How we research these guides
The methodology, data sources, and review scoring behind everything the BuyAccount Research Team publishes.
Last updated 2026-07-17
Who writes these guides
Every article carries a single byline: the BuyAccount Research Team — our in-house editorial and market-research staff. We do not publish under invented personas or freelance pen names. The team's remit is account-market pricing, account safety and ban risk, seller verification, and platform transfer/recovery policy.
Where our numbers come from
Prices, ranges, and "what an account is worth" figures come from BuyAccount's own data:
- Live listing data — the asking prices of accounts currently listed on BuyAccount, grouped by game and by rank / skin / level tier.
- Completed order data — what accounts actually sold for, used to sanity-check asking prices against realised prices.
Because these are our marketplace's figures, they describe the segment of the market we see — not every seller everywhere. Sample size varies by game: large and stable for League of Legends, Valorant, Fortnite and CS2; thinner for smaller categories (e.g. TFT accounts are rarely sold, and we say so in those guides). Where a number is an estimate or a small sample, we label it. Aggregate, machine-readable price data is published and dated in the account price index.
How we score marketplaces
Comparison and "best sites" guides rate each marketplace on four defined criteria. Each is scored on the same scale from documented policies and our own transaction experience; when we can't verify something, we say "unverified" rather than guess.
| Criterion | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Safety | Seller verification, buyer protection / escrow, dispute handling, and the account-transfer method offered (full original-email access vs credentials only, plus 2FA handover). |
| Price | Typical asking price for an equivalent account (same game and rank/skin tier) and any fees added at checkout. |
| Delivery | Typical time from payment to credential handover — instant/automated vs manual — and stock depth. |
| Refunds | The refund / replacement window and its conditions, and the platform's stated position on disputes and chargebacks. |
We avoid the phrase "the best" unless it is tied to one of these measurable criteria (e.g. "fastest delivery in our test," not "the best site"). A high score on our own marketplace does not remove the disclosure above.
How these guides are drafted
Drafting is AI-assisted with human editorial review: we use AI tools to draft and structure articles, then the Research Team edits every guide, checks claims against each publisher's current Terms of Service and enforcement policy, and is accountable for what publishes. Ban-risk and Terms-of-Service sections are written to be honest about the real risk — we would rather lose a sale than understate it.
Our limitations (the honest part)
- We operate a marketplace, so our comparisons carry an inherent conflict of interest. We disclose it and publish our criteria so you can judge for yourself.
- Our pricing reflects BuyAccount's listings and orders, not the entire global market.
- Buying or selling accounts generally violates game publishers' Terms of Service and can carry a ban risk. Our guides explain that risk plainly; a marketplace cannot make an against-ToS action risk-free.
- Where we haven't independently verified a competitor's claim, we mark it unverified rather than presenting it as fact.