Are bots really worth it?

[SunriseM]

Hello guys. Most of you maybe have noticed the amount of bots buying/selling stuff in the classifieds. In cheap cosmetics they buy for 1-2 scrap less than what they are selling. And if you do a little math you notice making 18 trades (9 buying and 9 selling) they can get 1-2 Ref and selling hats isn't that fast, sometimes you get lucky  and someone buys it, but i have been trying to sell decent hats at lower price(and using automatic) in classified for 1 week without getting it sold. Yes i know they sell/buy a lot of other items, but the time spent configuring each price, the risk of a glitch occurring and maybe the price you paid for it ; makes me think that is not that profitable. I haven't used a bot like those so i can't be sure of that. I'm not interested in using one just being curious.

[Geel]

anyone that owns any amount of bots is a big ol' nerd wasting their time

[Mengh.]

A common trading bot (that buys and sells some of the more active commodities) should be averaging about 200 successful trades a day, so 100 trades buying and 100 trades selling in a perfect world, due to the fact that they run 24/7 and are buying and selling the stuff that people want. 

• They should be going for the more popular items / commodities as they'll be targeting a larger audience with their listings.
• Should be online 24/7 (or have downtime rarely) and be accepting trades as soon as possible.
• No escrow.
• Have a lot of refined and/or keys as to be able to buy a lot.
• Bot should be programmed with no glitches.
• Price configurations should be a simple matter, just requiring a number to be put as a buying or selling price.
• Listings should be put up automatically.

Let's say you make about 0.11 refined (bare minimum) profit every pair of trades; you'd be earning roughly 0.11 refined x 100 = 11.11 refined.

 

In one week, 11.11 refined x 7 = 77.77 refined or about 3.8 keys.

11.11 refined x 30 = 333.66 refined or about 16.25 keys.

16.25 keys sold at $1.80 a key is $29.25, so using some estimations, you could make about $30 or something along the lines of that.

 

VPS costs can make your singular trading bot's profit not worthwhile, however, of course, you can merely just have more trading bots upon one VPS (good processing power, RAM and whatnot is needed as to have a couple of bots running at the same time) but also keep in mind that this is just the bare minimum. Backpack.tf premium helps, as you can bump more often as well as have more listings.

 

Some people like Geel over there have a website as to be a hub for people to go to to trade with his bots only, so less competition as you don't need to huddle around Classifieds.

 

Anyhow, the main thing is that bots just help you trade and make a bit of profit whilst you're doing other stuff.

[HarryG]

If your bots have competitive prices (unlike scrap.tf), then yes, very much so. Only reason scrap.tf isn't 6 feet under is because it is advertised very well. Combine good advertising and competitive prices and you'd be unstoppable.

[=TNW= Maximus™]

If your bots have competitive prices (unlike scrap.tf), then yes, very much so. Only reason scrap.tf isn't 6 feet under is because it is advertised very well. Combine good advertising and competitive prices and you'd be unstoppable.

This^^^

 

Think about spirit.

[killerpanda993]

I think bots make prices escalate more rapidly than if they just had people trading away.

[NotWarlizard]

I think bots make prices escalate more rapidly than if they just had people trading away.

 

Simple economics would say otherwise.

 

More competition, and specially in sellers markets (such as tf2's economy) brings the prices down. If it weren't for bots, hats would be more expensive.

[Spirit]

First off - Mengh Facepalms, well put.

 

 

This^^^

 

Think about spirit.

Thank you for your thoughts. =P

 

 

Simple economics would say otherwise.

 

More competition, and specially in sellers markets (such as tf2's economy) brings the prices down. If it weren't for bots, hats would be more expensive.

You are 100% correct, and i belive that bots should not be a priority in trading, but a secondary thought.

If only humans were permitted to trade on backpack.tf, without any automated services, there would be a much larger gap between the buy price and the sell price.

As well as the human that is currently online maybe who has a higher price would win over an offline human of the community.

