Arbitrage, a simple profit system in TF2

[Watermelon.]

Let me take a few minutes of your time to talk about a system called 'Arbitrage'.

 

In summary, you take advantage of different markets to gain profit. In this case, these two markets are the TF2 trading market, which is in-game, and the steam community market. Here's an example of 'Arbitrage'.

 

(Refined is currently 12 cents)

 

I buy a Surgeon's shako, which is 1.33. I sell it on the market for it's current price, which is about 32 cents. Take the 10% tax off, that's .28 cents. So, In that one sale alone, i just made double what I bought it for. Let's say you keep doing this until you have about 2.30$. And currently, you can buy a key for that price on the market. Assuming you only used Surgeons shakos, you'd have twice as much money as you paid to get the Shako. So, right there, you went from roughly 8.66 ref, to 17.33 ref. If you keep doing this, you could double your entire inventory in only a week.

 

No, you can't ONLY do this with Surgeons shakos, just things that you can make money off of them in the steam market. You could do it with strange weapons, vintages, collectors, unusuals, and anything that's marketable.

 

Now, there's also the opposite of arbitrage, where you take advantage of prices on the STEAM MARKET, then sell it for more than you bought it on the steam market for TF2 items.

 

I'm not that good at explaining things(or at least I think ), but if this helped you, please leave me some feedback and reply to this thread with that feedback, or add me and give me everything in your inventory for free, 0% tax, free shipping.

 

    "IS GOOD DEAL!"

                ~Heavy

[Senpai Absol~]

Very very very very very Very s;pw [rpfot

[Prince Lowell]

I am legit confused.

[TheVenomWith1n]

yeah, good luck making profit of that. That 28 cents will be sitting in your wallet doing nothing, unless Valve makes refined marketable.

[ShadowMan]

Good job making things obvious

 

Vintages&genuines ain't rising from nothing, you know?

[Watermelon.]

yeah, I knew people would be confused, but maybe a miracle will happen and somebody may actually get something off of this. In a week I made about a key from 5 ref in genuines, so I don't know why people say this won't work

[Prince Lowell]

or add me and give me everything in your inventory for free, 0% tax, free shipping.

 

you want us to give you everything in your inventory for information that is basically "buy low, sell high"? one of the most fundamental building blocks of making profit? no thanks.

[www.]

Funny, considering refined on the market is worth roughly $0.135.

And keys aren't ~$1.8 on the market.

 

Try again.

[jus Ign@nt]

And then when you finally sold 10 items over that week period and have enough to get a key you have to wait another 7 days to do anything with it.

[Watermelon.]

Still, you get a profit.

 

Funny, considering refined on the market is worth roughly $0.135.
And keys aren't ~$1.8 on the market.

Try again.

I never said that keys were 1.80$. Also refined has been sold many times .12 cents. 

[Cffg.Prussian PickelCrate]

I was dong that until you had to wait a week after you bought things.

[Watermelon.]

I was dong that until you had to wait a week after you bought things.

*doing .-.

 

Yeah... It's a stupid thing. I don't see how it 'combats' scammers.

[krawtch]

I too sometimes buy items for less than they are worth and then occasionally sell them successfully at a price higher than what I originally paid

*wink*

[Slocumruls]

Valve's cut is 15%. not 10%.

There are much better ways to run arbitrage on the steam market

[BlaqkAudio]

I did that when genuine nanobalaclavas were 2 ref. I resold them on the scm for $2 or so. Easiest profit ever.

 

Quit when Valve introduced that 7 day trade restriction. It's not worth the weight nowadays anyways.

[urvianoob]

 It's not worth the weight nowadays anyways.

u engrish goodly

 

tht iz veery weel gramers

[Keroro1454]

I actually started out buying the Killstreak Kit, and the Item, combining 'em, and re-selling them for a small profit. It only worked for some items (I don't know why it worked at all), but yeah.

[zirune]

Not exactly a new idea. Knowledgeable people have been doing this for ages.

 

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/arbitrage-and-equilibrium-in-the-team-fortress-2-economy/

 

There's always been items that sell for more on the SCM than they do for keys/metal. Take Mann Co. Painting Sets, for example. They've always sold for about 30% more on the SCM than they cost in metal, in part due to how slowly backpack.tf updates the price on them (and other items).

 

Sales always make for arbitrage so easy, you could do it with half your brain in a jar. During one of the earlier sales that the SCM was around for, people were dumping their items on the market to buy games, naturally. Genuine hats in particular made for easy pickings, because you could buy them for <$0.20, trade them to scrap.tf bots for 1.33 ref each, trade the ref for keys (back when keys were like 5.66 ref), and then sell the keys on the market for easy profit. That had the fun side effect of causing a lot of Genuine hats to drop below 1.33 for the first time ever, since the scrap.tf bots became completely full of Genuine hats.

 

The big issue is whether it's worth your time. Because you're talking about making several trades and selling several items on the market to get $1 in Steam Wallet, then having to wait a week if you want to buy TF2 items with that. If all you're worried about is turning ref into Steam Wallet, go for it. Like most TF2 trading, it's not really worth the time when it comes to how much money you're making. If you can't have a job for whatever reason, or you enjoy it, then go for it. As a pure profit-making venture... Unless you had a way to automate it, it's not worth the time.

 

PS: If you want more profits, it's smart to keep your profit-making tactics to yourself. If more people are competing for the same deals, those deals will dry up faster and you'll end up with less of them. If too many people hop on board, the profit will disappear completely.

[Fenrir]

you want us to give you everything in your inventory for information that is basically "buy low, sell high"? one of the most fundamental building blocks of making profit? no thanks.

 

The guy was joking about giving everything in your inventory, no need to be so harsh

[Watermelon.]

Not exactly a new idea. Knowledgeable people have been doing this for ages.

 

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/arbitrage-and-equilibrium-in-the-team-fortress-2-economy/

 

There's always been items that sell for more on the SCM than they do for keys/metal. Take Mann Co. Painting Sets, for example. They've always sold for about 30% more on the SCM than they cost in metal, in part due to how slowly backpack.tf updates the price on them (and other items).

 

Sales always make for arbitrage so easy, you could do it with half your brain in a jar. During one of the earlier sales that the SCM was around for, people were dumping their items on the market to buy games, naturally. Genuine hats in particular made for easy pickings, because you could buy them for <$0.20, trade them to scrap.tf bots for 1.33 ref each, trade the ref for keys (back when keys were like 5.66 ref), and then sell the keys on the market for easy profit. That had the fun side effect of causing a lot of Genuine hats to drop below 1.33 for the first time ever, since the scrap.tf bots became completely full of Genuine hats.

 

The big issue is whether it's worth your time. Because you're talking about making several trades and selling several items on the market to get $1 in Steam Wallet, then having to wait a week if you want to buy TF2 items with that. If all you're worried about is turning ref into Steam Wallet, go for it. Like most TF2 trading, it's not really worth the time when it comes to how much money you're making. If you can't have a job for whatever reason, or you enjoy it, then go for it. As a pure profit-making venture... Unless you had a way to automate it, it's not worth the time.

 

PS: If you want more profits, it's smart to keep your profit-making tactics to yourself. If more people are competing for the same deals, those deals will dry up faster and you'll end up with less of them. If too many people hop on board, the profit will disappear completely.

I know about everything you said here, and the hat banking idea is slow. Also, some people don't know about Arbitrage. Also I'm sure this won't even affect how well it works, because people buying off the market usually don't realize just how much something is.