Hello, and welcome to my TF2 Beginner's Trading guide.

In this guide, I will teach all new players how to start trading a decent backpack value. You will get explained how the economy ding methods and tips, and other tricks to go from that F2P to a , from that single weapon to a collection of hats, and from that w TF2 trader among the community. This guide consideres you have played TF2 and know how the If you have never played TF2 before, this guide might use rstand. If so, I recommend you play the game first, so you to the fullest. To understand this guide, you need only basic knowlegde of --Patience-Let's start off with this tip. Before attempting to enter the TF2 trading commun ity, consider that it takes tons of times to actually get a good backpack. If yo u check the player statistics from decent TF2 traders, you'll notice they have b een playing TF2 for a long, long time now, ranging from about 500 hours to a few thousand in-game time. Getting a few hats in your backpack wouldn't take you all that long, but if you are considering to go on to unusuals, be prepared to wait a long time before you get them. Another thing you need to know about patience to become a succesfull trader in T F2 is that you patiently wait to achieve your goals. If along the way you keep b uying more hats and hats for personal use, you'll never achieve your final goal. Keep your goal in mind and hang onto your items as best you can before reaching it. --Setting Up-Before attemting to dive right into the TF2 trading community, you'd do best to set up your account to maximize your trading experience and profit. This can be achieved via a few simple steps. 1. Enable SteamGuard - Without SteamGuard enabled, you are unable to to trade with other players. The refore, this is an essential setup if you want to join the TF2 trading community . In order to enable your SteamGuard, first you have to verify your e-mail to stea m. You should have gotten an email from Steam to verify your e-mail the moment y ou made your account. In case your e-mail isn't verified, go here: https://suppo rt.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5151-RUAS-1543 After you have verified your e-mail, you have to enable SteamGuard itself. Do th is by clicking on Steam on the topleft-hand cornor of your Steamclient, and clic king 'Settings' In there, go to the Account tab, and select the option 'Manage S team Guard Account Security'. Here, you can enable Steam Guard. 2. Making your Backpack and Profile Public. (Optional) - Although this is optional, it is highly recommended that you make your backpac k and profile public, because of multiple reasons. First, other traders might lo from scratch to works, some tra good TF2 trader nobody to a kno

game mechnanics work. terms you do not unde can follow this guide TF2.

ok into your backpack and see some intresting items you own. They might then pro ceed to send you a trade request and make a great offer in your item. Second, it will be easier for you to promote your items. Let's say you have alot of hats f or sale. The TF2 ingame chat system doesn't allow you announce to the server wha t items you have for sale, since you have way too many. A good solution would be to ask people to take a look in your backpack and see what you have for sale. T his way, people can quickly scan through your merchandise. Thirdly, if your back pack and profile are set to private, people might think you are suspicious. In t he TF2 community, there are many people who'd do anything for more profit, even going so far as to scam people out of their precious items. These bandits of the system usually set their backpacks and accounts to private in an attempt to pre vent being caught. Setting your own account to public will make people trust you easier, making your TF2 experience alot smoother. Here's how to set your backpack and profile to public: First, go to your own profile page through your Steam client. You can do this ea sily by pressing your own profile picture in the bottom-righthand cornor of your Steam client. Then, on the right side, click on 'Edit my Profile' and enter the Settings tab. Next, put all the options to 'Public'. 3. Becoming a Premium User - If you are a F2P user, you will be restricted when trading. You will not be ab le to trade away items, certain crafting options will be dissabled for you, and people will restrain from trading with you. There are only 2 ways to become a pr emium member in TF2: buying items from the store, or using an 'Upgrate to Premiu m' item ingame. Because Upgrade to Premium items are expensive, new traders would generally be u nable to get them. Thus, we would be reliant on either a friend to gift us an Up grade to Premium item, or we'd have to use real money to buy something from the store. When buying something from the store, remember that there is a minimum amount yo u have to put on your steam wallet (the system that keeps track of how much mone y you have paid to steam). If you buy something for $1, and the minimum steam wa llet imput in your country is $5, you'd still have to pay $5 to get the item. Th e remaining $4 will go to your steam wallet for later use in Tf2. Remember, this money can NOT be retrieved. Once you have bought something from the store, you will automatically become a P remium Member. Your trade restrictions will be gone, and you will recieve 5 adit ional pages in your TF2 backpack (wich grants you 250 extra spaces to put items in, for a total of 300 spaces). 4. Making a TF2 Outpost or TF2 Bazaar account. (Optional) TF2 Outpost is one of the main trading websites of TF2. Though most of the time, you will be trading on a TF2 trading server, it is impossible for you to be onl ine all the time, just as it is impossible to advertise your merchandise to the entire TF2 community while playing in a server. This is where the internet kicks in: websites like tf2outpost.com or bazaar.tf are websites outside of TF2 where you can advertise your items, even if you are not ingame. On these websites, yo u select wich items you have and wich items you want in return. You can add text to your trade to notify other users about special trade requests (for example, if you want a painted hat instead of a normal hat etc). Though these sites are considered bad by some (this will be explained later) it is a great way to find other trader that want to buy your items, or to find trad ers that sell the items you want. I suggest you sign up to either site (tf2 outp ost is generally more popular, but either would be fine). I will later explain t he proper use of both sites.

