Couple of trading questions from retired and switching CSGO trader

[MrRaTmAn]

I've been trading for quite a bit back in the 2016 days on the CSGO scene, but eventually, just as many other people, had to retire after the trading hold took place. Trading was one of the most pleasing hobbys of mine, and lately I've been really missing it. CS trading seems to be pretty much dead, and I've mostly cashed out since then, but still have around hundred CSGO keys lying in my inventory. And so, since the need is still here, here I'm asking - is converting them and getting into TF trading a good idea? I don't expect mad profits obviously, mostly something to occupy myself, and possibly fund my steam gaming needs.

 

Though an overall answer to the question will be appreciated, I also have some more specific questions as an extra. Usually I'd consider something like this annoying question streak, but look at it this way: you'll test your trade knowledge, and I will get useful information! It's a win-win, obviously!

 

• How fluid is the economy, can I expect at least one trade a day these days? I know the playerbase is much smaller, but I need to know for sure, this is pretty much the main question.
• What sites besides backpack.tf (quite amazing CSGO never such a professional economy site btw) should I be using for trading?
• Are trading servers worth it?
• Is idle trading (set-up and forget) doable?
• Is pure trading (keys -> item/s -> keys) anything efficient?
• Are guides dating a few years back still helpful, or are they just as helplessly outdated as CS ones?
• Anything not-so-obvious (or perhaps obvious, but I'm just missing it) I should know?

 

But really, thanks for any answers. I really miss the intoxicating look of my inventory pages filled up with keys.

[r0b]

56 minutes ago, MrRaTmAn said:

How fluid is the economy, can I expect at least one trade a day these days? I know the playerbase is much smaller, but I need to know for sure, this is pretty much the main question.

Depends on what kind of items you're trading, nowadays it's almost impossible to make profit by trading unique items since the market is overrun by bots so you'd have to go into unusual trading, and it usually take several days if not months to sell a hat.

59 minutes ago, MrRaTmAn said:

What sites besides backpack.tf (quite amazing CSGO never such a professional economy site btw) should I be using for trading?

There's bazaar.tf but no one uses that site so bp.tf is the only choice

59 minutes ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Are trading servers worth it?

Definitively not

59 minutes ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Is pure trading (keys -> item/s -> keys) anything efficient?

Same as the first, overrun by bots

1 hour ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Are guides dating a few years back still helpful, or are they just as helplessly outdated as CS ones?

Nah, they're just not up to date anymore

 

 

[sfpt]

4 hours ago, MrRaTmAn said:

How fluid is the economy, can I expect at least one trade a day these days? I know the playerbase is much smaller, but I need to know for sure, this is pretty much the main question.

Unless you're lucky you won't get one trade a day. Unusual trading is the main way to go although spell trading is also a more niche, but very profitable way to trade.

4 hours ago, MrRaTmAn said:

What sites besides backpack.tf (quite amazing CSGO never such a professional economy site btw) should I be using for trading?

The only one that comes to mind is Marketplace.tf, where you trade for actual cash instead of keys/items. There's nothing else that is really of any use since outpost died.

4 hours ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Are trading servers worth it?

Despite what many will tell you, yes! The only two actually viable unusual trading servers these days are Vatican City Unusual, and FirePowered Unusual. Nothing else really has an active playerbase of actual traders. As long as you have the free time, you'd be very surprised at the deals you get from these two servers. Trading servers definitely aren't as strong as they were a few years ago, but if you're vigilant on servers like that you can definitely get some great deals regularly. If you're trading in low tier, it's also basically the only way to go, as you won't get many regular offers through backpack.tf.

4 hours ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Is idle trading (set-up and forget) doable?

Very. Many people just list their items on backpack.tf and/or marketplace.tf and just call it a day. If you have a lot of hats this is the main way to go, as going on trade servers is a bit time-consuming.

4 hours ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Is pure trading (keys -> item/s -> keys) anything efficient?

This is an option, but in trading I wouldn't recommend sticking to ONLY this. Take whatever offer seems good to you! This may be a full pure offer, but more often than not it will be an offer for a hat. You won't have much success if you only accept one type of offer.

On the other hand, buying quicksells and re-quickselling them is profitable and people who do this usually only look for pure. Good quicksells are a bit hard to find these days though and personally i'd recommend getting the most you can out of a hat.

4 hours ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Are guides dating a few years back still helpful, or are they just as helplessly outdated as CS ones?

You just have to be picky with what information you take to heart. Many are outdated. Any guides you see on youtube will likely be outdated. A lot of things have changed in the economy since even 2016, so I'd take advice from a few years ago with a grain of salt.

4 hours ago, MrRaTmAn said:

Anything not-so-obvious (or perhaps obvious, but I'm just missing it) I should know?

Don't ever say "I only accept quicksells that are 30% off or more" or "I only take pure" or "I only take downgrades" or "I don't accept unusual taunts". Limiting yourself to one type or a few types of trading is dumb. Opening yourself up to more offers will get you some great deals, especially as many other people would decline people's offers simply because it includes a taunt or whatever.

[Lemon_ade]

Idk what r0b has against trade servers but the Vatican unusual trade server has given me many great trades. Also if you’ve not done tf2 trading before don’t do the common mistake of thinking that the backpack.tf pricing of items is the law, an item may be worth a lot less or a lot more than it’s backpack.tf price.

[JNeb900ThePeril]

I avoid trade servers since it's a big time investment with no guarantee of getting a trade. There's only 31 people you can trade with on a trade server max, and then you have to consider that everyone has a different number of unusuals, keys, and unusual value, so you're likely going to find only a few that can trade within your bracket of unusuals. And then of those people in your bracket, there aren't a lot of people advertising good deals.

