Tyrone’s tf2 trading guide.

Disclaimers: It is in no way holistic or complete and is purely based of my own experiences and not full proof. I am not liable for your failure whatsoever :P


Contents:
1) Introductions
2) Terms
3) Pre-basics
4) Basics
5) Pre-intermediate
6a) Intermediate ( theory )
6b) How to Intermediate with Stranges?
6c) How to Intermediate with Hats?
7) Advanced
8) Post-Advanced
9) Pre-Expert
10) Expert
11a) Post-Expert pt. 1
11b) Post-Expert pt. 2
12) What now lol?
13a) Extra stuff: Rarities/ oddities
13b) How to price unpriced stuff?
14) Other forms of trading
15) Scammers
16) Conclusion


Have fun :)

1. Introduction:
Hello, my steam ign is Tyrone . I’m an admin in Tftrg (if you have not checked it out you should, it’s a great group that does raffles and giveaways :D and its really awesome ) I’ve been trading for over 2+ years and now I’ve reached a decent backpack, with several high tier items ( buds + ). A frequent question I get by others *besides asking for free items because that doesn’t really count* is how I’ve obtained such a backpack. Thus, this is the reason for this guide. Please take note that it is not perfect and it’s simply the way I have been doing things for these time. I do not scam or encourage scamming/sharking and to me, having fun is as important as obtaining profits.

Why do we trade:
Because we’re bored, we want to look cool with pixels and you can get games for “free” with tf2 currency :DD (explained in later portion)

Throughout this guideish thing I will be using several keywords. Feel free to familiarise yourself with them here below.

1. Sharking: When A Player “Trades” another un-knowledgeable player and offers something worth far less for something worth far more. It is also sharking if he knowingly lies about a price to make a profit. Notice how I said “trades” a player.
Example: *Player1 trades Player2 (Noob)*
Player1: Hey can I buy your buds it’s worth a scrap.
Player2: Yeah sure since it’s only worth a scrap.
*Trade Happens*
Now! Here’s a misconception! If Player2 (Noob) trades Player1 and offers his buds for a gifted haunted metal! That is NOT sharking nor scamming! That would only make player1 a merchant on a large and possibly dishonest scale although not sharking/scamming. Yes there is a thin line between everything. Although there has to be a line somewhere. Technically the Noob sharked himself. Is it fair? Well let’s not get into philosophy.

2. Sca.mmer: swindler: a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud. (Google) In other words somebody who changes exactly what was agreed on without you knowing or does not follow on what he agreed on. A good example would be qui.ckswitching.
Player1: Puts an Unusual Team captain in trade and asks for 50 buds.
Player2: While player 2 is placing his 50 buds because he feels it’s a great deal.
Player1: Switches the Unusual for a unique team captain.
Player2: Being all excited after is done placing all his items immediately accepts!
That is called a quick switch scam.
Paying for an item on PayPal and retracting is scamming. Having somebody pay for an item on PayPal then not giving to him is scamming. Offering outside offers from steam for items and not giving your offer after the trade is scamming. This list can go on. There is a difference between Scamming and Sharking. Again somewhat a thin line between them.
Last but not least

3. Snaking: Snaking is referred to stealing some bodies offer. (Hijacking)
Player1: Selling Apoco fist 2 ref
Player2: Okay I’ll buy it let me make some metal
Player3: Trades player one and buys it.
Or as we see on outpost people post what they are selling the same cheaper on some bodies else’s post.

Taken from PVT.FatCat

4. Scrapbanking: Scrapbanking refers to exchanging 1 scrap for 2 clean craftable weapons.

5. Hatbanking: Buys hats for 1.22ref or lower

6: Quickbuying: Buys items for lower than its actual value.
Player1: Quickbuying items for 70% actual price

7: Quickselling: Sells items intentionally for lower than its actual value.
Player1: Quickselling this item for 70% of its price.

8: Phishing: Sending alternate urls/malware to obtain account information * more information later below on how to prevent being scammed *

9: Trolling: Being a troll (hurr durr …)
Player1: Selling budz fur 1 scrap ezz gud daelz, trde meh nao!

10: Pure: Pure refers to metal in general, Keys of any kind (apart from self-made), Earbuds, Maxes, Houwar etc...


11. Sweets: Doesn’t literally mean sweets. Items that you add to sweeten the deal such as low tier hats or metal/keys/stranges (hence the name)

Alright, now that you’ve read through the definitions, let’s begin (finally!) on how to actually start earning profits (//cue: applause) *if you’re not asleep yet. :P

Will be starting from the basics so bear with me please. :P

Requirements: Installed tf2/ tried it enough to want fancy hats with cool stuff and weapons :D
Yes, I know I did say we’re starting from the basics.. But if in some case you’re an f2p (not too sure what you’re doing reading a trading guide but whatever floats your boat…) Here are some stuff to take note of.
F2ps cannot trade items they find from drops.
They can trade items they obtained from other players through the trade (yes, they can trade)
In order to trade, spend a minimum of $0.50 in the tf2 store

OR

Obtain (actually means beg) for a “Gift to premium item”
An easy way to get premium without spending cold hard cash that’s in your bank account…..
Is to pray ( IDLE FOR DAMM LONG! ) while you’re playing normal tf2 ( IDLE SERVER4DAYZ! ) till you find a random item called ( Salvaged crate/ reserve mann co crate ) From here, you *might* be able to find a premium user willing to give you an upgrade to premium gift in exchange for that item.

Requirements: At least several tradable weapons and some metal if possible.

Yay, finally :D for this portion, please remember that metal is the goal and you’re looking for steals ( *steels* *wink* )
You are a poor trader with few low tier items (crates/ craft weps) and you wish to become rich and wear all the HATZZZZZZ! Unfortunately, you’ll need metal for that.. And a significant amount of refined if you want nice hats/miscs.

Personally, the starting step is the hardest, and it’s even harder for free-to-plays. The main aim is to do Scrapbanking (refer above). Basically, you attempt to sell weapons for 1 scrap each and conduct Scrapbanking to obtain weapons back at ½ a scrap each. Statistically speaking, this form of trading is the most worthwhile due to regular and consistent profits of 100% (1 weapon profit per 1 weapon sold).

Ways to help speed this up:
Normally I would suggest to use tf2outpost.com or bazaar.tf or tf2tp for ANY trade. However, in this case, with so many people selling weapons, it really wouldn’t work out for you :P
Instead, use scrap.tf. Scrap.tf provides Scrapbanking services by bots (yes, they’re 24/7 and more efficient than you.. But not many people know/use it.. So you got that going for ya xD) they also provide reverse Scrapbanking, allowing you to purchase selected items to buy at 0.5 scrap each. (They even provide change to larger amounts of metal kudos to the creators!)


