What is the current condition of the tf2 economy as of now?

[TheLastDinosaurOfTheCongo]

Hello friends and compatriots alike, I recently have looked at the price of the earbuds and it stated it was worth 2.5 keys. This is drastically different than it once was. I haven't been up to date with the economy since the "crash" at the beginning of this year. I know earbuds aren't accepted as a good valid currency anymore. My question is has the Tf2 economy made a recovery yet? Or is it laying in ashes from the hyper inflation of metal previously and I assume still ongoing as it is 19 ref to buy a key.Ive seen a few videos from a month or two ago saying no one is trading anymore. Can anyone shed some light on this.

[polar]

How does the value of buds have anything to do with the health of the economy?

[(ง ͠° ͟ل ͡°)ง]

Not really a lot happened from the bud crash aside from unusual inflation.

[SapienS]

TF2 economy didnt crash at all mate, buds did.
Since the community switched to keys as main currency, the economy is more stable than ever.

AND PEOPLE STILL DO TRADES

[AFFIRMATIVE]

Ive seen a few videos from a month or two ago saying no one is trading anymore. Can anyone shed some light on this.

 

Just because you saw some guys on youtube that aren't trading anymore it doesn't mean everyone stopped trading alongside with them.

[Major Erection]

Hello friends and compatriots alike, I recently have looked at the price of the earbuds and it stated it was worth 2.5 keys. This is drastically different than it once was. I haven't been up to date with the economy since the "crash" at the beginning of this year. I know earbuds aren't accepted as a good valid currency anymore. My question is has the Tf2 economy made a recovery yet? Or is it laying in ashes from the hyper inflation of metal previously and I assume still ongoing as it is 19 ref to buy a key.Ive seen a few videos from a month or two ago saying no one is trading anymore. Can anyone shed some light on this.

Those who say trading is dying are those who are butthurt that they don't make crazy profits like they used to. Every time a new update is released there will be people saying it's gonna kill off trading. In reality, trading is still as good as it was. Maybe now ref don't worth as much as they used to but it's not enough to 'kill off' trading. Cheers

[TheLastDinosaurOfTheCongo]

TF2 economy didnt crash at all mate, buds did.

Since the community switched to keys as main currency, the economy is more stable than ever.

AND PEOPLE STILL DO TRADES

so the economy is more healthy, could a man make profit today as easy as he did say before all this metal inflation and the collapse of the earbud?

[Major Erection]

so the economy is more heal

This gif summarises the tf2 economy

 

http://i.imgur.com/pIvKZxD.gifv

[Knurr]

Economy is ded, Outpost closing soon, keys have no demand, Bazaar.tf switches to PayDay 2 soon (better economy of course)

[Heated Bread]

The majority of trading seems to be taking place on the community market now, and if you are trading for profit, then you're going to have to do at least some of your transactions on there.  The non-CM sector of trading is a shadow of its former self, which is one of the main reasons for the failure of earbuds.  They were the primary high tier currency for player to player trades, and they aren't in demand for that anymore, and honestly that was pretty much their only reason for being valued so highly in the first place beyond the initial explosion of interest in them back when there were not as many cosmetics to choose from. 

 

Normal trading is a shitfest.  People just aren't into it that much anymore.  The community market is the main attraction.  It's readily accessible to the vast majority of steam users who are looking for items, and most new items coming out these days are marketable, so most people hardly have to look any further than that.  Consequently, you have less new interest from newbies in that kind of trading beyond anything casual.  It's been starved of "new blood".

 

The community market didn't kill trading, but it certainly stole a lot of the focus away from the more "traditional" way things had been going before.  It has made profit much less easy to obtain the old way, before the market.  That's pretty much what I think most people are really bitching about, whether they know it or not.

[TheMightyPotato]

Ive seen a few videos from a month or two ago saying no one is trading anymore

I sort of want to see those videos.

[Kuuko]

its the golden age of trading whoever says its not its fucking wrong. come at me  trading is slowly dying

[SapienS]

so the economy is more healthy, could a man make profit today as easy as he did say before all this metal inflation and the collapse of the earbud?

To be honnest with you, seeing a lot of traders says like there is no more profit to do in this game. ==> They are just WRONG or dont use thier brains properly.

If you chose a market (a certain type of items could be craft hats, stranges, whatever), you can do a lot of profit if its not saturated i mean like there are not too many traders dealing whith that kind of items (offer is low) VS a tiny profit when they are a lot of traders providing the market with the items (offer high).

Of course depend of the demand it self.

 

Anyway, if you looking to do a lot of profit you need to find your own niche market.

Cheers

[Heated Bread]

I sort of want to see those videos.

 

Here's one for you:

 

I know you weren't asking me specifically, but that's been a video which has sort of been stuck in my mind for a while.

 

Scroll up to my previous post if you want to see what I think about why people like that guy are having such a hard time.

