I think I've peaked in rock-bottom-tier trading and I'm not sure what should I do next.

[foxbite]

Uh, so, basically, someday at the start of the global lockdown I thought that after 6 years (of playing as p2p and yet not using the benefits it provides to the fullest) it would be the right time to, you know, expand my inventory, and get more than 4 hats I got from timed drops. 

 

I discovered mptf and things got a bit out of hand. I mean, I set the rules for myself to not spend too much of my precious neetshekels on in-game pixels but I think I actually spent 'bout 10-15$ over the course of 3-4 months.

Long story short, I realised that you can get some stuff by basically reselling hats and your spare weapons on mptf 'cuz 0.01$ is min and also all the prices are a bit inflated most of the time. I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to contain my rampant addiction to hats (NEVER let me near any games with customizable characters).

 

Got a spare buck from selling my junk, went up to 5, wasted it on hats and stuff. Was indeed cool, but slow and painful. Still better than gettin' 1 scrap per trade with bots.

 

And then the Halloween came. My God, the prices. The prices! 

 

Combination of luck and good timing brought me some really sweet profits. After wasting some of them, I decided to bank the rest in form of keys. Got 'bout 10, still have a little funds to spare.

 

Well, since then way more sellers use the same schemes I used before, I can't really get much profit from there anymore. I guess the end of first week of October was the end of it.

I'm not satisfied with crumbs I get from trading in low-tier and I guess it's time to either spend it all on hats (as originally planned) or move on. I mean, mptf is pretty much closing soon anyway.

 

The problem is, I'm not sure how to start. Everything is so eerie when you reach to unusual/spelled trade. I mean, yes, there are tons of guides and yet they all are still a bit confusing for me.

 

I get the 'buy quicksells and quicksell' principle, I guess I might get some modest profits from sniping quicksells and dumping stuff I got to bots or trying to qs it myself.

But what hats/effects are the most desirable in the LOWEST tiers?
Which ones I should expect to rise in value, what market trends I should be on lookout for?
What is the best place for somebody looking for qs and good deals in the bargain basement departament of unusual trading? 

Stuff like that is what I'd like to hear about.

 

Drop tips if you have any. Also if there's any communities specializing on that, send me a link.

[HaloGAMER0329]

1 hour ago, foxbite said:

The problem is, I'm not sure how to start. Everything is so eerie when you reach to unusual/spelled trade. I mean, yes, there are tons of guides and yet they all are still a bit confusing for me.

 

I get the 'buy quicksells and quicksell' principle, I guess I might get some modest profits from sniping quicksells and dumping stuff I got to bots or trying to qs it myself.

But what hats/effects are the most desirable in the LOWEST tiers?
Which ones I should expect to rise in value, what market trends I should be on lookout for?
What is the best place for somebody looking for qs and good deals in the bargain basement departament of unusual trading? 

Stuff like that is what I'd like to hear about.

 

Drop tips if you have any. Also if there's any communities specializing on that, send me a link.

 

If you wouldnt buy it to wear chances are other people wont either. Buy stuff thats nice to use while you wait for an offer to resell and you cant go wrong

[TraL]

Basically, buy an effect you like (by putting a trade offer to buy, highest than bot, but still in QS price).

Once you got it, put it in sell with a small benefit, and play with it in the meantime. (if you can sell it cheaper than bot, it's perfect)

 

So what to choose ? Hat with some room between seller and buyer (I see some unusual around 20k, with only a few ref between seller and buyer, not a good idea)

Avoid at all price effect not visible (it's easy, it hat you can buy on scrap.tf generally. bubble, orbiting planet, mass fly, nut n bolt)

 

Ps: avoid spelled market.

[Scott Bakula]

A bad effect on a good hat is easier to sell than a good effect on a bad hat. If you look at what hats people like to get or fetch higher than average prices in non-unusual form, the same applies to the unusual variants. Similarly, it's easier to sell hats for classes that people commonly play, like what you'd find in a standard 6s match (Soldier, Medic, Scout, Demoman), as they've got a larger market.

 

As for other advice, the big thing to remember is that the road to profit is not buy item>sell for pure>use pure to buy new item. It's all about the overpay and sweets, swapping item for item(s) and building your way up bit by bit. The other big thing to remember is knowing when to cut your losses; You will make bad trades. It's inevitable and is something that can only be learned by experience. But it's better to just let go and accept your loss and take the hit rather than wasting time letting the item rot in your backpack. On a similar vein, it's important to keep a diverse portfolio. Investing everything into a single item means that you're not making anything until that item sells, whereas having multiple items means that even if you get a slow selling item, you're still generating profit which also helps mitigate losses from bad trades.