Trade servers/ normal game servers:
Going to a trade server and simply saying: Selling weps for 1 scrap each, Trade me and just ask! :D

Would be sufficient if there are people interested. Going to a normal server and saying likewise would also be successful (but beware for the rage at people trying to sell stuff in normal server. Might involve mic-spam, votekicking and even ragequitting in an extreme case)
Don’t waste too much time. If no one is looking for any weapons, don’t hesitate to change server and try another :P

Other important things to note..

Specific weapons are generally in low demand except for certain situations..
1) Craft numbered weapons. Some crafts such as those below 100 and palindrome (etc... #1221, #12321) or just collector numbers (#1994/ #2014 / #4242) may be worth somewhat more. * Higher to collectors if you can find them. They are a rare breed nowadays *
2) They are required for crafting purposes. Normally we wouldn’t craft weps apart from trying to get nice crafts or they’re un-droppable. However, when new weps first come out such as in the previous year’s smissmass update that released spy-cicle or the pyro update that released the beggars bazooka, specific weapons suddenly became in high demand and the flying guillotine that required 3 mad milk and metal caused mad milk prices to rise to almost a reclaimed.
3) Weapons without recipes such as sharp dresser and awper * generally reskins * are worth more than 1 scrap.
4) Uncraftable weapons (weapons that cannot be scraped) are usually worth ½ of a clean weapon or less. Gifted weapons are normally valued the same as they can still be crafted into scrap.

Using this Scrapbanking method, hopefully you can earn a little metal. * At least 1.33 refined before moving up to next section*

Yes I am sorry for this pre*thing* but there are some things I really need to say that will take pre-dominance from here on out.

1) Its about YOUR decision. There really isn’t a right or wrong in trading, but it’s up to you.

2) If you are uncomfortable to go ahead with a trade, be it 1 scrap/1 refined/ 1 bud, just decline it. There will always be another person interested in your item :D

3) THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE!! The value of an item’s worth is subjective and nothing is set in stone. Yes, backpack.tf and others like it can SUGGEST the value of items, but it is up to the buyer and seller to eventually decide on a price :D (Will emphasis this more lately on)

Requirements: At least 1.33 refined metal/ some stranges/ or hat(s)

ZOMG! You got several refined!?!? Doesn’t it look shiny?? Think of all the weapons you can get with that. Pity you’re going to have to trade it away :P because up next is strange weapons and HATS!!!!

So you might be thinking. What in Gaben’s name is strange weapons? Well... strange weapons are weapons that DO NOT AFFECT GAMEPLAY WHAT-SO-EVER. However, they do have a significant impact on the ego of gamers. Strange weapons count and track number of kills you’ve made by that specific weapon. You can see it by its fancy orange-coloured name. Strange weapons have a level system with fancy names as you kill more people. Specific items such as those from salvaged have their personalised levelling. Please take note that kills are reset on a trade, so don’t bother to sell your 714714814180 kill minigun for 100 ref cos it really doesn’t matter :P

The second part is what you’ve probably been wanting to hear for the longest time. HATS!!! Yes, it’s finally here and it’s time for you to know why tf2’s nickname is “Hat Fortress 2”. With over 200 different kind of hats well… take your pick! NOT! With this measly refined metal how are you going to get the nicer hats? Good question and continue reading!

There are 2 paths to take. Strange trading or hat trading. Both are equally profitable and have their pros and cons which I will list below. Both methods are brimming with potential *wink* to allow you into even higher tier trading :D

Firstly: Strange trading
Involves the buying and reselling of stranges
Things to note: Not all stranges are same in price. Some are 1 scrap, others several keys. Use backpack.tf or similar as a price GUIDE for the stranges.

Basics: The general rule of trading applies... Buy low, Sell high. Quite self-explanatory and it will help you greatly to succeed :D. Quickbuying a strange for below its suggested price is a good way to start.

Advanced techniques: Look out for trends. Which stranges are being dropped from which crates. Do you buy some cheap and wait till it rises in price? Or do you try to get the more expensive ones and resell for higher? The choice is up to you.

Higher levelled techniques:
Know which stranges are popular? Start doing strange trading. Do swaps between stranges for higher valued ones :D Saying something in a trade server like: Swapping stranges, feel free to trade people and ask :D. Could make you successful.

Maybe conduct strange banking. Similar to weapon banking, Buy all stranges at a set price of around 1~2 scrap and resell for more. (BEWARE OF FLOODING BY LOW TIER STRANGES!!! POTENTIALLY CAN WIPE OUT ALL OF YOUR RESOURCES)
Strange parts: Parts are essentially additional trackers to the strange weapon. They increase the value of the item by a portion based on … you’ve guessed it! Demand and supply. Check wiki/ backpack.tf for information ( also explained below )

Pros:
Able to earn relatively quickly by reselling and buying back.
There is a large strange market as who doesn’t want fancy weapons to count kills and measure your swag :P
You can use the weapons while you’re trying to sell them. Go for it, have a blast :D

Cons:
Quite volatile market. Prices can change quickly if new crates are released/ old ones are removed.

Other information:

With valve latest updates of changing the stats of existing weapons, etc., buffing of the baby faces blaster, older stranges that may have been unwanted suddenly increase in popularity. Please remember that this is economics and is governed by demand and supply factors :P

Stranges may have things such as strange parts, counters that count addition information *duh* . Use backpack.tf suggested price, taking around 1/2 of the value of the raw part + the price of the strange to get a rough idea on its pricing.



Alrighty, had enough of trading fancy weapons with red names? Time to put on some hats :D * assuming you started with stranges*
Feel free to trade both stranges and hats simultaneously with sufficient resources.
Hats are stuff you put on your head to tell the world that you’ve got more wealth and swag then the gibbus wearing Noob at the bottom of the scoreboard. With several hundred hats and numbers rising, they are the most traded items in the game (apart from pure).


IMPORTANT!!!:
There are several qualities to hats that I will explain..

Clean, craftable hats: Don’t see anything special? It’s just a regular hat. Check the wiki to make sure that it’s craftable. Some aren’t (etc.; Foster’s façade)

Tag: (Not usable in crafting): You’re seeing a dirty (uncraftable) hat. Its value is NORMALLY worth lower than that of a clean hat. Check suggested price on backpack.tf for more information. FYI you can’t craft with it...

Blue colour: Vintage hat, doesn’t affect appearance or anything, just looks cool and has blue tag with vintage in front of it. Check suggested price on backpack.tf (Please note that special levels will affect its price, explained later)

Green ( looks grey to some people ) colour: Genuine hats, doesn’t affect appearance or anything, just looks cool like the vintage ones. Check suggested price on backpack.tf for more information.

