Review methodology

Last reviewed 2026-08-14

1. Sources we accept

Platform claims come from the platform's own live pages, terms and footer. Where a figure is the platform's own marketing number, we say so in the sentence itself rather than presenting it as an independent finding.

2. Offers and bonuses

A bonus is only displayed after a person opens the offer page and confirms it is live. The "last manually verified" date on this site changes only when that check actually happens; it is never generated from the current date or a build timestamp. Offers we cannot confirm stay hidden, which is why some commonly advertised deposit bonuses do not appear here.

3. Fees

We do not publish a headline fee percentage for instant trading sites. The real cost sits in the difference between the value credited for your item and the price charged for theirs, and it moves per item. Our fees page explains how to measure it yourself before confirming a trade.

4. Safety assessment

We assess how a platform authenticates users, whether it ever asks for Steam credentials directly, how visible its terms are, and how exposed the brand is to phishing clones. Safety advice on this site is deliberately generic across platforms, because the attacks are.

5. What disqualifies a claim

• · Numbers with no traceable source.
• · Ratings or scores we cannot document.
• · Testimonials, user counts or trade volumes we have not seen evidence for.
• · "Personally tested" language without published testing records.

6. Independence

CSTrade earns commission on some outbound links. That never changes an assessment, and negative points about a partner platform stay on the page. See the affiliate disclosure and editorial policy.