Tips/Advice for a trader who wants to join the Unusual game.

[Speedbump]

Hey guys, thanks for taking your time into reading this topic. So, let's cut to the chase. I've been back and forth on whether I should the Unusual market and see where I could go. Now, I don't want to run in blind and fall flat on my face, so I'm here to ask kindly on what I can do to ensure I enjoy trading unusuals like how do I start off? Do I buy from the community market, use keys on crates, keys to buds to hat? What class hats/hat effects should I avoid to not get scammed and what not. Thanks in advance.

[RozeEagle]

Find a quicksell unusual, and don't buy third gens 

[Дебра]

Buy keys. Buy first gens quicksells. Tell anyone who offers a 3rd gen to kill themselves. Profit?

Second gens are also worse than some 3rd gens but at least they don't have some kind of fake value, people know they are worth nothing.

[Zip]

dont buy 3rd gens

[Punishment_Fatal]

inb4 someone says "Don't."

[Weedoof]

inb4 someone says "Don't."

 

>Don't

 

But yeah, pretty much what everyone else says. Don't buy third gens, find 1st gen quicksells,

 

Also, be patient. You probably won't find someone wanting your hat in a day or two unless it's a quicksell, and there's no profit if you just re-quicksell.

[scout608]

tip: never call unusual trading "the unusual game"

[Die pelzig Katze]

Don't buy unpriced unusuals, "1 of 1" items, cancer unusuals (ones that are worth less than a bud), botkillers, killstreaks (unless australium), heavy unusuals, engi unusuals, unpopular unusuals.

 

I suggest lowballing and that you always check prices (and backpack.tf classfieds). 

Pure=GOLD

 

All class ("multi-class" as backpack.tf calls em) are probably the easiest to sell, however you have to find the ones that fit within your budget.

[Nathan]

Btw, third gens are the effects like terror-watt, kill-a-watt, knifestorm, aces high, miami nights, dead presidents, and disco beat down. Wiki says cloud 9 is also third gen, but i'm not sure :/

[Mr. Pain]

Not worth getting into unusuals. You'd make more profit by flipping keys and buds. 

[Heated Bread]

Don't get into serious unusual trading.  It will erode your soul.  If you can, try to dabble in it non-seriously just for the experience.  Don't take it seriously or you will die inside.

[SunlessLime]

Just take your time with unusual trading. Don't be like me and quicksell hats after owning it for 2 days then stay at a 5 bud backpack for like a year.

[Gren]

Don't buy unpriced unusuals, "1 of 1" items, cancer unusuals (ones that are worth less than a bud), botkillers, killstreaks (unless australium), heavy unusuals, engi unusuals, unpopular unusuals.

 

I suggest lowballing and that you always check prices (and backpack.tf classfieds). 

Pure=GOLD

 

All class ("multi-class" as backpack.tf calls em) are probably the easiest to sell, however you have to find the ones that fit within your budget.

 

Also, don't take advice on unusual trading from people with $86 backpacks

 

Let's go through the above: 

 

- Unpriced hats:  if you know the unusual market, you know roughly how much a hat can sell for, whether it has a price or not.  If you can find a good deal on an unpriced hat, go for it.  Ask in status updates first of course. 

- 1/1:  This is the most ridiculous piece of advice from the above quote.  Of course you want 1/1 items.  So let's say there's a 1/1 hat with circling peace.  You bet your ass that hat goes for a lot more than normal peace hats.  This is plainly evident when you look at rare effects like halloween and robo.  

- Cancer unusuals:  Again, stupid advice.  These can be great profit generators.  So let's say a hat is worth 15 keys and you manage to snag it for 11.  You will be able to sell that hat for 14 keys, I guarantee it.  You just made an easy 3 key profit.  There are no cancerous unusuals, only cancerous prices.  

[Torr.]

Fetti logo and peace are the best to resell and profit

[zirune]

Also, don't take advice on unusual trading from people with $86 backpacks

 

Let's go through the above: 

 

- Unpriced hats:  if you know the unusual market, you know roughly how much a hat can sell for, whether it has a price or not.  If you can find a good deal on an unpriced hat, go for it.  Ask in status updates first of course. 

- 1/1:  This is the most ridiculous piece of advice from the above quote.  Of course you want 1/1 items.  So let's say there's a 1/1 hat with circling peace.  You bet your ass that hat goes for a lot more than normal peace hats.  This is plainly evident when you look at rare effects like halloween and robo.  

