State of the economy

[La Fuerza]

I haven’t traded in half a decade and since then it is impossible to make a profit. I’ve recently stepped back into the trading scene so I can save up for some weapons I want for my TF2 main, and all I’ve seen is bots flooding every crevice of this website and fatass incell scammers. I’m not going to give up, but damn trading sucks bruh.

[Kolt]

your inventory is worth $17? how do you expect to make profit lol

[OGSemper]

34 minutes ago, La Fuerza said:

I haven’t traded in half a decade and since then it is impossible to make a profit. I’ve recently stepped back into the trading scene so I can save up for some weapons I want for my TF2 main, and all I’ve seen is bots flooding every crevice of this website and fatass incell scammers. I’m not going to give up, but damn trading sucks bruh.

Get a job, go outside, make some $$$ irl and then come back and spend it on tf2, then you can start actually trading, flipping a few painted hats and tidbits for ref profit wont get anyone anywhere.

[Maelstrom]

Yeah, like 99% of good hats are either not being traded or are owned by whales. I don't recommend trying to make a living by TF2 trading, good luck 

[medio]

2012: Scrap 2 unusual it's so easy

 

2016: Invest $20 into keys and get a decent low-tier unusual and try to flip that for a small profit, rinse and repeat

 

2020: Invest $50-$100 into keys and start with lower-mid tiers because low/cancer tiers are dominated by bots with too little profit margin to work

 

2024: Get a quality trading bot and invest >$500 into keys for that bot or you're never going to make any reasonable profit

 

2028: ???

[Sound_1]

I've seen people get rich though trading, but it's highly unlikely. Simply put, do it as a hobby and not as a job. It's fun to collect funny moving pixels.

[Antipathy]

17$ inventory. what on earth did you expect???

[NobodyNose]

Can’t believe spending 2 hours a day making a few cents isn’t getting you anywhere, economy truly is fucked.

[Sir Spoon The Second]

to put it blunt

if you don't have a backpack value of around 500 usd good luck getting started but there are still a few ways to get started but it will take time and if your not dedicated and patient its not worth it, it would be best to get a minimum wage job and invest like 20=40$+ from every pay check, if you wanna get into trading but if you are in a position where you can't spend money cus money it tight for you, heres a method that i think is the easiest and quickest 

 

steps needed

1. sell your keys for ref

2. look at a basic ks kit (also known as a killstreak kit or standard killstreak kit) and look at the price of the kit then look at the price of it applied to a unique cartable weapon and if its grater then .66 ref and there is multiple buy orders for that price buy the kit and apply it and sell it to the buy order (makes sure the buy order is not for a Festivized one)

3. repeat step 2

4. as you get close to 75% of your max backpack, buy a few backpack extenders and do this untill you have a backpack of 1500-max size (max being 3000 slots)

5. repeat step 2 untill you have 10 keys worth of ref

6. at this point it will be very slow so start to make buy orders for basic ks its 1-2 ref less then the applied buy orders and repeat until you have around 40 keys

7. once at 40 keys you can go down almost any rout of trading at this point whether that is unu trading, warpaint trading, ks trading, spelled trading, bulk trading ect ect you can repeat previous steps until you have a shit tone of keys but it would be quicker to get into different forms of trading after getting 40 keys but it reall y boils down to what do you want to do

 

remember you MUST be really dedicated, this will take time, if you give up after 2 weeks then investing money is the only way you'll get a big backpack and even if you invest money and get a big backpack if you want it to grow you will still need to be very dedicated and patient, be prepared to hold on to items for months before selling them, if you give up after a week it's best not to get into trading as you most likely won't get anywhere even with investing money

[NobodyNose]

Sonce some of y’all still don’t know how to trade here you go

The No-Nonsense Guide to Making Profit in 2024!

100% Guaranteed Method of Making Profit and Getting Great Hats!

Step 1:

Find out your country/state/town's minimum working age.

 

Step 2:

 

If you are legal working age, apply for a part-time job. This path is very effective if you live with your parents, as you don't have to worry about bills and other expenses cutting down on your profits.

If you are under working age, start mowing lawns, shoveling snow, lemonade stands, whatever goes! This method might be even better as there is no income tax and you don't have to apply to do anything!

Step 3:

Open up a PayPal or Zelle account (If you're in the US, Zelle is better). This is where you will keep all your profits from your job. Having these types of payments is very crucial in your trading journey. Once you have built up $800-$1000, which should take a maximum amount of time of 4 months, depending on what you did for Step 2, move on to Step 4.

