Your first day with SkinsMaster
This guide walks you through everything, one small step at a time. No experience needed. Do the parts in order, and don't skip ahead. Every button name is written in a box, like this, and the button you need to press is ringed in red in the pictures.
What SkinsMaster actually does
Think of it as a helper that shops for you. It watches CSGOEmpire's auctions. When a skin is cheap enough that you could sell it somewhere else for more, it bids. If you win, the skin lands in your Steam inventory, you put it up for sale on another marketplace, and when it sells the difference is your profit.
Practice first, real money second
Every bid the bot makes is either Simulated or Live. You choose with a switch on the CSGOEmpire page. Start on Simulated. It is exactly the same robot, but nothing real is spent.
| Simulated (practice) | Live (real) | |
|---|---|---|
| Is real money used? | No | Yes, coins from your CSGOEmpire balance |
| Which plans? | Every plan, including Free | Pro and above |
| Do you get the skin? | No, it is pretend | Yes, it is sent to your Steam inventory |
| Shows in Skin Ledger? | Yes, tagged "simulated" | Yes, once the skin arrives |
| Money needed on CSGOEmpire? | None | Yes (see Part 5) |
| Weekly limit? | Its own limit | Its own separate limit |
What you need before you start
- A Windows computer.Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
- A Steam account.The one you want to trade with. CS2 does not need to be installed on your computer.
- The Steam mobile app with Steam Guard turned on.This is required. You scan a code with your phone to sign in to SkinsMaster.
- At least $5 spent on that Steam account.Only if it's brand new. Steam won't let a new account trade until $5 has been spent on it. Buying a game or adding $5 to your wallet and spending it counts. See Part 2.
- An email address.For your SkinsMaster login.
- A CSGOEmpire account.Free to make. Sign in with Steam at csgoempire.com.
- Later, for real buying: a Pro (or higher) plan and money on CSGOEmpire.You don't need either to practice.
SkinsMaster runs on your computer. If you close it, or your computer goes to sleep, the bot stops bidding. Leave it open and your PC awake when you want it working.
Install the app and make your account
Five minutes. You only do this once.
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Download the app
On this website, click Download for Windows. A file ending in
.exegoes into your Downloads folder. -
Install it
Double-click the file and let it finish. Windows will show a blue "Windows protected your PC" box. That is expected: the SkinsMaster installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows warns about it. Click More info, then Run anyway.
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Open SkinsMaster and click Sign up
You'll see a Log in screen first. Click Sign up at the bottom.
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Fill in the form
Type your Name, your Email, a Password (at least 6 characters) and the same password again in Confirm password. Then click Sign up.
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Check your email
The app says "Check your email to confirm your account, then log in." Open the email and click the link inside. Can't see it? Look in your spam folder.
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Log in
Go back to the app, type your email and password, and click Log in.
Link your Steam account
SkinsMaster needs to see your Steam inventory and send or accept trades. You link Steam by scanning a QR code with your phone. You don't type your Steam password into SkinsMaster.
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Open the account page
After you log in you land on Select an account. It's empty. Click Add your first account.
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Wait for the QR code
A square barcode appears. If it says "Generating QR code..." give it a few seconds. Leave this page open.
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Scan it with your phone
Open the Steam app on your phone (Steam Guard must be switched on there). Go to Steam Guard and choose the option to scan a QR code (it may look like a camera icon). Point the camera at your computer screen.
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Approve it on your phone
Steam asks you to confirm. Approve it. The app switches to "Steam account linked successfully".
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Sign in with that account
Click Select account. Click your account in the list, then click Sign in in the little box that pops up. You land on the Overview page. You're in.
Whoever scans it can sign in as you. Don't screenshot it or send it in a chat. If anyone asks you for it, it's a scam.
- Turn on Steam Guard in the Steam mobile app. This is required. You can't sign in to SkinsMaster without it, because the QR code is scanned in that app.
- Spend $5 on the account. Steam keeps new accounts "limited" and blocks trading until $5 has been spent. Buy a game or add $5 to your Steam wallet and spend it. You don't need to install CS2 or play anything.
Your plan decides. The Free plan links one Steam account. Higher plans link more. You can add more any time with + Add account.
Connect CSGOEmpire
The bot bids on CSGOEmpire for you, so it needs permission. You give that permission with an API key: a long password, made on CSGOEmpire, that you paste into SkinsMaster once.
