Trade History, Offer History and Market history answer different questions

Locate completed exchanges through Steam

Steam’s trade-offer help describes access to Trade History from the Trade Offers page or the inventory’s additional menu. Follow the current function rather than a fixed screenshot position. Confirm that the record concerns your own account and the intended exchange.

A website’s inventory-status page is another source, not a replacement for Steam’s record. Likewise, a familiar counterparty nickname is not enough to establish identity. The SteamID checklist explains that independent account question before you compare the item movement.

Read proposals under their actual state

Pending proposals belong in the trade-offer workflow, while Steam says inactive proposals move automatically to Offer History. Their presence there establishes a recorded offer state, not necessarily acceptance or completed movement.

Use the pending-versus-accepted guide when the distinction is unclear. Preserve cancellation or expiry wording as well rather than merging all archived records. A list can contain several proposals for one instance, so count actual inventory separately instead of interpreting every historical appearance as another item or another completed delivery.

Keep Market transactions in their own history

Steam’s Market FAQ points to history near the top of the Market home page and through account details. It also describes email receipts, which should corroborate the official account record rather than replace it.

The Market-history guide explains how to reconcile that transaction type. An email alone is not a reason to trust an unfamiliar login link. Do not use a Market receipt to confirm an external cash deposit or an unrelated item exchange merely because all records mention Steam or the same skin name.

Match the fields without inventing missing ones

For the chosen event, compare the full item identity and variant, quantity where shown, counterpart and direction of movement. Retain the timestamp with whatever timezone context is actually displayed; do not label every interface time UTC by assumption.

If the specific operation is a CS2 protected trade, read the Trade Protection guide separately. A generic old statement about all trades being final should not override current applicable protection conditions. Conversely, an archived proposal does not become a reversible completed trade merely because the item belongs to CS2.

Write one reconciled conclusion

State which history type answers the original question and which fields match. If no completed operation is established, retain that limitation. Do not create a second exchange, purchase or deposit to generate a more convenient record for comparison.

A useful private note can say: proposal state confirmed, completed trade not established, Market entry checked separately. Use the history views Steam actually provides, keeping the record type and observed status with your note. The goal is selecting evidence that matches the event, not flattening every timeline into a single receipt or assuming every missing field can be reconstructed from a thumbnail.

Sources and current rules

• Official Valve / Steam reference 1
• Official Valve / Steam reference 2
• Official Valve / Steam reference 3

Sources checked on 2 November 2026. Labels and locations can vary by client version and language. Match the described state in your own current interface.