--Getting Started: TF2 Dropsystem in a Nutshell-Before we can start our TF2 trading adventure, we will need to own some items al ready. Since we are totally new to TF2, we can only rely on the TF2 item dropsys tem for now. Every Thursday, the item-drops reset. From this day on to the next Thursday, you will recieve drops every now and then while playing TF2 (Generally, you'll get 1 drop for every hour you play. This varies though). In order to counter Idles (explained later), you get only an average of 8-10 dro p each week. On Thursdays, the system resets, and you will be able to get new dr ops. What items you get from drops varies. Most of the time, you will recieve either normal weapons or crates. Premium Members (which you should be if you are going to become a TF2 trader) can recieve Hat drops instead of normal drops, though th is will only happen very rarely. The best way to make a starting backpack to enter TF2 trading is to simply play the game from time to time, and to make sure you recieve your 8-10 drops every t ime the dropsystem resets.

--Getting Started: Items and Item Quality Explained-In order to understand the TF2 economy, one has to understand all the items that circulate in the TF2. There are also 2 different consepts in which the TF2 comm unity considers items: The items themselves, and their quality. 1. Items Items that can be found in TF2 vary not too much. The most standard of all are w eapons and Hats. These are all very understandable: Weapons can be equiped and u sed, Hats can be worn. Aside from Hats, you have items called Misc's (or Miscell aneous items). A character in TF2 can equip 3 weapons (Primary, Secondary and Me lee), 1 hat, 2 Misc's and 1 action. Weapons go into each weapon slot. Hats go in to the Hat slot. Misc's are different from Hats in the way that they are wearabl e items that are not hats. For example: glasses are not hats. Thus, they are con sidered a Misc in TF2, and they can be equipped in the Misc slot. This is to pre vent you from equipping 2 hats at the same time, which is would also be impossib le in real life. As you might have guessed, there are also Action items. These are the items that will make your character in TF2 perform a certian action, like make him burst o ut in laughter, or initiate a high-five with another player. Aside from equipable items, you also have your Crafting or Usable items. Example items are Keys and crates. They cannot be equipped by any of your characters in TF2, and are normally used for crafting or editing equipable items. As equipable items are pretty straightforward, I will not further explain them h ere. The following list will explain the most common non-equipabble items and their p urposes: - Name tags and Description Tags: Used to add a custom name or description to yo ur item. Used to personalize your items. - Paints: used to color Hats and Misc's. Used to personalize items. - Decal Tools: Used to put a custom picture on certain items (Conscientious Obje ctor, Flair etc). Used to personalize items. - Crates: Caintain various items, and can only be opened with keys. Will be expl ained later.

- Keys: Used to open crates. Also used as ingame currency. Will be explained lat er. - Metal: Used to craft new equippable items. Aslo used as ingame currency. Will be explained later. - Tokens: Used in crafting to make specific weapons. Will be ecplained later. - Backpack Expanders: Adds 100 extra slots in your backpack. - Upgrade to Premium: Removes any trade and backpack restrictions from a normal account, and makes the account a Premium Member. 2. Item Quality Although not as varying as F2 that greatly influences Item quality comes atop of al or not. There are a few

items themselves, item quality is a concept used in T the TF2 economy. a normal item, and dictates whether the item is speci different Item Qualities, which I will describe here:

