The Beginner's Guide to Lestrade's
Welcome to Lestrade's.
Given that the website is a work-in-progress, this guide should also be considered a WORK-IN-PROGRESS.
What is Lestrade's?
Lestrade's is a place where you can trade with other members digital games or other tradable items, mostly from the Steam store. You can manage your list of games (tradables i.e. games you have available to trade, wishlist i.e. games you're looking to get, and blacklist i.e. games you don't want to get offers for), and match it with other members lists to create fast trade offers.
You can call the website "Lestrade's" (as in, "I'm trading games at Lestrade's"), "Lestrades.com" (as in, "You should trade with me, check out lestrades.com"), "Lestrades" (as in "I'm too lazy to type everything, please don't kill me"), or "LT" (as in "I'm bad-ass, I'm hoping that'll catch on.")
How to sign in?
Click the green "Sign in with Steam" button on the top left corner to sign in with your Steam account. Your libraries and wishlist will be automatically imported daily from Steam for as long as you're active.
Is there support for games outside Steam?
There is currently very limited support for games that aren't redeemed on Steam.
Note: In the future you will have the ability to add any game as long as you provide its store URL.
I have used Barter.vg in the past. What about my data from there?
Barter.vg is a website with a purpose similar to Lestrade's. LT was actually built as a replacement for Barter when its webmaster disappeared in March 2016. LT was opened officially for business a year later, in late March 2017. The Barter webmaster came back by magic a day later.Damage cont Miracle!
You can visit your Tradables, Wishlist, Blacklist and Library pages and user the 'Import from Barter.vg' button to import each list of your choice separately. If your lists were already imported, you can synchronize them by clicking the 'Compare with Barter.vg' button and using the 'Add all' or 'Remove all' buttons accordingly, or, of course, manually adding/removing all items listed.
Who runs this site?
Created and developed by Nao, aka Lestrade, also responsible for the forum software behind it, Wedge. Hosted by devotee on a pretty fine server located in Paris.
This FAQ was compiled from multiple people, including Nao, joaoarena and BVG.
How do I trade?
What do the items at the top mean?
The Wishlist is a list of items that you would like to trade your tradables for. It is usually synchronized from your Steam wishlist, but you can manually add wishlist items within Lestrades without affecting original Steam wishlist.
The Tradables list is a list of items that you would be willing to exchange for other items in a trade.
The Blacklist is a list of items that you would not want to be offered to you on a trade.
The Library is a list of games you own. It is synchronized from your Steam library. You won't receive offers for these games, unless you explicitly ask for them.
How do I set up my item lists?
First, search for the item that you would like to find in the top right search box.
On the item page, and before the item name, you can see some symbols. There will be no symbols if you do not have the item on your Library, Wishlist, Tradables or Blacklist.
Symbols:
To reverse the action, just click the button again.
How do I send offers?
After signing in and managing your Tradables and Wishlist, use the Matches page to find members with your wishlisted items, and that have on their wishlists your tradables.
From the list of matches, you can click the "Send Offer" link next to the other member name to make your offer, or you click the member name to find out more about him on his profile page.
Select the items that you would like to offer on each side, and then click on preview button.
If you have more than one item offered on each side, adjust the quantity of the tradables on each side.
When you finish adjusting your offer, click the "Send offer" button. The other member will receive a notification with your offer (as well as an e-mail if they entered one; these users have the mention 'can be notified' on match pages, you should contact them in priority.)
Wait for a response. The Notifications system will notify you of an affirmative or negative response.
If the other user accepts the offer contact the user, usually through PM (Personal Message at Lestrade's) or Steam, to exchange items. You have a link to their Steam profile on their LT profile.
Where can I know the status of an offer?
You can see Offers and their statuses on the Offers page.
Status can be:
How can I edit an offer I have already sent?
Go to your Offers page and click the status of the offer that you would like to edit.
You can only edit offers that are Pending or Unread.
On offer page, click the edit offer button.
Edit your offer as you would normally do. Then click "send the offer" button to change the offer.
Are there trading rules and etiquette?
How can I avoid being scammed?