A. Make the key on CSGOEmpire
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Sign in to CSGOEmpire
Go to csgoempire.com and sign in with Steam.
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Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)
Open your CSGOEmpire account settings and switch on 2FA. CSGOEmpire will not make a key without it.
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Make a new key
Open csgoempire.com/trading/apikey and create a new key. Copy it.
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Check your trade link is saved
CSGOEmpire needs your Steam trade link to send you the skins you win. You can copy yours from this Steam page. Paste it into your CSGOEmpire settings if it isn't there yet.
B. Paste it into SkinsMaster
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Open Settings
Click Settings at the bottom of the left menu.
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Find the CSGOEmpire box
Make sure API keys is selected on the right. You'll see four boxes, one for each marketplace. Find CSGOEmpire API key. It says Not set in red.
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Paste and save
Click the long empty box, paste your key (
Ctrl+V) and click Save. You'll see "CSGOEmpire API key saved" and the red tag changes to Key set.
The red How to get this key › button inside each box shows the same steps again, with links to the right pages.
SkinsMaster stores your keys encrypted and only ever sends your CSGOEmpire key to CSGOEmpire. Even so, never share a key with anyone. If you think one leaked, delete it on CSGOEmpire and make a new one.
Check you copied the whole key with no spaces. A brand-new key can also take a minute or two before it starts working, so wait a bit and try again.
Practice with simulated bids
Now the fun part. You'll switch the bot on in practice mode. It will pretend to bid on real auctions, using real prices, and keep score. It costs nothing and risks nothing.
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Open the CSGOEmpire page
In the left menu click csgoempire (the one with the gold CSGOEmpire logo). Not "csgoempire manual".
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Check the switch says Simulated
At the top is a little two-part switch: Simulated and Live. Click Simulated so it is lit. On the Free plan, Live is greyed out. That's normal.
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Choose how picky the bot is
Drag the Min profit slider. It is the smallest profit, as a percentage, the bot wants before it will bid. 10% means "only bid if I could sell it for at least 10% more than I'd pay, after fees". Higher = fewer bids, pickier. Lower = more bids.
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Press Start buying
Click Start buying. A line appears saying "Signing in to CSGOEmpire…". This can take up to a minute. Wait. When it says "Signed in and watching auctions · simulated bids", the bot is working.
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Leave it running
Keep SkinsMaster open. The bot only bids when an item passes all its checks, so it can be quiet for a while. That is normal. Look at the next section to see what it's doing.
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Press Stop buying when you're done
The same button now says Stop buying. Click it any time.
Reading what the bot is doing
The big list has two tabs. Click between them:
| Bids placed | Everything the bot bid on. Each row shows the skin, the price, the profit it expects (+12.3%), which marketplace it plans to sell on, and a simulated tag in practice mode. |
| Passed on | Every auction the bot looked at and didn't bid on, with the reason. This is how you tell "quiet" apart from "broken". Common reasons: Outside price range, Under your target (profit too small), Too few sales, Price falling, Holding enough (you already have plenty of that skin). |
Where do my practice results go?
Open Skin Ledger in the left menu. Every practice win is listed there with what you "paid" and a countdown, because real skins are locked for 7 days after you buy them. When the countdown ends, SkinsMaster looks up what the skin would sell for today and fills in your profit. That tells you whether your settings would have made money.
Next to the switch you'll see something like "$40 of $100 this week". That's how much practice buying you've used. When it's used up, the Start button turns into a countdown. Limits reset every Monday at 09:00 South African time. Practice and live have separate limits, and only items you win count.
The Filters button lets you set a price range and choose skins the bot must never buy. Leave it alone on day one. The defaults are fine.
Skin prices go up and down. A good practice week doesn't guarantee a good live week. Nothing here is financial advice.
Add money to CSGOEmpire with crypto
Live bids spend coins from your CSGOEmpire balance. The balance starts at $0, so before you go live you need to put money in. This part shows you how to do it with crypto (Bitcoin, Litecoin, USDT and so on). You can skip it while you're only practicing.
- SkinsMaster can't move money for you. You send the crypto yourself from Luno or Binance. That keeps you in control.