- Normal Only the default weapons from each class are given this quality. They do not app ear in your backpack, and cannot be traded under normal conditions. They will on ly appear in your loadout screen. Recognizable by their Grey ingame text. - Unique The normal item quality, despite the name of the quality. This is the most basic item quality, and will be used on almost all items in TF2. The only difference from the normal quality is that this quality is given to items that are not the standard loadout. Most hats and weapons have this quality. Most trading ideas ar e based around this item quality. Recognozable by their Yellow ingame text. - Strange A quality only given to certain Weapons. Almost all weapons found in a crate are from this quality. The weapon mechanics remain the same as unique and normal we apons, but strange weapons track the amount of kills the user makes while using it. The killcount is shows in the description of the weapon. Recognizable by their ingame name and orange text. - Vintage Although this quality differs almost nothing from unique items, these items are very 'old' as all items that existed before the major TF2 trading update of tf2 recieved this quality. Items of this quality cannot be aquired any more, and are thus rarer than unique items. Recognizable by their ingame name and blue text. - Genuine Although this quality differs almost nothing from unique items, these items wher e granted to players who pre-ordered a certain game, as a form of promotion. Ite ms of this quality cannot be aquired any more (except when a new promo is going on), and are therefore rarer than unique items. Recognizable by their ingame name and dark green text. - Haunted Although this quality differs almost nothing from unique items, these items wher e optained during the TF2 Halloween Event, and are thus no longer optainable unt ill the next Halloween Event. Items of this quality are rarer than their unique equivalent. Recognizable by their ingame name and aquamarine text. - Community These items work the same way as unique items, exept their ingame appearance dif fers a little from normal, and these items sparkle. THese items are granted to p layers that helped out the community in various ways, and are extremely rare. It ems of this quality are untradable and can only be optianed by supporting the co mmunity to the fullest. Recognizable by their ingame name, light-green text and their sparkle effect. - Self-Made

These items work the same way as unique items, exept their ingame appearance dif fers a little from normal, and these items sparkle. These items are granted to t he creatiors of the ingame item, and are untradable and very rare. They can only be optained by creating an item for Valve and having it approved and put into t he game. Recognizable by their ingame name, light-green text and their sparkle effect. - Valve Items of this quality are granted only to Valve employees, and are very rare. Th ese items can be edited bu the user for testing purposes, and cannot be optained by normal TF2 traders. Recognizable by their ingame name and Violet text. - Unusual This quality is granted to some hats and misc's optained from crates, and are ve ry rare. They look the same as their unique equivalent, but they have a particle effect attachted to them. These hats and misc's are very popular and are consid ered the ultimate goal in the TF2 trading community. Recognizable by their ingame name, purple text and their ingame particle effect. Each item quality has it's own purpose, and different qualities also come with d ifferent prices. This will all be explained later.

--Getting Started: Creating a Goal-Although this is kinda optional, TF2 trading can become very dull if you do not have a serious goal in sight. Making profit is not a very good goal: is should b e used in order to reach your goal. This is where many traders will eventually f all off, but you can prevent this by setting a few goals in mind to achieve. A good example of a list of goals would be this: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Aquire Aquire Aquire Aquire Aquire Aquire Aquire Become an unique weapon for each weapon slot for every class. a hat for every class an item set (1 hat and 2 misc's) for every class my favorite items a strange weapon for each weapon slot for every class an Unusual hat an Unusual Hat for every class the richest man on Tf2

Although this example list gest a bit unrealistic at the end, the start is a ver y realistic image of how a good goal list should be formed. Every time you achie ve a goal, you will get new strenght to achieve the next goal. Also, if your onl y goal would be to become the richest man on TF2, you'd never reach your goal. B y making a list of goals, you can at least try and achieve some goals before you would ultimately quit TF2.

--Getting Started: Understanding the Currency System-In the real world, we use money to buy things. This system allowes us to measure how much an item is worth, and it allowes us to easily buy an item, as every-on e needs money. In oder to make trading in TF2 easier, a currency system was made for TF2 as wel l. In TF2, we use 3 different types of currency: 1. Metal

