Slawek
TD Admin
ATTENTION: Steam has been updated to use Canadian funds now. The suggested prices below are all in US funds, so just keep that in mind!
Introduction
I keep getting more and more requests for help on how to make money on the steam marketplace and get free skins. I guess it's by referrals, I don't know, but either way I have answered the same questions a half dozen times now so I figure it's time to put a guide together so that everyone can take advantage of the strategies that have worked for me.
For the record, I have put $45 into this game outside of buying the game. This was before I realized how to work the marketplace to my benefit. I was naive and thought I could get a good skin by opening cases. The reality is, you are far more likely to get worthless skins out of your $45 opening those cases than a $300 knife. It's VERY rare to get a good item.
With that in mind, STOP OPENING CASES. Once you can force yourself to accept this, sell every case or skin drop you get. That extra profit from the drops you get in game will help you work the marketplace.
Basic Principles
The Steam Marketplace is just like the stock market. Skin prices go up and down every second. The thing to do is catch a skin when it's lower than its average asking price and sell it for a profit. If you have $0 in your steam wallet, you will either need to add some funds from PayPal, or wait until you get some skins or cases from in game drops / donations from other players. Let's assume you have $2 in your steam wallet.
Find a popular skin that gets sold a lot during 24 hours. For example, the AK Blue Laminate is super popular and is very cheap. A minimal wear AK Blue Laminate varies from 1.20 to $1.80. Average has been around $1.50. The fact that it sells a lot means the price will fluctuate a lot. In this example, we will assume you buy it for $1.20. List it right away for $1.60. It will sell in a matter of seconds or minutes and you will receive $1.39 back (remember, Valve takes a 15% cut on each transaction). Congrats, you just made $0.19 profit.
This may not seem like a lot, but it's a very basic example. And when you have $2 to work with, your options are very limited. Once you profit 5 or 6 times, you can move to the next tier of weapon where profits are higher, and eventually to a point where you aren't making 1 transaction at a time, but you have $50 invested at all times and you're constantly moving money around. Rinse and repeat this strategy over and over and over and watch your steam wallet grow.
What Skins Should I Buy and Sell?
Technically any skin on the market is capable of making you profit, but with hundreds of combinations of skins and wear (battle scarred, well worn, field tested, minimal wear and factory new), you can imagine how vast the options are. You will need to see what works for you, and over time you will find skins that consistently bring you profit. Over time I have established a list of skins that I watch. Here are just a few examples:
Panic Selling
Every time a new case comes out or is about to come out, people panic and start to offload their skins in fear of losing money, or simply to make room in their steam wallets to buy new stuff. Older and wanted skins, like the P90 Death by Kitty, ALWAYS bounce back after this panic period. It is a great skin to catch when a new case drops. For example, the P90 Death by Kitty Minimal Wear Stat Trak is selling right now in the $75-$85 range. When a new case drops, watch it plummet to the $30-$40 range. In 2 weeks, it's back up again. If you have the patience and funds floating around it's a good investment. There are other examples of this, you just have to keep an eye out and research the market before you dump your money into it without thinking.
Trading vs Buying and Selling
Once you get enough money and you're into the knife categories, profit becomes huge. I bought a Flip Knife Slaughter Field Tested for $120, and someone on the market wanted it so they traded me their $160 knife for it, which I then traded for a $180 knife, which then got traded for a $200 knife, and so on, and so on. Eventually you will find that trading is a better way to get money when you're into the $100's of dollars of steam money. This is because that 15% Valve tax becomes a huge loss and trading to move up is a MUCH smarter move. Simply list it for a price that is high enough that you'd be content if you sold it, typically much higher than average asking price. It will be obvious that you're not interested in selling and that you want to trade, and you'll have people contacting you to trade with them. Negotiation kicks in and it's up to you to make the best deal for yourself. There are a lot of stupid people out there who like shiny things.
Another really good strategy that I have used a lot is combining buying - trading - selling together. For example, I bought an M4 Cyrex Battle Scarred for $30.20. Next one available was around $37. I traded a guy selling an M4 Asiimov Field Tested who listed for $35 for a quick sale, he saw the M4 Cyrex was selling for higher so it was an easy trade for him. Sold the M4 Asiimov for $40. The key was knowing that the Asiimov hovers in the $39-$42 range, and finding someone who is selling below that range.