Orange colour: Is that a strange? Wtf isn’t that for weapons? Unfortunately/fortunately not. There are strange hats that count points scored while wearing it. Follow backpack.tf spreadsheet for price suggestions. (Probably worth more than you can afford at the moment :P)

PURPLE colour: It’s an unusual! Rare hat that has an effect. (Definitely worth more than you can afford at the moment :P Don’t fret, you’ll eventually get one * assuming you follow this guide * xD)

Others:
Re-named/Re-desced, not really worth a lot more but try to factor in the cost of the items, especially if the name is witty and/or funny.
Paints: Some hats are paintable. General rule is Value of hat + ½ value of paint. Subject to change based on hat/ rarity.
Levels: Some if not most hats have random levels from 1~100. Some levels are valued higher than others such as 1,42,69,99,100. Hats with these levels would generally be slightly more expensive in comparison to a normal one. (Around a scrap to a reclaimed. Can be higher but depends on the buyer. )
Clean dropped hats: Hats that are dropped randomly during a timed drop. For low tier hats * below 1 key * the price does not unusually matter. However, for high valued items it could affect the price to a small extent, increasing it worth by a little * 1 scrap ~ 1 rec *. For the ultimate combination, Have a clean dropped, good levelled, nice painted high tier hat :D


Basics: Similar to strange trading, Buy low sell high, use backpack.tf or similar as a price GUIDE for the hats.

Advanced: Try to do 1:1 hat trades. Saying: Trading hats for other hats, trade me! :D and slowly getting higher valued hats would be a useful method (use backpack.tf as guide)

Higher levelled techniques: Got several hats now haven’t you... Maybe do several hats for 1 deal to get an even more expensive item :D Or use tf2oupost or similar (bazaar.tf/ tf2tp) to sell your hats even faster :D

Pros:
Can earn significant amount of refined. (Always good, can’t have too much refined :P)
You can wear hats while you’re trying to sell them (look awesome as you kill other people >:D)

Cons:
With the large number of new hats being introduced, the older hats *may* fall in popularity :P
Not all hats are equally attractive with lesser played classes having less desirable hats (Don’t worry, you’ll eventually sell it :D)

Additional information: scrap.tf sells and buys hats at fixed prices depending on the hat. Feel free to sell random hats that you have issues selling to other players to them * at a lowered price of course *

Once you’ve done this for a reasonable amount of time, move on to the advanced portion when you’ve gotten enough refined/ hats/ stranges

From popular demand, I have created this new sub portion of How to Intermediate.
*yes, the poor grammar in the title was deliberate*

Indeed, a large portion of tf2 traders are stuck at this area, with troubles in reaching a bills hat from a backpack value of several ref~keys. This portion would cover the pratical side of the trading stranges, while 6c will be for hats. 6a was the theory of trading these items and please read 6a if you have not done so.


Lets begin.

In 6a, we mentioned both strange and hat trading. I'll give some examples for strange trading. To go further indepth than 6a, there are 2 ways to strange trade. The first is to buy low sell high ( as mentioned above ) The second is to hoard and wait for a rise in price after a given time. Both methods are effective in earning profits, while the first is simpler and short term ( with lower profits ) and the latter is harder and long term, requiring large capital ( and larger profits ).


I'll try make the explaination of the first method quick and relatively painless :P.
Not accounting for addition modifyers like parts/name/desc, Use backpack.tf to determine price range of given strange. When a seller is found ( be it on online or in a trade server ) Ask price and check backpack.tf's suggested price. If asking price is lower than suggested price, accept the trade. If it is not, attempt to lower the seller's price through negotiation ( can't really help you here, depends on your individual skill :P ). Alternatively, if the seller does not have a price, Offer slightly lower than backpack.tf's suggested value ( 1 scrap ~ 1 rec, depending on strange ). *DO NOT DRASTICALLY LOWBALL THE SELLER* If the seller rejects, ask for a counter offer and apply the above actions once a price has been stated.

Example:
Seller: Selling strange Wrench
Buyer ( with knowledge of this trading guide ): Trade me!
Goes into trade.
Buyer: How much for the strange wrench?
Seller: Offer?
Buyer check backpack.tf sees that it is listed at 2 ref
Buyer: Would you take 1.66 ref for it?
Seller: Hmm, I think i'll pass, too low for me.
Buyer: Counter offer?
Seller: 2 ref?
Buyer: How about we meet in the middle, 1.88 + a wep?
Seller: Seems fair, ok
Does trade.

Conclusion: Buyer obtains the strange for 1.5 weps under backpack.tf value. While this might not seem alot, remember that every little bit counts and eventually they will all pile up allowing you more capital to earn with.



The second method is significantly harder.
You'll need to have several things before you can do this method:
1. A brain
2. A large amount of capital.

Hopefully majority of you who are reading this are lacking the second part of the required list and not the first. It can still be done without a large capital, but with smaller effectiveness.

This method of strange trading is risky in nature and requires one to spot trends and changes in prices. The general idea is to stock up on stranges that you believe will increase in price. As of the smissmas update, it would seem that valve are "fixing" the less used weapons. The recent change in diamondback functions, with crit upon kills, caused the prices of strange diamondbacks to rise significantly. Looking further back, the buff to the Baby Face's Blaster also caused its strange to rise in price. Alternative reasons such as the crate that contains the strange no longer dropping would also cause a gradual rise in price. The idea is to stock up on several stranges in larger quantities and resell when the price rises.

Example: ( not hinting at a strange or anything in particular)
Trader ( who read this guide ) thinks boston basher is underpowered and is probably going to be buffed.
Trader decides to stock up on strange boston bashers.
A month later, boston bashers are buffed to give infinite crits and unlimited hp on kill ( lol )
Suddenly, strange boston bashers are worth 10 ref
Trader sells off his stock of strange boston bashers and nets profit.

Conclusion: The trader using his brains chooses an item to stock up and if its price does increase, he resells it for profits.


Things to note for the 2nd method:
Despite the main profit coming from the increase in suggested price due to demand/supply factors, this does not mean that one should buy at the current suggested price. Feel free to net even higher profits by buying slightly lower than that of the suggested price.



A mixture of both strange trading methods would be the most successful as it nets both short and long term profits. In addition, while you're selling the stranges, you can use them and have a bunch of cool stranges to play with ;)


* the pratical method of trading hats will be in 6c.

This is the 3rd part of the Intermediate section, close contender in amount of words with that of the unusual one.

6c. covers the usage of trading with Hats to obtain profits to turn your ref/keys into more ref/keys. Lets go.


Hat trading.

After creating this guide, I've been added several times and asked specifically

"What hats/miscs should I buy?"

This is a horrible question ( no offense )

Indeed, I am fully aware that I did not give a list of good hats/mics to invest in in 6a. This was done intentionally. The whole purpose of 6a was to tell you that ALL hats and miscs are fair game at the RIGHT price ( by "right" I obviosuly mean a lower price :P ). Yes, there are some that sell out faster, such as kringle and all-father near christmas and halloween hats near halloween *duh*. But the idea is that all hats are good to trade and profit on as long as the price you buy at is below ( or at the lowest range of) the suggested price on backpack.tf


Example 1:
Seller: Selling kringle
Buyer ( who read this guide ): I'll buy!
Goes into a trade
Buyer: Price?
Seller: 1.1 keys
Buyer checks backpack.tf sees that its worth 1.2 keys
Buyer: ok
Does the trade.

