CS2 Trade Locks: How the 7-Day Rules Work
Almost every skin you acquire in CS2 spends its first week locked. Knowing exactly which rule applies to which item saves you money when buying and awkward surprises when selling.
Valve uses trade restrictions to make stolen accounts and payment fraud less profitable: if every freshly acquired item is frozen for a week, a hijacker cannot empty an inventory and fence it within the hour. The side effect is that regular players run into these timers constantly. There are two different mechanisms, and they behave differently.
The 7-day trade hold
Items you acquire from Valve or the Steam Market get a hard hold: for seven days they cannot be traded and cannot be listed on the Steam Market. Nothing shortens it.
| How you got the item | Restriction |
|---|---|
| Steam Market purchase | 7-day trade hold |
| Unboxed from a case | 7-day trade hold |
| In-game store / Armory | 7-day trade hold |
| Weekly drop | Tradable immediately |
| Received in a trade | 7-day trade protection (revertible) |
Trade protection is a different thing
Items received via trade are not hard-locked anymore. Since Valve introduced trade protection, a completed trade can be reverted within seven days if one side's account turns out to be compromised. The items go back, the trade is undone.
For everyday trading between friends this changes little. For buying from strangers it changes a lot: a trade is only truly final after the protection window closes. Reputable marketplaces have built their delivery flows around this, which is why some list two prices or delivery estimates for the same skin.
What locks mean when you buy
On third-party marketplaces you will see both instant listings (the seller's item is already unlocked and deliverable now) and trade-locked listings with a countdown. Locked copies of the same skin routinely sell 5-10% cheaper because the buyer waits for delivery.
What locks mean when you sell
The hold starts when you acquire the item, not when you decide to sell. If you unbox something valuable, you have a forced week of holding whatever the market does. Prices around big case releases move fastest in the first days, so the players who unboxed the new knife all hit the market on the same unlock day: supply spikes exactly one week after release, and prices regularly dip with it. If you plan to sell an unboxed high-value item, pricing that first-week drift into your decision matters more than any fee difference between marketplaces.
SkinFolio's portfolio tracker records your buy date and cost basis per item, so you always know what is unlocked, what is still held, and what a week of waiting actually cost you last time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell a trade-locked skin on the Steam Market?
No. The 7-day hold blocks both trading and Steam Market listing. The item sits in your inventory until the timer runs out, then becomes fully tradable and sellable at once.
Can a trade lock be removed early?
No. There is no fee, subscription or support ticket that shortens it. Any site claiming to "unlock" items early is a scam.
Why is a trade-locked listing cheaper on marketplaces?
Because the buyer waits up to seven days for delivery, sellers of locked items accept a discount, often 5-10%. If you are not reselling immediately, buying locked listings is one of the easier ways to pay less for the same item.
What happens if a trade gets reverted under trade protection?
The items return to their original owners, as if the trade never happened. This exists to protect hijacked accounts. It also means a stranger-to-stranger trade is only final once the protection window has passed.