Question for Active Traders

[Oreoo]

Heya, thank you for clicking on this thread, first and foremost let me introduce myself!
 

I'm Oreoo, I was introduced to Team Fortress 2 by a good friend of mine and after having a long look at the game  it looked quite fun, from what I read the game wasn't too sexist either, so I installed it and started playing some casual matches. I was told that I should probably start off by playing either payload maps or capture the flag maps and after playing for just a little while I was randomly gifted 2 items. The 2 items I received were a vintage sandwich and a strange Tribalman's Shiv. I didn't know what these items were so I told my friend, after I told him he suggested that I should start trading these items. I had zero idea what he meant by "trading" but I decided to look into it and here I am, so I'd like to ask you guys a couple of questions, whether you're an intermediate trader or an experienced long-term trader, I'll take your answer to heart and seriously. ( I'd also like to mention that I put 5$ into my steam balance and bought a backpack expander and some weapons before I realized that I needed to spend the money on a key, please don't raise your pitchforks at me.. )

Here are my questions that I've accumulated and wanted to ask after watching some old "How To Trade", "From Nothing to Something" videos on YouTube:
 

!. What browser extensions could you use for trading?
2. How do you start from nothing? Or well, in this case with my 2 items that I have.
3. If you did happen to spend money, how much should you spend and on what and why?
4. How long should you trade per day/per week?
5. Where do you trade? On sites or inside of trading servers? Possibly even both?
6. How do you negotiate into making profit?
7. How do know which item/effect is the most desired?
8. What sites could you use for trading for profit?
9. How do you know which item you should trade with bots to make the most profit?
 

These questions might seem silly but to a new player and trader they're quite important to know the answer to. 
I appreciate you a ton for clicking on this thread and having a read, even if you don't answer, I'll still imagine you over me and wishing me the best of luck whilst trading!

If you wish to talk to me in real time instead of via this thread you can add me on Discord or Steam!

Discord: Galileo#8227
Steam FC: 1369658

[Lucyfer]

1: Theres a handful of addons. Ranging from TF2 Trading enhanced, Steam Inventory Helper (this has mixed reviews depending on who you ask)  Spell trading ehanced (though you're newer so this doesnt apply to you, dont worry about spells.)

2: You cant really.. bots make low tier trading nearly impossible, the only way to compete with them is to get one, I use gladiator.tf and that costs 4 keys/month per bot, thats before you start selling or buying anything.

3: Usually a couple 10's of keys worth. Some people say just dump 50 keys into your steam and start trading unusuals. Buy low, sell high.

4: As much as you want. The more time you put into it, the more money you make. The more active you are (if you dont use bots) the more people will trade with you, since people are impatient and dont like to wait.

5: Trade servers; Vatican, Firepowered, any trade minecraft neon, stuff like that. Also, again, gladiator.tf for bots, backpack.tf for listings. Anything you want to sell, have listed on backpack. Doesn't hurt, and it only does you good. You can then go into a trade server and advertise selling those items.

6: Buy quicksells (bewere, on some servers, its a bannable offense to advertise you're buying quicksells) and try to sell at a higher margin. Depending on the item, this varies intensely.

7: Low tiers aren't usually that widely sought after, unless its on a misc.

8: See above

9: You don't really. Bots just gotta really trade anything lowtier from craft hats to weapons. By the way, I am buying vaccinators at 0.33 ref each, so if you can get any for cheaper than that, you can sell to me for profit

[___]

1. I don't personally use many other than steam inventory helper, might be more for CSGO than TF2 though.

2. Sweat blood and tears, also a lot of patience and luck. I started from 10 keys, each bit of profit is profit. Though trading low tier unusuals is terribly hard unless you get an insane deal, so personally I lean more towards flipping expensive stranges or spells but I wouldn't recommend that for beginners. 

3. Over 10 keys ideally, more the better, 25k would probs be a good starting point if you have the money. It will allow you to get the best start without going into dept. 

4. Depends on what you classify as trading, I rarely go on trade servers and when I do it's more to look at other peoples sets than advertising my own. Though, I am constantly looking over backpack and my steam for trades, looking through auctions on different websites and such. Don't treat it as work, I only am scouring over such so much since I genuine enjoyment over. 

5. I personally spend my days on Scrap.tf auctions, though Vatican and Firepowered are the most populated trade servers for genuine trading, so if you are looking to trade in real time with real people that's where you want to be. Scrap and backpack classifieds though are where I spend my time typically personally. 