Conclusion, buyer obtains a kringle for 0.1 keys lower than suggested price


Example 2:
Seller: Selling Heavy craft hat
Buyer ( who read this guide but is unsure of what hats/miscs to buy): Err trade me
Goes into a trade
Buyer: How much?
Seller: 1.11 ref
Buyer checks backpack.tf sees that its worth 1.33 ref
Buyer: ok
Does the trade.

Conclusion, buyer obtains a craft hat for 2 scrap lower than suggested price.


Now lets think about this,
In both of the examples, the trades the buyer did gave him profit. The difference was the amount he earned through the trade. In example 1, with a larger item, more profit is earned in compared to example 2. However, this is to be expected. After all, higher value trading = more profits, that is common sense. Thus, apart from the actual amounts of profit earned, one can notice that there is, in fact, no difference between the 2 examples. ( apart from the uncertainity of the 2nd buyer )

This is the whole point of hat trading. All hats are good for profits, it all depends on your capital and the seller's price of the hat. There is no fixed list of hats/miscs that are the best to buy for profit. This is an important point to note.


Well I guess your next question is, how do I find good trades like this?

The answer: Trade servers and online trading.

Going on trade servers and simply saying: Buying hats/ miscs, trade me! would net a significant amount of sellers in nearly every trade server. Alternatively, by pressing f5 in online trading forums, one can easily browze the latest trades where people are selling hats/miscs.




And again, your next question would probably be, "Hey, tyrone, now that I've obtained this cool hat/misc below suggested price... What do I sell it for? How do I sell it? :o"

What do I sell it for?
Answer: Anything above the price you bought it for ( only sell it at the same price if you're desperate to sell ). Try to get a value that is not above the suggested price. But that does not mean not selling it as high as the buyer is willing to pay.

How do I sell it?
Well the reverse of buying it, obviously.
Post in online trading websites and bump it frequently. Go to trading servers and say: " Selling ______, trade me!"




Well I hope that you have learnt some ideas from the whole section 7 when you have sufficient amounts of refined metal.
* take note that section 6 methods can be used throughout the rest of the guide regardless of items and values. Trading in several tiered items is actually recommended so as to diversity your sources of profits.

Requirements: At least 7 refined/ 1 key worth of items

Welcome to the advanced portion of trading. If you’ve reached here, give yourself a pat on the back :D Hopefully you’ve obtained a significant amount of refined or a key (regardless of the price :P) Try not to uncrate anything at the moment, wouldn’t want to waste all your hard earned profits right? xD

This part will probably take up a large amount of your time and majority of tf2 traders are stuck in this portion.

Your aim: To obtain at least 6~7 keys worth of items or refined or keys and get a bills hat :D * if you want to *

How to do that: read below xD
So.. You want to magically turn your one measly key into several others? Unfortunately ctrl-c, ctrl-v (or command-c, command-v for mac users) isn’t going to work :P

What to do: Advanced hat banking.
Requirements:
Capital in the form of hats/ refined / key
Lots of time
Optional:
Usage of online trading websites and possible donator status for autobump.*

** Alright, donating to an online trading website would really help to speed up the process by autobumping your trades. Unfortunately, the cost is quite high at 1 key minimum. Feel free to do so when you’ve got a key to spare :D

How to do it:
Buy clean (craftable) hats at 1.22 refined metal. Resell them for around suggested prices for profits.

Higher level:
Use online trading websites to help you buy more

Super higher level:
Get autobump to increase your trades

Extreme high level:
Make use of trade offers to get trades even when you are not online :D

Ultimate Highest level (OVER 9000!!!!):
Make a trading bot to do trades for you! (Really hard :P * I tried, failed miserably)

Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary till you have much keys *insert doge meme*
The point of this is to have a large amount of hats and miscs available to sell at all times and likewise, a large amount of metal to buy at all times. Eventually you sell off all remaining hat/miscs and buy keys/ keep as refined.

So.. You’ve finally risen up the ranks to achieve 7 keys in items... Gratz, time to move on to higher valued items (1 key +) and the bills hat (pure).

Requirements: 7 keys worth in items/pure

What to do:
Get a bills hat. Take note of the paint, It remains quite valued on this hat (defies the pricing of other hats)

Method I used several times:

Item trading method. * The way I’ve used *
Nowadays, you see many people using this “Item overpay” it basically refers to items being required to be higher valued than the actual worth of the selling item to make the seller’s time in reselling these items worthwhile. This is actually quite easy to exploit using the item trading method.

Follow these steps...
1) Purchase several (4/5) high valued items using keys/refined (around 1 key in value)
2) Find a trader who is selling a bill’s hat (maybe painted). Going to a server * which you should be familiar with by now would do the trick. Or one of the many online trading websites *
3) Show the trader the high valued items and say that you can top up keys/refined to make the difference
4) Allow him to account for overpay but point out that the items are high valued and you are paying ½ in pure.
5) With luck, you’ll overpay less than required and obtain your first bill’s hat :D * if you fail/ he is unreasonable, just try and look for another trader. There are always other sellers :P *
Hints/ pointers to take note:

Extra information:
1) I know what you’re going to ask… HOW DO I PROFIT IF I OVERPAY IN ITEMS?!?!?. The answer is simple. You don’t profit off the actual sales of the larger valued items, but rather, find good deals to buy them at. Etc.: buys 1.2 key item at 1 key value. By doing this, you essentially pay 1 key and account it at 1.2 keys when trading it for a bill’s hat. With enough good deals, you can offset the *overpay*
2) Keep mentioning that your items are high valued and easy to sell (even if they aren’t :P) this would sway the seller to sell you his item. Point out to him that he has a margin of profit for doing this trade.
3) Tell him that you’re paying ½ in pure and thus shouldn’t overpay as significantly. Around 0.5 overpay at most would be ideal.

All the best :D



Obtained your Bill’s Hat? Great :D you’re a semi-accomplished trader. This is where the fun starts. Don’t get too attached to that hat, you’re going to be selling it soon :P

So I’ve heard you’ve gotten yourself a bill’s hat. Good job. Now all you need to do is break into the unusual market. Yes, unusuals. Remember that fancy purple texted hat I mentioned eons (aeons) ago? Yep, that :D Unfortunately, those cost quite a bit and you’ll need time to get resources to reach there :P

Requirements: At least a bill’s hat worth (7ish keys)

Method: Reselling items (sounds simple? Well it is :D)
You’ve braved the worst, sacrificed much time and sweat and blood, spent countless nights wondering and dreaming of this moment... oh wait.. Forget that... this is tf2 trading remember? It’s freaking pixels and if you’ve reached here you clearly spent too much time worrying about PIXELS!

