Aug. 1, 2021
Games Where You Can Sell Items for Real Money: which are the most popular?
5 min read
One of the most essential parts of any video game is the items you collect along the way. Weapons, armor, and all the accessories a player could ever want can be absolute game-changers.
Now, if you have some incredibly powerful or desirable items from a certain video game but don't really want them for yourself, you might just be able to make some cash off your good fortune. You see, some video games let you sell your items to other players for real money; that could mean a few nickels, or it could be thousands of dollars, depending on what you're selling.
Markets in Video Games
Markets have become very important in the video gaming world, and not just in a fantastical, story-telling sort of way. In the CSGO, FFXV, and Diablo 3 worlds, markets are where you get options for skins, armor, weapons, and more.
Though some of them are too chaotic to keep running (Diablo 3), they often are a central hub for players to buy in-game items to become stronger. That, or to perfectly personalize a player's game, making their experience all their own.
Yes, even if that includes buying a FFXV wedding dress to marry the miqo'te of their dreams.
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Most Popular Games with Real-Life Money Markets
Now, there are two kinds of video game markets. There's the kind where you purchase items from the game, and that's the end of things. Then, there are also markets where players can buy and sell items from each other.
Image: WePlay Holding
As far as one-way transactions go, LoL is one of the most popular games where players can spend real money on skins, wards, and emotes. They cannot really sell those items to other players, though.
However, when it comes to multi-transactional markets, CSGO, DOTA 2, and WoW are king. Entropia, Eve Online, and Runescape also get brownie points for some of the most outrageously expensive in-game purchases in history.
Selling Items for Real Money
Here are three of the most popular sellable markets and how to use them if you're new to the whole selling and buying situation with video game items.
How to Sell Steam Items for Real Money
In your personal steam account, you have access to any Steam-related trading card you've earned for specific achievements, as well as certain skins and in-game items for particular games. Most of the time, the trading cards only go for a few cents, but you can still sell them on the market to get some Steam cash. However, a handful of trading cards top out at over $1k, giving their owners some real money if they put them on the market. If you're selling CSGO skins or DOTA mounts, though, you could get even more.
To sell any of your in-game items, go to your steam inventory and check out what you've got. They should all have an estimated asking price. You can then click a button on a selected trading card or item to get the option of selling it, including a choice to put it up for lower or higher than the estimated asking price. For some people, this is an easy way to hunt for achievements in their favorite games and earn a dollar or two (or more) towards their next game.
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How to Sell CSGO items for Real Money
If you want to sell CSGO in-game items, there are a multitude of options out there. You can sell them through Steam, but that's not really the most popular option. Instead, most people sign into online market sites like Skins.Cash or DMMarket. Once signed in, you can put their items up for sale and wait for someone to buy them. Then, you can cash out and get paid for your extra in-game items.
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How to Sell DOTA 2 Items for Real Money
Much like many CSGO selling sites, the best thing for you to do is sign into your Steam through the market site of your choice (Loot Market, Skin Cashier, etc.). From there, you access your DOTA 2 items through your Steam inventory and put them up for sale. After that, you just wait for the money to roll in from that rare mount you found (it might be worth more than you thought).
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Most Expensive Game Items
There are a few games that are the apparent winners of luxury and expense. CSGO, WoW, and Entropia set some insane records.
A random player bought Entropia's Club Neverdie from its owner, Jim Jacobs, for $635,000. Similarly, the famous Crystal Palace, a virtual space station and tourist hub, went for $300,000. Like a virtual Disney World, you now have to pay a dollar to enter.
As far as CSGO goes, even though it only offers skins, it has its own impressive monetary records. For example, when the souvenir AWP Dragon Lore Sniper skin was being sold, someone bought it for $61,000.
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Most Real World Money Paid
Even though some people have never heard of Entropia, this science-fiction MMO has some of the most impressively absurd in-game purchases. They've set the record for the most expensive in-game item, and it's not even a competition. A company called SEE Virtual Worlds bought the planet Calypso from MindArk Studios for a staggering price: $6 million.
Otherwise, the other top 10 expensive items are primarily from Entropia, proving this futuristic world has some out-of-this-world prices. CSGO, DOTA 2, Runescape, and Diablo 3 also predictably top the charts with their own records.