6. I am a terrible negotiator, I'll ask if they won't to go lower, they'll say no, then I'll buy it for full price LOL 

7. After trading for years and looking over prices and different hats you develop your own taste as well as a knowledge for knowing what's considered 'good and bad'. I personally love massed flies and n&bs, I think they are funny as, but I have never ever owned one since I know they will never sell. You learn these things through experience. 

8. Scrap.tf auctions and backpack classifieds. 

9. Look back at 7, you learn what's good and bad, so if someone is selling something good for cheap or below other sellers you attack >:) 

 

Hope this helps haha

 

[Kolt]

1: Steam Inventory Helper is the main one, mainly used for key scripts (adds multiple keys into a trade offer at one time) and counting features. This Tampermonkey script as-well, it condenses your trade history (not very important).

2:  You don't really start from nothing, don't recommend it at all, not worth the time. I myself started with 7 keys, however everything is more pricey nowadays. I suggest you buy being with around 20 keys in pure.

3: 20-50 keys would be good, its sort of a head start. Making 30 keys from going 20-50 will take a lot longer than going from 50-80 keys.

4: It varies. Depends whether I have school on or have a busy week ahead. I can often check steam every 5-10 minutes, per days I would say a couple of hours at-least (when not busy). It's more off a on and off thing. I may be in class, then check things for 2m then recheck another hour later. Could also be watching YouTube videos, just responding to messages periodically.

5: Backpack.tf, Trade Servers. - Make sure you build your friends list up, a large chunk of deals from just being friends with people and asking around.

6: Negotiation is sort of built over time, you get a sense off what works and what doesn't. I used to personally, state all the good things about my item (1 of 1 on the market, hence it'll be easy to sell. It's for solider, a very popular class so there is heavy demand for it, etc.) then state the bad things about their item (the daughter effect is asking for 50 keys less, it has very recent low sales, others on the market haven't sold for 2 months, etc.) Again, it's more off an experience thing.

7: Misc/Halloween effects. Even if your low tier, still go for nice effects (Disco Beat Down, Miami Nights, Blizzardy Storm). Avoid effects like kill-a-watt and nuts and bolts.

8: Backpack.tf, nothing else really. Rarely there are solid deals on mannco.store, backpack is the main one.

9: Don't get the question.

 

Hope this helped a bit, feel free to add me or ask any more questions

 

[Oreoo]

Thank you so much for the answers, I've read everything and noted a bunch of stuff, if you have some more info, let me know, please!

[Oreoo]

2 hours ago, Lucyfer said:

1: Theres a handful of addons. Ranging from TF2 Trading enhanced, Steam Inventory Helper (this has mixed reviews depending on who you ask)  Spell trading ehanced (though you're newer so this doesnt apply to you, dont worry about spells.)

2: You cant really.. bots make low tier trading nearly impossible, the only way to compete with them is to get one, I use gladiator.tf and that costs 4 keys/month per bot, thats before you start selling or buying anything.

3: Usually a couple 10's of keys worth. Some people say just dump 50 keys into your steam and start trading unusuals. Buy low, sell high.

4: As much as you want. The more time you put into it, the more money you make. The more active you are (if you dont use bots) the more people will trade with you, since people are impatient and dont like to wait.

5: Trade servers; Vatican, Firepowered, any trade minecraft neon, stuff like that. Also, again, gladiator.tf for bots, backpack.tf for listings. Anything you want to sell, have listed on backpack. Doesn't hurt, and it only does you good. You can then go into a trade server and advertise selling those items.

6: Buy quicksells (bewere, on some servers, its a bannable offense to advertise you're buying quicksells) and try to sell at a higher margin. Depending on the item, this varies intensely.

7: Low tiers aren't usually that widely sought after, unless its on a misc.

8: See above

9: You don't really. Bots just gotta really trade anything lowtier from craft hats to weapons. By the way, I am buying vaccinators at 0.33 ref each, so if you can get any for cheaper than that, you can sell to me for profit

 

2 hours ago, ___ said:

1. I don't personally use many other than steam inventory helper, might be more for CSGO than TF2 though.

2. Sweat blood and tears, also a lot of patience and luck. I started from 10 keys, each bit of profit is profit. Though trading low tier unusuals is terribly hard unless you get an insane deal, so personally I lean more towards flipping expensive stranges or spells but I wouldn't recommend that for beginners. 

