{ "compartment_id": "section-13", "number": "Section 13", "title_local": "The off-Steam price gap", "title_english": "The off-Steam price gap", "source_url": "https://phishdestroy.io/steam_dossier/#market-gap-section", "source_document": "index.html", "content": { "html": "
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\nPart B — Rules and enforcement record · Section 13\n

The off-Steam price gap

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The item sits in a Steam inventory; the sale happens elsewhere. A Factory New AWP Dragon Lore had 62 live offers on CSFloat; the cheapest asked $10,623.95. Steam's own market cannot display an asking price above approximately $1,800. To sell for the observed higher price, an owner needs an off-Steam buyer or marketplace. The item and its transfer still depend on Steam.

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Context & source limits

Three different counts appear in this section and they are not interchangeable. 245 is the number of CS2 item-name categories whose cheapest active offer exceeded $1,800 on CSFloat alone, 20 September 2026. 241 is that same set minus the four categories pinned at CSFloat's $100,000 ceiling, which is the panel the $13.63M floor is calculated on. 248 is a different snapshot: categories priced above the cap by two or more of five marketplaces on 23 September 2026. The marketplaces overlap, so counts from different venues must never be added. Every figure here is an asking price, not a completed sale, and none of it is revenue, turnover or profit — for Valve or for anyone else. PriceEmpire's listed values are rounded estimates published by that site, and its Steam card covers items from other Steam games, so the scopes across the comparison are not identical.

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One item. Two price systems.FOLLOW THE RECORD
STEAMAbout $1,800Published Community Market listing cap
SAVED CATALOGUE$10,623.95Factory New AWP Dragon Lore floor ask
THE DEPENDENCYStill a Steam itemThe inventory and transfer remain on Steam

At that ask, the seller needs an off-Steam venue or buyer. The item still depends on Steam's inventory and transfer system.

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01 / ITEMValve game inventoryCS2 or Dota 2 item held in Steam
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02 / CEILINGAbout $1,800 on SteamMaximum price for one Market listing
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03 / OUTSIDE ASK$10,623.95 for Dragon LoreCheapest CSFloat offer in the dated snapshot
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04 / DELIVERYSteam remains in the chainOwnership and item transfer rely on its system
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245 CS2 categories on CSFloat.166 CS2 and 3 Dota 2 categories on Skinport.

Each figure counts item-name categories whose cheapest active offer was strictly above $1,800 on 20 September 2026. The marketplaces overlap; their counts must not be added. An offer is not a completed sale.

Inspect the item-level register →
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DIRECT CSFLOAT API / DATED SNAPSHOT$13.63M

Minimum aggregate asking value in 241 item categories and 3,395 active offers. Calculated as each category's cheapest ask × its offer count. Four categories pinned at CSFloat's $100,000 ceiling are excluded from this conservative panel.

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What the dollar figure shows

These offers represent at least $13,631,888.25 in posted asking prices for this limited CSFloat subset. Including the four ceiling-priced categories produces $14,231,888.25. This is a floor on active asks, not completed sales, cash turnover, profit or the entire CS2 market.

Recalculate from the 245-row CSFloat snapshot ↗
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PRICEEMPIRE / LISTED VALUESteam: #15 of 39

Many venues list more dollar value than Steam.

UUSkins
$133.8M
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YouPin898
$127.5M
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Buff.163
$104M
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Moon.Market
$100.3M
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White.Market
$89.6M
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Buff.Market
$86.7M
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Steam
$31M

The six largest displayed values and Steam. PriceEmpire rounds these figures; Steam shows $31M. Fourteen listed venues rank ahead of it by the displayed dollar values.

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PRICEEMPIRE / OFFER COUNTSteam: #1 of 39

Steam still leads in number of offers.

Steam
32.2M
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YouPin898
5.9M
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C5Game
4.6M
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HaloSkins
4.4M
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Skinport
3.8M

Steam shows 32.2M offers. Number of offers and total asking value answer different questions; many low-priced listings can dominate the count.

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Source: PriceEmpire's public comparison ↗ archived 2026-09-21 ↗, captured 2026-09-20 19:03 UTC; dated 39-row extraction ↗. Its figures are rounded estimates, and inventory can overlap across sites. Steam's card also describes items from other Steam games, so the scopes are not identical. Listed value measures asking prices, not sales or revenue.
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42
ANOTHER SOURCE / STEAMANALYST

The commercial ecosystem is in plain sight.

SteamAnalyst's marketplace directory archived 2026-07-19 ↗ lists 42 third-party CS2 marketplaces alongside Steam, with recent price data for 32 of the 43 entries. PriceEmpire lists 39 marketplaces under its own inclusion criteria. Named businesses, public offers, visible prices: this economy is open to inspection.

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THE CEILING IS THE MECHANISM: THE SALE LEAVES STEAM, THE ITEM DOES NOT.

Across five marketplaces captured in one licensed snapshot, 248 CS2 item categories are independently priced above Steam's approximately $1,800 listing ceiling by two or more of them — and every single one is absent from Steam. The same snapshot banded the whole catalogue by price: Valve's market carries 95.3% of the item categories below its cap and 1.9% of those above it. The collapse does not track falling demand; it lands exactly on the published rule. Selling at those prices requires an outside buyer or marketplace, while Steam still controls the inventory and the transfer — the business leaves Valve's checkout and the delivery stays on Valve's infrastructure.

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Steam Market FAQ ↗archived 2026-09-21 ↗Steam Subscriber Agreement ↗archived 2026-09-21 ↗Five-marketplace atlas dataset ↗Provenance manifest ↗Earlier CSFloat snapshot ↗Skinport snapshot ↗PriceEmpire ↗ archived 2026-09-21 ↗SteamAnalyst ↗ archived 2026-07-19 ↗Price-gap register ↗Price-ladder atlas ↗

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