How to? :

You see that fancy bill’s hat in your inventory? Yep, the one that’s on all of your classes’ heads :D You’re gonna have to sell it :P

Steps:
1) Sell the Bill’s (bonus points for not sounding like Smeagol in Lord of the Rings and going “MY PRECIOUSSSSS...”)
2) Not just sell it, sell it for item offers. Yes, you’re going to be THAT guy selling it for item overpay :P
3) Attempt to sell it for as much as you can * kinda countering the above plan but it’s a cruel world :P *
4) With the items you’ve obtained and the extra from overpay, sell them for suggested price or use them to get MORE bill’s hats or resources.
The whole point is to increase the number of raw keys you have. Eventually till Earbud prices (around 20-ish, subject to change)


Alternate route: Jump head first into unusual trading halfway through.

Requirements: At least 2 bills hat/ 12 + keys
How to do: Start to buy quicksell unusuals, using backpack.tf as A GUIDE! Take off around 20% of the lowest price listed and you’ve gotten a deal :D Resell the unusual for full price and repeat :P

Higher level strategies: Trade unusuals 1 for 1 for higher valued unusuals. Downgrade or sidegrade to other unusuals with them adding sweets or vice versa.


Pros:
Unusual trading has the potential for large profits, larger than any done before (except scrap banking that wins simply based on percentage *I TOLD YOU IT WAS THE BEST :P*)
You get a fancy hat that has an effect to wear :D

Cons:
Unusual hat prices can be very unstable :P
They take freak------ing long to sell (several weeks ~ months in the extreme cases)
All your resources are tied up in that one hat (assuming you are a poor person) and you cannot engage in normal trading while your hat is unsold :P
Your life depends on it :o. Nah, not really, but if that’s all the pure you’ve got, your wealth does depend on it :P
You might be scammed (will talk on later below)


Take either methods or use both till you’ve obtained around 20-keys

Requirements: Enough keys to buy earbuds at market price

Well gratz on having 2 rows of keys, it is indeed an achievement :D Now to get earbuds :D
Purpose of it is to get into even higher levelled trading of unusuals and *maybe* rarer stuff.

How to buy buds:
Well not anything special. Feel free to use the old method to buy bills, but it isn’t as effective due to the sheer amount of reselling items. Much easier to buy it with pure keys * in my opinion. Feel free to attempt otherwise with large valued items (several keys worth) *

Wow your first bud * hopefully the first of many to come :D*
From here on out, you’re more or less free to do whatever stuff you want :P Remember that cute hat/ miscs you saw a month back? Feel free to use previous techniques (or a combination of them) to continue to increase your wealth :D
The previous information from portion 9. On unusual trading would help you as it applies here also :D
What to do:
2 options.
EITHER, resell earbud similar to that of your bills and repeat…
OR, buy an unusual…
For the first option, follow similar actions done in the past. (Refer back for more information)
For the second option, read on below. (Large portion)

So, you’ve come. Finally (assuming you didn’t do it at steps 9/10). You wish to learn the secrets of unusual trading. It is not easy and unusual trading is a whole new experience all together. One that is less forgiving of mistakes yet able to grant great profits. All the best and try not to screw up :P

Idiot’s guide to trading unusuals:
*Due to unusual trading being such a large topic, it will have its own sub category*
a) Introduction
b) Hat tiers
c) Effect tiers
d) Supply/Demand
e) Event-based unusuals
f) Themes
g) How to actually trade unusuals (important part!)
h) Extra Information

Anyway, let’s not delay further and begin.

Section a)
INTRODUCTION TO UNUSUALS...
What is an unusual? If you don’t know by now (due to one either living under a rock or having lack of Wi-Fi, with the prior being more likely...) Unusuals are hats with effects and a fancy purple name. These hats are generally expensive with the cheapest around 9 keys while the most expensive at several thousand dollars (yes, several thousand dollars spent on pixels) this is generally seen as the most profitable way to earn. But I’ll dwell on that in section h later on. (Read on :D)

Section b)
Hat tiers...
As more hats are being added into the game, more unusual hats are being created. This is determined by valve. So don’t think you’re going to see unusual Max heads or Ellis caps in the near future (or ever). Prices of an unusual (regardless of the effect) generally follow the price of its normal variant. For example, a clean team captain is more expensive than a dread knot. Similarly, an unusual team captain would be generally more expensive than an unusual dread knot. Different characteristics of the hat would affect its pricing. Things such as multi/single class and whether it looks nice. Another significant factor that affects the price of unusuals is the popularity of classes played by the general tf2 population. With classes such as soldier and scout being the most popular and others like the heavy and engineer being the least played classes. As such, heavy and engineer unusuals are generally valued lower than that of a soldier or scout one. This section is full to the brim *wink* with demand and supply factors. Of course, multi/all class hats could be priced higher than that of a soldier or scout one. For further information, feel free to check with backpack.tf unusual list and its prices.
* Disclaimer: Backpack.tf unusual prices is seldom accurate to a large degree so please take it with a pinch of salt. Unusual prices are determined by demand and supply factors with a myriad of other things that would affect its price * which I will explain later on* and it is common of a hat to sell higher or lower than the suggested price. Furthermore, some price suggestions are out of date and unreliable.

Section c)
Effect tiers...
Each unusual hat is paired with an effect. There is a large list of effects and feel free to check up on the wiki to see them all. Some effects are nicer than others (while subjective, we will assume some are better for simplicity’s sake. One may value an item differently from another). The *nicer* effects would thus go for higher prices due to? You’ve guessed it, demand and supply * again *. Truthfully there isn’t a fixed tier list as it’s very subjective and really depends on an individual. Feel free to ask around for trader’s opinions on which is the *best* or *worst* effect. Similarly, check backpack.tf for a rough idea of the prices :P

Section d)
Supply/Demand...
So we’ve talked about this quite a lot through this whole guide. If you already know what this is feel free to skip this small section. If you don’t, please attempt to familiarise yourself with this concept to better learn how the mannoeconomy of tf2 works :P
Demand in this case is simplified to the number of buyers who are looking to obtain a specific item. Supply in this case is likewise simplified to number of sellers of the specific item.

* feel free to research on the actual definitions of demand and supply if you’re interested :D
So, these 2 factors work together to affect the price of all items in the game. In the case of unusuals, supply is generally small, with many unusuals being a 1/10 or 1/20 at most. And a large number having less than 5 of the same hat/effect combination. With a large demand and small supply, the price for such items would undoubtedly be high. This is where pricing comes in. Though this model, the prices of unusuals can be seen to be fully dependent on the sellers and buyers and not some spreadsheet thing online. Anyone can sell an unusual for whatever price you want as long as both of you agree to it.
* There is a distinction between sharking and agreeing on a price. Generally, sharking refers to buying it at a significantly lower price (20%~30% of suggested price)

Section e)
Event unusuals...
Event unusuals such as special Halloween effect unusuals tend to remain at a higher price than other effects. Again, using supply and demand, with a limited number of such hats and effects available, the price would rise. Furthermore, the closer it gets to Halloween (October), the more valued hats with Halloween unusual effects are. Similarly, closer to Christmas (December) the prices of blizzard unusuals and the rather festive tree rises in price. * This would be also applicable to weapons in the form of festive weapons.*

Section f)
Themes...
What do you do once you’ve obtained an unusual? Simple, you try to sell it for as much as you can. One easy way to do this is to create themes. What are themes? Themes occur when the unusual hat and miscs become something else when they’re together. There are many themed hats and they generally increase the price of the hat. There are several effects that are blanket themes. For example, Nuts and bolt effects on an engineer hat, Fire effect (burning/ scorching/ orbiting fire) on a pyro hat, Flies on sniper hats. These are for quite obvious reasons. Any hat of these classes with such effects would be more valuable than expected.

