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If you’re wondering why you can’t trade Steam items, it’s because Steam has made it so that only certain items can be traded. This is done to prevent fraud and to keep the Steam community safe.
Causes of
Some items can’t be traded because they’re not meant to be traded. For example, Steam Wallet funds can’t be traded because they can be used to buy things on Steam. Other items can’t be traded because they’re rare or valuable, and Steam doesn’t want people to trade them for less valuable items.
Some items can only be traded if both parties have a Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator enabled on their accounts. This is to prevent people from trading items they don’t have.
To trade items on Steam, both parties must have their Steam accounts linked to a phone number. This is to prevent people from creating fake accounts to trade items.
If you’re trying to trade an item that can’t be traded, you’ll see a message saying “This item cannot be traded” when you try to add it to a trade.
General
In general, you can’t trade Steam items because Steam doesn’t want people to trade items that can be used to scam other people or that are rare and valuable. Steam wants to keep the community safe, and making sure that only certain items can be traded helps to do that.