Keys as a Currency
A popular way to trade with people is to use keys as a currency. Yes, those items you use to open cases with are very valuable. The market fluctuates the value of skins constantly, but keys always remain the same price. You can buy keys on the market usually for cheaper than directly through Steam, and you can also find sellers who sell them significantly cheaper than that ($0.50 cheaper per key for example). Keep in mind people offer less keys for your item than they would in skins because like I said, keys don't fluctuate and are easy to trade off again. What I mean by that is explained in this example:
How Fast Will I Make Money?
This all depends on how much time you have to invest in this strategy. For me, I have 6-10 tabs open in the in-game browser when I play. When I die, I shift-tab to the background and I'm always flipping through the market, refreshing the pages trying to catch someone listing an item low. I have a calculator beside me because when I see a price I'm not sure about, I take the price and multiply it by 1.15 to get the price I need to sell for to break even. Anything after that is profit. If you see a good deal you may not have time to do that calculation, but over time you will just know what a good deal is and it will be obvious that it will get you profit.
I am also lucky that I have a job where a lot of my time is waiting for work, so I have Steam loaded at work through a web browser with a dozen tabs going. When I have no work I'm always flipping through the tabs refreshing watching deals. So for me, I have a lot of time to sit around and invest in this strategy. You may not have the same opportunities so how fast you make money will really vary.
Best Time to Buy and Sell?
This game is played all around the world. Our night time is day time on the other side of the world where people are at work and not playing. I have found that when I get to work in the morning, the Europeans are starting to play and list their items, and a lot of good deals can be found. I find that around lunch and then again around 3-4pm there are great deals to be found too. Of course, it all depends. Some days the market is completely still and nothing really happens, as with a stock market too. Today for example, I was watching knives, and a $100 knife got listed for $60. I took too long to respond and it was gone. That would have been HUGE profit. It happened first thing in the morning.
Conclusion
As I said earlier, I started with nothing, added $45 into my wallet, blew it all on keys for cases that I opened and the best I ever got was a $9 USP Orion. I gave up and said fuck this, I could spend hundreds of dollars and get nothing. Using this strategy, I started again with only a couple dollars and I now have a >$1000 knife, hundreds of dollars of equipped items and hundreds of dollars in my steam wallet. IT WORKS. A number of people I have shared this strategy with have benefited greatly and also have well over $100 of items in a rather short period of time.
What you need to remember before you blindly throw money at skins is take time to watch a few different skins, watch how they fluctuate, notice the trends, and then decide to jump in. You'll start with 1 or 2 skins that make you profit and eventually expand to a dozen or more. You'll be swapping through tabs in your browser refreshing pages super fast without even thinking about it.
Another interesting thing you can do is log in to Steam if you have a smartphone. On my iPhone I'll do the same thing when I'm just sitting around killing time. I've made a lot of profit that way. Log in with Safari, click Keep Me Signed In, and you're good to go. It may initially block you out of the market for a week on your phone as a security measure though, I believe that happened to me, but now I browse using 3G and even at home over my wifi and I never have an issue.
An interesting note about trading, I have found that the Swedish, Finnish and UK players are the best to deal with and seem to give you a better deal. Without doubt, the Russians are the biggest pain to deal with and are incredibly rude and will almost always try to rip you off. No offense meant by this statement, it's simply what I've found trading with people.
Good luck guys, if I think of anything new I will keep updating this guide. I'd love to hear about your epic deals so post any crazy profits you catch using this strategy!
Introduction
I keep getting more and more requests for help on how to make money on the steam marketplace and get free skins. I guess it's by referrals, I don't know, but either way I have answered the same questions a half dozen times now so I figure it's time to put a guide together so that everyone can take advantage of the strategies that have worked for me.
For the record, I have put $45 into this game outside of buying the game. This was before I realized how to work the marketplace to my benefit. I was naive and thought I could get a good skin by opening cases. The reality is, you are far more likely to get worthless skins out of your $45 opening those cases than a $300 knife. It's VERY rare to get a good item.
With that in mind, STOP OPENING CASES. Once you can force yourself to accept this, sell every case or skin drop you get. That extra profit from the drops you get in game will help you work the marketplace.
Basic Principles
The Steam Marketplace is just like the stock market. Skin prices go up and down every second. The thing to do is catch a skin when it's lower than its average asking price and sell it for a profit. If you have $0 in your steam wallet, you will either need to add some funds from PayPal, or wait until you get some skins or cases from in game drops / donations from other players. Let's assume you have $2 in your steam wallet.
