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I started playing Team Fortress 2 and ran into the item limit which is a really bad thing because now I can't switch teams during the game when I'm asked whether I volunteer for switching because if I accept, an overlay which can't be closed, is opened. Discarding items doesn't really help. I tried this after experiencing what's described below but if you find new items during the game you're playing, you're shown the overlay, too. Discarding items then, doesn't allow you to dismiss the overlay.

I went to buy some random item from the store but wasn't able to because this message popped up in Steam:

Do I really have to buy some game on Steam and then wait 30 days, just to buy an item in TF2 to get rid of the low item limit and its side effects? Is there a way around this?

I know very little about Steam and created my account for the sole purpose of playing TF2. Sorry if the solution is obvious and I just can't see or find it.

In case it's important: I live in Europe.

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  • Does buying an item from the market remove the low item limit on TF2? I thought you had to buy the item from the in-game store?
    – hammythepig
    Jan 13, 2017 at 18:51
  • @hammythepig Yes, it has to be bought from the Mann Co. Store, afaik.
    – UTF-8
    Jan 13, 2017 at 19:07
  • @hammythepig Why did you ask?
    – UTF-8
    Jan 13, 2017 at 22:44

2 Answers 2

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Unfortunately, there's a restriction on the Steam Community Market to prevent fraud or scams from occurring. So yes, you'll have to make a purchase on your Steam account worth $5 USD (regardless of where you live) or more in order to use the Market. From their Community Market FAQ:

Your account must have a successful purchase older than 30 days, but not older than a year in order to access the Community Market. The purchase of wallet funds, games, DLCs and software meet this requirement. Retail CD key activations and gift purchases do not satisfy this requirement.

In regards to where you live and its effect on currency to this extent, this is elaborated on in the Limited User Accounts FAQ:

What if my Steam store currency isn't in USD?

If the Steam store isn't in USD, we will track the purchase amount in USD by converting each purchase total made on Steam using daily exchange rates. Once you have made the equivalent of $5.00 USD or more in total Steam purchases, you will gain access to the restricted Steam features.

Thus, if you don't want to buy something for the sake of accessing the Market, you could just put $5.00 USD worth of currency into your account's wallet (as this qualifies as a purchase for your account), wait for the purchase to be 30 days old, then use it in the Market, once you have access.

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  • Wait, above the quote you say I have to but something which costs at least 5 $. I live in Europe, btw., so it might be slightly different. I keep forgetting that there are variations by country, even on the internet. Anyway, below the quote, you say I still have to wait 30 days but it's enough if I just park 5 $ in my account for 30 days (and then can probably buy the item with those 5 $). I don't see how you can take the latter from the quote.
    – UTF-8
    Jan 13, 2017 at 0:11
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    Steam requires you to spend $5 USD regardless of where you live. So whatever $5 USD is in Euros, I guess.
    – Vemonus
    Jan 13, 2017 at 0:12
  • @UTF-8 i live in Australia and when i put money into my wallet the $5 i brought was in $US despite my PayPal account only having $AUS so the currency was converted
    – Memor-X
    Jan 13, 2017 at 0:13
  • Okay, thanks. I didn't know what exactly they refer to by the term "wallet". Can someone else (who had a Steam account for like 10 years and surely made purchased there, within the last year) make the purchase for me so I don't have to wait 30 days?
    – UTF-8
    Jan 13, 2017 at 0:20
  • @UTF-8 I don't think so. The title of that page indicates these restrictions are for trades and Market transactions. If there was such a simple a way to circumvent the system, it wouldn't really be a good system, now would it?
    – Vemonus
    Jan 13, 2017 at 0:21
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This is a complementary answer to Vemonus's answer.

There are items which expand your backpack. I noticed that I had items which can be unpacked in my backpack and unpacked one. It contained 8 items, one of which was able to increase my backpack's volume by 100 items. Would've been a lot better to have figured this out before deleting items to make space several times.

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    You may want to consider getting a premium account on Team Fortress 2. There are still many limits even with backpack expanders. Go to the Mann Co. Store from the main menu and buy a Upgrade to Premium Gift. It costs $4.99 + tax so you should also be upgraded on Steam too. Premium users automatically get 6 extra backpack pages.
    – Nitrous Oxide
    Mar 31, 2017 at 3:05

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