Trust and governance in third party virtual item markets: a CS skin market case study and website prototype design

Third-party virtual item marketplaces must explain both the safeguards they provide and the risks outside their control. Using the Counter-Strike (CS) skin market as a case, this paper examines how disclosure, fulfilment rules, reputation and dispute procedures can support transaction trust. The study combines a focused literature review, analysis of public platform rules, descriptive statistics for 2,192 daily Steam price observations of one item from 2020 to 2025, and website prototype design. The price analysis documents substantial variation but does not identify causal policy effects or represent the entire market. The case analysis distinguishes safeguards for agreed delivery from expectations of future resale value, and translates this distinction into item information, recorded transaction terms, reputation explanations and complaint procedures. The Weijieji prototype illustrates these requirements through demonstration interfaces and functional checks. It has no real payment or Steam asset-transfer integration, and its example prices and reputation scores are artificial. No questionnaire or user experiment was conducted. The contribution is a set of platform-level design requirements for further evaluation, rather than evidence that the design increases trust or stabilises prices.