Trading basics

[ScoutBonk444]

Please read this notice about trading first, thank you.

I've noticed that some people have trouble sending trade offers or finding trade offer links, so I've decided to make this small guide.

Q: How do I get others to send me trade offers?

A: Your trade offer link can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/my/tradeoffers/privacy

Find the "Third-Party Sites" tab and the trade offer URL will be there. Copy it and share it with others so they can send you offers.

Further information can be found here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2178-QGJV-0708

Q: I'm not getting any trade offers at all, what should I do?

A: It's probably either one of those reasons:

a) You don't have many items to trade.

b) Your inventory privacy is set to "Private". You need to set it to "Public" to let everyone see your inventory/send you trade offers.

Q: How do I set my inventory privacy to "Public"?

A: You need to go to your profile settings page, which you can find here: http://steamcommunity.com/my/edit/settings

Check the "Public" box, share your trade offer link and you're good to go.

Notice: your inventory will be visible to anyone.

Q: What are trade holds?

A: Trade holds are an awful idea by Valve additional security measure for your account.

Here's how a regular trade offer looks like:

If you haven't used the Steam Mobile Authenticator for 7 days, you'll be greeted with these alerts when trying to add the other user's items to the trade:

During those 15 days, both traders' items will be placed on hold, and not be available in their inventories. Once the hold period is over, the items will be delivered to each user's inventories.

You can choose to cancel trades on hold, but doing so will make you unable to trade for 7 days.

If the person you're trading with has been in your friends list for >1 year, the hold period is reduced to 24 hours.

To get rid of trade holds, you need to set up the Steam Mobile Authenticator using the official Steam Mobile app.

To use it, you need an iOS/Android/Windows phone and a phone number.

Spoiler

You can also use third-party software instead of a smartphone if you don't have one, but you still need a phone that can receive SMS messages. 

Information about the Steam Mobile Authenticator: http://store.steampowered.com/mobile/

Information about setting the Steam Mobile Authenticator up: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4440-RTUI-9218

Information about trade holds: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2178-QGJV-0708

 

Well, I hope I got everything. Feel free to ask a question or two if I've missed anything and I'll update the guide.

[Rily]

Thanks, this would be useful some time ago, surely will be helpful for newbies like me.

I have a question... would you trade your riding boots?

[ScoutBonk444]

8 hours ago, Rily said:

Thanks, this would be useful some time ago, surely will be helpful for newbies like me.

I have a question... would you trade your riding boots?

Sorry, I only trade dupes.

[Rily]

54 minutes ago, ScoutBonk444 said:

Sorry, I only trade dupes.

then you have them! I didn't knew