 

Just like last year before all the bots came to play, there was only Spirit, Linus, and a few others, maximum of around 5 owners.

The owners of these few first bots had a special mental agreement that was not often broken. Where the bots would mostly buy for the same price, and always sell for .33 more.

These days with the large influx of bots on backpack.tf the price gap has lowered to .11 per item.

 

This means that new traders are suffering, and are unable to get into trading as much, this means that many new traders give up more often.

This is lowering the trading community, devaluing item prices (as much as they are fake, they are better than nothing), and creating a large gap between the poor and the rich.

I will always recommend to backpack.tf admins, as i have many times before, is to disallow bots from trading on backpack.tf.

 

My goal all along has been to prove a point to the community, and show the scenario, nobody is listening, so i will keep going.

The influx of bots due to them being more easily attainable is only helping me prove the point.

 

And to answer your question if bots are profitable.... If regular trading is profitable, why would a bot not be?

As mength put it, its all just some simple math, even if you make your profit margin .22 and manage to flip the items in less than double the time of a profit margin of .11 you will be earning more.

unfortunately since the influx occurred, and the incapable, irrational bot owners, they would rather make less profit, and make it take longer, than use logic and agree between each other to have a wider gap.

Thus allowing them to profit more, let the audience chose their favorite bot, (or random selection) and allow humans a gap.

 

I would not like to thank Bp.tf Admins, Bots, and Bot owners for ruining trading. Ty =P

[NotWarlizard]

unfortunately since the influx occurred, and the incapable, irrational bot owners, they would rather make less profit, and make it take longer, than use logic and agree between each other to have a wider gap.

Thus allowing them to profit more, let the audience chose their favorite bot, (or random selection) and allow humans a gap.

 

I would not like to thank Bp.tf Admins, Bots, and Bot owners for ruining trading. Ty =P

 

They're not incapable and/or irrational, it's once again simple economics. More competition makes markets, as the word says it, more competitive; therefore, lowering the prices.

 

I just think that you're mad that you don't hold the monopoly anymore with a few other people. Instead of blaming others simply adapt, that's how the real world works. This is the same example as saying the government should ban Uber since this is driving old, higher pricing, taxis out of business. You wouldn't be saying ban bots if you still had this monopoly.

 

Also, why blame others when you started this trend along with others? Since you like saying trading is dead, I'll use this example: this is, in a way, like the broken glass theory, a car that had a broken window already (the equivalent of the first few bots on bp.tf) will get destroyed eventually as it has already been damaged (the influx of new bots). Hence, who is to blame, the original people who damaged the car, or the people who followed on something already broken?

[Spirit]

They're not incapable and/or irrational, it's once again simple economics. More competition makes markets, as the word says it, more competitive; therefore, lowering the prices.

 

I just think that you're mad that you don't hold the monopoly anymore with a few other people. Instead of blaming others simply adapt, that's how the real world works. This is the same example as saying the government should ban Uber since this is driving old, higher pricing, taxis out of business. You wouldn't be saying ban bots if you still had this monopoly.

 

Also, why blame others when you started this trend along with others? Since you like saying trading is dead, I'll use this example: this is, in a way, like the broken glass theory, a car that had a broken window already (the equivalent of the first few bots on bp.tf) will get destroyed eventually as it has already been damaged (the influx of new bots). Hence, who is to blame, the original people who damaged the car, or the people who followed on something already broken?

I completely understand simple economics, lol, there is no need to explain anything to me =P. Thank you for proving my point.

 

I am not mad at all, i still hold a lovely monopoly, i am not here to be mad, only to prove a point.

I am happy there is more bots, i am happy that i run bots on bp.tf. BUT you need to comprehend, that i don't care if i make profit or not.

If i want, i will go non-profit to prove my point. Then what are you gonna do about it? =P

 

I am glad that a Nub trader, is giving their opinion on my thoughts. A SMALL PORTION of my thoughts.

