State of Trade 2015

[jakksilves]

Out of curiosity, how is your trading business these days?

Did you already cash out? Are you stockpiling for a price hike? Still hoarding like no tomorrow?

Discuss~

My last key purchase was for 9 Refined. I take a peek at the current trading scene and witness this.

http://backpack.tf/stats/Unique/Mann Co. Supply Crate Key/Tradable/Craftable

 

[Cmp™]

I haven't traded in months. Between family illness issues and school, trading pixels was not on my priority list. I may start doing poster stuff again at a leisurely pace though.

 

[14bux]

I've hit a point in trading where I feel absolutely no shame when I unbox a crate, be it for the best or worst. I realized it just happens to be a bunch of organized pixels I probably wouldn't sell anyways. Still a fun time trading, I just don't care much about the fake value in my backpack.

 

[DarkPaladinPrime]

Over the past few months I have really put in a lot of effort in to trading and it has yielded pretty good results despite the tough economy. Business improved because I became less picky with what I bought I just put in a discount in order to make profit. This led to unusual trading which has been good for the most part. I guess I am just going to keep climbing up until I am satisfied with what I have then cash out when I am done with the game.

 

[AvengerofDeath2]

Personally, I've pretty much stopped trading; all I really do now is sell keys for 12 ref to feed my collector's festive eyelander project. I've become fed up with the way bp.tf literally controls prices for things. In fact, I've started selling off some of my more expensive items on the steam market to buy more games.

 

[nb]

Started trading since summer of 2014, already made ~75 buds, but the peak of my trading started in October when I got CSGO knives mixed with TF2 trading. Now, I have a broker selling my unusuals for CSGO stuff because screw TF2 now. Economy is broken, game is shit. Valve doesn't care about it anymore, and the game isn't fun anymore. The only thing I like about TF2 are the Darkly servers... :P
CSGO is actually fun because it's an actual game, and there is skill involved that you need to learn. There's a ranking system to pair you up with people with similar ranks. Best of all, the skins! The skins are my favourite element of CSGO. They show how much money you've wasted into the game, or how poor/rich you are. It just tells you what kind of person you are; a trader or a player. Similar to TF2, but better.

You might see a long paragraph above this, but I would call it 8 minutes of messy writing.

 

[zackychuu]

Quit trading well over a year ago, almost 2 now, and cashed out last year. I dont regret it at all.
As it turns out recently i wouldnt have had much time for trading with my new job anyway.

Started some casual csgo trading recently and been going well so far but im not getting into my stride just yet.

 

[Dan!]

Takin' it easy on trading for a while. It's almost impossible to buy something for a reasonable price online now, with mark up prices on outpost leading to backpack.tf raising the physical price, and then having it rinse and repeat. I am content with my items though and I won't cash out for a long time as I do like some custom gamemodes in TF2 and also the fact I am really bad at CS:GO :P

It's not that Valve doesn't care about the game anymore, it's that they have no good ideas to implement. All these crazy gimmicks are already in the game, so they try to come up w/ new things but it just doesn't work.

 

[ᴰᴳᴺ Church of KFC]

I'm kinda pissed off at the people at backpack.tf (which I refer to now as bible.tf, because it pretty much seems like people use it like a bible.). I know many people don't even bother trading anymore; they got everything they wanted. But people who are still really into trading, and trying to make profit like me... with the rapidly changing key prices... unusuals are going straight down in price because of buds rapidly changing too. I remember about two weeks ago an aussie RL was 80 keys, now it's gone all the way down to, what, 59 keys? So sad.

Not to mention with these rapidly changing key prices, you can take such a huge advantage. Buy keys, sell them for high price, wait for 'em to go down, buy a bunch more... And sure, making profit like that is easy. If you're patient. But it's almost impossible to do scrap2unusual now because of all these automated bots like scrap.tf etc. because if someone wants a weapon, they can buy it for another weapon. Bots have played a huge part in ruining the economy.

What happened to the days when buds were ~20 keys each? When bill's were ~8 keys? When keys were ~2.33? It's sad to see such a once great economy go to hell like this. It really is depressing.

 

[DarkPaladinPrime]

KFC you and I weren't even playing TF2 when Buds, Bills, and Keys were those prices and also why are you complaining about it in the first place. The price change was inevitable as the game grew in popularity, more players got into trading starting at crafting weapons to make scrap metal, with more metal getting added into the system everyday for 6 years you bet there will be inflation. Keys are supposed to keep going up so long as more metal is added into the game thus constantly changing prices of most items in the game. You hate people because they use bp.tf pricing well guess what most people prefer using bp.tf pricing with the exception of unusual trading. If you want to know the value of a typical or rarer cosmetic item you can look it up there it's a valuable resource for trading. You don't like the fact that people are charging bp.tf suggested value for there items? Deal with it, it is a free market where anyone is allowed to sell their items for whatever price they want.