Other themes could be directly linked to the hat itself. For example, Stormy storm Hard counter (raining with an umbrella), Green Fetti Rather Festive Tree (Tree shedding its leaves), Blizzard storm Rather Festive Tree (Christmas tree with snow) and the list goes on… Such themes would increase the price of the unusual hat to a certain extent. Refer to backpack.tf suggested price. But take note that Triboniophorus Tyrannus themes are EXTREMELY SUBJECTIVE to the buyer and seller. One may value it significantly higher than another.
BEWARE of forced themes. Hats and effects that people force into a theme. The general guideline is that if you need to ask: “What is the theme?” it’s a forced theme. Examples such as a flies Triboniophorus Tyrannus being an ice-cream collecting flies as it melts (this actually was a theme that some trader tried to force) ………………… * speechless *… * facepalm*


Continued at part 11b. * ran out of space lol * :P

* Continued from above, ran out of space. Hope you're still following ;D

Section g)
How to actually trade unusuals.
Well there are 2 main methods. The first is buying for lower priced (quickbuy/ quicksell) and the second way is by trading unusuals with sweets (refer to above)

The first way is pretty obvious. Buy low sell high (as usual). You could establish Quickbuying trades at prices lower than the suggested price on backpack.tf and resell for higher. Quite standard and will net a safe revenue assuming you don’t buy the wrong unusual at too high of a price. Rinse and repeat till profits ;)
The second way is somewhat harder. Buy an initial unusual and prepare an amount of items or keys to use as an upgrade to another one. Attempt to obtain unusual offers for your hat. Trade for one that is worth more/ easier to sell. If required (if the difference in price is large), adding sweets/ keys would be a viable option especially if you include unusual overpay. Rinse and repeat till profits ;)
Pros/cons? (Similar to the ones above, feel free to refer.)

Summarised ones:

Pros:
Large profits

Cons:
Takes long to resell
If do a bad deal, could lose a significant amount of resource

*How to speed it up? Create a quickbuying trade/ stalk online trading websites/ use autobump.
I cannot emphasis how helpful autobump is. Together with offline trade offers, you're set to get offers from all timezones :)



Addition information regarding the selling of unusuals. (Important)

1) Similar to hat trading above, special levels and paint will affect the price of an unusual. However this would only affect it to a small extent due to the innately high cost of the unusual itself. Rise in price is small, around 1 key if it’s really good paint + nice levelled etc...

2) Cleanliness is the key. In the tf2 world duping exists. Duping, both legit methods and illegal methods do exist. Legit methods such as steam support when an account has been hijacked and illegal ones such as finding a loophole in the system. Both of these would cause the same hat to exist twice in the world (in some cases up to as many as 6 copies). These hats look the same, have the same level etc... But they’re duped. In this case, many traders devalue duped items * partly due to supply factors * an easy way to check for a duped hat would be to use backpack.tf. Enter the seller’s steam id and check the item’s history. If the item is duped, it would likely be valued lower than its suggested price by a majority of traders. Exceptions to this would be on super expensive hats (50 buds and above) Due to the low number of such *god-like* hats, sellers do not usually mind owing a duped hat and would pay the full price due to its small supply.


Section H)

Extra information...
Well as it says above, this section is for extra information regarding unusuals. Just some random stuff that didn’t really belong anywhere else :P

1) As I’ve said above, no price is set in stone (especially for unusuals)

2) Unusuals is very dependent on the demand and supply. A bad hat with a nice effect may be valued higher than that of a good hat and bad effect, vice versa

3) Bad hat and bad effects don’t matter when the hat is NEW! Like everything new, at the start it always is more expensive. But over time, the prices will fall and stabilise. Don’t be fooled by overhyping of new unusuals :P

4) If there is a limited supply of a specific hat, the seller has the right to set a price on it. It isn’t fair and it might obviously be overpriced but deal with it :P


This is all I’ve got for unusual trading at the moment, quite new myself :P There are many other things to discuss but I’ll leave you to figure it out yourself xD ( feel free to add me if you’ve got any questions ). Next up in part 12, it will be just about my attitude toward trading and why I feel having a goal is important.

So if you haven’t noticed, throughout the whole guide, I have never mentioned anything about buying an item to keep for your own usage. It’s always something like: “You’ll get to use this cool item as you’re trying to sell it”. This is mainly due to my belief that as a trader you need an aim. Be it to get a specific unusual, a pair of earbuds, all the stranges in the game etc... You need a goal to work towards. Since this is a trading guide I assumed that your goal is for profits and in that case, pure items (keys/ref/ etc...). Thus, the emphasis of the above 11 parts was purely on how to earn profits.

Personally, my aim from the start was straightforward and didn’t change much along the way. I didn’t care about stranges and their kill counting. A weapon was a weapon to me. Be it with blue/green/orange names (just my own point of view). So my goal was simple. Get an earbud (I LOVE HOW IT LOOKS! Don’t judge me =.=), a Max head, a Bills and an all class unusual. After that, with whatever resources I have left, go and buy whatever my heart desires.

Well the name of this portion is indeed apt. Recently, I completed my goal my obtaining a Max head, the last of my goals. (It also happens to be signed by Sneeza * creator of tf2outpost* at the time I am writing this). And the first thing I felt was not a sense of accomplishment * unfortunately * but I was like… what now lol?
Advice: Keep what you need and cash out. Sell unwanted items for stuff you actually need/want. Keep a small amount of pure * around 10 ref * as capital to start again. Buy what you need and sell the rest into ref/keys. Sell the pure on steam market or buy as many games as your heart desires when there’s a sale. These pixels are rotting (figuratively) in your backpack. Might as well put them to good use :D Maybe consider PayPal to cash out (but steam market is safer). Personally I don’t use PayPal but please check for impersonator scams (will talk about this in the later part) and check their steamrep/ sourceop.


Well that’s at least what I’ve been trying to do now...

Unfortunately, tf2 seems to be filled with rare and cool stuff. From blue texted weapons with funny levels to red collector weapons that need 200 of its kind to make, there really isn’t any shortage of weird stuff to collect. However, the prices of such items and it’s *YES, AGAIN...* limited supply would cause the prices to be high.
** This list of rare items will be constantly updated as more tf2 items are released and it is the most incomplete part of the whole guide.
Anyway, let’s get on with the stuff :D

1) Rare vintages: Rare vintages with odd levelled. In the past, weapons were random levelled (a long time ago) One day, valve decided to make all existing weapons the vintage quality. Some weapons with odd levels became more valuable and today they are worth around (2 rec ~ 1 ref). However, those levels that are special (0/1/42/69/99/100) are worth even more fetching several keys (depending on the level and the item). *WARNING* in the area of odd levelled vintage, backpack.tf is highly inaccurate in pricing these items.
Similarly, hats were given vintage quality. These are worth more than their clean counterparts and those which are special levelled are worth more. Likewise, backpack.tf is not fully accurate with the prices of these.