In the end I think they're a pretty big waste of time.

 

I'd think csgo would be better; the playerbase and interest in knives is much higher than in tf2. I'm considering switching to csgo butI haven't made up my mind yet.

[MrRaTmAn]

Like I said, I still have around 100 CSGO keys lying around. There are probably better things to do with them, but if I'm in, I'm all in. Should help to get my footing.

 Anyhow, appreciate all the answers. I'm still conflicted, but the big thing is there's just no decent alternative to the much-needed trading fix.

 

1 hour ago, JNeb900ThePeril said:

I'd think csgo would be better; the playerbase and interest in knives is much higher than in tf2. I'm considering switching to csgo butI haven't made up my mind yet.

 

Debatable, there's a reason I myself am not coming back to it, but looking for alternatives. Vast majority of "trading" there seems automated these days, with big name sites such as csmoney that an average trader has not much hope of competing with coming to mind. Actual trading sites, such as csgolounge, are in a perpetual state of half filled cesspool - scammers run rampant, bots pushed out much of a low-mid tier traderbase, and even a part of high (since prices are more or less stable), dead trades getting bumped up like some sick reminiscences of the past, crowding the already overfilled pages with even more uselessness. But while these all can be manageable, and you do get your way, the one thing that absolutely kills you is the 7-day trading hold. If you don't already have an inventory that'll allow you to flip multiple high-tier items at once, just get a job giving out leaflets or something; it'll be both more profitable and engaging. 

 Now, I didin't check out trading servers and steam groups, but I honestly don't think the situation is any better there. Again, the trading hold is the main offender here, and there's just no way you're bypassing it. Maybe trading with money, but this is not something you can just lightly decide to do.

[Lemon|0_o]

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• How fluid is the economy, can I expect at least one trade a day these days? I know the playerbase is much smaller, but I need to know for sure, this is pretty much the main question.

Whilst many would argue it has suffered a gradual decline over the past ~3 years, one trade a day is absolutely feasible. Your remark in regards to the player-base has resulted in the rapid rise of automated trading (with bots) and the rather unfortunate fall of person to person trading. What this means is that you may find it difficult to negotiate a price, or even make a small profit. 

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•  What sites besides backpack.tf (quite amazing CSGO never such a professional economy site btw) should I be using for trading?

Sadly, many of the best that used to exist (TF2 Outpost, Trade.tf) have shut down.

However, owned by the same people as Backpack.tf now, Scrap.tf is the biggest one for automated trading. They also hold raffles (similar to 'pots', before they were banned), auctions and I believe they have their own forum. If you only want to trade with real people, Bazaar.tf is quite good as well, however it is not very active. 

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•  Are trading servers worth it?

Short answer: No.

 

This is mainly because those types of servers are really what I call 'hacker haven'. The amount of mods and different maps you'll need to download before hopping on to there is also a major turn off. Even if you do find a good deal, it really isn't what you're after. In my view, this is where automated trading prevails.  

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•  Is idle trading (set-up and forget) doable?

Many years ago, this was very much in action and was very efficient. You can still do it, however Valve made an update patch stating that in order to receive any item drops, you would need to remain active on the server (moving around, shooting etc). Even if, don't bother because it's very hard to bank scrap metal off of it. 

 

*EDIT* 

It seems I incorrectly answered this question, as I thought you meant opening TF2, jumping into a sever and go AFK. I'll keep the answer there in case that was what you meant. 

 

Answer 2:

Most definitely. In a Nutshell, It's as simple as creating a listing and seeing offers come in. 

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•  Is pure trading (keys -> item/s -> keys) anything efficient?

Yes, it is if you want to offer all of it to someone else for an item. However, automated trading has made it harder to garner a profit off it, as they always take off ~1 refined metal from the listed price and sell for ~1 refined metal above. 

 

On the other hand, it isn't if you want to negotiate with a person to lower the price. Providing items (hats, rare weapons etc) in the place of the currency is what you would do here.

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•  Are guides dating a few years back still helpful, or are they just as helplessly outdated as CS ones?

If you're referring to the older ones such as 'rags to riches' or 'scrap to unusual in one day', no.  

As mentioned several times before, automated trading killed this off. 

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•  Anything not-so-obvious (or perhaps obvious, but I'm just missing it) I should know?

Take into account not only sfpt's response to this question, but also this;

 

Regardless of how experienced you are at trading, never, ever accept any offer to which the trader has said they will give you an item outside of the trade window. 99% of the time, they are lying. I'd imagine that as a trader with 100+ keys, you know that inside-out. 

 

Also, don't use Earbuds as a currency. 4-5 years ago, they were taken out of the trading landscape as I believe people felt that a limited currency was not the way forward. 

In addition to that, look at the Steam Community Market to see if you can find a good deal. Other online stores include Mannco.trade and Marketplace.tf, which will sell the same items on the Steam Market for a much cheaper price in most cases. 

 

Good luck in your trading endeavours! If you have any more questions, let me know. 

[CallMeAncient]

I cashed out over 200 keys by starting with 8 trading cards in 6 months. But U Already have a pretty nice initial budget so u have a head start to start your TF2 Trading carrier. Many people have explained your initial questions but i would like to add 1 more. Make your own trading strategy which suits your experience instead of doing what people say. Do your own research and make your own conclusions. No one is going to give their trade secrets so make your own. Good luck In Your TF2 Trading!