- Crypto payments cannot be reversed. If you send the wrong coin or use the wrong network, the money is gone for good. Go slowly and read the checklist below.
Step 0. Get some crypto
You send the money from a crypto exchange. We recommend Luno or Binance. Make a free account on one of them, buy some crypto (for example Litecoin or USDT), and you're ready. If you already have crypto there, go straight to the steps below.
That's all there is to it. You copy the address CSGOEmpire shows you, send from Luno or Binance, and a couple of minutes later the money shows up in SkinsMaster as coins on your CSGOEmpire balance.
Which coin should I send?
CSGOEmpire accepts the coins below. The important column is Network. A coin can live on several networks, and you must pick the same network on both sides.
| Coin | Network to choose | Confirmations before it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Litecoin (LTC) | Litecoin | 1 |
| USDT (Tether) | Tron (TRC-20), or Ethereum (ERC-20), Polygon, BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20), Solana | 1 (12 on Ethereum) |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Bitcoin | 1 |
| Ethereum (ETH) | Ethereum (ERC-20) only | 12 |
| USDC | Ethereum (ERC-20), Polygon, BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20), Solana | 1 (12 on Ethereum) |
| Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | Bitcoin Cash | 1 |
| Tron (TRX) | Tron | 1 |
| Binance Coin (BNB) | BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20) | 1 |
| Solana (SOL) | Solana | 1 |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | Dogecoin | 1 |
| Ripple (XRP) | XRP Ledger. You must also enter the destination tag. | 1 |
From CSGOEmpire's help centre: supported networks and confirmations. CSGOEmpire can change this list, so always trust what its deposit page shows you.
These are usually cheap to send and only need 1 confirmation, so the money shows up fast. Ethereum is usually the slowest and most expensive because it needs 12 confirmations. (Your exchange also charges a small fee to send. That's normal.)
Step by step
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Go to the CSGOEmpire page in SkinsMaster
Click csgoempire in the left menu.
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Click Deposit
Top right, find the box that says Balance. Next to it is a button called Deposit. Click it. After a moment, a window opens inside SkinsMaster showing CSGOEmpire's deposit page.
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Sign in if it asks
If CSGOEmpire asks you to log in, choose Steam and approve. It's one click.
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Pick your coin
Scroll down to the Cryptocurrency section. You'll see a tile for each coin. Click the one you want to send.
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Copy the address
CSGOEmpire shows you a wallet address for that coin. It's a long line of letters and numbers that works like a bank account number. Copy it with the copy button, and note which network it tells you to use.
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Send from Luno or Binance
Open Luno or Binance and choose Withdraw (or Send). Paste the address. Choose the same network CSGOEmpire showed. Type the amount and confirm. Your exchange may ask for an email or authenticator code.
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Wait for it to arrive
The network needs to "confirm" your payment first (see the table). This usually takes just a couple of minutes, and a bit longer when the network is busy. Don't send it a second time. Just wait.
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Watch your balance
Back on the SkinsMaster CSGOEmpire page, your Balance updates by itself every 20 seconds or so. It shows dollars and, next to it, the number of CSGOEmpire coins.
- Right coin. You're sending exactly the coin you picked on CSGOEmpire.
- Right network. The network on your exchange matches the one CSGOEmpire showed. A wrong network can mean the money is lost forever.
- Right address. Compare the first 6 and last 6 characters with the page. Copy and paste it, never type it.
- XRP only: fill in the destination tag too.
- New to crypto? Send a small test amount first. Wait until it arrives, then send the rest.
How much is enough?
CSGOEmpire credits your balance in coins. SkinsMaster shows the balance in dollars using CSGOEmpire's coin rate (about $0.61 per coin) and the coin count beside it. Any deposit worth at least 0.01 coins is credited. Start with a small amount while you learn. Live bids can only be placed on auctions that cost less than your balance.
- Look up your payment on the coin's block explorer (for example
mempool.spacefor Bitcoin oretherscan.iofor Ethereum) using the transaction ID your exchange gave you. - If it's still "pending", it just needs more confirmations. Wait.
- If it's fully confirmed and CSGOEmpire still hasn't credited it, contact CSGOEmpire support and give them that transaction ID.
Go live
You've practiced, you understand the settings, and you have money on CSGOEmpire. Time to bid for real.
Live bids spend real coins from your CSGOEmpire balance. Only deposit what you're comfortable having tied up in skins, and start small.