2) Rarer vintages: Some weapons were given the vintage quality such as that of the fan of war. Due to the low number of such items turned into the vintage quality, the price of those vintages are very high (several buds). Less rare * but still rarer * vintage weapons such as the buffalo steak sanvitch are more common that the ultra-rare ones, but rare enough to be worth several refined to a key. Check backpack.tf for values on non-odd levelled vintages. It’s quite accurate in this case.

3) Festive weapons: Every year around Christmas, we get an update with naughty crates and keys being released. These crates when opened give festive weapons. Reskins of existing items with festive lights. With a small chance to obtain a strange festive weapon. Needless to say, these weapons are valued highly near Christmas. However at other points of the year, they are valued lower. On the other hand, for the past 3 years, no festives were re-released. This caused the first generation of festives (scattergun/minigun etc...) to be worth the most due to its limited supply (several keys) and its strange festive variants can go up to over an earbud in prices.
* Extra information- In 2011 Christmas, festive bats were glitched such that none were uncrated and they currently exist only in the strange festive variant.

4) Collector items: These items were recently released and required a collector’s chem set with inputs. One collector set requires 200 of an item to create a collector’s item. These collector items have a cool red tag but don’t do anything different. Pricing of these are still quite inflated at the moment, but they’ll eventually stabilise. Collector hats/miscs are significantly more expensive going to the Earbuds range in price due to the innately high costs of 200 hats/miscs to make.
* Extra information- In 2013 Christmas, collector+ festive weapons were available through a chemistry set. These are extremely rare and their price is still unknown.

5) Reskins: Over the years, reskins have been released such as sharp dresser and the maul. These items do not have a crafting recipe and are valued more than a normal craft weapon. Other types of reskins such as those only obtainable through promotional offers of another game. Examples such as the big kill and the frying pan. These items *if only available through pre-order* Are rare and limited to a certain extent. However their price all comes down to the demand and supply for the item.

6) Pure items: Through this guide we have mostly talked about metal, keys, bills and earbuds. There are other pure items that were not mentioned. I will mention the next most important one, Max’s Severed Head.
Max’s Severed Head (more commonly known as Max) was a promotional item for pre-ordering poker night at the inventory. It is worth around 2 earbuds each, with price varying depending on paint and level. Unfortunately, a while back there was a large duping scam conducted by some people. A large number of level 1 and 7 maxs were created. This caused the price of the existing 1/7 maxes to fall due to people assuming that they are duped. Similar to that of unusual trading, duped hats are valued less and please use backpack.tf to check. However the case of duped maxes were so large that till today, all level 1 and 7 maxes * no matter how clean * are still seen by many as duped. Despite a recent wipe of all inventory history by valve, many traders undervalue maxes of these 2 levels. Another important thing to note is the history of a max. A max with a low history (less than 5 previous owners) could potentially go for a higher price due to it being less likely to be duped. Similarly, special levelled maxes would also be worth significantly higher (especially if clean and unduped)

7) Craft numbered items: Low craft items are a very limited market. Low craft items refer to hat/miscs with craft numbers below that of #100. These craft numbers are visible in-game and thus making the hat/miscs much more expensive. In addition, special crafts (1/42/69/99/100) are valued even higher with people spending large amounts of keys to create a collection. *Refer to collector.tf for a list of collectors* these items are sometimes very expensive and hard to sell due to their small demand. But they are seen as the rarest items ( even more so than unusuals ) as they are 1 of 1 items ( unless duped, HOWEVER if you have managed to assembly a set of both duped items and they are below #100, you could potentially sell them for significantly higher as a set).

8) Unpaintable items: Unpaintable hats and weapons that are painted do exist in the game. Painted pencil pushers/ Halloween items and the famous painted cow mangler are all rare items that exist. Most of them are in collector’s backpacks but every now and then they appear for sale. They are usually very expensive and it is advised against offering 1 scrap for a painted cow mangler…

9) Glitched weapons: Such as the infamous *normal* quality bat, clean and tradable black rose, vintage big kill and the vintage shortstop. Each of these are extremely valued and yes, they exist.

10) Glitched hats: Similarly, glitched hats exist such as vintage maxs, vintage gibbus and the vintage medal.

11) Glitched items in general: There exist so many weird stuff in tf2 that I cannot list them all. If you’re interested, check out Toxin’s trade in outpost (assuming it’s not closed). http://www.tf2outpost.com/trade/4744744 He has and is buying many glitched items in the game.

12) Killstreak items: Recently, with the mvm update, killstreak weapons can be created. With 3 tiers. Killstreak, specialised and professional. Specialised and Professional weapons have a shine to them while professional ones give something similar to an unusual effect at 5/10 kills ( 5 being a smaller less obvious version) These weapons are all still very new, with professional weapons going for many keys to several earbuds.

13) Australlium Weapons: Released together with the mvm update, weapons with australlium paint can be found. These items are found in the strange quality with the australlium effect. * Australlium wrench can be found, but it is different from a golden wrench * In addition, the Golden Pan also was introduced, fetching up to several thousands of dollars each. Many people are looking for these weapons and their supply is relatively low. Thus, price remains high at the moment.




This list of rarities and oddities is neither complete nor finished. But simply just an idea of the stuff in tf2 that one can find :D

Okay, so I have been asked this question several times over the past few days and I guess its about time to update this section :P

"How do you price something that bp.tf doesn't have a price suggestion for?"

The answer: You don't.

There are several ways to "price" an item when it does not have a listed price. I'll be mentioning the few in moderate detail below. (There are other ways, but I feel that these are the easier ones to do) Well, lets get started :)


First way: Outpost Pricing
Well it doesn't really have a formal name, but since most people use tf2outpost and theres lots of stuff being traded there, I'll call it this for now. (Tell me if theres a "real" name for it) This is how it works..
Assuming you have a non, 1 of 1 item for sale. (Not a Craft #, or 1 of 1 Unusual, or other 1 of 1s)
You can use Outpost pricing. By searching on outpost, what other traders with similar items are selling them for, you could get a good idea of the average value the item is it. Taking into account the top offers and the buyout price of the seller's item, and also the last date if it was bumped (careful for autobumpers), a price could be established.
For example:
Random Unusual X is 1 of 4 in the world. Does not have suggested price in bp.tf
Seller searches Outpost for other sellers with the same unusual. Checks their c/os and b/os and creates a b/o for his own trade.

Pros: Able to somewhat gauge the price of the item
Cons: Some trades be outdated, while other traders have unrealistic buyouts or lack of information.