2. Keys 3. Promo's 1. Metal Metal is the most stable of all tf2 currency's, because it is implemented in the TF2 crafting system. For example, 2 weapons can always be used to craft 1 scrap metal, 3 scrap metal can always be used to craft 1 reclaimed metal etc etc. The refore, people can always get metal in the same way, making it very stable. The metal currency is also the lowest form of currency, as it is worth the lowes t. This is the equivalent of Loose coins in your wallet. Metal can be crafted using the ingame crafting system to form 3 types of metal: Scrap metal, Reclaimed Metal and Refined Metal. 3 scrap metal is used in order to create 1 reclaimed metal, and 3 reclaimed meta l is used to create 1 refined metal. It can thus be concluded that 9 scrap metal is worth the same as 1 refined matel (as 1 refined = 3 reclaimed, and 1 reclaim ed = 3 scrap, thus 3x3 = 9). Because refined is the most used of any of the 3 metals, pricing in the TF2 in t he lower tiers is usually done using Refined Metal. That brings us to the TF2 Ma th system. When consulting a price sheet, you will notice that items are priced in ref. Ref stand for Refined. In the same way, rec stands for Reclaimed. When pricing items in TF2, people use the TF2 math system, which used ref as it' s main variably. Therefore 1 ref = 1 refined, and 2 ref = 2 refined etc. 3 rec = 1 ref, therefore 1 rec = 0.3333333333333333 ref. In order to keep thing simple, the tf2 community stated that 1 rec = 0.33 ref In the same way, 9 scrap = 1 ref, thus 1 scrap = 0.11 ref. Let's say some-one states their items is worth 3.55 Ref. Let's break this down u sing TF2 Math. The number in front of the . shows us how many refined the trader wants. In this case, 3 refined. 1 rec = 0.33, so 0.55-0.33=0.22. 0.22=0.11+0.11, so 2 scrap. I n this case, the trader wants 3 refined, 1 reclaimed and 2 scrap metal. Another example: 7.77 ref. This makes 7 refined, which leaves us with 0.77. 0.77-0.33=0.44. 0.44-0.33=0.11. Therefore, this price stands for 7 refined, 2 reclaimed and 1 scrap metal. It's easiest to keep in mind that 0.33 stand for 1 reclaimed, 0.66 stands for 2 reclaimed, and everything en between is just the reclaimed with some extra scrap metal added. Here's ere a few examples to try the math yourself, and see if you can come to t he right answer: 2.44 ref, standing for 2 ref, 1 rec and 1 scrap. 0.22 ref, standinf for 2 scrap. 1.33 ref, standing for 1 ref and 1 rec. 9.00 ref, standing for 9 ref. 5.88 ref, standing for 5 ref, 2 rec and 2 scrap. A common TF2 Math mistake is the value 0.99. 0.99 stand for 3 reclaimed, yet 3 r eclaimed makes us 1 ref, thus 0.99=1. This mistake is often make then counting d ifferent values together. For example: 2.44 ref +1.55 ref. On a calculator, you will get 3.99 ref. Yet this is actually 4 ref, because you get 3 ref, 2 rec, and 3 scrap. 3 scrap make 1 rec, thus form ing 3 rec. 3 rec makes 1 ref, thus forming 4 ref. Here are a few math problems for you to solve that uncludes adding and removing different values from each others. The idea should be simple by now, but keep in mind: 0.99=1 3.33+2.22, making 5 ref, 1 rec and 2 scrap 1.33+4.55, making 5 ref, 2 rec and 2 scrap 5.44-2.11, making 3 ref and 1 rec

1.44+1.66, making 3 ref and 1 scrap (remember, 0.44+0.55 makes 0.99, thus 1 ref. Therefore, 0.44+0.66 makes 1 ref + 1 scrap) 2.66+4.77, making 7 ref, 1 rec and 1 scrap. 4.55-3.77, making 2 rec and 1 scrap. If you can solve these TF2 Math problems, you are ready to use the Metal currenc y system. 2. Keys Keys are another currency used in TF2. Their price is less stable, because they can only be bought through the store, or through trading. Therefore, they are pr ices in metal, and not 100% stabel. Keys differ in price from time to time, and it is wise to consult a price list to know how much one is worth (price lists wi ll be explained later). Keys are the middle tier currency system, and used to buy rarer or more popular items in the game. They are also used to open crates (explained later). In pricing, when some-one asks 1.5 keys for an item, this would not be possible, as half keys do not exist. Therefore, the trader would mean 1 key + half the va lue of a key in metal. For example, lets say keys are worth 4 ref (this might not be the actual price o f keys at the time you read this, so be carefull!). If you trader wants 1.5 keys , he wants 1 key + 2 ref, or 6 ref. 3. Promo's Promo's are the highest form of currency in the game, and are also the rarest cu rrency. They are quite stable, and are prices in keys. They are used to buy very rare or popular items. Unusual hats are bought by promo's. Promo's are NOT the same as genuine items. Only a few items quilify as Promo's. They are as follows: 1. Bill's Hat. 2. Earbuds. 3. Max's Heads 4. Vintage Lugermorph's 5. Salvaged Crates New promo's might be created from time to time, but the main idea behind the pro mo currency is that these items are worth alot (and thus priced in keys) yet are quite stable and very wanted. Each promo is worth a different amount of keys, and are interchangable. For exam ple, lets say bills are worth 8 keys and earbuds are worth 22 keys (again, real prices might differ from this!). You can then use 2 bill's hats and 6 keys to bu y earbuds. The reason the Promo currency exists is because very rare and expensive items ca n then be trading using only a few items. For example, let's say keys are 4 ref and earbuds are 22 keys. YOu have an unusual worth 4 earbuds. 4 earbuds make up 4x22=88 keys. 88 keys would make 88x4=352 refind metal. Because it would be inpr actical to trade 352 refind in the same trade, promo items are used to keep trad es easy.