 

One thing that also helps is having an end goal. Such as do you want a really good loadout for a particular class or have a dream unusual? Having a goal gives you motivation to work for it, They can be small goals or large goals, but having a destination makes the journey a little easier. And having a goal of earning profit for the sake of profit is a terrible goal, namely because there's so so so many better ways to earn money. Like, look at how much time it took you to earn those 10 keys, then compare it to how much it would take you to earn at a job.

 

1 hour ago, foxbite said:

I set the rules for myself to not spend too much of my precious neetshekels on in-game pixels but I think I actually spent 'bout 10-15$ over the course of 3-4 months.

Man, if you think 15 bucks over the course of 4 months is a lot, the spending habits of those of us whales will horrify you.

[TraL]

6 minutes ago, Scott Bakula said:

A bad effect on a good hat is easier to sell than a good effect on a bad hat.

 

I don't fully agreed on this. Both are difficult to sell. No one want a massed-flies whatever the hat.

[foxbite]

17 minutes ago, Scott Bakula said:

And having a goal of earning profit for the sake of profit is a terrible goal, namely because there's so so so many better ways to earn money. Like, look at how much time it took you to earn those 10 keys, then compare it to how much it would take you to earn at a job.

True, I mostly been doing this because this is a first semi-productive thing I've done lately. It just sparked something inside me, might as well get me out of procrastination.

 

17 minutes ago, Scott Bakula said:

Man, if you think 15 bucks over the course of 4 months is a lot, the spending habits of those of us whales will horrify you.

I mean, if I had a stable income, I wouldn't mind this. But since I'm a uni student who's not really financially stable (yet) I'm always trying to not waste too much on, ugh, things that don't go to the 'bare necessities' category. At least when it comes to virtual items.

[foxbite]

4 minutes ago, TraL said:

 

I don't fully agreed on this. Both are difficult to sell. No one want a massed-flies whatever the hat.

True, I can't imagine someone buying tf logo (I consider it as a great effect) Plumber's Pipe nor Massed Flies, um, Cotton Head

It's all about balance between the likeability of the effect and the cosmetic, I guess?

[Flamadin]

Rarity. If you are competing with 3 to 10 other items just like yours, then how can you make much profit?

 

Be the only person selling a double spelled liberty launcher, or target unusuals where only 3 or less exist, even if it is low tier.

[TraL]

2 minutes ago, foxbite said:

It's all about balance between the likeability of the effect and the cosmetic, I guess?

 

Exaclty (I don't like tf logo)

[Strange]

all this over only 5 dollars? 

[Markt3]

I wouldnt do unusual trading with only 10 keys tbh, like, I'd rather keep on the lowtier trading till I get like 20-25. And even then I would still do lowtier trading on a side coz unusual trading can be slow at the beginning

[Norah]

My advice would be to just keep doing what you're doing. Maybe you can get lucky with new effects in that region - I've seen a PP Hazard Headgear listed for 10 keys before, for example, but don't bet too hard on that. If you can just increase the scale of what you're doing now - it's likely your best bet.

[foxbite]

8 hours ago, Strange said:

all this over only 5 dollars? 

wha?
 

 

8 hours ago, Markt3 said:

I wouldnt do unusual trading with only 10 keys tbh, like, I'd rather keep on the lowtier trading till I get like 20-25. And even then I would still do lowtier trading on a side coz unusual trading can be slow at the beginning

 

6 hours ago, Norah said:

My advice would be to just keep doing what you're doing. Maybe you can get lucky with new effects in that region - I've seen a PP Hazard Headgear listed for 10 keys before, for example, but don't bet too hard on that. If you can just increase the scale of what you're doing now - it's likely your best bet.

I suppose both of ye are right, I shouldn't abandon low-tier altogether yet. It's just that I became a bit greedy lately and won't be bothered with any deals that'll bring me less than 5-10 ref in profit, even in the low-low-tier. I guess I could try trading with some upper-tier uniques, they're selling at inflated prices most of the time.

[Torb]

Just get a job and spend money on what you want, trading is a timewaster and for most people the reward isn't worth the time invested.