Cute site, i learned nothing new from it.

[NotWarlizard]

I am glad that a Nub trader, is giving their opinion on my thoughts. A SMALL PORTION of my thoughts.

Cute site, i learned nothing new from it.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, you know someone is salty and they got burned when they resort to personal attacks instead of coherent answers.

[HarryG]

I completely understand simple economics, lol, there is no need to explain anything to me =P. Thank you for proving my point.

 

I am not mad at all, i still hold a lovely monopoly, i am not here to be mad, only to prove a point.

I am happy there is more bots, i am happy that i run bots on bp.tf. BUT you need to comprehend, that i don't care if i make profit or not.

If i want, i will go non-profit to prove my point. Then what are you gonna do about it? =P

 

I am glad that a Nub trader, is giving their opinion on my thoughts. A SMALL PORTION of my thoughts.

Cute site, i learned nothing new from it.

Funny that you're saying you have a monopoly when you're basically the biggest example of a failed implementation of a bot system. Scrap.tf will always outclass you because nobody outside of classified listings has any idea about who you are. You have no following, you have no user base, and you have no sense of what kind of advertising it will take to put you on the map. The only reason you're getting by now is because you have hundreds of sell listings for individual keys on classifieds right now (which is basically a loophole in itself), and that's the only reason anyone's ever heard of you. You can think you have a monopoly, but basic economics dictate that you will lose to the more well known site with an established user base 100 times out of 100, even if all of your prices are lower. But keep going on with your head in the sand, calling someone else a "nub trader" for basically just stating their opinion.

[fluffyy]

I completely understand simple economics, lol, there is no need to explain anything to me =P. Thank you for proving my point.

 

I am not mad at all, i still hold a lovely monopoly, i am not here to be mad, only to prove a point.

I am happy there is more bots, i am happy that i run bots on bp.tf. BUT you need to comprehend, that i don't care if i make profit or not.

If i want, i will go non-profit to prove my point. Then what are you gonna do about it? =P

 

I am glad that a Nub trader, is giving their opinion on my thoughts. A SMALL PORTION of my thoughts.

Cute site, i learned nothing new from it.

scrap.tf still far more popular=no monopoly sry dude

[NotWarlizard]

I am not mad at all, i still hold a lovely monopoly

 

I own the board game too, it's really fun.

 

As for real monopolies in economies:

[puddingkip]

I own the board game too, it's really fun.

 

As for real monopolies in economies:

 

to be fair, that is not an accurate description of a monopoly in modern economics either. That would be one of the few things I actually did pick up from my year of studying economics.

 

 

Now if everybody could keep their posts civil, on topic and useful that would be great

[NotWarlizard]

to be fair, that is not an accurate description of a monopoly in modern economics either. That would be one of the few things I actually did pick up from my year of studying economics.

 

Yeah I agree, when I searched it up I debated between including that one or not, but decided it somewhat worked and looked clean

[Lo-Rez]

you guys overthink this stuff sometimes, get out there and trade b****es. Or don't. Also, try diversifying into other games.

[foxx]

They're not incapable and/or irrational, it's once again simple economics. More competition makes markets, as the word says it, more competitive; therefore, lowering the prices.

 

I just think that you're mad that you don't hold the monopoly anymore with a few other people. Instead of blaming others simply adapt, that's how the real world works. This is the same example as saying the government should ban Uber since this is driving old, higher pricing, taxis out of business. You wouldn't be saying ban bots if you still had this monopoly.

 

Also, why blame others when you started this trend along with others? Since you like saying trading is dead, I'll use this example: this is, in a way, like the broken glass theory, a car that had a broken window already (the equivalent of the first few bots on bp.tf) will get destroyed eventually as it has already been damaged (the influx of new bots). Hence, who is to blame, the original people who damaged the car, or the people who followed on something already broken?

Other bot owners liked this 

[foxx]

I own the board game too, it's really fun.

 

As for real monopolies in economies:

shots fired