--Getting Started: Crafting system-In TF2, there is a crafting system. You can find the crafting tab in your invent ory. Here, you can turn items into other items: weapons into metal, metal into other types of metal, and metal into hats, misc's and weapons.

In order to make weapons, you must first craft Tokens. Tokens will indicate what weapon you will make, and there are 2 types of tokens: Class and Slot tokens. Class tokens will tell the system for what Class you want to make a new weapons. THe Slot token will tell the system for what slot you want a new weapon. For ex ample, if you want to new rocket launcher for your soldier, you will need a Sold ier token, together with a Primary token. Crafting will almost always result in a random item. For example, when crafting a new soldier rocket launder, you will recieve a random rocket launcher (certain crafting blueprints will not be random). In order to craft hats, you need to craft 3 refined metal together to greate a n ew hat. This hat will be random, and can be either a hat or a misc. Rebuilding a hat required either 2 craft hats (which will result in a random hat ) or 1 craft hat + 1 refined + 1 class token (which will result in a hat for tha t specific class). There are alot of blueprints to to create different items, but you will learn th em all during your TF2 trading experience. If you wish to learn them beforehand, you can simply look through the blueprints ingame. They all tell you what you n eed to use them, and what items they will create. You must be reminded though that certain items cannot be used in crafting. Altho ugh there are a few exceptions (you need not worry yourself with them now), all items that cannot be used in crafting will have a notice in their item descripti on stating 'This item cannot be used in crafting'. Uncraftable items are worth less in the TF2 community because the only way to ge t rid of them is to trade or delete them. Keep this in mind when trading items A T ALL TIMES! Notify a price list whenever you see an uncraftable item.

--Your First Trades: Weapon Value and Scrapbanking-Since you will probably not have alot of items when you start trading, you are f orced to trade with the only things you got: weapons. Because of the crafting sy stem, 2 weapons can be crafted into 1 scrap metal. Therefore, a weapon is worth 1/2 x 1 scrap, and because 1 scrap = 0.11, a weapons is half that. Thus, a weapo n is worth 0.05 ref. However, if some-one want's to own a weapon that you posses, you will charge him 1 scrap metal for you weapon. So you're asking 2 weapons for 1 weapon. How does this work? It's all very simple: you have an item the other player wants to have. He other player does not have any items you want to have. Therefore, the other player has to offer you more that you offer him. And since weapons are the lowest costing items in TF2 (except for a few examples), the only thing worth more than 1 weapo n is 2 weapons. This all sound very stupid: why trade 2 weapons for 1 weapon. Well, it's become a standard in TF2, and all TF2 traders know why. We can use this standard to mak e out first profit! That is how the TF2 trading system works. Famous words in the TF2 trading commun ity are: Buy low, sell high. This means you buy items for a certain currency pri ce, and you sell those items for a higher price. It's just as in real life, and very simple.