Find a popular skin that gets sold a lot during 24 hours. For example, the AK Blue Laminate is super popular and is very cheap. A minimal wear AK Blue Laminate varies from 1.20 to $1.80. Average has been around $1.50. The fact that it sells a lot means the price will fluctuate a lot. In this example, we will assume you buy it for $1.20. List it right away for $1.60. It will sell in a matter of seconds or minutes and you will receive $1.39 back (remember, Valve takes a 15% cut on each transaction). Congrats, you just made $0.19 profit.
This may not seem like a lot, but it's a very basic example. And when you have $2 to work with, your options are very limited. Once you profit 5 or 6 times, you can move to the next tier of weapon where profits are higher, and eventually to a point where you aren't making 1 transaction at a time, but you have $50 invested at all times and you're constantly moving money around. Rinse and repeat this strategy over and over and over and watch your steam wallet grow.
What Skins Should I Buy and Sell?
Technically any skin on the market is capable of making you profit, but with hundreds of combinations of skins and wear (battle scarred, well worn, field tested, minimal wear and factory new), you can imagine how vast the options are. You will need to see what works for you, and over time you will find skins that consistently bring you profit. Over time I have established a list of skins that I watch. Here are just a few examples:
- AK Black Laminate Minimal Wear (buy $12 range, sell $15 range)
- USP Orion Factory New (buy $11 range, sell $15 range)
- Sawed Off The Kraken Factory New (buy $3.50 range sell $5 range)
- P90 Death By Kitty any condition (varies a lot, one of the best to make money on)
- P90 Asiimov any condition(has started to dip recently, great time to catch a bargain by people panic selling)
- AWP Boom Minimal Wear (buy $10 range, sell $12.50 range)
- AWP Redline Minimal Wear (buy $8 range, sell $10 range)
- AWP Lightning Strike Factory New (buy $22 range, sell $27 range)
- M4A1 Atomic Alloy Factory New (buy $20 range, sell $26 range)
- M4A4 Asiimov any condition (currently prices are dropping)
- Glock Water Elemental Factory New or Minimal Wear
- Knife - search this, sort by price. It will show you lowest knife price when you refresh. Find something low $40's, sell for big profit.
- Bayonet - search this, sort by price. Low $70's is a definite buy, sell for big profit.
- Famas Spitfire Factory New - catch this guy in $50-$70 range and sell for close to $100.
- Famas Spitfire Minimal Wear - buy it around $9, sell for $14 or more.
- Mag-7 Bulldozer and Mag-7 Hazard Factory New - prices jump around from $15-$50.
- Glock Fade - was in $70 range and jumped to $230, now hovers in $150 range.
- Desert Eagle Blaze - sitting at $60 range but used to be cheap, occasionally has a low seller.
- AK-47 Case Hardened - if you can find one where the top portion is mostly blue, you have scored. I found a Factory New one that was 99% blue up top, I bought it for $38, I traded it for a $500 Factory New M4 Cyrex Stat Trak. Watch out for these blue gems!
Panic Selling
Every time a new case comes out or is about to come out, people panic and start to offload their skins in fear of losing money, or simply to make room in their steam wallets to buy new stuff. Older and wanted skins, like the P90 Death by Kitty, ALWAYS bounce back after this panic period. It is a great skin to catch when a new case drops. For example, the P90 Death by Kitty Minimal Wear Stat Trak is selling right now in the $75-$85 range. When a new case drops, watch it plummet to the $30-$40 range. In 2 weeks, it's back up again. If you have the patience and funds floating around it's a good investment. There are other examples of this, you just have to keep an eye out and research the market before you dump your money into it without thinking.
Trading vs Buying and Selling
Once you get enough money and you're into the knife categories, profit becomes huge. I bought a Flip Knife Slaughter Field Tested for $120, and someone on the market wanted it so they traded me their $160 knife for it, which I then traded for a $180 knife, which then got traded for a $200 knife, and so on, and so on. Eventually you will find that trading is a better way to get money when you're into the $100's of dollars of steam money. This is because that 15% Valve tax becomes a huge loss and trading to move up is a MUCH smarter move. Simply list it for a price that is high enough that you'd be content if you sold it, typically much higher than average asking price. It will be obvious that you're not interested in selling and that you want to trade, and you'll have people contacting you to trade with them. Negotiation kicks in and it's up to you to make the best deal for yourself. There are a lot of stupid people out there who like shiny things.
