Table of Contents

Part 2 - Trading

Purchase collectibles

Just like in any market, the rarer an item, the higher price it is. Metal is not good as a money storage because it increases in number every week (value decreases over time), while the price of Genuine items, Vintage items and Promotional items are almost static and they are good collectibles. And also, since it is limited to 8 items per trade in TF2, collectibles are very favorable in trading because they carry a much higher value than a refined metal.

For example, if you are going to sell an item that is worth 24 refined metals, it will be a lot easier for you if the buyer throws in promo items that make up the value because the trade could be completed at once (as a measure to prevent scamming, too). Hence, items in green (genuine), blue (vintage), and purple (unusual) labels are more favorable than metals in the market as 'money', and you should try to purchase these items if you have excess metals. Even if you cannot afford collectibles (or simply not interested), you should still purchase items like hats, gift wraps or backpack expander for storage (even if you could not sell them later it could be useful to you). Though you should keep some metals in reserve in case you come upon a good deal.

Know the market price

Genuine items, Vintage items and Promotional items have a much higher value than their normal counterparts because they are limited in number. For example, 'Tropico 4' pre-order bonus item 'Genuine El Jefe' is worth up to 1 earbuds (24 refined metals) because not many people would have interested in this game. Similarly, a Vintage Fan-O-War is worth more than 1 earbuds because it had a very short craft window. These items have a limited supply and are always sought after in the market. They do not come cheap even if you think that a Vintage Fan-O-War means nothing to you.

Before you trade with anyone, you should first check the market price of the items that are going to be put on the table. Not only you will not want to be ripped-off, you also want to show others that you are a reasonable trader. Follow the link: http://tf2spreadsheet.blogspot.com/ for updated market price. If you trade through TF2TP, search for the items you want to buy or sell first. Compare the price of different buyer and sellers to find the best deal for you. You may earn some metals through buying low and selling high, too.

Trading behavior

Market price does not mean everything. People all have different tastes and may not look at the value of an item the same way as you do. Similarly, just because you think that an item is very useful or beautiful does not make its price high. The ultimate goal of trading is to exchange what is not needed for what is needed between two parties. If you stand too firm on your price, or haggle endlessly for one scrap, you will hardly find anyone to deal with you.

My suggestion is that in general cases you should pay over the market price for what you need and sell your extra stuffs for below the market price. For buying, do not always think that you are ripped-off if you paid one more reclaimed metal than the market price for your favorite weapon Strange Black Box. Market price is an estimated value after all. For something that you frequently use and do not plan for sale later, you could care less about the price if it is in an acceptable range. For selling, if you have the time, wait for more desperate buyers to come because they may be willing to pay higher than the market price for your items.

Unusual Hats

Unusual Hats are cosmetic items with special particle effects that could only be obtained through unlocking a crate. The chance that you open up an unusual hat is around 1% (for crate series #19-29). They are currently considered the most expensive items in the TF2 world. A good unusual hat could be sold up to $500USD. There is not much I could tell about unusual hats because it is unlikely that I would get one before I quit the game. If you are interested, read the unusual hat guide at http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/exn4j/my_gift_to_you_rtf2_complete_guide_to_trading_for/ or try out the unusual hat search engine at http://uhatsearch.appspot.com/.

In my opinion, it is not even sensible to think that trading for an unusual hat is possible without spending real money in purchasing excessive amount of keys or game pre-orders (for genuine items). If the cheapest unusual hat is worth 3 earbuds, then it takes about 72 refined metals to buy one. The amount of metals from weekly drops would take you years to obtain that amount of metals. If you are a $5 player, be realistic and just purchase strange weapons or hats that you could use.

Link to Part 1: http://hsp.hk/article/Team%20Fortress%202%20Monetary%20Guide%20Part%201/