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Guide

What is a skin deposit?

A skin deposit lets a user pay with game items instead of money. Here is what happens behind the button, and what it means for you as a merchant.

Updated · SkinPlata team

The short version

A skin deposit is a payment made with Steam items. The user picks items from their CS2, Dota 2 or Rust inventory, accepts one trade offer, and your site credits them with the items' value. You receive that value as money — with SkinPlata, in USD on your project balance.

What happens step by step

  • Your site creates a payment (with your own order id).
  • The user enters their Steam trade link; we load their inventory with a live price for each tradable item.
  • They pick items. The total is fixed before anything is traded.
  • We send one trade offer. The user checks it and accepts it in Steam.
  • You get a webhook: deposit.in_hold right after the trade, deposit.success when the money is final.

How the items are priced

Prices come from live market offers for the exact item at the moment of the payment. That avoids stale weekly price lists and keeps the value the user sees close to what the item really sells for.

Items with no reliable price, and items that cannot be traded right now, are shown as not accepted — they cannot be added to the payment.

Why trade protection matters

Since July 2025, Steam keeps traded CS2 items under a 7-day trade protection: during that window the sender can reverse the trade. For a merchant that means a deposit is only final after the window ends.

SkinPlata credits your balance when the payment is final and reports any reversal as deposit.hold_returned. You decide whether to credit your user immediately (faster, with some risk) or when it is final (no risk).

Skin deposits vs. card payments

No card details, no 3-D Secure, no card chargebacks months later. The user accepts the trade themselves in Steam. The trade-off is the protection window, which is short and visible on every payment.

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FAQ

Is a skin deposit the same as selling skins?

For the user it feels similar; for you it is a payment. The value goes to your balance and you credit your user however your site works.

Which games support skin deposits?

On SkinPlata: CS2, Dota 2 and Rust.

Do I need trade bots?

No. We handle all Steam trades.

Keep reading

Related

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