GUIDE: How to find what a hat sold for

[The G What ™]

Unusuals are, without question, the most inaccurately priced items on our fine website. While many suggestors have decided to step up and help this issue, the issue remains that conservatively 60% of Unusuals are not accurately priced.

Backpack.tf needs your help! With more hats and effects than ever, the website needs more suggestors making quality suggestions. Now you may be saying to yourself, “Self, how can I help by making Unusual suggestions?†Well, first, skip over to the Suggestion Rules and the Unsusual Suggestion Guidelines threads. Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Self, I know and understand the rules, but how do I find out what a hat sold for?â€

That’s where this guide comes in. As a recently promoted Unusual Expert, I will show you how to find what hats sold for, and how to use them in your suggestions. Be prepared, reader, for there is going to be a lot of research from here on out. Know that occasionally you cannot find a valid sale, or it may be too old to use. Such is life for an Unusual suggestor.

 

Method 1: The Ideal Way

 

The easiest way to find what an unusual sold for is to look at the offers on the outpost trade itself. If the seller is a nice guy (and very good-looking, from what I hear) like Cranwell, he will simply mark the accepted offers he receives like so!

 

fig. 1

 

If you ever sell an unusual via outpost, Please be a nice and good looking gentleman like Cranwell and tell us what you sold your hat for! It takes about 2 seconds and saves Unusual suggestors a great deal of time. You’re helping the community and backpack.tf. That should be reward enough, but if you need more, you have my thanks!

Of course, if you get an offer that is not posted on your outpost trade, you can always change your trade notes to reflect what your hat sold for. See what I did here?

 

fig. 2

 

NOTE: Even if the seller lists his sold price, CONFIRM IT ANYWAY USING METHOD 2. At least you'll know what you're looking for and when, making things much easier. 

 

Method 2: The Sherlock Method

 

Most unusual sellers don’t feel like taking the very small amount of time to make our lives easier. This is where we need to do some research and find out exactly what a hat sold for. Roll up your sleeves, because we are going to be doing some digging. Let’s take, for example, this Beams Tricorne that was on the front page of Op when I made this guide.

fig. 3

 

Start off by clicking the thumbnail of the hat and bringing up the hat’s history. Say Hi to backpack regulars Baloo and Kuashu while you’re there.

 

 

fig. 4

 

Know that Outpost history is not perfect, and the hat may have gone through a private backpack or a non-outpost user (they do exist, but are rare in the wild) before being listed again. Now click the most recent owner before the current seller and look through his trades. If you’re lucky, he will have made Method 1 possible. If not, continue on.

 

Look through the current users trades to attempt to ascertain when he bought the hat. We see above that he first listed this hat 1 April. So go to the seller’s outpost page by clicking the thumbnail for his Outpost Profile. Copy/paste this number, which is the user’s steam id.

fig. 5

 

Pasting this into the backpack.tf search bar will bring us the the user’s backpack profile. Now, find the hat in question and click the “History†button. This shows us that the user first bought the hat earlier than he listed it, back on 21 Feburary. Sadly this makes the sale too old to use for a suggestion, but for the purposes of our demonstration we will continue.

 

fig. 6

 

Now is the best time to open another tab with the user’s backpack history in it. Filter the cache by unusuals owned and we find this:

fig. 7

 

Now, finally, we check the item histories between the two hats and confirm the sale. The item histories between the Purple Energy Tricorne and the Beams Tricorne match, so we know that the beams one sold for the purple energy one.

fig. 8

 

Occasionally hats sell for more than one hat, or have pure added, or other sweets. If this is the case (unlikely in our example as the hat values are close to another), check item histories of other valuable items and unusuals, and repeat this process.