Another really good strategy that I have used a lot is combining buying - trading - selling together. For example, I bought an M4 Cyrex Battle Scarred for $30.20. Next one available was around $37. I traded a guy selling an M4 Asiimov Field Tested who listed for $35 for a quick sale, he saw the M4 Cyrex was selling for higher so it was an easy trade for him. Sold the M4 Asiimov for $40. The key was knowing that the Asiimov hovers in the $39-$42 range, and finding someone who is selling below that range.
Keys as a Currency
A popular way to trade with people is to use keys as a currency. Yes, those items you use to open cases with are very valuable. The market fluctuates the value of skins constantly, but keys always remain the same price. You can buy keys on the market usually for cheaper than directly through Steam, and you can also find sellers who sell them significantly cheaper than that ($0.50 cheaper per key for example). Keep in mind people offer less keys for your item than they would in skins because like I said, keys don't fluctuate and are easy to trade off again. What I mean by that is explained in this example:
- Item you are selling is listed for $20.00
- Potential buyer offers you 7 keys (7 x $2.50 = $17.50)
- Another potential buyer offers you five different weapon skins worth $22.00
How Fast Will I Make Money?
This all depends on how much time you have to invest in this strategy. For me, I have 6-10 tabs open in the in-game browser when I play. When I die, I shift-tab to the background and I'm always flipping through the market, refreshing the pages trying to catch someone listing an item low. I have a calculator beside me because when I see a price I'm not sure about, I take the price and multiply it by 1.15 to get the price I need to sell for to break even. Anything after that is profit. If you see a good deal you may not have time to do that calculation, but over time you will just know what a good deal is and it will be obvious that it will get you profit.
I am also lucky that I have a job where a lot of my time is waiting for work, so I have Steam loaded at work through a web browser with a dozen tabs going. When I have no work I'm always flipping through the tabs refreshing watching deals. So for me, I have a lot of time to sit around and invest in this strategy. You may not have the same opportunities so how fast you make money will really vary.
Best Time to Buy and Sell?
This game is played all around the world. Our night time is day time on the other side of the world where people are at work and not playing. I have found that when I get to work in the morning, the Europeans are starting to play and list their items, and a lot of good deals can be found. I find that around lunch and then again around 3-4pm there are great deals to be found too. Of course, it all depends. Some days the market is completely still and nothing really happens, as with a stock market too. Today for example, I was watching knives, and a $100 knife got listed for $60. I took too long to respond and it was gone. That would have been HUGE profit. It happened first thing in the morning.
Conclusion
As I said earlier, I started with nothing, added $45 into my wallet, blew it all on keys for cases that I opened and the best I ever got was a $9 USP Orion. I gave up and said fuck this, I could spend hundreds of dollars and get nothing. Using this strategy, I started again with only a couple dollars and I now have a >$1000 knife, hundreds of dollars of equipped items and hundreds of dollars in my steam wallet. IT WORKS. A number of people I have shared this strategy with have benefited greatly and also have well over $100 of items in a rather short period of time.
What you need to remember before you blindly throw money at skins is take time to watch a few different skins, watch how they fluctuate, notice the trends, and then decide to jump in. You'll start with 1 or 2 skins that make you profit and eventually expand to a dozen or more. You'll be swapping through tabs in your browser refreshing pages super fast without even thinking about it.
Another interesting thing you can do is log in to Steam if you have a smartphone. On my iPhone I'll do the same thing when I'm just sitting around killing time. I've made a lot of profit that way. Log in with Safari, click Keep Me Signed In, and you're good to go. It may initially block you out of the market for a week on your phone as a security measure though, I believe that happened to me, but now I browse using 3G and even at home over my wifi and I never have an issue.
An interesting note about trading, I have found that the Swedish, Finnish and UK players are the best to deal with and seem to give you a better deal. Without doubt, the Russians are the biggest pain to deal with and are incredibly rude and will almost always try to rip you off. No offense meant by this statement, it's simply what I've found trading with people.
Good luck guys, if I think of anything new I will keep updating this guide. I'd love to hear about your epic deals so post any crazy profits you catch using this strategy!
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