TF2 key price
What a TF2 key is worth today
A Mann Co. Supply Crate Key has more than one price at the same time, and they are not comparable. Here is what we pay in cash, and what the other prices mean.
| Where | Price per key | Paid in |
|---|---|---|
| We buy from you | $1.60 | USDT or USDC, to your own wallet |
| We sell to you | $1.70 | USDT or USDC, keys sent as a trade offer |
One flat price for everyone, published before you sign in and never adjusted per visitor. When it changes it changes for everybody at once.
Why the Steam market price looks higher
Look a key up on the Steam Community Market and you will see a bigger number than the one above. It is worth understanding why that is not the bargain it appears to be. Selling on the market pays you in Steam Wallet funds: money that can be spent on Steam and nowhere else, with Valve’s cut already taken out. There is no way to turn it back into money you can withdraw.
Selling for cash pays less per key and pays in something you can actually take away. Which of those is worth more depends entirely on whether you wanted to spend it on Steam in the first place. If you did, the market is the better deal and we would say so.
What a key is, and why it has a price at all
A Mann Co. Supply Crate Key opens one crate in Team Fortress 2. Valve sells them at a fixed price in the in-game store, in unlimited numbers, which is why no traded key ever costs more than a new one: the shop price is a ceiling nothing climbs through.
What turned a key into a currency is that it is reliable. Everyone knows roughly what one is worth, they are freely tradable, and there are always more. That is why prices across TF2 trading are quoted in keys rather than dollars, and why a key holds its value better than almost anything else in the game.
Questions about the key price
- What is a TF2 key worth today?
- It depends which price you mean. On the Steam Community Market a Mann Co. Supply Crate Key trades for more than this, but it pays in Steam Wallet funds that can only be spent on Steam and never withdrawn. In cash, outside Steam, a key is worth what a desk will pay for it, which is the lower of the two numbers and the one you can actually withdraw.
- Why is the cash price lower than the Steam market price?
- Because they are different things. Steam pays in Wallet funds and takes a cut; the funds never leave Steam. A cash buyer pays real money, carries the key until somebody buys it, wears the risk of the price moving, and covers the fees at both ends. The gap between the two is what that service costs.
- Why can nobody sell keys above the in-game store price?
- Valve sells brand new keys at a fixed price, in unlimited numbers. Nobody pays more for a second-hand key than for a fresh one, so the shop price is a hard ceiling that traded prices sit under and never climb through. Anything advertised above it is not what it claims to be.
- Does the price on this page change?
- Our buy and sell prices change only when we change them, and when they do it is the same new price for everybody. Nothing on this page is adjusted per visitor or per how much you appear to know.
- What makes the key price move?
- Mostly Team Fortress 2 updates. A new case or a well received cosmetic set gives people a reason to open crates, which consumes keys and firms the price; a quiet stretch does the opposite. Anything that changes how items can be traded moves it sharply, because a key is only useful as a currency while it can move freely.