3. Over 10 keys ideally, more the better, 25k would probs be a good starting point if you have the money. It will allow you to get the best start without going into dept. 

4. Depends on what you classify as trading, I rarely go on trade servers and when I do it's more to look at other peoples sets than advertising my own. Though, I am constantly looking over backpack and my steam for trades, looking through auctions on different websites and such. Don't treat it as work, I only am scouring over such so much since I genuine enjoyment over. 

5. I personally spend my days on Scrap.tf auctions, though Vatican and Firepowered are the most populated trade servers for genuine trading, so if you are looking to trade in real time with real people that's where you want to be. Scrap and backpack classifieds though are where I spend my time typically personally. 

6. I am a terrible negotiator, I'll ask if they won't to go lower, they'll say no, then I'll buy it for full price LOL 

7. After trading for years and looking over prices and different hats you develop your own taste as well as a knowledge for knowing what's considered 'good and bad'. I personally love massed flies and n&bs, I think they are funny as, but I have never ever owned one since I know they will never sell. You learn these things through experience. 

8. Scrap.tf auctions and backpack classifieds. 

9. Look back at 7, you learn what's good and bad, so if someone is selling something good for cheap or below other sellers you attack >:) 

 

Hope this helps haha

 

 

2 hours ago, Kolt said:

1: Steam Inventory Helper is the main one, mainly used for key scripts (adds multiple keys into a trade offer at one time) and counting features. This Tampermonkey script as-well, it condenses your trade history (not very important).

2:  You don't really start from nothing, don't recommend it at all, not worth the time. I myself started with 7 keys, however everything is more pricey nowadays. I suggest you buy being with around 20 keys in pure.

3: 20-50 keys would be good, its sort of a head start. Making 30 keys from going 20-50 will take a lot longer than going from 50-80 keys.

4: It varies. Depends whether I have school on or have a busy week ahead. I can often check steam every 5-10 minutes, per days I would say a couple of hours at-least (when not busy). It's more off a on and off thing. I may be in class, then check things for 2m then recheck another hour later. Could also be watching YouTube videos, just responding to messages periodically.

5: Backpack.tf, Trade Servers. - Make sure you build your friends list up, a large chunk of deals from just being friends with people and asking around.

6: Negotiation is sort of built over time, you get a sense off what works and what doesn't. I used to personally, state all the good things about my item (1 of 1 on the market, hence it'll be easy to sell. It's for solider, a very popular class so there is heavy demand for it, etc.) then state the bad things about their item (the daughter effect is asking for 50 keys less, it has very recent low sales, others on the market haven't sold for 2 months, etc.) Again, it's more off an experience thing.

7: Misc/Halloween effects. Even if your low tier, still go for nice effects (Disco Beat Down, Miami Nights, Blizzardy Storm). Avoid effects like kill-a-watt and nuts and bolts.

8: Backpack.tf, nothing else really. Rarely there are solid deals on mannco.store, backpack is the main one.

9: Don't get the question.

 

Hope this helped a bit, feel free to add me or ask any more questions

 

I forgot to quote it properly, but yet again thank you so much for the answers, I've read everything and noted a bunch of stuff, if you have some more info, let me know, please!

[Lucyfer]

11 minutes ago, Oreoo said:

 

 

I forgot to quote it properly, but yet again thank you so much for the answers, I've read everything and noted a bunch of stuff, if you have some more info, let me know, please!

Anything you wanna know, feel free to ask here, or add me on steam at https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197996988090/ Or if you prefer discord, Lucyfer#7284

[FP jh34ghu43gu]

Steps to become 1337 trader:

 

1) Acquire income

3) Acquire online transaction service (aka banking cards etc...)

3) Use cards to spend income on items (ideally miscs, hweens, spells, and other limited items)

7) Profit

[Scott Bakula]

33 minutes ago, FP jh34ghu43gu said:

Steps to become 1337 trader:

 

1) Acquire income

3) Acquire online transaction service (aka banking cards etc...)

3) Use cards to spend income on items (ideally miscs, hweens, spells, and other limited items)

7) Profit

Aka, the whale method. Which honestly, depending on your job and free time can be a much better option. Why slave away for scraps of profit when you can get there instead by working 1-2 hours at your job?

