Steam Trade Holds Explained

A trade hold is Valve’s anti-theft mechanism. It delays the transfer of items between accounts under specific conditions, and it is the single most common reason a delivery does not appear immediately. None of it is controlled by the seller.

What triggers a hold

• No Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator — trades are held for 15 days.
• Authenticator enabled less than 7 days ago — trades are held for 15 days until the week passes.
• Recent password or email change — a temporary hold applies.
• Signing in from a new device — can trigger a short hold.
• Account recently recovered — a longer restriction applies.

What does not cause a hold

Trade holds are not applied because of the item’s value, the other party’s account, or how the item was obtained. There is also no way for anyone — buyer, seller or support — to remove a hold once it is applied. Waiting is the only option.

The seven-day rule that catches everyone

Enabling the mobile authenticator does not lift the hold immediately. Valve requires it to have been active for seven days. If you enable it and buy on the same afternoon, you will still be held for 15 days.

The fix is to enable it a week before you plan to buy anything. It costs nothing and it removes the most common delivery delay entirely.

Newly purchased items

Separately from account holds, items obtained through the Steam Community Market or through a trade cannot be traded onward for seven days. This affects reselling, not receiving.

What we do on our side

We send the trade offer as soon as payment clears. If your account is under a hold, the offer still arrives — the items simply transfer when the hold expires. The order stays valid throughout, and you do not need to do anything except accept the offer.

If a trade offer expires before you accept it, contact us and we will send a new one. Nothing is lost.

Check before you buy

Open Steam, confirm the mobile authenticator is active and has been for at least a week, and check that your inventory is set to public. Those two settings account for nearly every delivery problem we see.