A few beginning unusual reselling questions

[spaceboy]

Hi all.  I'm considering starting to trade in unusuals, and I have a few questions.  

 

1) Would it be better to start with hats or weps?  Which group would have the better volume for the low end?  

 

2)  What is a good initial investment for low end stuff?  Is $100 for 6-7 key hats enough to get rolling?

 

3) I know it might be impossible to answer this one, but on the average, if one has 10 low end hat/effects, how many per week could they expect to sell?

 

4) Finally, how well do manual traders perform versus the bots?  Should I expect to have to use a bot to make any real progress?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[hoping]

1. Weapons are lowend. No one will accept unless it is incredible overpay. Start with hats.

2. $100 is good, but buy a singular mid tier hat. You can probably flip it for a better chance. The 6-7 key tier is full of scrap-to-unusual idiots.

3.depends.

4. You dont need a bot, but it definitely helps. However, bots are usually for weapons and stranges, not unusuals. You can go solo and still make profit.

 

My Tip. Learn all scammer techniques and prepare a copypasta to roast them. 

 

I'm also kinda new, but i've laerned alot from my friend.

[Adolf Storms]

it's better to stick with a few decent hats 15-25 keys if you plan on makin any profits. buy low and have patience. some experience to know what will sell or not is helpfull.

selling 1 hat a month if waiting for pure is average I would say. taking overpay you can expect like 1 decent trade a week if you have it priced right. "average" is a term i use loosely. really depends on what you buy more than anything else and how much time/effort you put in.

non-common stranges like strange festive sandviches, bread stranges, strange miscs etc can be decent stable earners that just require a close eye on the bots buying and selling. making 10 or 20 ref on a 5 key item is gravy.

best not to put all your eggs in the unusual basket when starting out.

and ya... learn the scam methods. so ez to get trapped when newish.

don't listen to 'know-it-alls' on unusual trade servers. do your research unbiased. alot of traders that started in the last couple years think they know everything that could lead u astray.

[Vagisil]

Best advice I got was stick around the 20-40 key range. If you get an overpriced hat you can usually find someone with less knowledge to take it. Also patience is key.

[Pineapple Pizza]

1. Absolutely hats. While weapons can be flipped for profit if you know what you're doing, and there can even be money in taunts, hats are way easier and more dependable than anything else. 

2. You can get going with less than $100. Some people go straight up from scrap. I wouldn't start with anything less than 5 keys. I'd go for like 10-20 keys, buy a low-tier hat with a high-tier effect, and get rolling. 

3. There's no way to answer that succinctly, but keep in mind that low-tier hats with high-tier effects beat high-tier hats with low effects in terms of salability. A low-tier effect on a low-tier hat takes forever, as does a high-tier effect on a high-tier hat. 

4. You can do a ton without bots. Manual trading is more enjoyable anyway. While yeah, bots can be helpful, you don't need them to profit and have fun. 

[Anteater Supreme]

Just wanted to build on what the previous people said, if you have the cash in like a PayPal account or CC/debit, I would recommend looking for some hats or items off Marketplace.tf since you can find some hidden gem profit makers in the Deals section.

I would say most of the hats under the Deals section aren't really good value and are about the same price when converted into keys compared to other sellers on classified and etc.

There are a couple of things I look out for before purchasing a hat off the site:

1. ALWAYS check the history for recent marked people, you do not want to buy fenced or stolen goods.

2. Are you competing with a lot of sellers on classified? Are there a lot of buy orders for the hat?

3. Did you pay a good amount ABOVE the highest buy orders on classified and other sites?

4. Based off 3., you want to pay as close to OR under the buy order, this is for safety in case you ever want to back off the hat and sell it quickly and not lose much or break even.

 

Based off these steps, I was able to make nearly 20 keys in pure profit less than a week by buying unusual hats and collector quality weapons that had buy orders already paying keys above what I paid in cash.

Cash is king in my opinion, you can get better deals than trading with pure keys if you spend the time searching.

 

[requiem.]

10 hours ago, spaceboy said:

Hi all.  I'm considering starting to trade in unusuals, and I have a few questions.  

 

1) Would it be better to start with hats or weps?  Which group would have the better volume for the low end?  

 

2)  What is a good initial investment for low end stuff?  Is $100 for 6-7 key hats enough to get rolling?

 

3) I know it might be impossible to answer this one, but on the average, if one has 10 low end hat/effects, how many per week could they expect to sell?

 

4) Finally, how well do manual traders perform versus the bots?  Should I expect to have to use a bot to make any real progress?

 

Thanks for any advice.

1. Definitely hats. Weapons sell poorly and the supply far outweighs the demand.

2. Buy 1-2 mid tier, maybe all-class hats, since they sell faster. Sell each for 5 keys more than you paid. Remember, if you want to get into unusual trading, patience is key. $100 is a good start.

3. Depends on effect and buyers. If you go on most trade servers, you should be able to sell 1-3 within a week, but that may change.

4. Bots are popular because they trade fast and efficient. Truth is, most people now are lazy and want trades done fast, so they choose bots. Dealing with actual users, you will make more of a profit or get a better deal.

Bots can be hard to set up, and you either need programming experience to create one or use a site to make one. Bots require around $200 of change in their inventory at all times, and you need even more for the items you want the bot to sell.

 

I hope this helps.

[spaceboy]

Ok, thanks for all the tips, guys.