 

[Thanatos]

So does anyone want to make an offer on my TF2 backpack and trading cards?

 

[Keskele]

It's sad to see such a once great economy go to hell like this. It really is depressing.

Drinking helps a lot with that problem Church...

 

[Cmp™]

Aggressive shit

Back the fuck up.

How do you know when he started playing, especially if you weren't playing yourself? Why is it your responsibility to police what he is saying? Even if he is full of shit, who cares? It's not like he's personally offending someone by lying, if he actually is lying.

Chill, dude. Stop calling people out for no reason and just chill. (Ironically, I'm calling you out by doing this, but my Give-A-Fuck 5000 is currently in the repair shop).

 

[Nanoactive]

KFC you and I weren't even playing TF2 when Buds, Bills, and Keys were those prices and also why are you complaining about it in the first place. The price change was inevitable as the game grew in popularity, more players got into trading starting at crafting weapons to make scrap metal, with more metal getting added into the system everyday for 6 years you bet there will be inflation. Keys are supposed to keep going up so long as more metal is added into the game thus constantly changing prices of most items in the game. You hate people because they use bp.tf pricing well guess what most people prefer using bp.tf pricing with the exception of unusual trading. If you want to know the value of a typical or rarer cosmetic item you can look it up there it's a valuable resource for trading. You don't like the fact that people are charging bp.tf suggested value for there items? Deal with it, it is a free market where anyone is allowed to sell their items for whatever price they want.

Not trying to cause a shit-fest, but if I'm not mistaken, you police people on their item prices every time I see you on and about, dude. Why are ya bashing on every post KFC makes?

 

[HappySticks™]

I havent played or traded in TF2 for awhile but I thought price suggestions on bp.tf were based off what people are willing to pay for an item? If that is true, then how is it bp.tf's fault? You dont have to go by their prices...

 

[Dan!]

Not trying to cause a shit-fest, but if I'm not mistaken, you police people on their item prices every time I see you on and about, dude. Why are ya bashing on every post KFC makes?

People show "authority" when interested in a community because of seniorty and they think it will help out a present or future mod app.

 

[nb]

I havent played or traded in TF2 for awhile but I thought price suggestions on bp.tf were based off what people are willing to pay for an item? If that is true, then how is it bp.tf's fault? You dont have to go by their prices...

Prices on BP are based off solds, sellers, and buyers. Which one of the three depend if people are trying to lower, raise, or set a price. Sorry if it's confusing for ya.

 

[DarkPaladinPrime]

Allow me to reiterate
KFC you and I were not playing TF2 back in 2009 when Buds, Bills, and Keys were those prices and unfortunately there not going to go back there as sucky as that is. The price change of most if not all items was inevitable as the game grew in popularity, more players got into trading starting of course crafting weapons to make scrap metal, with more metal getting added into the system everyday for 6 years you bet there will be a lot of inflation. So long as more metal is created in the game keys will continue to rise in price. Since metal and keys are changing in price it also has an effect on the value of items. Bp.tf prices values on what they sell for and what people buy them for. People sell items for bp.tf suggested values because that's what they have sold for. Sure sometimes I don't like when people stick to bp.tf prices but they have every right to charge that price.
What frustrates me is that I try and maybe buy unusual people get offended when I offer lower than that price or when I try items bulk at my discount of 30% I get trades from players who put in the items then ask full price completely oblivious to what I posted in the chat and said on the mic. Some people don't read and other's don't listen. My point is trading websites have not broken the economy, they have linked it together made it even stronger. Everyone has a way of accessing any item they could ever want just by looking it up and finding a seller. It has become a faster system which I enjoy very much. The fact that I can buy any item in game and then open that item for sale to the entire TF2 community is amazing. It's a wonderful connected free market that I use just about everyday. If you blame the trading websites that provide a way to connect the market and all the players together as the downfall of our economy, in my opinion you are most surely mistaken.

Sidenote: Apologies for any offence given KFC, Cmp, and Nano.

 

[14bux]

@HappySticks™ It's not backpack.tf's fault. The problem is they rule the market. Their prices truly represent the prices, but people want to make profit. So they sell for a little higher. The average goes up, bumping up the true price on backpack.tf. Process repeats itself endlessly. Plus, there is no regulation on metal in TF2. That drives it into inflation, which is also playing a big role.

TLDR: Don't hate the game, hate the players.

 

[zackychuu]

So does anyone want to make an offer on my TF2 backpack and trading cards?

I'll take the cards for free <3