Getting a VAC ban is one of the worst things that can happen to a CS2 player, especially if they have valuable skins on their account. Naturally, one of the first questions that comes up is whether it’s still possible to trade items after receiving a VAC ban. Unfortunately, the short answer is no—once banned, your inventory gets locked, and you lose access to trading your items. Let’s dive into why this happens and what it means for your skins.
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Trading CS2 Items with a VAC Ban
To understand what happens to the trading feature after a VAC ban, we must first understand what a VAC ban is. We won’t dive into the nitty gritty of how a VAC ban works to prevent making this more complicated than it needs to be. All you need to know is how it affects your gameplay for CS2.
VAC bans are automated bans issued by CS2’s anti-cheat system. The anti-cheat system detects whether a player is using some hacking software to get an unfair advantage, like aimbot or wall hacks, and then bans those players so they can be penalized and prevented from ruining the experience of other players.
Besides not being allowed to access CS2 game servers or play the game, another way that players get punished for going against the gameplay rules is by trade restrictions. In the case of a VAC ban, those trade restrictions are permanent. In other words, if you get a VAC ban on your Steam account, you won’t be able to trade skins from the inventory of that account.
You might be wondering why that happens. The thing is, the purpose of a VAC ban is to penalize hackers. If players caught using hacking software are allowed to trade skins from the account they received the VAC ban on, they’ll create a new account and transfer all their skins as if nothing happened. A trade restriction prevents that from happening.
Cashing Out CS2 Items with a VAC Ban
By now, you might be wondering if you could at least cash out your CS2 items from an account that was VAC banned by selling those items on the Steam community market or a third-party marketplace. Sadly, we don’t have any good news for you in this aspect either.
Since your inventory gets permanently locked after a VAC ban, there is no way to get skins out of that account. You can’t sell those skins on the Steam community market or any third-party marketplace. If a third-party platform says that they’ll do that, the platform is probably trying to scam you and will likely ask you for some money before they can initiate the process.
Trading CS2 Items with a Competitive Cooldown
If you did not receive a notification that you’ve gotten VAC banned but aren’t able to play competitive CS2, then you probably didn’t receive a VAC ban and, instead, you just got a competitive cooldown. If that’s the case, we have some reassuring news for you. There are no restrictions on your inventory during a competitive cooldown. It means you can freely trade your CS2 skins while on a competitive cooldown, which includes selling them on the Steam community market or a third-party marketplace.
What if it’s a False VAC Ban?
If you are 100% certain that you did not engage in any activity not allowed by CS2 gameplay rules and did not use hacking software, then it was probably a false VAC ban. While you won’t be able to trade CS2 skins as long as the VAC ban is active, the inventory restriction will get removed as soon as the VAC ban gets removed, which will happen soon if the ban is actually false.
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Conclusion
If you received a VAC ban on your Steam account, then you not only won’t be able to play CS2 but your CS2 inventory will also get locked, meaning you won’t be able to trade skins from that inventory. Unfortunately, there is no way around this unless it was a false VAC ban.
