How do people actually know what unusuals to buy for profit?

[( o_o) Kyrimor ™]

As per title, I'm utterly stumped on whether a hat is worth negotiating on or not when it comes to unusuals, even taking into account effects and what class it goes on.

 

Trading items and skins in SCM seems so much easier, but feel as though the margin for unusuals are probably much better.

 

EDIT: Appreciate the replies y'all. Thank you for your input and insight.

 

[Shotgun]

Buy popular class hat with scout or soldier maybe others too and buy good effects, try to avoid shitty effects that no one wants it in the first place

[awsommv]

https://www.random.org/

[Mr Furley]

I've long since cashed out but always go for the effect, fuck the hat, the better the effect.even if its garbage someone will want the effect. All just my opinion 

[Beaser]

experience

[Mariogeek2]

I mean, I wouldn't say never buy crappy effects. They're not always a good buy, but the main benefit to buying them is you can usually get them on the super cheap, then relist them on cash trading sites or the SCM. People who are poor or children with their mom's credit cards will then buy them, not because they like the effect and/or hat, but because it's a good bit cheaper compared to the competition and is usually is able to be worn by their main. I've sold a many a Nuts n Bolts and Massed Flies hats this way.

 

Putting in SCM buy orders for unu. hats is generally a bad idea, IMO, as they tend to be 1 to 2 keys higher than buy orders on the bp classifieds. You can occasionally get lucky and someone will sell an expensive hat (think energy, flames, or plasma) at buy order price, but you're basically gambling at that point. Although, admittedly, your odds are probably better than unboxing.

 

One last piece of advice I'll give is to look for hats with few bot buy orders if you're trying to buy it. Bots usually get into bidding wars and bump the buy orders up and up and up, driving your profit margins down. You'll usually have a harder time selling hats with low buy orders as compared to full price (think 60% or less of full price) at full price, but your profit margins are usually much better than high buy order hats (This is, of course, contingent upon buying the hat way below full price; don't come complaining to me if you buy a low buy order hat at full price and are frustrated when you have problems reselling it at even a minimal loss.)

 

But, like Beaser said, the best thing is experience. I would give more advice, but my eyelids are like lead, so I'm going to bed now. Peace!

[Scott Bakula]

It really does come down to experience. Every item in the game can be flipped for profit, but it takes experience learning what prices to buy and sell at, how to sell, and who to sell to. And what works for one person isn't going to always work for another, making it more important to be hands-on rather than reading a list.

This of course, will mean that you will take losses, but that just makes it important to learn from your mistakes. The important part there is learning when to let go and begin the recovery progress, as it's far better to take the loss and get back on track than letting your capital rot in your backpack in the vain hope of profit.

[Seminal Inhalation]

2 hours ago, ( o_o) Kyrimor ™ said:

As per title, I'm utterly stumped on whether a hat is worth negotiating on or not when it comes to unusuals, even taking into account effects and what class it goes on.

 

Trading items and skins in SCM seems so much easier, but feel as though the margin for unusuals are probably much better.

Exposure to the market/other traders
Experience in trading

Before I quit in 2017, all-class hats were hated to all hell.
I came back mid-late 2020 and now everybody loves all-class hats again. The market is rarely consistent with anything and needs constant checking and researching.

[Vincentius]

As some people have said, experience is key.

 

Anything can be profitable with the knowledge, one of the reasons why I never fear buying anything. Taunts/spells/weapons everything that can be seen as "cancer" still has a market, you just need to know how to take advantage of it. Best way to learn is to try and see what happens, if it works figure out why. If it fails figure out why, everything has its reason for selling/not selling. Most people have found items that they prefer to sell over others and this is something that you will also learn with time. 

 

Something most people really overlook when they are decently new or even somewhat experience in trading is buyorders, having low buyorders does not mean anything unless you plan on quickselling the said item. The people who complain about buyorders are always the people who expect profit on every trade. Another thing is dont be afraid to take a loss on something, with learning takes losses and thats unavoidable. Better to take a small loss than to hold an item for multiple weeks-months on something small.

 

When finding something to buy take a look at the market of the hat in general, same with effect, both areas include information that might help you decipher if the hat is "overpriced/underpriced". Its rare when someone will actually come to you with a decent deal, thats something you need to work for and not spoon fed. Being spoon fed "deals" or something that people say is a good deal could easily be an awful buy and teach you next to nothing. Take things slow when buying and dont rush anything, these types of actions may cause bad buys, same with selling, dont expect anything to sell within a week, it should be expected on average to take longer.

 

This is the basic info that I can pass without making an even bigger wall of text lol

[Charlotte]

Buy my unusuals and you will get insta profit, trust me

[Scidja]

not really the smartest idea to start trading with the current economy standing... maybe if you started 2018 or earlier it would have been a viable decision

[AShyRag]

3 hours ago, Scidja said:

not really the smartest idea to start trading with the current economy standing... maybe if you started 2018 or earlier it would have been a viable decision

Well said.. Economy is dying