Trades that occur outside of the Steam trading window carry a risk that can be minimized:
How do others value their items? How can I make fair offers?
People value their games in different ways. Here are some common measures of a game's worth accepted by many users:
Miscellaneous
How do I prevent other users from sending me e-mail messages?
You can change your e-mail settings in Profile -> Account Settings -> Uncheck Allow users to email me.
How do I search the forum?
https://lestrades.com/search
Why are game ratios so different from Barter's?
1/ Different sites, different user bases -- although similar, there will obviously be differences.
2/ Unlike Barter, Lestrade's reflects the total user base ratios (active + unactive traders).
In game pages however, you can see both types of ratio: where users are listed, it indicates the number of active users versus total users, so for instance if you see "Tradables10/30 Wishlist120/250", it means a 10:120 (active users) and 30:250 (total users).
3/ Unlike Barter, if an item is only traded by one person and wished by 100, it'll have a ratio of 5:10 if the owner has 5 copies available, i.e. their copy says 'x5'.
If there are any questions any other that should be answered here, please post them on the thread below.
Welcome to Lestrade's.
Given that the website is a work-in-progress, this guide should also be considered a WORK-IN-PROGRESS.
What is Lestrade's?
Lestrade's is a place where you can trade with other members digital games or other tradable items, mostly from the Steam store. You can manage your list of games (tradables i.e. games you have available to trade, wishlist i.e. games you're looking to get, and blacklist i.e. games you don't want to get offers for), and match it with other members lists to create fast trade offers.
You can call the website "Lestrade's" (as in, "I'm trading games at Lestrade's"), "Lestrades.com" (as in, "You should trade with me, check out lestrades.com"), "Lestrades" (as in "I'm too lazy to type everything, please don't kill me"), or "LT" (as in "I'm bad-ass, I'm hoping that'll catch on.")
How to sign in?
Click the green "Sign in with Steam" button on the top left corner to sign in with your Steam account. Your libraries and wishlist will be automatically imported daily from Steam for as long as you're active.
Is there support for games outside Steam?
There is currently very limited support for games that aren't redeemed on Steam.
Note: In the future you will have the ability to add any game as long as you provide its store URL.
I have used Barter.vg in the past. What about my data from there?
Barter.vg is a website with a purpose similar to Lestrade's. LT was actually built as a replacement for Barter when its webmaster disappeared in March 2016. LT was opened officially for business a year later, in late March 2017. The Barter webmaster came back by magic a day later.
You can visit your Tradables, Wishlist, Blacklist and Library pages and user the 'Import from Barter.vg' button to import each list of your choice separately. If your lists were already imported, you can synchronize them by clicking the 'Compare with Barter.vg' button and using the 'Add all' or 'Remove all' buttons accordingly, or, of course, manually adding/removing all items listed.
Who runs this site?
Created and developed by Nao, aka Lestrade, also responsible for the forum software behind it, Wedge. Hosted by devotee on a pretty fine server located in Paris.
This FAQ was compiled from multiple people, including Nao, joaoarena and BVG.
How do I trade?
What do the items at the top mean?
The Wishlist is a list of items that you would like to trade your tradables for. It is usually synchronized from your Steam wishlist, but you can manually add wishlist items within Lestrades without affecting original Steam wishlist.
The Tradables list is a list of items that you would be willing to exchange for other items in a trade.
The Blacklist is a list of items that you would not want to be offered to you on a trade.
The Library is a list of games you own. It is synchronized from your Steam library. You won't receive offers for these games, unless you explicitly ask for them.
How do I set up my item lists?
First, search for the item that you would like to find in the top right search box.
On the item page, and before the item name, you can see some symbols. There will be no symbols if you do not have the item on your Library, Wishlist, Tradables or Blacklist.
Symbols:
- 📚 Stack of Books - Library
- ★ Star - Wishlist
- ⇄ Arrows - Tradables
- ☠ Pirate flag - Blacklist
To reverse the action, just click the button again.
How do I send offers?
After signing in and managing your Tradables and Wishlist, use the Matches page to find members with your wishlisted items, and that have on their wishlists your tradables.