 

And along those lines, that's how I recommend a new player gets started: Not by trading, but by buying a key and getting what they want with that. If you take a key and trade it for metal, you'll get enough refined to get one of every baseline weapon in the game and have enough left over to get a bunch of cosmetics. This allows you to enjoy the game fully as you'll have access to all possible fighting loadouts as well as having a distinctive look in servers. Everything else after that is cosmetic/for bragging rights and is completely optional. Then you can just have fun playing the game, and if it interests you or you want to start upgrading your kit, that's when you want to get into trading, as you want a goal to strive for; trading just for the sake of making profit can quickly become boring and hard to compare in value to simply working a job.

[G R O W U P]

Steam community market (scm) is pretty untapped by bots and other competition but with existing demand; with people manually over/undercutting you can still compete within reason. an example is buying cards or other items for 1 scrap each and selling for lowest on scm. lets say 1 key is 2 usd- if you sell 200 cards for 0.01 usd that would give you a key but 1 key at the moment is around 700-800 scraps. only problem is many people know scrap. tf buys cards for 1 ref each. etc then you put buy orders for cards lower and sell for 0.01 usd more etc this is still slow (1 week wait to sell market bought cards again + sell time) but with sheer volume you can make it up.

also you dont really have to buy keys back on scm; maybe some other items are more cost effective

[Lucyfer]

2 hours ago, G R O W U P said:

Steam community market (scm) is pretty untapped by bots and other competition but with existing demand; with people manually over/undercutting you can still compete within reason. an example is buying cards or other items for 1 scrap each and selling for lowest on scm. lets say 1 key is 2 usd- if you sell 200 cards for 0.01 usd that would give you a key but 1 key at the moment is around 700-800 scraps. only problem is many people know scrap. tf buys cards for 1 ref each. etc then you put buy orders for cards lower and sell for 0.01 usd more etc this is still slow (1 week wait to sell market bought cards again + sell time) but with sheer volume you can make it up.

also you dont really have to buy keys back on scm; maybe some other items are more cost effective

"scm is untapped by bots" Boy you have not seen CSGO knives then lol

[Vrakos Anthrakir]

4 hours ago, G R O W U P said:

Steam community market (scm) is pretty untapped by bots and other competition but with existing demand; with people manually over/undercutting you can still compete within reason. an example is buying cards or other items for 1 scrap each and selling for lowest on scm. lets say 1 key is 2 usd- if you sell 200 cards for 0.01 usd that would give you a key but 1 key at the moment is around 700-800 scraps. only problem is many people know scrap. tf buys cards for 1 ref each. etc then you put buy orders for cards lower and sell for 0.01 usd more etc this is still slow (1 week wait to sell market bought cards again + sell time) but with sheer volume you can make it up.

also you dont really have to buy keys back on scm; maybe some other items are more cost effective

Just to add on to the other reply, not just csgo knives.  Bots are all over the place in the SCM.

 

@thread

Some food for thought, you should consider what your goal is with trying out tf2 trading.  Make money/lots of profit?  Learn some stuff about economics/business and such?  Just mess around a bit for fun?

[eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

12 hours ago, G R O W U P said:

Steam community market (scm) is pretty untapped by bots and other competition but with existing demand; with people manually over/undercutting you can still compete within reason. an example is buying cards or other items for 1 scrap each and selling for lowest on scm. lets say 1 key is 2 usd- if you sell 200 cards for 0.01 usd that would give you a key but 1 key at the moment is around 700-800 scraps. only problem is many people know scrap. tf buys cards for 1 ref each. etc then you put buy orders for cards lower and sell for 0.01 usd more etc this is still slow (1 week wait to sell market bought cards again + sell time) but with sheer volume you can make it up.

also you dont really have to buy keys back on scm; maybe some other items are more cost effective

if you are not in the USA the in-game store sells all the case keys at the same price they sometimes come in less expensive than scm

[G R O W U P]

12 hours ago, Lucyfer said:

"scm is untapped by bots" Boy you have not seen CSGO knives then lol

i am aware that csgo side of everything is pretty dominated by not only bots but also external sites like idk csgo buff(?) What i said was concerning  tf2 side. Also SCM often doesn't necessarily reflect on backpack prices all the time infact so you can make much much more on steam market than backpack or trade severs without putting in much effort. 

eg  https://backpack.tf/stats/Unusual/Infernal Impaler/Tradable/Craftable/56 - this hat is going for 13.5- 15 keys on backpack but i managed to get 20 keys for it on backpack in 1 week just by pricing is adequately and forgetting about it.