Steam Trade Protection (the 8-day hold)

What it is

In 2025, Valve added a Trade Protection window to every Steam trade. For 7 days after a trade is accepted, the sender can unilaterally reverse it — no consent from the receiver needed. Valve built this to fight account takeovers, but it affects every instant-sell platform including Skincash.

How Skincash handles it

We credit your sale to Pending balance the moment the bot receives your items, so you can see it immediately. The amount moves to Available balance after 8 days — one extra day past the Valve window to give us time to reconcile the bot inventory.

If the trade is reversed

If somebody reverses a trade within the 7-day window, the items return to their Steam account and Skincash claws back the Pending balance from yours. No credit, no items — as if the sale never happened. In normal use this only affects you if you deliberately reverse your own trade.