Price Creation Guide- Need Assistance

[The_Demin]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but I would assume that since this is about the economy, I will post it here. If there is any problems with this, please let me know, and I will move it.

So, with that out of the way, hello everyone. I am here with a proposition for you all: you see, I am tired of looking at lousy suggestion after lousy suggestion by players that don't seem to know how to make a proper price suggestion. Thus, I have begun writing a guide, but I need all of your help. I will post a copy of what I have written so far, and allow anyone to make updates to it, as long as they tell me what they did. I feel that if we have some sort of guide we can link to, we can help teach the new people how to make better price suggestions, and get less idiotic ones that do nothing but waste everyone's time, and cause the unfortunate trader to lose rep.

Brace yourselves, you are going to be here a while if you read this in one sitting.

DISCLAIMER:

 

The following guide is written completely by a fan, and is not endorsed by any official moderator or admin of Backpack.tf, TF2Outpost, or any related sites. This guide is not, and should not be treated as, the final word in any discussion regarding prices or trades. If any comments/concerns/questions arise about this guide, and its usage, please contact me through Steam. This guide is free to all, provided that you credit me, The_Demin, as the source. Thank you.

Good morning, afternoon, or evening trader! Allow me to introduce myself: My name is The_Demin, and I will be your guide tonight on how to make a Backpack.tf Price suggestion. Now, I must warn you before we begin: This guide does not guarantee 100% success. Use this as a guide to improve your suggestions, as there is simply some times where the community will disagree
with your trade, no matter how much work you feel you have put into it. This can be for a variety of reasons, and the best lesson I can teach is that you should not connect yourself too much to your rep score. It’s just a statistic, like the number of kills on a Strange weapon.

 

With that out of the way, let’s begin:

 

Suggestion Killers

 

These are the things that make traders hate you. We have seen it a hundred times before, and we will see it a hundred times after. All it ends up being is free rep for everyone else, and a big hit to your rep.

 

Folly One: The Blank Slate

 

This one is the easiest to find. It’s just a blank post, with a price suggestion. There are a few reasons why this person left a blank
post: They confused it for the classifieds, they are testing it out and accidentally pressed save, or they are just stupid. Either way, blank posts are simply downvoted and left to die (after everyone makes fun of the person for lack of proof), and this is probably the easiest mistake to avoid: don’t press save until you are ready.

 

Folly Two: The Unicorn Theory

 

Okay, this name needs some explanation. But suspend your disbelief for a second, and listen to this conversation, played by Bob and
George:

 

Bob: Hey, George! Check out this new price suggestion!

 

George: Well, you don’t seem to have any proof for it, so I am going to downvote you until you do.

 

Bob: But I have seen trades where the item sells for this much! I even bought the item for the price!

 

George: Hey, Bob. Did you see that unicorn the other day?

 

Bob: Unicorns don’t exist.

 

George: Yes they do!  I saw an entire herd of them the other day! I even got to pet one of them!

 

Bob: You’re crazy.

 

George: I am using the same logic as you are. You want me to
believe you based on your word alone.

 

For the most part, I don’t know who you are in real life. Iam sure that most of you are generally nice, honest people, but I can’t be sure. Thus, I must err on the side of cautiousness, and downvote. I apologize to all generally nice people who I have downvoted this way.

 

Another common error I see is “You look up the proofâ€. No, I will not. That’s your job. If I wanted to look up all of the proof for your suggestion, I would’ve made the price suggestion myself, and used the proof I collected. Saying this is a sign of laziness, and general rudeness. We change prices based on proof, not unicorns-er, opinion.

 

Folly Three: Selling =/= Sold

 

I cannot stress this enough. In order to prove that an item sells at a price, you need proof of completed trades at that price. Just showing proof of an item selling at that price is not normally enough, as I can sell a Vintage Bill’s hat at a scrap, and claim that it’s worth that much because I am selling it at that price. If the entire economy worked like that, we could never have stable prices, as they would be controlled by the whims of those who owned them.

 

Now, I know what you are saying: “But The_Demin! TF2Outpost.com stopped showing completed trades! How am I going to show proof if I can’t even look completed trades up?â€

This is a valid point. TF2Outpost indeed has changed its searching methods to not include completed trades, which is annoying for people who are trying to prove prices.

Let’s say you are trying to prove that a hat priced at 1.33-1.66 should be worth 1.33. You search and search, and find plenty of people selling at 1.33, but no completed trades yet. Create a folder on your browser for these trades (I use Google Chrome, and do this by clicking on the button with three white bards next to your URL, and clicking “Bookmark Managerâ€. In there, click on the “Bookmark Bars†folder, and press “New Folder…†Name the folder whatever item you are looking up. After a few days, check up on the trades, and see which ones have been completed. Use those completed trades in your suggestion. After that, work from there.

