- Items from cases, the store and the Steam Market get a hard 7-day trade lock.
- Skins received in a trade are Trade Protected for 7 days and cannot be passed on.
- Without the mobile authenticator, outgoing items are held for up to 15 days.
- No service can lift the lock early — it is a technical restriction on Steam's side.
Messages like “This item cannot be traded”, “The trade will be held” or simply a greyed-out skin in your inventory are neither a bug nor a service problem. It is one of eight situations, each with its own logic and its own timer. We go through them by frequency — from the most common to the rare ones.
1. Trade lock after a purchase or case opening
Items that enter your inventory from official Valve sources get a hard seven-day lock. That covers:
- purchases on the Steam Community Market;
- skins from opened cases;
- items from the in-game store and the Armory.
For that whole period the item can be neither traded nor listed on the Market. Since June 2026 the unlock is tied to the moment of receipt: the item is released exactly 168 hours later, to the hour, rather than at a shared daily reset as before.
2. Trade Protection — seven days after a trade
If a skin came to you in a trade, it receives Trade Protected status. The item is yours and available in game, but for 7 days it cannot be passed on, sold on the Market, moved to storage or modified with stickers.
3. No Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator
The most frustrating cause, because it hits not one item but every trade at once. If the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator is not connected or has been active for less than 7 consecutive days, Steam holds outgoing items for up to 15 days. Formally the trade goes through — in practice it hangs for two weeks, and most services simply do not accept such deals.
4. Limited User account
New Steam accounts are limited by default: without a single purchase of $5 or more you get neither trading, nor the Community Market, nor messaging strangers. The restriction is lifted once and for good.
5. Hidden inventory
If the inventory is hidden by privacy settings, services cannot see the items and some trade offers are declined automatically. Check: profile → “Privacy Settings” → “Inventory” → “Public”, and clear the “Always keep my Steam items private” checkbox.
6. Trade ban on the account
Steam restricts trading after suspicious activity or violations. The most common triggers:
- A password change without an active mobile authenticator.
- Account recovery through support — a lock for several days.
- A Trade Protection rollback — 30 days without trading and the Steam Market.
- A chargeback or payment dispute — trading is closed until the case is resolved.
- A VAC or game ban in Counter-Strike 2 — CS2 items stop being tradable.
7. The item is in storage or was never tradable
Some items are non-tradable by nature: souvenir gifts, certain rewards and items marked Not Tradable. A separate case is the Storage Unit: while a skin sits inside it, it takes no part in trades. Take the item back into your inventory and the restriction lifts, provided there are no other locks.
8. Restrictions after stickers and modifications
Operations on an item — applying a sticker, adding a charm, scraping stickers off — can also return it to a temporarily non-tradable state. The logic is the same: Steam guards against laundering stolen items quickly through modification.
Table: which lock lasts how long
| Cause | Duration | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Market purchase | 7 days | Wait; the countdown is accurate to the hour of purchase |
| Case opening / store | 7 days | Wait |
| Received in a trade | 7 days | Wait for Trade Protected status to expire |
| No mobile authenticator | up to 15 days | Connect Steam Guard and wait 7 days |
| Limited account | indefinite | A Steam purchase of $5 or more |
| Hidden inventory | — | Make the inventory public in privacy settings |
| Trade rollback | 30 days | Wait for the restriction to expire |
| VAC / game ban | indefinite | CS2 items stay in the inventory but cannot be traded |
What you can do with a locked skin
- Equip it and use it in matches — no restrictions there.
- Check the exact unlock time in your inventory.
- Plan the trade in advance: build the basket and come back when the timer runs out.
- Trade your other, unlocked items — the restriction applies per item.
How trade protection itself works and why Valve introduced these restrictions is covered in detail in Trade Protection in CS2.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the exact unlock time for a skin?
Hover over the item in your CS2 inventory — Steam shows the date and time it becomes tradable. Since 2026 the countdown runs exactly 168 hours from the moment you received it, rather than to a shared daily reset.
Can a trade lock be removed early?
No. Neither a paid subscription, nor a support ticket, nor a third-party service shortens the period. Any offer to “unlock a skin for money” is a scam.
Why are trades blocked again after I changed phones?
Moving the mobile authenticator to a new device resets the seven-day trust period, so Steam temporarily reinstates the hold on outgoing items.
The skin is locked — can I still use it in game?
Yes. The restriction only covers transferring and selling: you can equip the item, use it in matches and view it in your inventory with no limits.