[Rainford]

The economy is stable, but it's definitely not as popular as it used to be. Especially with trade holds being introduced next week, a lot less people will be taking part in it. A lot of people have moved to CSGO for trading.

[Senpai Absol~]

The economy is stable, but it's definitely not as popular as it used to be. Especially with trade holds being introduced next week, a lot less people will be taking part in it. A lot of people have moved to CSGO for trading.

like me, and some others switched to csgo trading after a while, some people are quitting csgo trading as well due to trade holds

[Gren]

The majority of trading seems to be taking place on the community market now, and if you are trading for profit, then you're going to have to do at least some of your transactions on there.  The non-CM sector of trading is a shadow of its former self, which is one of the main reasons for the failure of earbuds.  They were the primary high tier currency for player to player trades, and they aren't in demand for that anymore, and honestly that was pretty much their only reason for being valued so highly in the first place beyond the initial explosion of interest in them back when there were not as many cosmetics to choose from. 

 

Normal trading is a shitfest.  People just aren't into it that much anymore.  The community market is the main attraction.  It's readily accessible to the vast majority of steam users who are looking for items, and most new items coming out these days are marketable, so most people hardly have to look any further than that.  Consequently, you have less new interest from newbies in that kind of trading beyond anything casual.  It's been starved of "new blood".

 

The community market didn't kill trading, but it certainly stole a lot of the focus away from the more "traditional" way things had been going before.  It has made profit much less easy to obtain the old way, before the market.  That's pretty much what I think most people are really bitching about, whether they know it or not.

 

Agreed with pretty much all of that.  However, I would add something: 

 

People have all kinds of ideas as to how to profit.  I can very simply explain to you how I've made most of my profit:  wait for a person to come along who isn't a trader, but who actually plays this game and wants that unusual to wear while he's playing.  This kind of person isn't concerned with profit, reselling the item later on, or getting a deal.  If you've got what they want (and nobody is selling cheaper), they will pay your price, either in pure or they will overpay a lot in items they no longer want. This is the guy you want to sell to.  No lengthy negotiations, no bullshitting about made up prices, just a straight up transaction like you'd have in a store.  

 

Before items like buds, bills, and stranges became marketable, those kinds of people were forced into the trading community.  They had to go on OP to find what they were looking for, contact the seller and make the deal.   But now that pretty much everything is on SCM, there's no reason for these people to ever venture on OP anymore.  They can buy virtually everything (except for craft hats and some taunts) on the market.  And it's WAY easier to do that than deal with the trading community.  Just search for whatever it is you're looking for, click "purchase", and the item is yours.  

 

I can sell pretty much everything except for mid-high tier unusuals 10x faster on SCM than I can on OP today.  Sure, I will have to give up 15% to Valve, but at least I won't have my items sitting around for weeks at a time, just to entertain shitty offers and block 20 scammers each day.   

 

Craft hats, miscs, taunts and unusuals (for which the market is getting shittier and shittier all the time) is pretty much the only thing you need traditional trading avenues for these days.  Everything else is being traded more and more frequently on SCM.  

[m0rxx]

Ever heard of the Steam Community Market? 

People buy items for like 10-20% of normal price and resell for 80% of normal price, mad profit.

Cash for keys trading works great. 

 

Also had this happen to me a few months back:
>buy Golden pan for 980 keys

>resell for ~1280 keys 2 weeks later

>buy dream hat

 

It's doable, maybe you're just bad?

[Bobby Hill]

Honestly in the last year or so my group has grown more than any other year. More automatic trading sites and such have shown up in the last year or so. People are still trading all over the place, buds going down mean nothing. In my opinion trading is still strong as it ever was and the economy is fine. People who dont know how to adapt to the changing economy just believe its dead cause they dont see how TF2 trading and the market works now.

[TheLastDinosaurOfTheCongo]

The majority of trading seems to be taking place on the community market now, and if you are trading for profit, then you're going to have to do at least some of your transactions on there. The non-CM sector of trading is a shadow of its former self, which is one of the main reasons for the failure of earbuds. They were the primary high tier currency for player to player trades, and they aren't in demand for that anymore, and honestly that was pretty much their only reason for being valued so highly in the first place beyond the initial explosion of interest in them back when there were not as many cosmetics to choose from.

 

Normal trading is a shitfest. People just aren't into it that much anymore. The community market is the main attraction. It's readily accessible to the vast majority of steam users who are looking for items, and most new items coming out these days are marketable, so most people hardly have to look any further than that. Consequently, you have less new interest from newbies in that kind of trading beyond anything casual. It's been starved of "new blood".

 

The community market didn't kill trading, but it certainly stole a lot of the focus away from the more "traditional" way things had been going before. It has made profit much less easy to obtain the old way, before the market. That's pretty much what I think most people are really bitching about, whether they know it or not.

you think someone could do a rags to riches kinda thing in present time, like a scrap to unusual. Or has the market changed so much that this kind of method is very ineffective or nearly impossible?

