BUFF Market

Introduction

BUFF Market is a marketplace for Steam items, particularly for CS:GO skins and items. The platform was founded about 2 years ago, on April 1st, 2021. BUFF Market is currently operated by Ding Lei, with headquarters in Hangzhou, China. The BUFF Market marketplace and company have been vetted by CSGOSKINS.GG and deemed trustworthy by all our standards.

Popularity

BUFF Market is rated 4.7 out of 5 with over 277 reviews on Trustpilot. The BUFF Market platform received approximately 1.1M visits during the last month. There are currently 13K different items available on the marketplace, with a total of 94.6K listed offers. Additionally, the combined value of all CS:GO skins that are currently available on the BUFF Market market amounts to $5.4M.

Market Type

BUFF Market is a P2P (peer-to-peer) marketplace. That means when an item is sold on BUFF Market, it is traded directly from the seller’s Steam inventory to the buyer’s Steam inventory. This has the advantage that sellers can list their items on multiple marketplaces at the same time, since they don’t need to deposit the skins to a single marketplace. The downside is that when an item is sold, the seller must manually approve the trade which causes a delay for the buyer. P2P marketplaces have some benefits for sellers but the buyer experience is not as smooth.

History

Founded in April 2021, BUFF Market is a relatively new third-party skin marketplace that enables users to buy and sell CS:GO skins in exchange for real money. It is owned and operated by one of the biggest skin marketplaces on the internet, BUFF163. Since BUFF163 is predominantly used by Chinese users, BUFF Market was developed as a measure to target users throughout the globe. For the same reason, BUFF Market enables users residing outside China to deposit and withdraw money on their platform, whereas BUFF163 only allows Chinese users to deposit or withdraw funds.

Parent Company

The BUFF marketplace is owned by Chinese Internet technology company NetEase. Valued at over 70 billion US dollars, NetEase is one of the biggest names in the world of Chinese video games and entertainment that has previously partnered with big companies like Blizzard and Marvel Comics to bring a variety of games and comic books to the Chinese market.

Transaction Fees

BUFF Market charges its users a fixed transaction fee of 4.5% per item sale, which is quite more than its companion BUFF163, which has a selling fee of 2.5%. However, the selling fee of BUFF Market is still significantly lower than that of the Steam Community Market (15%) and most other third-party skin marketplaces.

Users & Popularity

Being one of the newer third-party skin marketplaces out there, BUFF Market is still a thriving marketplace that hasn't managed to match the popularity of older skin marketplaces on the internet. With over 100,000 visits per month and the authenticity of BUFF163 behind it, BUFF Market certainly shows a promising future that fans can rely upon.

It’s notable that even though BUFF Market is a China-based website, only 3% of its users are from China, whereas a whopping 11% of the users are from the United States of America. This can only be seen as its success, since the website was primarily developed to target users residing outside China.

Method of Trading

BUFF Market boasts a neat and intuitive UI that makes buying and selling skins a breeze for new and experienced users alike. The convenient P2P trading system means that buying weapon skins can be done in just a few seconds, whereas selling skins might take a while due to the limited number of users on the platform.

BUFF Market currently enables users to buy and sell skins across two games - CS:GO and Badlanders. The process for transactions involving either of these titles is similar.

Buying Skins on BUFF Market

To buy skins on BUFF Market, a user has to top up their wallet by following a few simple steps:

• Sign in with your Steam account
• Click on your wallet balance on the top-right
• Navigate to the Deposit tab
• Select the amount you want to deposit
• Link a bank account
• Click on "Deposit"
• Complete the transaction

Currently, buyers can only deposit money directly through bank accounts.

Once you’re done filling your wallet, all there’s left for you to do is select a skin and purchase it. To do so, head over to the Market tab of the website and choose a skin you desire. Once done, click on "Buy", enter your Steam Trade URL, and finish the transaction. Since the trades are P2P, you may have to wait a while for the seller to supply your items. Accept the trade offer that the seller sends you, and you should then have the item in your inventory.

Selling Skins on BUFF Market

Selling skins on BUFF Market is equally simple, but may take a while due to the relatively low popularity of the website.

First, follow the same steps as above and sign in with your Steam account. Once signed in, you have to input your Steam Trade URL, and you’re all set to begin selling skins on BUFF Market.

To start selling items, head over to the Inventory tab and select which items you want to list on the marketplace. Once you’re done selecting all the skins, click on "List" to allocate a price tag to each skin. If you’re satisfied with the price, click on "List" once again to list your items on the market. Now all you have to do is wait till a buyer purchases your skins and send them the appropriate trade offer. Your funds will then be added to your wallet, which you can withdraw through one of the payment methods available on the website.

Currently, sellers can only withdraw money through Payoneer or direct bank transfer.

Advantages

Here are some of the key advantages that you’ll enjoy while buying or selling skins on BUFF Market:

• Significantly lower transaction fee than that of the Steam Community Market (15%).
• Neat, intuitive UI that’s helpful for new and experienced users alike.
• The price of skins on BUFF Market is generally lower than that of skins listed on the Steam Community Market.
• Convenient P2P trading system enables users to buy and sell skins in the matter of a few seconds.
• Has a mobile app that is extremely useful for buying and selling on-the-go when you’re unable to boot up your PC.
• Great built-in "screenshot" tool that enables users to inspect skins without launching the CS:GO client.
• Has a community gallery where users can share screenshots of their own skins.

Disadvantages

BUFF Market isn’t free from flaws, and some of them are quite notable. Here are some of the disadvantages of using BUFF Market:

• Higher transaction fee than that of the BUFF163 marketplace (2.5%).
• Number of users is much lower than that of other popular third-party marketplaces, which may lead to increased selling times.
• Number of skins listed on the marketplace are lower than most other notable websites.
• Only a few depositing and withdrawal options are available on BUFF Market.
• Lack of features like "Instant Selling" and "Auctioning".
• Doesn't support skin trading across other popular games like DOTA 2, Rust, or Team Fortress 2.