Buff163 vs Skinport vs CSFloat: fee breakdown 2026
Every CS2 marketplace shows a different price. After fees, the gap often inverts. A trader's field guide to actual cost of buying and actual payout on selling — on all 34 venues we track.
A skin flipper opens three tabs. Buff163 says €26. Skinport says €28. CSFloat says €29. The gut reaction is to buy from Buff and sell on CSFloat for €3 profit. The gut is wrong — after fees and withdrawal friction, the real numbers are not always in that order.
This guide is the reference I wish existed when I started flipping. Every number below is verified against each venue’s public fee schedule as of April 2026. SkinScope uses these same numbers in its Scanner to compute fee-adjusted arbitrage.
How to read fee structure
Four numbers define the real cost of a platform:
- Buyer fee — percentage added on top of the listed price when you buy.
- Seller fee — percentage deducted from the listed price when you sell.
- Wallet lock — whether your payout is in cash or in platform credit. Steam Wallet is locked; CSFloat withdraws to PayPal/Stripe.
- Withdrawal complexity — is the cash-out straightforward? Buff163 requires USDT routing through a Chinese bank. Waxpeer needs a crypto wallet. These matter.
The headline comparison
| Venue | Buyer fee | Seller fee | Wallet lock | Withdrawal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skinport | 0% | 12% (6% featured) | No | Direct EUR |
| CSFloat | 0% | 2% | No | Direct USD/EUR |
| Waxpeer | ~2% | ~5% | No | Crypto or P2P |
| Steam Market | 0% | 15% | Yes — Steam Wallet only | None (wallet-locked) |
| DMarket | 2.5% | 2% | No | Direct |
| Buff163 | ~2.5% | ~2.5% | No | Complex — USDT via CN bank |
| BitSkins | 0% | 5% | No | Direct |
| Tradeit.gg | ~10% | 0% | Yes — trade credit | None |
Four more venues — CS.Money, Lis-Skins, Shadowpay, Swap.gg, SkinBid, Gamerpay, HaloSkins, C5Game — all sit in the 5–7% seller fee range, no wallet lock but with various withdrawal quirks. Their full schedule is in lib/pricing/fees.ts if you’re curious.
The math that matters — net to seller
If a skin is listed at €30 on each venue, the seller actually receives:
| Venue | List price | Net to seller (cash-equivalent) |
|---|---|---|
| CSFloat | €30.00 | €29.40 |
| DMarket | €30.00 | €29.40 |
| Buff163 | €30.00 | €29.25 |
| Waxpeer | €30.00 | €28.50 |
| BitSkins | €30.00 | €28.50 |
| Skinport | €30.00 | €26.40 (€28.20 if featured) |
| Steam Market | €30.00 | €26.09 — and in Steam Wallet, not cash |
CSFloat is the best net-to-seller on high volume. Skinport is the most visible Western venue but the fee is expensive unless you get featured placement. Buff163 is middle of the pack on fees but adds USDT withdrawal friction that can chew up another 1–2% in FX and transfer costs.
The flip that looks obvious but isn’t
Back to the opening scenario: Buff €26, Skinport €28, CSFloat €29. Raw spread: €3. After fees, the picture changes:
| Flip | Buy cost | Sell net | Profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buff → CSFloat | €26 × 1.025 = €26.65 | €29 × 0.98 = €28.42 | +€1.77 | +6.6% |
| Buff → Skinport | €26 × 1.025 = €26.65 | €28 × 0.88 = €24.64 | -€2.01 | -7.5% |
| Skinport → CSFloat | €28.00 | €29 × 0.98 = €28.42 | +€0.42 | +1.5% |
Same three venues. Same three list prices. Three different conclusions. Only one of them (Buff → CSFloat) is a real flip. The other two look tempting at a glance and lose money on execution.
Hidden costs to know about
Skinport featured-item premium
Skinport charges 12% by default but 6% on “featured”listings — items placed above-the-fold on their explore page. Featured slots auction weekly. If you list high-volume skins you can usually get the 6% rate. If you list esoteric skins, expect 12%.
Buff163 withdrawal gotchas
Buff “payout” is USDT or CNY to a Chinese banking partner. Western traders use third-party middlemen (like Cheapcoin or DMG Bank) who charge 1.5–3% FX. Add that to the 2.5% seller fee and the real cost is closer to 5%. Still the cheapest buy venue, but not the highest-payout sell venue.
Steam Wallet vs cash
Steam Wallet is worth roughly 70–80% of its face value if you can convert it into cash indirectly (by purchasing Steam games to resell, or by gifting). If you can’t, it’s only as liquid as your Steam purchase appetite. Our SSI weights Steam at 0.3 for exactly this reason.
Tradeit.gg trade credit
Tradeit lets you “sell” at 0% fee because you receive trade credit, not cash. That credit buys you skins at ~10% buyer premium. Circular logic: you lose the 10% on either the buy or the sell side, usually the buy. Great for portfolio rebalancing, bad for cashing out.
How SkinScope handles all this
Every deal shown in the Scanner is pre-computed with the full fee schedule applied. The profit number you see is cash-equivalent net — if the deal involves Steam Market as the sell venue, the net accounts for wallet-locked depreciation. If it involves Buff163 as the buy venue, withdrawal friction is factored in. Every number is what you would actually pocket if you executed the trade right now.
That is why SkinScope’s margins are smaller than competing tools that show raw-price arbitrage. We are not less aggressive — we are just correct.
Next step: open the Scanner and filter by Liquidity Tier A–B, minimum margin 3%. Those are the flips you can actually close in under a week, fee-adjusted.