Before you switch
- You're on a Pro plan or higher.Live is greyed out on Free. See Plans.
- Your CSGOEmpire key is saved.Settings → API keys shows Key set.
- Your balance isn't $0.See Part 5.
- Your Steam trade link is saved on CSGOEmpire.It needs it to send you the skins you win.
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Upgrade your plan
Go to your account page, pick a plan and pay. The app picks up your new plan by itself. If Live is still greyed out a minute later, close SkinsMaster and open it again.
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Check your balance
On the csgoempire page, the Balance box should show your money.
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Flip the switch to Live
Click Live. It turns red. Red means real money. You can't flip it while the bot is running, so stop it first if it's on.
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Set your Min profit and press Start buying
A message says "Buying started — placing real bids with real coins". The line under the buttons says "live bids".
Each plan has a weekly limit on how much the bot can spend live. You'll see it next to the switch (for example "$120 of $250 this week"). If you use it all up, the Start button turns into a countdown until Monday 09:00 South African time.
Collect what you win
When your bid wins, the seller sends you a Steam trade offer for the skin. You just need to accept it. SkinsMaster helps you check it's safe.
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Watch the Trades button
On the csgoempire page, the Trades button gets a small number on it when you've won something. A solid red number means you need to act. You'll also hear a chime.
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Open Trades
Click it. Each win is listed with a status, and they move along in this order:
- Waiting for the seller: nothing to do yet. Sellers send when they get to it.
- Offer arrived: ready! Go to step 3.
- Check in Steam: something looked off, so the app left it for you. Read the note, open Steam's trade offers and look. If the offer asks for items back from you, decline it.
- Received: all done.
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Press Accept
Click Accept next to the item. The app only accepts an offer from the seller CSGOEmpire named, that holds exactly the item you won and asks for nothing back. You don't need to confirm anything on your phone for what you bought.
Go to Settings → CSGOEmpire trades and switch on Accept checked offers by myself. The app still runs the same safety checks. Anything odd still waits for you.
Why can't I sell it straight away?
Steam locks skins you've just received from a trade for 7 days (its "trade protection"). The skin shows up on the Inventory page with a countdown. When the countdown reaches zero, it's tradable, and you can list it for sale.
List your skin and sell it
This is where the profit is made. You put the skin up on a marketplace, and the selling bot keeps its price competitive until it sells.
A. Connect a marketplace
Just like CSGOEmpire, each marketplace needs an API key. Start with one. MarketCSGO is the easiest place to begin. Go to Settings → API keys and use the red How to get this key › button on each box to see the steps.
| Marketplace | What you paste in | Get ready first |
|---|---|---|
| MarketCSGO | One API key | Sign in with Steam and add your Steam trade link and your Steam Web API key in MarketCSGO's settings. It needs both to sell for you. |
| CSFloat | One API key | Sign in with Steam, add your trade link, then open your profile → Developer tab → New Key. |
| DMarket | A public key and a secret key | Account settings → Trading API → Generate trading API keys. DMarket shows the secret key only once. Copy it straight away. |
Steam puts a hold on accounts that just turned on the mobile authenticator, and marketplaces won't give out API keys until it ends. This can take up to around two weeks. It's nothing you did wrong. Keep practicing with simulated bids in the meantime.
Listing items for sale is available on Pro and above. Free plan accounts can practice buying only.
B. List your skin
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Open Inventory
Click Inventory in the left menu. Don't see your new skin? Press the round refresh button at the top right. Check its countdown has finished.
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Click List items
A window opens with all your skins and a row of tabs across the top.
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Pick a marketplace tab
Choose MarketCSGO to start. There are also CSFloat, DMarket and MCSGO + CSFloat (lists on both, and takes it off one when it sells on the other).
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Check Profit and Floor
At the top, Profit is how much you want to make (after the marketplace's fees). Floor is the lowest the bot is allowed to drop your price to when it undercuts others. Leave them alone to start. The price boxes fill in by themselves.
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Tick your skins and press List selected
Tick the little box on each skin, then press List selected at the bottom. Or press List on a single row. You'll see "Listed … on MarketCSGO".
C. Turn on the selling bot
Listing puts the skin on sale at your price. The selling bot then watches the market and lowers your price just under the cheapest competitor, but never below your Floor. So you sell sooner without giving it away.
