The Steam Community Market is the official place to buy and sell CS2 items inside Steam. You list an item at a price, a buyer pays it, and the money lands in your Steam Wallet. You can also place buy orders that fill automatically when someone lists at your price. Everything happens inside Steam with no trade offers.
The catch is the money. Steam Wallet funds can only be spent on Steam games, items and other Market purchases. Steam's Community Market FAQ says the funds cannot be withdrawn or transferred to another account or a bank. If you want real money, you need a third-party marketplace.
What are the Steam Market fees for CS2?
Every sale pays two fees. The same FAQ lists a Steam transaction fee of 5 percent with a minimum of $0.01, and a Counter-Strike 2 fee of 10 percent. The fees are added on top of what the seller receives and the buyer pays them, so the buyer pays the seller's amount times 1.15. A skin the seller nets $10.00 on costs the buyer $11.50. Steam also caps a single listing at about $1,800 USD (or a similar amount in other currencies) and caps a wallet balance at $2,000, so the most expensive skins cannot be listed there. The Steam fee calculator works out the net for any price.
Why is the Steam Market price higher than other sites?
Because Market money is trapped inside Steam, buyers value it less than cash. Sellers ask more on the Market to make up for that, and buyers pay it because they cannot spend their Steam balance elsewhere. Third-party prices in real money usually sit below the Market price for the same item. That gap is why cash-out sites exist.
Other rules: Steam Guard must have been on for 15 days and the account needs a purchase older than 7 days before it can use the Market. Listings made before the Mobile Authenticator has been active for 7 days are held for 15 days. Items bought on the Market are not received in a trade, so they do not carry the Trade Protected label, but Valve's October 2024 update put a 7-day re-trade and re-market restriction on everything bought from the Market or the in-game store. Accounts that reverse trades are locked out of trading and the Market for 30 days.
The Market's price history is still the most-cited reference for what a skin is worth, even for people who never sell there.