CSGOEmpire vs Skinport: Where Should You Sell (or Buy) CS2 Skins?

Updated October 22, 2026 · By the MyCS2Guru Editorial Team

Bro, if you've got skins sitting in your inventory and you want value out of them, two names come up constantly: CSGOEmpire and Skinport. Both are player-to-player, so you're selling to real people at prices you choose. The big differences are what you pay to sell, how the money reaches you, and whether you can actually use the site in your country. Here's the straight comparison.

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Quick verdict

• CSGOEmpire wins on fees. Zero trading fees on skin deposits and withdrawals, plus an auction system that can push your sale price up.
• Skinport wins on cash-out simplicity. It pays out by bank transfer, which is what most pure traders want.
• Availability decides a lot. Empire blocks the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia and more. If you're in one of those, the choice is made for you.

Fees compared

That 8% matters on expensive skins. Sell a $500 knife on Skinport at the standard rate and around $40 goes to fees before your bank sees anything. On Empire the same sale costs nothing in trading fees, though you then pay a crypto network fee if you withdraw, and the cheapest coins for that are Litecoin, Solana, XRP, BNB, TRX, POL and stablecoins on BNB Smart Chain or Polygon, per Empire's help centre.

The flip side: Empire money ends up as coins and then crypto. If you need dollars or euros in a bank, you still have to sell that crypto on an exchange, which has its own spread and fees. Run the numbers for your situation before deciding.

How selling works on each

CSGOEmpire

1. Go to the deposit page and pick the skins you want to list.
2. Set your price or a markup. Empire's default is based on BUFF data, usually about 6% under the BUFF listing price.
3. Items listed at +6% or less go into a 3-minute auction where buyers can bid. If nobody bids, it becomes a normal listing.
4. When a buyer purchases, you send the Steam trade and mark it as sent within the time limit.
5. Coins arrive once the trade protection window passes, up to 8 days.

Skinport

1. List your item at your chosen price.
2. Skinport's FAQ is clear that there's no instant-sell option: you wait for a buyer, and lowering the price speeds things up.
3. After the sale and the protection period, you request a bank payout.

The trade protection wait

Steam now lets either side reverse a trade for seven days. Every marketplace had to adapt. Empire's help centre says sellers can wait up to 8 days before receiving coins, and buyers can use but not trade, sell or modify the item during that time. To make it less painful, Empire runs instant credit tiers from 0 to 20,000 coins (tiers 2 to 10 need at least level 40) plus 50% of your daily reward pool, so active players get part of their deposit value straight away.

Skinport sellers face the same Steam protection window before a sale is final, so don't expect instant bank money from either site.

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Safety and reversals

Reversing a trade is the one thing never to do. Empire's skin trading policy (updated July 1, 2026) says anyone who reverses a trade may be permanently banned from the marketplace. If a buyer reverses, they aren't refunded and the seller keeps up to 100% of the coins. If you got instant credit on a trade and then reverse it, the credit is deducted, and Empire may take up to 100% of your daily reward pool to cover a negative balance, including from alternate accounts.

General Steam safety applies on both sites:

• Only log in through the real steamcommunity.com page.
• Never share your Steam API key.
• Check the trade offer details in the Steam app before confirming.
• Ignore Steam friend requests from "staff" offering to help with a trade.

Empire's own phishing guidance warns about fake login pop-ups and lookalike URLs, and it recommends its Chrome extension for trade tracking.

Buying skins on each

Prices on both are seller-set, so neither is always cheaper. Empire's buyers pay in coins with no trading fee, which is handy if you've already got a balance from playing. Skinport buyers pay with their chosen payment method, so the total depends on that method's costs. For rare items, compare listings on both and check the float and pattern before you buy. Our CS2 float value guide explains why two "identical" skins can be worth very different amounts.

Availability: check before you sign up

CSGOEmpire's terms (updated July 7, 2026) block a long list including the US and its territories, UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia and others. Skinport is a trading marketplace, not a gambling site, so its reach is wider, but always check its terms for your country. US readers can see CSGOEmpire USA for what that means in practice.

Extras you only get on Empire

• Gameplay: roulette (6.66% house edge), coinflip (0.5%), cases and case battles (8.8%), and match betting on esports.
• Daily rewards: level-based bonus cases and a daily reward pool, explained in our CSGOEmpire levels guide.
• Free case on sign-up: join with code FREECASES4U.

If you only trade and never want any of that, Skinport's simpler setup may suit you better.

A worked example

Say you want to sell an AWP worth roughly $200 and you'd like cash in the end.

• On Skinport at the standard 8% fee, you'd keep about $184 before your bank does anything. The money arrives by bank transfer once the sale is final.
• On CSGOEmpire there's no trading fee, so the full coin value of your sale is credited after the protection window. If you then withdraw as Litecoin or a stablecoin on a cheap network, the network fee is usually small. You'd then sell the crypto on an exchange, where the spread and exchange fees are your real cost.

If your exchange route costs you less than 8% end to end, Empire comes out ahead. If you'd lose more than that converting crypto, or you just hate dealing with exchanges, Skinport's simplicity is worth paying for.

Common mistakes sellers make

1. Pricing from an old sale instead of current listings.
2. Forgetting the 8-day wait and promising someone money too soon.
3. Sending the wrong copy of a skin (Empire's extension helps avoid this).
4. Reversing a trade in a panic, which can get you banned.

Which should you pick?

Bottom line

For players in allowed countries who are comfortable with crypto, CSGOEmpire's zero-fee marketplace usually leaves more in your pocket. For traders who want a plain bank payout, Skinport is the easier path. Want more Empire detail first? Read our CSGOEmpire marketplace guide and our breakdown of CSGOEmpire fees.

18+ only. CSGOEmpire isn't available in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and other restricted countries. See our responsible gambling page.

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