Need help with unusual trading

[Pucho]

First of all, sorry if something inside this post is incorrect, I'm new to this forum and honestly, I'm not very used to forums at all.

So, since I started playing TF2, I was amazed by those awesome, seemingly impossible to get "Unusual" hats. At that time, I knew they were unreachable, so I just played and saw people with cool hats, wondering if one day I'll be able to get one of those. And I was.

Half a year ago, I bought an Orbiting Fire Broadband Bonnet for 9 keys. I was pretty happy with it until I started wanting to trade it, when I just noticed I wouldn't be able to sell it. The low-tier unusual trading is completely dead. For me, at least, is impossible to sell for 9 keys a low tiered hat, as anyone you send an offer will only accept quicksell prices and bots are not an option.

Today I found myself with 19 keys and a Mega Strike Battin' a Thousand, which I got by buying an Unusualifier. I really need help from someone experienced, so I can learn how to buy unusuals, which to buy and how to properly sell them, because I'm seeing that in 3 months I'll be selling this taunt for 2 keys just so I can have a part of the money back.

Thanks.

[leftyy]

rule #1. never buy unusual taunts with the intent to resell them for profit, you won't get any profit from this and it is hard to even break even to get what you spent on it

[Torb]

3 minutes ago, cha0s said:

rule #1. never buy unusual taunts with the intent to resell them for profit, you won't get any profit from this and it is hard to even break even to get what you spent on it

Not if you're smart with them, people who say no taunts or weapons are complete morons, taunts and weapons are very easy sells for pure

[Kimika-chan]

step1 buy low sell high without using your brain

step 2 learn what is good to buy low and sell high

step 3 buy low sell high using your brain

 

alternatively ask people such as backpack.tf discord what is good and bad and skip to step 3

 

step 4 become big brain and develop your own strategy and learn what works best for you with experience

[Roi]

check alot the classifified listings, to have an idea of how much profit you could get basing on sellers/buyers.

[3.50]

13 minutes ago, Kimika-chan said:

alternatively ask people such as backpack.tf discord what is good and bad

Yes, but be careful, as you'll get super mixed results in terms of quality of advice from asking the community.

 

Part of this, I suspect, is because traders who actually have the knowledge and experience required to trade effectively without requiring large investments, bots, etc--the specific sort of people OP wants to hear from--are often somewhat reluctant to share their methods because they'd be creating competition for themselves.

[Scott Bakula]

Low tier trading isn't dead, you're simply taking the wrong approach.

 

While selling for pure is always the best result, it's not the easiest or quickest one. Instead, the focus should be on sidegrades and utilizing overpay and sweets. You may not be able to sell a 9 key unusual for 9 keys, but you could trade it for a 9.5 key unusual or a different 9 key unusual plus a half key of sweets. The more trades like that you do, the more your inventory builds up, allowing you to buy in higher volumes and/or qualities. Sure, sometimes you may be on the end that's doing the overpay/sweets from time to time, but having a cheaper item that can sell is better than having a more expensive one that can't (as knowing when to cut your losses is another major part of being a good trader).

[CallMeAncient]

i can point out a few steps to help with your unusual journey

-If u sell one overpriced hat for other, u haven't made any profit since the real value of the hat is much lower

-people love pure: even if u have decent items, people will prefer pure (execptions: australiums & max's hat)

-don't avoid all the unusual taunts. since most of them are cheap, there is a quite a big market of buyers out there

*not giving away my 6 trading card to 250$ strats though. weird flex but ok

 

[Torb]

2 hours ago, 3.50 said:

Yes, but be careful, as you'll get super mixed results in terms of quality of advice from asking the community.

 

Part of this, I suspect, is because traders who actually have the knowledge and experience required to trade effectively without requiring large investments, bots, etc--the specific sort of people OP wants to hear from--are often somewhat reluctant to share their methods because they'd be creating competition for themselves.

A. Giving advice to people can be time consuming

B. People can sometimes become so dependent on it they never make any decisions themselves

C. As you stated, it does create competition

D. It can be annoying to be asked seemingly obvious questions

[hugh]

3 hours ago, Torb | Elite Spell Trader™ said:

A. Giving advice to people can be time consuming

B. People can sometimes become so dependent on it they never make any decisions themselves

C. As you stated, it does create competition

D. It can be annoying to be asked seemingly obvious questions

E. Your students show appreciation for you teaching them by using their newly obtained knowledge to make multiple obviously bad offers on your hats

[soz]

I'd give advice but people think I'm bad at trading. I'd say don't count how much profit you can theoretically make off something, just think is it worth your time doing that and possibly getting nothing.