Step 4:

Join or go to the Backpack.tf Discord, and watch #trade-discussions like a hawk. Anytime someone wants to sell their keys or is asking if anyone is buying, you should show up. Ask them for their rate per key. As of right now, if they want more than $1.65 a key it's not worth it. I suggest not advertising in the trade ads channel as people will want to make sure you're reputable, and if you start trading, I doubt you have much rep. Now that you have spent all your hard-earned money on key-shaped pixels or until you have 300 keys, it's time to go to step 5.

Step 5:
Learn how to trade. Watch videos on YouTube to learn about the do's and don'ts. As mentioned earlier, the Backpack.tf discord is great for learning about all these things. When you're new, try sticking to hats only, and since you're mega-rich with your keys, don't buy anything that is less than 100 keys. Also, learn about scammers and their tactics. Again, the BP.TF discord is great, and always ask there before doing any trades you are unsure of.

Step 6: Now that you have become a trading guru, you will be making thousands upon thousands of keys every month. As you gain more profits, you will start to see some changes in your behavior. Your ego gets inflated, you start blatantly sharking, and you can't resist the urge to buy from scammers. This is all normal, and don't be afraid! Because of backpacks shit rules and how they won't do anything to rich men like you, you'll be 100% fine. 

Now that you've read this guide, go get'em, tiger. Trading is 100% possible if you follow everything here, step by step. I would also like to note that any advice you get from this forum that doesn't follow the rough ideas of this guide, they are full of Bullshit, and will never work.

[RussellSproutz]

5 hours ago, La Fuerza said:

I haven’t traded in half a decade and since then it is impossible to make a profit. I’ve recently stepped back into the trading scene so I can save up for some weapons I want for my TF2 main, and all I’ve seen is bots flooding every crevice of this website and fatass incell scammers. I’m not going to give up, but damn trading sucks bruh.

I respect you're not trying to give up homie and you're not alone. I recommend getting a part time job like McDonald's and fund your hobby on TF2.

[Egorence]

at this point unboxing is profitable than low tier trading...

[Onion-Turtle]

Here are some options. I don’t recommend doing any of this if you want to earn significant money. But if you have fun to challenge yourself these might allow you to make some profit:
 

A) Sometimes it works to compare sell and buy orders on STN / backpack.tf / scrap.tf to make a little profit. You can make a few ref a day as most people don’t really care enough to compare prices and dump items onto scrap or STN at outdated prices.
 

Check scrap.tf auctions, with enough practice and luck you can pick up some easy to flip items for a good price. 

C) Trade low volume items where the bots have high margins. This obviously involves higher risk and often enough a lot of time. But you will not make any profit on items that have only a scrap between sell and buy orders. 
 

D) “Investing”. Buy items from bots that you expect to gain in value and lean back. You will need a good hunch or a proper magic 8 ball though.
 

You will never earn any significant amount of money with these methods. Even with a 1000$+ inventory it is hard to make consistent profit that exceeds minimum wages. With a 17 USD inventory you are looking at making less than 1 USD per hour if you are lucky/good. Do it if you have fun doing it, but don’t do it for money.

 

____
 

E (Bonus Method!)

If you genuinely want to earn money: It takes money to make money (unless you scam or shark people…(-> DONT!)). There are good ways to actually earn money when trading across different games (mainly CS2<->TF2) and different marketplaces (marketplace/mannco/skinport/csfloat/buff /// backpack.tf/scrap.tf/trading forums /// Steam Community Market).
Learn what you can buy at which places and where you can sell it at a profit. This only works with a significantly bigger investment than 17 USD and a lot of patience is usually required. Also all of this involves a significant risk of loss e.g. due to updates, market fluctuations and scams.

[Kolt]

to trade with 10 keys, you find a horrible hat with UNLIMITED MARGINS, this means no sell orders

buy it for 10, find ANY reason to ask for 40-50 keys for it (such as a similar effect sold for X, or similar hat with X effect sold for 45, etc) then offer your "50 key hat" to peoples items which are ACTUALLY worth a bit less than 50, such as a classic hat with b/o at 25 and s/o at 35

you then sell this dude your hat using the form of reasoning you found

then repeat until your at 10,000+ keys, then begin buying backpacks and quicksells

you need to offer on EVERYTHING, and I mean legit everything - this means adding 10-20 people ever day, going through 100s of friends with your offers

give it 2-3 years and you should get to around $100,000-$150,000

anything is possible  good luck

[° ͜ʖ °]

buy high, sell low

[Guccifish]

more you have more you make, you cant make anything worthwhile for under 200 usd

[wapo]

the only way you can be a good trader is to get a great job and then waste all your money on a game that isn't even supported anymore. until then, you're just an outcast low-tier trader! Teehee!