steam.tools

steam.tools is a collection of browser-based utilities for Steam community items, not a marketplace or a game store. You use it to look up, filter, sort, and organize trading cards, emoticons, and backgrounds, and to sort your own inventory by market value. It is useful if you already have a Steam account with community items and want a faster way to browse or assess them; it does not sell items or process trades itself.

What the site actually is

The homepage describes steam.tools as "a set of Steam related WebApps built around trading cards, emoticons and backgrounds," with the stated purpose of viewing, sorting, and filtering up-to-date item lists. The site is credited to Ehsan Kia, carries a 2013–2019 copyright line, and lists affiliate links to Steam UI Customizer, SteamLadder, SteamSignature, and TwitchCenter.

Two boundaries follow from that description:

• It is a viewer and organizer, not a storefront. Nothing on the page indicates item sales, trade execution, or checkout.
• It depends on Steam data. The tools present Steam community item information; they do not create items or change your account.

The five tools and what each one does

The homepage presents these as separate apps, each with its own "Check it out!" entry point. The Emoticons and Backgrounds tools are explicitly described as single-page browsers with filter and sort controls, which is the main convenience over paging through Steam itself.

How to use it, step by step

1. Open steam.tools in a browser. The homepage lists each tool; pick the one matching your task.
2. For browsing (Emoticons, Backgrounds, Trading Cards): open the tool, then apply the filter and sort controls on the page. Expected result: a narrowed, ordered list of items instead of an unfiltered catalog.
3. For your own inventory (Item Value Sorter): load your Steam Community items into the tool, then sort by market value or filter by item type. Expected result: your items ranked by value, or reduced to one type.
4. For image output (Mosaticon): choose an image and generate a mosaic built from emoticons you own. Expected result: a mosaic image composed of your emoticons.
5. For shared games (Games Filter): view the intersection of users' Steam games, then filter by category. Expected result: only the games common to the selected users, narrowed by category.

Verification: after filtering or sorting, confirm the list changed in the way you selected (fewer rows, different order). For inventory tools, check that the item count matches what you expect from your Steam inventory.

Common sticking points

• Inventory-based tools need your items to be visible. Item Value Sorter and Mosaticon work from items you own, so an empty or private inventory limits what they can show.
• "Up to date" is the site's claim, not a guarantee. The copyright line ends at 2019, so treat displayed data as the site's current snapshot rather than a live market feed.
• No pricing or login terms are stated on the page. Do not assume the tools are free of login requirements or that they show real-time market prices; the page only mentions sorting by market value.
• It is not a trading venue. If your goal is to buy, sell, or trade items, this site is the wrong tool; it organizes and displays information.

Choosing the right tool

• Want to find an emoticon or background? Use the Emoticons or Backgrounds browser with filters.
• Want card set statistics? Use Trading Cards.
• Want to know what your inventory is worth? Use Item Value Sorter, keeping in mind the value data comes from the site's own source.
• Want a creative output from your emoticons? Use Mosaticon.
• Want games you and a friend share? Use Games Filter.

If your task is buying or playing games rather than managing community items, steam.tools does not cover it.

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.

CPU Scout is a price-tracking tool that aggregates CPU listings from eBay and lets you narrow them by hardware specifications such as brand, core count, clock speed, and cache size. It is useful when you want a quick read on what a given class of processors is selling for on eBay, but it is not a general market index — its scope is eBay listings, and the filters reflect the spec fields those listings carry.

What CPU Scout actually does

The site's stated purpose is to "Track CPU prices on eBay." In practice, that means it collects eBay CPU listings into a searchable index and exposes a set of faceted filters so you can slice that index by specification rather than by keyword alone.

The filter set visible on the site covers:

• Clock Speed — from "Not Specified" through bands like 1.0–1.49 GHz, 2.5–2.99 GHz, and "More than 3.5 GHz"
• Number of Cores — 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 32, and 72
• L2 Cache — from 256 KB up to 45 MB
• L3 Cache — from 512 KB up to 64 MB
• Bus Speed — from 66 MHz up to 6400 MHz
• Brand — including AMD, Intel-adjacent OEMs, and a long tail of vendors

Each filter shows a count of matching listings, which tells you how much inventory exists in that bucket before you commit to a search.