From the list of matches, you can click the "Send Offer" link next to the other member name to make your offer, or you click the member name to find out more about him on his profile page.
Select the items that you would like to offer on each side, and then click on preview button.
If you have more than one item offered on each side, adjust the quantity of the tradables on each side.
When you finish adjusting your offer, click the "Send offer" button. The other member will receive a notification with your offer (as well as an e-mail if they entered one; these users have the mention 'can be notified' on match pages, you should contact them in priority.)
Wait for a response. The Notifications system will notify you of an affirmative or negative response.
If the other user accepts the offer contact the user, usually through PM (Personal Message at Lestrade's) or Steam, to exchange items. You have a link to their Steam profile on their LT profile.
Where can I know the status of an offer?
You can see Offers and their statuses on the Offers page.
Status can be:
- Unread - offer has not been seen yet.
- Pending - offer was seen, but the user has made no decision yet.
- Accepted - offer has been accepted.
- Declined - offer has been rejected.
- Half Completed - offer was marked as completed by one of both traders.
- Completed - Offer was marked as completed by both traders.
- Canceled - Offer was canceled.
How can I edit an offer I have already sent?
Go to your Offers page and click the status of the offer that you would like to edit.
You can only edit offers that are Pending or Unread.
On offer page, click the edit offer button.
Edit your offer as you would normally do. Then click "send the offer" button to change the offer.
Are there trading rules and etiquette?
- Remember that the person that you're trading with is a person. Be nice. Don't be rude, demanding or condescending.
- Users with a lower reputation statistic usually send their item(s) first in a trade that occurs outside of the Steam trading window. Remember: trading this way is risky. Therefore, trading with users that have little to no reputation carries a lot of risk.
How can I avoid being scammed?
Trades that occur outside of the Steam trading window carry a risk that can be minimized:
- If you are just starting out, it is advisable to trade with users of high(er) reputation first, or offer trades that can be completed within the Steam trading window.
- If you don't know the trader very well, start by trading 1:1 first, instead of a lot of games at the same time.
- If an offer is too good to be true, it likely is.
How do others value their items? How can I make fair offers?
People value their games in different ways. Here are some common measures of a game's worth accepted by many users:
- The Have/Want ratio for a game:
This describes how many people have the game, and how many people want it. The more people that have the game, and the less people want it, the lower the value. On the other hand, if 2 people have a game and 100 users have wishlisted, the game has a higher value than a game that 100 people have in their Tradable list and only 2 people want. - The bundle price for a game (or the price per game):
Steam keys are very often sold in packs with other games, called "bundles." Popular bundle sites include Humble Bundle, Bundle Stars, Indie Gala, and Groupees. Often, people will divide the number of items in the bundle by the bundle's price to get the price-per-game. Obviously, a game that was in a $1 bundle with 2 others (making the price-per-game $1/3=$0.33) is worth less than a game that was in a $12 bundle with 5 other games (making the price-per-game $12/6=$2). - The current price on other marketplaces:
Some traders use the prices of the item(s) offered in marketplaces like Steam or G2A as a baseline. - The sentimental/gameplay value of the game to a specific user:
Some users value a game produced by a well known studio more than an indie game, or a game rated higher (using the Steam review system, for example) than lower.
Miscellaneous
How do I prevent other users from sending me e-mail messages?
You can change your e-mail settings in Profile -> Account Settings -> Uncheck Allow users to email me.
How do I search the forum?
https://lestrades.com/search
Why are game ratios so different from Barter's?
1/ Different sites, different user bases -- although similar, there will obviously be differences.
2/ Unlike Barter, Lestrade's reflects the total user base ratios (active + unactive traders).
In game pages however, you can see both types of ratio: where users are listed, it indicates the number of active users versus total users, so for instance if you see "Tradables10/30 Wishlist120/250", it means a 10:120 (active users) and 30:250 (total users).
3/ Unlike Barter, if an item is only traded by one person and wished by 100, it'll have a ratio of 5:10 if the owner has 5 copies available, i.e. their copy says 'x5'.
If there are any questions any other that should be answered here, please post them on the thread below.