 

Method 3: The Nosy Way

 

Sometimes, a hat will be sold between users that aren’t active on backpack.tf. This makes things much more complicated, and often impossible to track the sale. In situations like this, you may want to add the seller yourself on Steam and simply ask. Don’t demand “I NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU SOLD YOU HAT FOR,†be courteous and ask politely. On the rare examples I need to do this, I usually say something along the lines of

“Hey, sorry to bother you, but if you don’t mind, may I ask what you sold your (Insert Hat here) for? I’m working on a backpack suggestion to update it.â€

 

Know that if a suggestion does have to come to this, many sellers do not accept random adds, and may even decide not to tell you out of spite. If you do come to this situation, just understand that naysayers are likely to naysay, forget tracking that sale, and move on.

 

So now that you know how to track sales, what are you doing sitting here reading this? Go out and price, my friend! The community needs you!

[d0 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Method 4 - trade.tf

[KoDoRiN]

Method 4 - buy premium.

[knavesmith]

You forgot to say that a few requirements are the ability to be patient, the lack of laziness, and the possession of free time.

[The G What ™]

Method 4 - trade.tf

 

 

 

Method 4 - buy premium.

 

I didn't include either of those due to the fact that anyone that has premium or trade.tf pro likely already knows these; this guide is aimed to help beginners getting into suggesting. I also don't have premium myself, so I don't know much about it. 

[Elviz P]

Well, I thinked around 5 days ago "Maybe I need to be a new Suggestor on Backpack?".

Still don't know if this will go good for me. I think it's just wasting of time. Even I will start to suggest prices, I won't start with unusuals. It's stupid...

[Pearly Gates]

Well, I thinked around 5 days ago "Maybe I need to be a new Suggestor on Backpack?".

Still don't know if this will go good for me. I think it's just wasting of time. Even I will start to suggest prices, I won't start with unusuals. It's stupid...

unus suggesting is the best

i love it

like goin thru histories and stuff

normal ones are boring

[Elviz P]

unus suggesting is the best

i love it

like goin thru histories and stuff

normal ones are boring

Yeah, maybe you are correct, maybe no. Still don't have started any suggest at all...

[LaughingLollipop]

I actually make a point to wipe all evidence of what I sold my hat for.

 

sometimes I even change outpost to indicate sales prices that are incorrect

[The G What ™]

Yeah, maybe you are correct, maybe no. Still don't have started any suggest at all...

I honestly find it easier to make unusual suggestions since you generally need less than 5 links. 

 

I actually make a point to wipe all evidence of what I sold my hat for.

 

sometimes I even change outpost to indicate sales prices that are incorrect

Preeeeetty sure that's actually manipulation. Luckily I always confirm what things actually sold for, as mentioned in this guide.

[Elviz P]

So maybe I need to start suggest?

Have a few questions, actually.

1. How you guys find the solds of item? I mean most of proof is "*link* sold for 4 buds" how does he know? Is he bookmarked trade and just waiting till the hat will be sold, and then add the seller and ask how much you sold your hat???

2. What profit is to make suggestions? If you will suggest something and it will be accepted, will I get something? Or it will just multiply my backpack to vote for other suggestions?

3. How much time does it take to make suggestion?

Please be patient, I'm new at this :>

[praise]

Snip.

Added this guide to my favorites! This is great.  

[The G What ™]

So maybe I need to start suggest?

Have a few questions, actually.

1. How you guys find the solds of item? I mean most of proof is "*link* sold for 4 buds" how does he know? Is he bookmarked trade and just waiting till the hat will be sold, and then add the seller and ask how much you sold your hat???

2. What profit is to make suggestions? If you will suggest something and it will be accepted, will I get something? Or it will just multiply my backpack to vote for other suggestions?

3. How much time does it take to make suggestion?

Please be patient, I'm new at this :>

1. Try to use Method 1 to discover what it sold for, then use Method 2 to confirm. Try to avoid Method 3 as it's an inconvenience for the seller and some people will insist on not helping or may outright lie. Both have happened to me before.

2. Mainly just this stuff. You can win stuff from the raffle too.

3. Depends. I've finished some in less than 10 minutes, but sometimes it's taken me an hour or more to track sales and find valid ones. This is more common for hats with a large quantity available; there are more than 25+ of some unusuals.