Second way: Outpost History Pricing
Its similar to Outpost Pricing, only difference is when Outpost Pricing fails due to the lack of reliable information. This is how it works..
Assuming again, you have a random Unusual Y that is 1 of 3 in the world. Similarly, bp.tf does not have a suggested price.
Seller checked all other sellers without having any good information of what to sell it for.
*Use Outpost History Pricing*
Seller checks the history of the items and finds previous Owners of the hat. Checks their closed trades to find out their b/o (back then) and *if possible* what they sold it for.
Uses the new information to price their item.

Pros: Able to find additional information about the item
Cons: The information may be old and thus, unreliable. Unable to check what it was sold for.


Third way: Asking Around.
When all else fails, ask someone else.
Sometimes the best answer is the simplest answer.
Asking a more experienced trader (i am in no way experienced enough to price things, so please do not ask me :P) on what he believes an item is worth could give a very basic way to get a price guideline (Less informative than the first 2 as prices can be subjective based on perspective)

Pros: Works when all else fails
Cons: Not always reliable


Fourth way: Don't price the item.
By far, the most popular method: Not setting a price on the item.
By simply letting people Offer on the item, you allow the buyout of your item to go as high as someone will offer. This could lead to 2 outcomes that I will elaborate below.

First Outcome (Positive):
A desperate buyer sees the item, offers higher than its actual price due to lack of buyout. Seller benefits from this.

Second Outcome (Negative):
Potential buyer sees the item, does not offer due to lack of information on the actual price of the item. Other buyers (Quickbuyers) frequently lowball your item assuming that you do not know the value of your item.

Pros: Could potentially sell item for higher than actual price
Cons: Might deter potential buyers and cause other to lowball on your item.

Fifth way:using Marketplace
With the release of Steam Marketplace, Traders are able to list items up on steam for real $. Checking the cheapest price someone is selling an item would be able to give an idea as to how much the item is worth.
Take into consideration the price of tf2 keys on the community market.

Pros: Can price nearly every item in tf2 as long as one is for sale
Cons: May not be reliable due to low demand/supply or due to highballing. (Actualy price is generally always lower than the listed price)




Thats all for now, this list is in no way complete.
Tf2outpost Pricing in general is also limited by tf2outpost's search functions. As such, other trade websites such as Bazaar.tf could be good alternatives if you are unable to find similar items on tf2oupost.

We’re reaching the end point of the guide and I thought it would be good to mention other forms of trading. Use these at your own risk..

1) Raffling: Raffling items and participating in raffles are both ways that you can alternatively trade. Raffling items for slightly higher than its actual cost could net you a small profit. While entering raffles and winning could help you obtain a valued item at a fraction of its actual cost. However, issues such as fake raffles (rafflers running off with your item), scamming raffles (when the item is given to a friend) and a whole myriad of other issues and complications. Fortunately, there are raffle websites such as tf2r that manage such raffles. Alternatively, you could join a raffle group with high reputation. I would like to shamelessly take this opportunity to encourage interested participants to join TFTRG http://steamproxy.net/groups/TFTRGCommunity . We are a group that regularly hold raffles and giveaway. Do drop by and take a look :D The rafflers are all respected traders and have to enter through a holistic moderator application process.

2) Spy-crabbing: Its basically gambling based on luck. Taking out the disguise kit as a spy and taunting while counting number of Crab-like taunts the person makes, with the winner being the one to reach 3 first and both sides placing items as bets. This is very risky and multiple cases of scams have been reported to steamrep. Perform at your own risk and use a proper admin if the item is high valued.

With great wealth comes many scammer~ Tyrone

Indeed, tf2 has had its fair share of scams and I’ll just highlight the few common ones. (This list is not complete and if you do not feel comfortable doing a trade please back out/ tell an admin)

a) Quick switch scam: Arguably the oldest trick in the book, as the other person is not paying attention, swap out the high valued item for another item. However, the new steam trading has measures to prevent this

b) Phishing links: Links to alternate steam websites that hijack your information. These are quite widespread and it is important to pay attention to the secured sign at the top left hand corner of the URL. Do not log in with your steam password if you are uncertain. Fortunately steam has taken several actions to prevent this from occurring too often. If someone send you a phishing link, do not report them on steam rep, but report them directly to steam and they will deal with the user. If you suspect that your account is compromised, change your password immediately and if possible disable and re-enable steam guard to prevent trading for 15 days.

c) Virus/malware: There are viruses that allow an external party to gain control of your computer. Do not download anything suspicious and online. Popular viruses include that of “download this for free steam games etc...” If you suspect that you’ve downloaded a virus please run a malware scan immediately.

d) Free items generator: This is another façade of the virus/malware scam. IT DOES NOT WORK! Tf2 drop rates and items are part of a closed system maintained by valve. There is no way you can affect the drop rates for your item by an external program apart from accessing the item drop rate server at valve itself. The YouTube videos showing free unusuals and earbuds are fake and do not attempt to download any of these programs.

e) Fake Account scam: Impersonating another player is against the steam rules. Beware for *reputable* traders who come and offer cash for your items. Always check whether their steam profile is private, their steam games and their hours in tf2. Check their steamrep and source op based on their steam id instead of the links that they send you. If an imposter is found please report ASAP to steamrep.

f) Scamming in general: Majority of scams occur with steam games such as codes.
Player1 (scammer): Give me your keys, I’ll send you the game code after this
Player2 Sends keys

From here, 2 things can occur.
1) Player1 runs away without giving the code
2) Player1 gives a fake/ already used code to player2.
To prevent this from happening please only trade in steam gifts to be safe.


g) Chargeback scam: PayPal chargeback is a popular way to scam real cash. Always check the steamrep and source op if you are planning to do a cash trade.

h) Raffle scams: Hard to detect. The raffler gives the item to a friend and his friend returns him the item. He continues to raffle the same item repeatedly for more profits. To prevent such from happening, use reliable raffling groups such as TFTRG or tf2r.

i) Fake Report scam. SImilar to item generator scams, they get people to click and download malware to record keystrokes or take over your computer. These are in the form of a comment on a trade such as : OMG I found you! This unusual is scammed! Dont buy it or you'll be banned!! Click this for proof: _______________________ <- download link for virus.


* I am in no way or form encouraging scamming, just wanted to put this here to warn people on what scammers can do :P

I really hope that this guide has helped you. Feel free to leave comments as this is still a work in progress and thank you for reading through all of these. Hope that you learnt something new and good luck with your trading :D please leave feedback if possible. If this has helped you and you see me in tf2/ online trade websites just drop by and say hi :DD always happy to see that this has helped someone.

Lastly, feel free to copy/paste or share this information with others. (Hopefully after it is more presentable xD) Just leave a tag at the top or something giving me the credit :P * stayed up till 3am just to do this.

Tyrone
Tftrg moderator :D


* if it helped you kindly: like, favourite and rate this. Thx :)


**Feel free to check out this TFTRG Trading Guide