rico Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 I'm wondering if there are any like thinkers that can build upon this, or maybe some opposition to provide a logical counterargument. Refined metal, which is widely considered currency, is measured in USD values. Why should it be different for keys? The USD is the best standard that we can compare values to, as it holds a significantly more stable value than any item in TF2. Another problem that the measurement of keys in ref creates is the illusion that keys are rising in value. Putting a dollar value to keys would fix this distorted image, as a rough estimate of USD key value would be ~$2, and this value hasn't fluctuated nearly as much as the key's value relative to refined. One thing I've noted is that while the suggested values of keys increase relative to ref, the suggested values for ref doesn't seem to be decreasing at a proportional rate. It just seems as if it would make more sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators OverduePixels Posted November 6, 2014 Administrators Share Posted November 6, 2014 -snip- As far as I can remember, this has been brought up before and denied, so no it won't be like the way you want it to be. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AwesomeMcCoolName Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Because pricing thewm in dollars wouldn't help most people.Metal is priced in dollars since...well, theres nothing else to price it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cottonbonbon Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Because pricing thewm in dollars wouldn't help most people.Metal is priced in dollars since...well, theres nothing else to price it in. Pretty much this; since it's not possible to price refined as anything else due to it being the bottom of the barrel in regards to currencies, it makes sense for it to be in USD. Keys on the other hand don't have this luxury. As much as people complain about it being used, refined is still the most common payment method used for keys; not as many people actually pay in USD for them except if you go through paypal traders, the SCM or through the in-game tf2 store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jelly jiggler Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 except people sell from 2 dollars sometimes higher ive seen 2.20 to 1.7 if they are selling to someone that is gonna resell. Then u have the steam market which is 2.35-2.49 and of course the mann co store which is 2.50. dat range thou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrublordington the III Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Keys are most commonly traded for ref. Therefore they are priced in ref Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rub-A-Dub Ducky Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Personally I don't think so, only 8ecause the price of keys will never change in the Mann Co Store. Why have a fluctuating price if there's a source that's consistent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cottonbonbon Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Personally I don't think so, only 8ecause the price of keys will never change in the Mann Co Store. Why have a fluctuating price if there's a source that's consistent? Because most money transactions done for keys aren't from the mann. co store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rico Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 Keys are most commonly traded for ref. Therefore they are priced in ref Ref are most commonly traded for keys. They are priced in USD. except people sell from 2 dollars sometimes higher ive seen 2.20 to 1.7 if they are selling to someone that is gonna resell. Then u have the steam market which is 2.35-2.49 and of course the mann co store which is 2.50. dat range thou Rep is a large factor. Many $1.70-ish sellers I've encountered are scammers. Because pricing thewm in dollars wouldn't help most people.Metal is priced in dollars since...well, theres nothing else to price it in. Metal to USD suggestions are not approved very often, but we constantly see key to metal suggestions get approved, almost twice a week in an accelerating rate. There is a contradiction here. So keys are about 10 ref, and it will cost more metal to buy these keys over time. But the frequency of accepted suggestions for metal to USD is slow in comparison to keys to metal. If this happens, 10 ref = $2.10-$2.30. Based on my observations, keys are selling from trusted sources from roughly $1.90-$2.00, give or take a good few outside the range. Implying the values on backpack.tf are accurate, couldn't this create loopholes, as a trader could sell keys for ref, sell ref for money, and then buy keys with real world cash in a perpetual profit cycle? USD is much more stable, and backpack.tf could easily reflect USD inflation and the state of the real world economy with each suggestion, as the rate of inflation of the dollar fluctuates no more than ~3% each year. And it would prevent these buying and selling loopholes that could be implied from backpack's values. Again, feedback appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AwesomeMcCoolName Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Implying the values on backpack.tf are accurate, couldn't this create loopholes, as a trader could sell keys for ref, sell ref for money, and then buy keys with real world cash in a perpetual profit cycle? USD is much more stable, and backpack.tf could easily reflect USD inflation and the state of the real world economy with each suggestion, as the rate of inflation of the dollar fluctuates no more than ~3% each year. And it would prevent these buying and selling loopholes that could be implied from backpack's values. Again, feedback appreciated. I'll let you in on a little secret, the Dollar-Ref, Dollar-Key, and dollar-bud ratios have never been the same. And that cycle you described, does actually exist. Keys should be priced in metal, as thats whats useful to the majority of traders; however, I do believe keys should also have a separate dollar price from ref, since they aren't exactly tied together perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahzrukhal Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Refined runs the tf2 economy. Keys and buds are like commodities.Refined are like US dollars. Keys have a set value of 2.49. The reason you see people selling keys for less is because of the supply and demand curve: Supply goes up and demand stays the same = Price falls Demand goes up and supply stays the same = Price rises Demand and supply go up at the same rate = Price stays the same Keys "going up in price" is not as alarming as the value of refined dropping. We are experiencing an inflation effect on keys because of lower refined value. Because of the increased supply effect on refined(more players, more drops), we are experiencing lower prices on keys. There is a possibly of an increased demand effect because of Halloween driving prices up temporarily. (However my data doesn't show trends of increasing prices of keys at a quicker rate during or before Halloween time, historically....) One thing is for certain, the value of refined drives the price of keys. Keys are only valued, on average, $0.10 higher in 2014 than the mean value of keys since 9/12/2012. The spiking value of keys in 2014 has only started spiking in mid-September. To answer OP's question, NO, keys should not be priced in USD. The true USD in TF2 is refined. (Also, notice the difference between price, and value) ahz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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