trades or trade holds occur directly between two CS:GO players on Steam, the Steam market holds encompass all items that are listed on the Steam market.

Trade Holds, aka Escrow

Trade holds are a simple concept that allows Steam to hold the items you offer in a trade and the items the other player offers in the same trade. That way, both sides are protected from scams, and they can be 100% sure they got what they wanted.

Market Holds

Market holds, on the other hand, protect your account from intrusions that aim to harm it and cause you to lose valuable items. That is why, once you put up the item for sale on the market, Steam implements a 15-day hold that gives you enough time to notice if you weren’t the one to list it or reconsider if you were. Once that period expires, you can remove the item from the market without consequences.

Before you jump into trading items via the CSGO escrow feature, you should know exactly which items you can trade, whether they are worth investing in, and how to pick them. Keep reading the following section and learn all there is to know about your trading option in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Skins

Skins are the most commonly traded items among CSGO players as they enable you to put a unique spin on your weapons and equipment, as well as increase their value. There are thousands of different skins in the world of CS:GO– some developed by established names in the Counter-Strike sphere, some made uniquely by individual players.

That being said, you should keep in mind that the consumer and industrial-grade skins that you can buy and trade for have relatively low value among players. Restricted Skins are the skins with purple and pink-purple hues, and they have a high value, so trading them can be quite rewarding. The highest-value skins are the Exceedingly Rare Skins– notable for their yellow hues.

While trading CSGO items can be an excellent way for you to enhance your playing experience and make it more entertaining, that’s not all you can do. You can use the escrow feature to invest in particular high-value CSGO items that can help you make a profit. That being said, to do that, you need to pay close attention to the following factors.

• Set a Budget – Before you start trading anything, you should set a budget for yourself. This budget should set the limits for the minimum and maximum amounts you’re willing to spend in order to trade Counter-Strike: Global Offensive items.

• Explore the Market – Explore the market trends about the demand surrounding particular skins and weapons, as well as how particular events affect it. If there is a skin that a team playing in a popular team is losing, you can assume the demand for that skin will grow.

• Do Your Research – Research the different containers that you can purchase and trade, especially the items stored within them and their individual value. That way, you can be certain that investing in a particular container is worth it.

• Calculate the Potential Profit – Once you understand which container or individual item you can trade for or purchase, you should calculate its exact value and potential profit. Assessing these items correctly can lead to impressive ROI numbers.

While trading via escrow on Steam is certainly the most secure and reliable trading method for CSGO items online, it is far from the only one. In this section, we will explore an alternative to trading on Steam. This alternative provides you with quite a few more options as it doesn’t carry the restrictions that Steam does.

CSGO LUCK

CSGO LUCK is a unique platform that not only allows you to connect with your fellow Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players but also allows you to play against them for CSGO skins. You can win various top-tier skins with a wide range of values, including everything from CS:GO gloves and weapons such as machine guns and knives to CS:GO containers. You can even claim daily cases with CS:GO skins.

If you decide that you don’t want the CSGO escrow trade to go through, for whatever reason, you can always opt to cancel it. That is why the 15-day period that escrow CSGO trades offer you is incredibly useful since you have enough time from the moment of the trade until it goes through to think about it.

If you do decide to cancel it, the process is incredibly simple – you just need to head to your inventory and open the Trade Offers tab. From there, you need to open either Sent Offers or Incoming Offers to find the specific offer you wish to cancel. Finally, you need to click on the Cancel Trade Offer button near the bottom of the screen.