How to Browse, Filter, and Sort Steam Backgrounds, Emoticons, and Trading Cards with steam.tools

steam.tools is a set of browser-based utilities for Steam community items. It lets you browse, filter, and sort up-to-date lists of Steam backgrounds and emoticons, check stats on trading card sets, and sort your own community items by market value or type. Use it when you want to explore or compare items; it is a viewing and sorting tool, not a marketplace, and the site does not present itself as a place to log in and trade.

What Each Tool on steam.tools Does

The homepage lists the available tools and a one-line description of each:

For the background, emoticon, and trading card tasks in this guide, the first three tools are the relevant ones. Mosaticon, Games Filter, and Item Value Sorter serve different goals and are covered briefly at the end.

Browsing and Filtering Backgrounds and Emoticons

The Backgrounds and Emoticons tools share the same design: each puts the full up-to-date list on a single page so you can browse it, then narrow it with filters and reorder it with sorting.

1. Open the Backgrounds or Emoticons tool from the steam.tools homepage.
2. Browse the list to see the items and their details.
3. Apply filters to narrow the list to the items you care about — for example, a specific game or item type.
4. Apply sorting to reorder the remaining results so the items you want appear first.

The site describes the filters and sorting as ways to "easily browse, filter and sort" the list, but it does not publish the exact filter fields or sort options. Treat the filter and sort controls in the page itself as the source of truth for which criteria are available, rather than assuming a fixed set.

A practical example: if you want backgrounds tied to one game, filter the Backgrounds list down to that game, then sort the results so you can scan them in a consistent order instead of paging through the entire catalog.

Checking Trading Card Set Stats

The Trading Cards tool focuses on stats for Steam trading card sets rather than on individual card listings. The homepage describes it as "all the stats you could need about Steam trading card sets, kept up to date."

Use it when you want an overview of card sets — for example, to see set-level information before deciding which sets to pursue or compare. Because the site does not document the specific stat fields, check the tool's own display for the exact metrics it reports.

Comparing Item Value with Item Value Sorter

The Item Value Sorter is the tool for evaluating your own community items. According to the site, it loads your Steam Community items and lets you sort them by market value or filter them by type.

Use it when your goal is value comparison rather than browsing a catalog: load your items, then sort by market value to see which items rank highest, or filter by type to isolate backgrounds, emoticons, or other item categories. The site does not state how items are loaded or whether any Steam login is involved, so follow the prompts in the tool itself.

Choosing the Right Tool

If you only want to look at what exists, start with Backgrounds or Emoticons. If you want to evaluate items you already hold, go to Item Value Sorter. If you want set-level card data, use Trading Cards.

What steam.tools Is Not

steam.tools is a browsing and sorting utility built around Steam trading cards, emoticons, and backgrounds. It is not a marketplace: it does not sell items, and the site presents no pricing or payment information. It is also not described as a login destination for your Steam account — the tools are built to view, sort, and filter item lists. For buying, selling, or trading, use Steam's own market and inventory features; use steam.tools to explore and compare before you do.