How to use it to judge a price

1. Start broad, then narrow by spec. Pick the core count and clock band you actually need. For example, if you want a 6-core desktop chip around 3.0–3.5 GHz, select those two filters and the listing count drops to a manageable set.
2. Add brand and cache filters to isolate a generation. L3 cache size is often the fastest way to separate one CPU generation from another when model numbers are ambiguous in listing titles.
3. Read the price spread, not a single number. Because the index is built from live eBay listings, the useful signal is the range across comparable chips — a low outlier usually reflects a parts-only or untested listing, while the cluster around the middle is closer to the going rate.
4. Re-check before buying. eBay inventory turns over constantly, so a price you saw yesterday may not exist today.

Limits to keep in mind

• eBay only. CPU Scout does not cover Newegg, Amazon, or regional marketplaces, so it cannot tell you whether eBay is the cheapest source overall.
• Spec fields depend on listings. A large share of listings fall into "Not Specified" for cache and bus speed (the counts for unspecified L2, L3, and bus speed are the largest buckets). If you filter strictly, you may exclude valid listings that simply lack the data.
• Listing counts are not prices. The filter counts tell you how many listings match, not what they cost. You still need to open the results to see actual asking prices.
• No built-in price history is described. The site presents current listings; it does not document historical price charts, so you cannot use it alone to see whether a chip is trending up or down over time.

When this tool fits your task

Use CPU Scout when you already know the specification you want and need to see what eBay sellers are currently asking for it. Skip it if you need cross-marketplace comparison, historical price trends, or a guarantee that every matching listing has complete spec data.

Steam is a digital storefront and game launcher for PC that lets you buy, download, install, and play games from one application. You need a free Steam account, a compatible computer, and an internet connection for purchases and downloads; after installation, many games can be played offline. Steam also handles updates, cloud saves, friends lists, and community features like Workshop mods, and it is a common place to find and launch online co-op games.

What Steam Actually Is

Steam combines three roles in one program:

• Storefront — a catalog where you browse and buy games, DLC, and software.
• Launcher — the app that installs, updates, and starts your games.
• Account and social layer — your library, friends list, achievements, and cloud saves live here.

It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and there is a separate Steam mobile app for chat and account security. Because it is a launcher, you generally start games through Steam rather than from a desktop shortcut, though shortcuts can point back to Steam.

Buying and Installing a Game: Step by Step

1. Create an account. Install the Steam client or use the website, then register with an email address and password. Steam will ask you to verify your email.
2. Secure the account. Enable Steam Guard, Steam's two-factor protection, so a code is required when signing in from a new device.
3. Find a game. Use the search bar or browse categories. The store page shows price, system requirements, supported languages, and whether the game has single-player, online co-op, or local co-op.
4. Buy it. Add the game to your cart and complete checkout. The purchase is tied to your account, not to one computer.
5. Install it. In your Library, select the game and choose Install. Steam shows the download size and asks where to put the files.
6. Play. Once installation finishes, the Play button becomes active. Steam may download updates before launching.

Expected result: the game appears in your Library permanently, and you can reinstall it on any computer where you sign in.

Key Features You Will Use

How Steam Supports Co-Op Play

Steam is a major hub for cooperative games, and its store pages label co-op support directly. Two mechanisms matter most:

• Online co-op — each player owns the game and connects through Steam's network or the game's own servers. You invite friends from your Friends list.
• Remote Play Together — only the host needs to own a game that supports local (couch) co-op. The host streams video to the guest, who plays with their own controller. This is useful for split-screen titles that were never built for online play.

Sites that track co-op games, such as Co-Optimus, tag titles by online co-op, couch co-op, and split-screen support, which helps you check a game's co-op type before buying. Co-Optimus also covers co-op gaming news, reviews, and features, so it can complement Steam's own store labels when you are deciding whether a game fits your group.

Common Issues and Fixes

• Offline Mode — if Steam cannot reach the internet, it may offer Offline Mode. Only games already installed and configured for offline play will launch.
• Account recovery — if you lose your password, use the account recovery flow with your email or phone number. Steam Guard codes are tied to your authenticator, so keep backup codes accessible.
• Downloads stalling — check your download region in settings and pause or resume the queue.
• Game will not launch — verify the game files through the game's properties, which re-downloads anything corrupted.

When Steam Is the Right Choice

Steam makes sense if you play on PC, want one library for purchases and updates, and care about co-op features like friend invites and Remote Play Together. If you mainly play on a console, the platform's own store is the simpler path. If you want to confirm a game's co-op style before buying, check both the Steam store page and a co-op-focused source like Co-Optimus.