- Cancer unusuals:  Again, stupid advice.  These can be great profit generators.  So let's say a hat is worth 15 keys and you manage to snag it for 11.  You will be able to sell that hat for 14 keys, I guarantee it.  You just made an easy 3 key profit.  There are no cancerous unusuals, only cancerous prices.  

 

This guy has the right idea.

 

Everybody and their mom is quickbuying 1st gen unusuals. Unless you happen to get lucky and/or have a lot of capital on hand, chances are you're not going to make a ton of profit off this. Since 1st gens are the most popular and "stable", they have the least room for profit.

 

If you want big profits, you have to take big risks. As Gren said, there are no cancerous unusuals, only cancerous prices. You can sell anything, so long as you have the right price. Here are some tips for (in particular) 3rd gen unusuals:

 

• Do lots of research. I'm going to use a pertinent example here. There was a Kill-A-Watt (bad) Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hood (???) on the Community Market for $115 (~3 buds) a while back. Is this a good buy? Well, I did some research. There were a few priced Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hoods on backpack.tf, including Nuts 'n Bolts (priced at 2.2-3.1 buds). Nuts is almost always worth less than Kill-A-Watt (even though Kill-A-Watt is omgcancerous3rdgen). Blizzardy Storm was priced at 5.5-6.8, and is also generally worth less than Kill-A-Watt. So, right there, I think it's worth the buy; the Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hood is obviously a valuable hat, much like the Dread Hiding Hood in that regard. But I also check Outpost for previous sales and offers on Kill-A-Watt Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hoods, as well as similar effects like Miami Nights, Terror-Watt, etc. to help make sure I wouldn't be making a bad deal.
• Set reasonable expectations. If you buy a third gen hat that's priced at 5-5.5 buds, you're probably not going to get 5 buds out of it. Chances are it's still decreasing in price and could be truly worth only 4 or 4.5 buds. Some good research into recent sales and offers should let you know about what kind of sell value you can expect. Based on offers and sales of Kill-A-Watt and similar/lower-value effects, I'm pretty sure I can sell the Kill-A-Watt Frickin' Sweet Ninja hood for 5-8 buds pretty easily, so I bought it for the ~3 buds it cost on the SCM.
• Don't hold on to something that's losing value; a smaller profit now is often better than taking a risk for more. If you get an offer you like on something you know is going to drop down in price (a newly unboxable hat like a Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hood, 3rd gen effects, newly-made miscs, etc.), take it. Even if it's not what you wanted. I ended up selling the Kill-A-Watt Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hood in about 3 weeks or so for a Demonflame Fruit Shoot + Black B.M.O.C. + minor sweets. Was it the 8 I thought I might be able to get based on the Ninja Hood's price on lower-tier effects? No, but it's a significant amount of guaranteed profit, and there were Kill-A-Watt Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hoods popping up all over the place: When I first bought it, there was only 1 other on OP, and by the time I sold it there were 2 or 3 others.
• Don't be afraid to offer it on other peoples' unusuals. Other than people who straight-up say they'll never take 3rd gen hats (these people are idiots, by the way, but you should avoid them because offering them a 3rd gen might make them poop their diaper), offer your hat on other peoples' unusuals that are within a reasonable range. I'm obviously not going to offer the Kill-A-Watt Frickin' Sweet Ninja Hood on 8-bud 1st gen hats, because 8 buds is the max I expected to get out of it. I didn't end up doing this, but if I did, I'd offer it on stable-value hats worth ~6 buds... chances are much higher that it would be accepted for that guaranteed profit. It would have been harder with the Kill-A-Watt Frickin' Sweet Ninja hood due to the fact that few were priced, the hat was fairly new, etc., but I've gotten rid of many 3rd gen hats within a day just by searching Outpost for people trading hats worth a significant amount less (but still in the range to make a profit) and sending them a trade offer. Despite how many people decry 3rd gens as being cancerous and all these other things, there are still a lot of people who'll take a 3-4.3 bud 3rd gen effect on a popular hat for a 2.8-3 bud 2nd gen hat (like that time I traded a Dead Presidents Bonk Boy for a Bubbling Executioner after buying the Bonk Boy for 2 buds).

And voila, you've made profit off 3rd gen (and other gen) hats. Obviously it's not fool-proof (what is?), but there's a lot of profit to be made on 3rd gens and other "cancerous" items if you're smart about it.

 

Now go, go my child! And don't be one of those idiots who straight-up refuses all third-gen offers and bitches out anybody who does offer them!

[Bobsplosion]

Tell anyone who offers a 3rd gen to kill themselves.

Yeah... Don't do this.