The next few paragraphs are not necessarily suggestion killers, but can play a big impact on how someone votes on your suggestion:

 

The Age of the Trade

 

So, you found some trades you want to use as proof. Make sure you check how old those trades are. For example, for proof of an item not selling at a certain price, anything less than a week old is considered not good, as it does not give the seller enough time for any potential buyers to find it. You also want to watch out for trades being too old, as they will not be considered “up-to-date†with the current economy. Personally, after three months, I consider the trade too old, but the time varies from person to person.

Quantity Vs. Quality

How much proof is enough proof? This is a tricky question, and the truth is: There is no magical number for it. Granted, people generally enjoy more proof rather than less, but the relevance of the trade themselves is always important. I will take five good trades over 10 bad trades for proof, but it all depends on the number of pages for buyers and sellers you get for the search. Also, how the item is being sold is important as well. For example, if your item has:

 

Paint

 

Special Craft Number/Special Level Numbers

 

Desc/Name tags

 

Strange Counters (If it is a strange weapon)

 

Don’t use that trade as proof. Those items add value to the item, and are not the same as “vanilla†(items with no attachments or paint)items.

 

The Forgotten Item

 

Some items are more popular than others. That is to be expected.  However, it can make gathering proof for the item that much more difficult. If an item only brings up a few pages of results, make sure to note that in the price suggestion, as well as provide a link to the search. That way, people will not think you are skimping out on prices. WARNING: Just because you only have a few trades to work with doesn’t mean you can just provide the search link and let everyone else do the work. You still need trades to prove your point, even if it is only a few. People will understand… hopefully. Also, if TF2 Outpost does not bring up any trades, try the other sites, such as baazzar.tf, and dispenser.tf. You don’t have to stick with TF2 Outpost, even though it generally is the most popular one.

 

Know When to Hold, Know When to Fold

 

You’ve done it. You made a great price suggestion, with plenty of links proving your point. You proudly press the “Save†button, and wait for others to vote.

 

You check up on it a few hours later. What’s this? Counter proof? People claiming they bought it for a different price? What shall you do now? Surely they are wrong, right? THEY MUST BE! I WORKED SO HARD ON IT!

 

Okay, first of all, calm down. Typing in all caps is bad, as that means you are yelling, and you don’t want to yell at the people voting on your price. Now that you are calmed down, look at what they are saying. Are thepoints they bring up legitimate? Is there anything you can do to change their minds? Is the counter-proof they bring up valid? Ask yourselves these questions, and respond in kind.  A trader who responds with civility towards other traders will be treated better than those who lash out at the posters. Remember the golden rule: treat others as you would want to be treated. It’s a simple rule that pays off in the long run.

 

And sometimes, it’s just best to close your trade, and move on. Don’t be too upset about it, it happens to the best of us. Learn from your mistakes, and move on.

 

Final Thoughts

Price updating is not easy, and it can take up a lot of time, so make sure you make time for other activities. (Did you know that this economy is part of a game called Team Fortress 2? It blew my mind when I heard it.) Also, have fun with it. A lot of these members are nice people looking to make sure that this site is as accurate as it can possibly be. So, take this advice, good luck, and happy suggesting!

 

-TD

Well, what do you think?

[~shenanigans]

Pretty good start!

[Jymotion]

I think there's an issue.  The type of people you are targeting are not the type of people who would read a wall of text.

[The_Demin]

Yes, it is a rather large chunk of text, but I was hoping with enough work on it, we could implement it as sort of a tutorial for the site, so that all new traders would at least have an idea of what the are doing. Will there still be stupid traders? Of course. But we can cut down on the number of them.

[✔ P I X E L A T E D ✔]

The people who do this don't even come to the forums, also they have short attention span. I would recommend a video, as they seem to attract more attention.

[Woifi The Viking]

Yeah I totally agree that there should be a readme "How do you make a good price suggestion" (I said that before).

 

Make a short essay about it with

*

*

*

listed points that are easier to read. A bigger wall of text can follow afterwards.

Also the final thread will be linked to bad suggestions like the "how do you make a good unusual suggestion"-thread.

 

 

The people who do this don't even come to the forums, also they have short attention span. I would recommend a video, as they seem to attract more attention.

I personally dislike videos and I'm sure some others does. So a video alone is a bad idea but nothing wrong with an additional one.

[MC22]

The problem is getting people to read the forum in the first place.

[Jymotion]

The problem is getting people to read the forum in the first place.

 

you should read the few posts ahead of you before you post