[TheLastDinosaurOfTheCongo]

Honestly in the last year or so my group has grown more than any other year. More automatic trading sites and such have shown up in the last year or so. People are still trading all over the place, buds going down mean nothing. In my opinion trading is still strong as it ever was and the economy is fine. People who dont know how to adapt to the changing economy just believe its dead cause they dont see how TF2 trading and the market works now.

also if you use the community market and you make a certain amount of profit doesn't valve take a certain percentage of said profit? At the end of the year or whatever

[Gren]

you think someone could do a rags to riches kinda thing in present time, like a scrap to unusual. Or has the market changed so much that this kind of method is very ineffective or nearly impossible?

 

The problem with that is that it would take so much longer than it before.  Most of those 'scrap to unusual' stories are from years ago and even then most people freely admitted that they didn't start with a scrap, but more something like a ref or a craft hat.  And back then, having one ref meant you just needed 4 or 5 (depending on what year and month we're actually talking about) more and you'd have a key!  

 

Now you start with a ref, you need 18 more to actually get a key.  Then you have one key which you'll have to break down into items again which you'll be selling for ref.  the cycle continues.   Simply put, let's say a cheap unusual cost 20 keys back then as it does now (at least for a hat that isn't absolute garbage).  When keys were 6 Ref, it would have taken you 120 Ref to get that unusual.  Now it would take 380 ref that hat.  That alone is a massive difference.   Then take into account the fact that it's gotten harder to make profit (because most blue chip items like Bill's, Strange Festives, etc. are now marketable.  E.g. I used to buy white or black bills for 6 keys and flip them for 7 easily and do that several times a week, this is obviously no longer possible).  Then also consider the fact that virtually every item in TF2 has lost value in relation to keys.  E.g. 1 strange Black Box used to be worth one key.  Now it's not even worth half a key.  Another example would be the BoA and TC, you could buy those pretty easily for 6 Ref and then flip them for a key.  The list goes on forever....

 

I wouldn't say it's impossible to go from a ref to an unusual today, but it would take so much more time than it did before, I wouldn't advise anyone to do it.  

[TheVirtualEconomist]

The economy is in no way shape or form dying, and if I hear another fucking person say that the "downfall of buds" was a economy crash, I am going to lose my mind.

Buds FIXED high tier trading. Let me say that again. Buds FIXED high tier trading. Why? Because now your unusuals don't randomly go up or down in price for no fucking reason. The economy is way stabler now than before, if u don't realize that, you might as well quit trading and do something more productive with your life.

 

 

I think Gren pretty much sumed up my opinion in a nice little responce. What makes a healthy economy? There being ACTUAL intrest in items. Why is csgo an arguably "better" economy? Because there is DEMAND for all items. 90% of tf2 traders trade to make profit, and the only "casuals" If you want to call them that live off the scm, not on tf2 outpost or the like. This makes it so the only people you trade with are toxic idiots trying to profit off you. TF2 is not a bad economy. But it sure as hell needs more people who actually want to wear unsuauls because hey look cool not because they can resell them for more than they paid for them.

This problem quite honestly is all because the only items with value are cosmetic. You don't need a burning team captain to play MvM, but you need a black box or a phlostiagator, or whatever. What would be he "fix"? deleate all unique weapons from people's inventories and make them pay for them in the Mann co Store for at least $5. This would make people riot even more than valve's shitty Escrow system, but the economy would be really healthy. People would spend money to get that weapon for competitive that they really need, and they would buy it from you on tf2 outpost as a "casual", not a "value" trader. How will I know this will work? I am an active trader in the Magic the Gathering economy. Pretty much all cards have some demand, so there is no issure in trying to move idiotic items like a gifted vintage max that no one in the right mind would ever want to buy. You can also snag good deals, trading a $5 card for a $10 card to someone who really loves the card you have a and it is the last card he really needs for his new deck. This is the way an economy this is truly healthy. Hopefully the release of competitive matchmaking will improve this issure of demand. This, and the fact that the scm is taking away from person to person trading are really the only two ways someone can argue that the economy is unhealthy. If you are not talking about those issuers, then your argument is faulty. There are reason that the economy is bad, but no one brings up the real reasons.

[Vrakos Anthrakir]

you think someone could do a rags to riches kinda thing in present time, like a scrap to unusual. Or has the market changed so much that this kind of method is very ineffective or nearly impossible?

I did several ref to 20keys (aprox) in a week when the breadbox update came out.  does that count?  or too old :<

[Heated Bread]

you think someone could do a rags to riches kinda thing in present time, like a scrap to unusual. Or has the market changed so much that this kind of method is very ineffective or nearly impossible?

 

It's always possible, but it's just not going to be as easy as it used to be.  Not the old way.  Not even close.  Especially for someone who is new.  It's going to have to involve the SCM.  It's possible to get really lucky with the SCM sometimes even if you have no idea what you're doing.