Who is manipulating the market OR who is not destroying refined metal? (Key inflation)

[Gamer with a gun]

19 hours ago, FishtheFish said:

I'm just not sure what other outcome you expected. Refined metal drops for free in the form of weapons that are crafted, and there is a theoretically infinite supply. The only way for new keys to enter the economy is for someone to purchase them from the in-game store.

The current measures in place that remove refined from the economy (hat crafting and Halloween transmutes chiefly) just aren't a strong enough incentive for people to dump their refined faster than it can drop. And even when people do, the refined removed from the economy is dropped again for free.

There is this one idea that i have kept untold for a long time. I think there could be a trade up system where the more refined metal you put in, the more valuable items you will get in return. there can also be a limit to how much refined you can trade in exchange of a rare or rather desirable item. there can also be times where during specific events (scream fortress, or a big update like jungle inferno), you can obtain specific themed items by trading up for it with refined. I don't know. there will probably be some problems that this kind of system may have. It could change most items's value in the economy to the point where the entire system becomes existential and painful to grasp. but at least, this is only an idea of mine that is not implemented in the game. I am willing to learn and talk about the ways we can fix this economy for the better, or at least, make a genuine attempt. mannco.store has this new 'trash can' system where you can dump your items to a bot and that bot will delete those items for good. they say that over 20,000 items have been dumped in the trash can. what other systems can we possibly think of and have one of them a possible reality? we can discuss that for another day.

[FishtheFish]

33 minutes ago, Random Freeman said:

There is this one idea that i have kept untold for a long time. I think there could be a trade up system where the more refined metal you put in, the more valuable items you will get in return. there can also be a limit to how much refined you can trade in exchange of a rare or rather desirable item. there can also be times where during specific events (scream fortress, or a big update like jungle inferno), you can obtain specific themed items by trading up for it with refined. I don't know. there will probably be some problems that this kind of system may have. It could change most items's value in the economy to the point where the entire system becomes existential and painful to grasp. but at least, this is only an idea of mine that is not implemented in the game. I am willing to learn and talk about the ways we can fix this economy for the better, or at least, make a genuine attempt. mannco.store has this new 'trash can' system where you can dump your items to a bot and that bot will delete those items for good. they say that over 20,000 items have been dumped in the trash can. what other systems can we possibly think of and have one of them a possible reality? we can discuss that for another day.

Will likely never happen. Valve wants to devalue ref so that people will lean towards using a premium currency that you need to pay money for (keys)

[Prestige]

Unless you lived in a wood cabin located in a beautiful forest where butterscotch tarts drop from trees, this has always been the case with keys.

People use keys to unbox more than they could ever use metal to craft hats. Heck, even back in my time when keys were 30 refined people were complaining about the inflation, it just happens.