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Open the MarketCSGO page
Click marketcsgo in the left menu. You'll see everything you've listed.
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Press Start selling
Click Start selling. One selling bot covers every marketplace, so it also looks after your CSFloat and DMarket listings. Leave SkinsMaster open.
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Watch your listings
Each row says Lowest listing (you're the cheapest, nice) or Undercut (someone is cheaper, and the bot is on it). Click Edit on a row to change its price yourself.
D. It sold. Now what?
- You get an alert (and a Discord message if you've linked Discord in Settings).Sales also show in your Skin Ledger as profit.
- Check Trade held.MarketCSGO holds sale money for 7 days because of Steam's trade protection. This window lists sales still waiting and shows when the money is available.
- Take your money out with Withdraw.It opens MarketCSGO in your normal browser. Click your balance at the top of the site and choose how to be paid. You pick the method and wallet there.
- On CSFloat or DMarket?CSFloat: use Trades to send on the CSFloat page (Accept sale, then Send item, then confirm in the Steam app). DMarket: click Accept trade on the DMarket page when its offer is ready.
Watch → bid → win → wait → list → sell → profit. Check the Skin Ledger whenever you like.
Something's not working
The most common hiccups, and what to do about each.
The bot is running but hasn't bid on anything
That's often fine. The bot only bids when an auction passes every check. Click the Passed on tab next to Bids placed to see every auction it looked at and why it walked away. If it shows lots of Under your target, try lowering Min profit.
It says "Signing in to CSGOEmpire…" for ages
CSGOEmpire allows one sign-in a minute, so starting can take up to a minute, especially if you just stopped and started the bot. If you're also running "csgoempire manual", it may wait its turn. Give it a minute.
The Live side of the switch is greyed out
Live bidding is for Pro and above. Check your plan on your account page. If you just upgraded, close and reopen SkinsMaster.
The Start button is a countdown and I can't press it
You've used up this week's limit for the mode you've selected. The clock counts down to Monday 09:00 South African time, when it resets. Practice and live have separate limits, so if Simulated is used up you can still bid live, and the other way round.
"CSGOEmpire rejected the API key"
Make sure you pasted the whole key with no spaces, and that 2FA is on for your CSGOEmpire account. A brand-new key can take a few minutes to start working. If it still fails, make a fresh key and paste that one in Settings.
My deposit hasn't shown up
See the box at the end of Part 5. In short: check the transaction on a block explorer, wait for enough confirmations, and contact CSGOEmpire support with the transaction ID if it's confirmed but not credited.
I can't list my skin
Check three things: you're on Pro or above, you've saved that marketplace's API key in Settings, and the skin's 7-day countdown has finished. The window tells you which one is the problem, in a red strip at the top.
The app says my Steam sign-in has expired
SkinsMaster renews it by itself most of the time. If it can't, link the account again with the QR code (Part 2). Your history and keys are kept.
Ask in the Discord. The people who built SkinsMaster are in there.
Words explained
- API key
- A long password that lets one program (SkinsMaster) act on your account at another site (like CSGOEmpire). Keep it secret.
- Bid
- An offer to buy an item at an auction. The highest bid when the timer ends wins.
- Simulated / Live
- Simulated is pretend bidding with no real money. Live is real bidding with real coins.
- Min profit
- The smallest expected profit, in percent, before the bot will bid.
- Coins
- CSGOEmpire's money. You deposit real money or crypto and get coins. Bids spend coins.
- Deposit
- Adding money to your CSGOEmpire balance. (Not the same as "depositing a skin" for sale, which is a different thing on their site.)
- Network
- The "road" a crypto coin travels on. The same coin can exist on several networks. Sender and receiver must use the same one.
- Confirmation
- A checkmark from the crypto network that your payment really happened. Your balance updates once there are enough.
- Trade protection
- Steam's 7-day lock on skins you've just received in a trade. You can't trade or sell them until it ends.
- Floor
- The lowest price the selling bot may lower your listing to.
- Undercut
- To list for slightly less than the cheapest competitor, so yours sells first.
- Skin Ledger
- SkinsMaster's record of every item: what you paid, what it sold for and your profit.
- Passed on
- An auction the bot looked at and chose not to bid on, shown with the reason.