You want to be rich in TF2.
Everyone does, but only a few made it and become top traders.
You tell yourself 'It's only a matter of time before I own a backpack full of unusuals'. But when time goes by your inventory remains the same.
You have come to the right place if you 'suck' at trading. You are not stupid at all, it's just because you trade without strategy.
Let's play a little game : If you had learnt something from this post, share it to your friends and inspire them. If you know everything already, don't feel guilty to leave a comment below to scold me. You can do the same on my previous TF2 gameplay guide also.
It took me 122 hours of playtime to go from one page of random weapons and scraps (a little more than 1 ref) to 266 refs + bunch of hats + bunch of stranges. Even though I had given up trading now, I would like to share my experiences and let you know how I achieved this impressive result in a short amount of time.
I believe you had read many guides before, and you know the basic system of trading in TF2. So I'll skip those basics and point out the 5 things that made you walk on a treadmill.
Here is 5 common mistakes that most traders made, and you are likely one of them.
1. You are passive
Are you one of those guys who type a list of offers and then spam it in a server/website. Like ' Selling keys for 17 ref, s/ minigun for 10 ref. Trade with me plz ;) '. If that person is you, I'm sorry to tell you the truth, you've used the wrong way to promote your offers.
When you list out your offers and wait, other players choose to trade with you or not, they get the initiative, that's why you are the passive one although you are the broadcaster.
What you have to do is listen instead of shout. Be a salesman instead of a crier. In this way you'll be the one who engage others.
Simple maths : It's normal for you to have 5-10 items for sale, but most of the time people only look for a handful of miscs. Let's say the server you visit have 24 players, you are rushing to sell 10 items, and each person in the server are looking for 2. TF2 have hundreds, if not thousands, of weapons, hats, miscs etc. The chance for you to meet the right buyer is quite slim.
A trader should find potential buyers by listening to other people. For instance, a person looking for Batter's Helmet (a scout hat) posted a message, you'll know he's looking for scout cosmetics, which means you can try to persuade him buying your scout miscs even you don't have the hat you want. (He might love your suggested items more!)
On the other hand, if you just spam your offer, he might overlook your offer in case he don't know about other scout miscs, and you'll lose a customer.
In fact, an average player can only remember up to 10% of all in game items, so there should be a bunch of potential customers around. Those who get rich hunt them. Those who get stuck wait for them to come.
2. You trade with the same level of traders
Imagine yourself being a begger, all you have is a bag of bread that worth $1 and a millionaire wants to buy it, although he knows it cost $1, he don't mind giving you 5 dollars.
In this trade, he spent 4 unnecessary dollars for the sake of convenience.
And for you, your assets multiplied 5 TIMES!
This happened in TF2, there are different levels of traders. Some argue over a scrap, while some give out keys as a tip in trades.
Traders earn their profit by providing convenience to people, buyers will pay a bit more than the item's value. That ' a bit more ' varied among players. If you are an average traders and you make a deal with unusual traders, their ' a bit more ' might be a earbud. (As long as you sell an item they want)
On the contrary, when you trade with similar traders, you'll end up earning little in every trade, like gaining a 0.33 ref profit for a 2 ref item. You'll grow steadily, but who on earth doesn't want their asset to skyrocket?
It's normal for one to fear reaching out high end traders, they might reject you in disdain, or even kick you out of their server. But what's the big deal? They succeed after going through harsh days, getting insulted by people, not making any deal a whole day... the list goes on and on.
Want to get wealthy? Reach out your seniors and give them offers. They are humans with feelings, not ruthless monsters.
3. Your tone is too hard/soft
When your speaking tone is too impolite or friendly, your offers will either get turned down or haggled.
Obviously, no one wants to trade with a person using commanding tone. You're not your fellow player's superior, thus you have no right to order them trading with you. This is pretty simple.
How about speaking in a overfriendly manner? Will you attract more traders and earn more in this way? Not at all.
People tend to 'negotiate' with friendly traders. If you act like your are their friends, they'll try their best to rip you off and get themselves a good deal. It's an ugly truth that almost no trader would treat a stranger like a friend.
You must sound professional and firm when trading. Never show any hesitation. If you are dealing with items you don't know about, search its information to estimate their value. Also, don't be afraid to say 'no'.
This is more of a psychological skill. Trust me, the more trades you've made, the better you can communicate with others.
4. You don't build relationship with others
Too often, traders just leave their customer after a finishing a deal. Both of them won't contact each other again.
Wrong wrong wrong! You have to build relationship with your previous customers. Add them in Steam or even at social media. By doing so, you will slowly build a trading network, and if done properly, your need to find new traders will lower as you can just buy/sell with your in-game friends.
This is what happened to me: Long ago, I met a guy who is selling 3 cans of black paint for 3 keys. This is an awesome deal as back then a can of black paint worth about 2 keys. However, he only accept pure keys while I sold out all of mine for refs. With my trader network, I'm able to buy 3 keys in 20 minutes and deal with that guy. Afterwards, I resell those paints to my friends successfully.
In less than 1 hour, I was able to earn a profit of 3 keys. Without those traders, it's likely that someone else will snatch the deal. You can see how powerful trader network can be in this simple case.
5. You have a bad inventory
If your whole backpack is full of currencies (ref, key, earbud) with very few miscs, or vice versa, you'll find yourself losing good deals frequently.
For example, if your inventory have currencies only, and a guy sell his Bill's Hat for an Ellis' Cap (insane), only. You'll then need to buy this hat from others in a hurry. Usually when you get back with the cap, someone else have finished the deal already, because everyone will compete for these deals.
The idea of having a balanced inventory is to increase your chance to be the first guy finishing 'crazy deals'. The moment these deals were announced, everyone would panic and inspect their backpack. Most of the time, those who keep their backpack in a 'good shape' get these trades.
This works the other way around. If you have bunch of miscs without currencies, say goodbye to great deals required to pay in pure.
Feel like being slapped in the face after reading all these? Good, it means you've learnt something. Remember these tips and you'll save yourself a whole lot of precious time.
Additionally, here are some trading sites that I recommend. Hope you'll find them helpful.
Backpack.tf
A website providing accurate values of TF2 items. You can sell your items here too by listing your offers. However, the website shows cheapest offers first, so normally it should took a day or two for your items to be sold if your offer is not the best.
TF2 Outpost
You'll get the latest information here, because Backpack.tf's price reports usually follow the latest trades from TF2 Outpost. I suggest you setting up mass trade offers here, like buying 1.33 items for 1.11/1.22, and then resell it in servers for profit.
Remember to bump your offers often if you aren't premium users.
SteamRep
To cash out your items for real money, I suggest you using the middleman service at SteamRep to prevent scams. A good place to sell unusuals or earbuds.
That's it for my guide, hope you'll trade better in the future. Share it to your fellows to help more players. Leave a comment below to let me know about your ideas! :)
