The steam community market has been around since 2013. It is a virtual trading platform designed by Valve. In the early beginnings, players used it to trade, buy, and sell Steam’s trading cards and CS:GO skins. Today, it is a massive trading platform with all types of skins from a wide variety of games. Since it is a trading platform, there must be a way to earn money on it. Isn’t there? Yes, there are a few ways to do so. Stick around and find out how.
Community Market Fee
Keep in mind that every transaction on the community market has a 5% fee with a minimum fee of $0.01. So, to be profitable, you will need to include that fee in your calculation every time you are buying something. However, if you are buying and re-selling skins for profit, you will have to pay the fee only once. The buyer is the one that pays the fee in every transaction.
Determining Value of Skins
First of all, you need to know exactly why are some skins more expensive than others. Why exactly does the skin cost as much as it costs? To do so, you will have to pick a few games and know everything about their skins.
Let’s take CS:GO for example. There are several factors that determine skin’s value, skin quality, skin grade, and skin condition. However, it is not always the case. In reality, the rarer the skin is, the more expensive it is. Every skin is worth exactly as much as other community members are willing to pay for it.
Making Money Using Steam Community Market
The community market is a trading platform, so basically you have to buy low and sell high. But how to do that? How to spot the perfect opportunities.
You need to learn how to read Steam market charts. There are three ways to zoom the graph, Week, Month, and Lifetime. The first thing you need to do is to look at the Lifetime graph. See where the price of the skin is heading. Let’s take this random skin for example:
As you can see from the chart above, skins are usually the most expensive after their initial release. Scarcity provides value. The fewer number of skins available will usually result in higher prices. That’s why the skin is most expensive after the initial release. However, after enough boxes were opened and there is plenty of the same skin on the market, the value will drop. This is the right time to purchase the skin for long-term investments. After a while, a new case will come and players won’t open the old case that contains that skin. There will be fewer skins on the market and the value will rise again. So, if you are planning to earn money on long-term investments, purchase skins that were popular a few months ago. Never purchase a skin at the peak of its popularity. Wait a couple of months, and the price of the skin will go up.
On the other side, if you can’t wait, then you should consider short-term investments. It is a little trickier as you will have to find the perfect buying opportunities.
The example above shows a skin that usually costs around 85€. However, sometimes other players need the money fast and they sell it below the market value. That’s where placing a buy order comes into place. You can place a buy order at a specific price for every skin you want. Sometimes skins that cost more than 100€ can go for under 10€, and it is always done via buy orders. Keep in mind that the cheapest listing will automatically get matches with the highest buy order. So, examine through skins and see if there is any opportunity to place a buy order.
Conclusion
Earning money on the Steam community marketplace isn’t easy. You will have to learn how to spot the right opportunities and purchase skins below market value. You will also have to count the 5% market fee, so you have to look for skins that are 10% or more below market value. There are a lot of players who win gambling Dota 2 and CS:GO skins. Those players usually have high-value inventories, and when the new game comes out, they won’t buy it using their credit cards. Instead, they will just list a skin below a market value and sell it in order to purchase the game. So, keep your eyes wide open, especially on the days when new popular games are released.
