Is it worth re-entering the TF2 economy?

[Norah]

So something like 18 months ago I fully pulled out of the TF2 economy. I did near enough all of my trading via Marketplace.TF buy orders and flips, and when the seller program's shutdown was announced I made the decision to withdraw completely knowing that while I did pretty well for myself sales-wise, it wouldn't be enough to get on the whitelist. I've also not actively traded outside of MPTF since maybe early 2019, and the Classifieds market seems pretty far from what I remember, (Steaming miscs at $150, are people really paying this?). To say I'm out of the loop would be an understatement.

 

So main point is a question to people who have stuck with trading long-term, would you say it's worth reinvesting and trying to trade actively again? Are things overall looking positive or negative? I've got just over 200 keys liquid sat in my inventory at the moment from selling my Dark Doorway Sinner's Shade, and I'm debating what I should do with it. Thanks!

[Abstract]

If you plan on getting back in, I would place buy orders on items that have low buy orders compared to what they could sell for. It's still possible to have decent margins that way.

With that being said, I'm not as active with trading as much because the market isn't as interesting as it used to be unless you're checking constantly to snipe good listings or maintain thousands of buy orders. I remember being able to find decent cheap hats I liked more often 1-2 years ago. Now those hats are ~2-5x what their price was and the bots pay full value for them.

 

TL;DR Having a full-time job is more consistent and usually pays better, but if you like trading, it's still good, just not as good as before.

[TheSun]

Now before the flood gates get fully open, there's going to be a ton of people saying "Trading isn't worth it" Everything has gone up in price heavily. I would say, don't take trading too seriously and think you'll be making a huge profit. Take it as a side thing while playing TF2, put the hours into it only if you enjoy trading. If you don't, it won't be worth your time.

[Colonel Johnson]

Sadly the trading scene is not the same as months ago, useless to say. A lot of items now have an inflated price and reached 4 ciphers of key prices, but there is still some space for good offers and profits. I would say that you may need a higher starting point in pure keys as a launching ramp for trading, probably 50-100 keys or a few more.

However, there have been new possibilities to help the "hobby" as a trader such as the MPTF seller program which has been reopened (you need to apply for it tho) and the Arcade.TF site which has a brokering and cashout system implemented.

[Beaser]

nope, unless you have $10k to invest in 

[Keks]

depends on how much resources you are willing to spend, those resources being time and money.

 

Back in the day, you only really needed sufficient time. but if you wanna be making bank, you better have both the money and time to invest

 

edit: knowing who you are, you should know how fucked it is

[TCLG6x6]

Best way to make profit is snipe good hat/effect combos on new events from SCM or directly from Unboxers who just want to cashout fast. That is if Valve decides to add new effects.

[Fr3unen]

Short answer: no

 

Long answer: yes

[roygbiv]

need at least a million dollars to start

[mitk]

IMHO, If you have some keys to start off with, trading can be great fun! Give it a shot, and see how it goes.

[Oddity]

2 hours ago, Beaser said:

nope, unless you have $10k to invest in 

Not worth it, if you have $10k too.

[w0lk]

no

get a job if you want to "profit"

[Forgivable]

no, prices went far too high for anything

 

Even a shitty cloudy moon hat would go for 500 bucks its scary as fuck

[Brown]

no sell only collect!!)))))

[Vagisil]

Seems to me that trading has massively slowed down in the past few months. I think it’s a shortage of new players entering the game and price inflation. It seems for MOST hats you can’t just buy an old Halloween and try to mark it up 4-5X the price you bought it at anymore. I think the economy in general is just slowing down and it’s really hard to make trades due to bots and buy orders.

[_ツ_]

Buy low sell high, stay away from mid tiers and taunts. It's still good trading, but if you want to make anything meaningful high/God tier trading is where it's at, speaking from experience. Spells have been ok, not a fan personally. Anything retired and desired has doubled/tripled/quadrupled or even more over the past years, hweens,miscs,robo effects (good ones) etc. High tier all classes have been performing exceptionally well as of late I've noticed, go look at the past 6 months on the burning/scorching HKC's to get a better idea of what I mean. 

 

With 200k I suggest getting a nice robo effect on a good hat for a single class, I've seen lots around that price range as of late, maybe something is there worth picking up.

 

If you want an enjoyable trading experience, I'd suggest you trade for things you will enjoy yourself. This does a couple things, obviously you'll have fun playing with the item, but also you'll have a more stronger belief that it can fetch what you're asking. I've had friends sell their hats for cheap after maybe a week of it being unsold, and they did not believe in time it could fetch what they were asking, because they did not think it was that great of an item, only for it to resale for far more later on.  Obviously, don't pay full price for it, unless you plan to keep, which doesn't seem to be the case here. 

 

A lot more I'd like to write but it'd take a lot of time and I'm sure no one cares, so I'll just leave it at that. Good luck 

 

[Slam]

29 minutes ago, Relic said:

With 200k I suggest getting a nice robo effect on a good hat for a single class

 

If you do this I strongly recommend GBH/Time Warp over any other robo effect. Seems those are far out-pacing anti-freeze and roboactive.

[Xaeriel]

9 hours ago, mitk said:

IMHO, If you have some keys to start off with, trading can be great fun! Give it a shot, and see how it goes.

Brother you're talking to an ex-trader who had a backpack worth over 1000$

[Seminal Inhalation]

13 hours ago, Norah said:

So something like 18 months ago I fully pulled out of the TF2 economy. I did near enough all of my trading via Marketplace.TF buy orders and flips, and when the seller program's shutdown was announced I made the decision to withdraw completely knowing that while I did pretty well for myself sales-wise, it wouldn't be enough to get on the whitelist. I've also not actively traded outside of MPTF since maybe early 2019, and the Classifieds market seems pretty far from what I remember, (Steaming miscs at $150, are people really paying this?). To say I'm out of the loop would be an understatement.

 

So main point is a question to people who have stuck with trading long-term, would you say it's worth reinvesting and trying to trade actively again? Are things overall looking positive or negative? I've got just over 200 keys liquid sat in my inventory at the moment from selling my Dark Doorway Sinner's Shade, and I'm debating what I should do with it. Thanks!

TL;DR: No it isn't worth it. Stay away unless you're ONLY buying things you want to keep.

[Kolt]

yes its worth it, its fun and it pays well, atleast from my experience

[Creeping Python]

I mean like there are lots of ways to make profit. I buy Robots Destroyed Stranges from the Market and sell for 1 key on Backpack. Slow af sometimes but it usually works if the weapon is decent

[Torb]

No

[Norah]

Appreciate the replies! From the look of things it's probably worth I just avoid trading again for now, but if I ever land on Bezos Bucks™ it'd probably be fun to do as a hobby, lol.

[TheTexanTiger]

Probably not, unless you play the game often enough to enjoy the items you're trading, or if you want to take a long-term risk then you could always invest in items that hold value well. 

[swaggy]

Yes