Go to a few trade servers. These can be found easily ingame by going to to 'Sele ct Server' tab ingame, and typing in 'trade' into the search engine. A large lis t of servers dedicated to traders will pop up. These servers will differ from no rmal server, as there will not be any objective to fulfill, like capturing the f lag or pushing the cart (on some maps however, you can capturee control points). The reason for this es because every time one of both teams win, the map will h ave to reset, which hinders players in making their trades. When in a trade server, use the trade screen to let other people know what weapo ns you sell. Be patient, and don't spam the chat window: people will see your an nouncement. Finding a player that is looking for your weapons might take a while : weapons are the opposite of rare in TF2, so most advanced player will already have all the weapons in the game. Don't worry though, you will eventually find p layers that want to buy your weapons. Once you find some-one that wants your items, send them a trade request. Do this by going to your inventory and selecting the Trading option in the right cornor . Select 'current server' and select the player you want to trade. If they send you a trade request, a message will pop up on the screen. You can press j to acc ept their invite, or k to ingore the invite. If the message is from the player y ou wanted to trade, press j. While in the trade, put in the weapon(s) he other trader wanted, and ask for 1 s crap per weapon. Once he other trader has put his scrap metal into the trade win dow, simply make the trade. After repeating this for a while, you might find youself with no weapons left to sell, but with a bunch of scrap metal. This is where face 2 of this proces kick s in: scrapbanking! In the TF2 crafting system, you require 2 weapons of the same class in order to craft 1 scrap. Because people won't always have 2 weapons of the same class that they want to turn into 1 scrap, you can offer to take their 2 weapons off their hand for 1 scrap. THis is a win-win situation, as you will get 2 weapons out of 1 scrap, and the other trader can still get his 1 scrap. Why do people not sell their weapons for 1 scrap each themselves? Well once, you start trading in the higher tiers, you will end up wil alot of weapons, which w illl start flooding your backpack. Traders will eventually find themselves tradi ng higher tier items, leaving them no time to sell weapons, but they will still recieve weapens in trades and via the drop system. To get rid of these weapons, people will seek out scrapbankers (in other words, you) to trade in their unwant ed weapons for scrap. Using this sytem, you will trade 1 weapons for 1 scrap, and 1 scrap for 2 weapon s. This was, you will slowly get more and more weapons in your backpack, untill you have alot of weapons on your backpack. This is the easiest way to make profi t for a new TF2 trader, as it's almost impossible to get this wrong. IMPORTANT NOTICE! The weapons you trade must be craftable! Even though you will never craft the weapons yourself (as you either sell them or scrapbank them), un crafyable weapons are worth less than craftable weapons, because you cannot use 2 uncraftable weapons to make 1 scrap. Try avoinding incraftable weapons, and al ways check that you are trading for craftable weapons by scrolling over the item s in the trade window!

--Upgrading your trades: Hats and Misc's, stranges etc-Once you have made a small inventory of metal (something like 5 refined or somet

hing), you can upgrade your trades to a new level. As you know by now, the only way to make profit is to buy low and sell high. At this point, you have make a small inventory of currency, and are therefore ready to start trading other items than weapons. To start off, only weapons are priced at the same rate in TF2. THerefore you are nor entering a trading tier where all items are not ficed at a set priced, and will differ in price as time goes by, just like in real life. In order to know w hat a certain item is worth, you're going to need a pricelist. The current standard pricelist is backpack.tf . This price sheet will keep track of how much all items are worth. If some-one wants to trade you an item you do know know the value of, open backpack.tf and search for the price of the item. T his way, you are certain you will not pay too much for a certain item, ensuring you won't lose profit. Read the Scammer, Bastards and Bandits section to read mo re about pricesheets. As you know, a standard in TF2 is that you buy weapons for 1 scrap, and you scra pbank 1 scrap for 2 random weapons. Another golden TF2 standard is: a craft hat is worth 1.33 ref. Not this is where things get a little bit more complicated. YOu need 3 refind to make a craft hat. Why are craft hats worth 1.33 ref then? Well, this is because you can also craft 2 craft hats together into 1 other craf t hat. Therefore, you could buy 2 different craft hats and use them in the craft ing system instead of 3 refined. Therefore, a crafthat would be worth 1.5 ref. But because it would be pointless to first buy 2 hats for 1.5 ref and THEN craft instead of crafting right away, n o-one would buy the hats for 1.5 first. Therefore, traders had to sell their hat s cheaper than 1.5 to make it worthwhile for the crafters. And kaboom: the 1.33 standard was born. Now, note that we have a standard in a tier that has no set prices. How is this possible? Well, that's because technically, the standard does not exist. Therefo re, We are going to buy hats for a price LOWER than 1.33 ref: we'll but hats at 1 ref, 1.11 ref or 1.22 ref. This is reffered to as buying UNWANTED hats. If people have hats they want to ge t off their hand for metal, and then don't have time to sell then for 1.33 or hi gher, you can take them off their hand for less than their standard value, just like it worked with weapons. Like this, we can use the 'buy low, sell high' meth od to make profit. Once you have bought a few hats for your set price (remember, the higher the pri ce, the faster people will sell hats to you, but the less profit you make for ea ch trade. Try to find the value at which you make the most profit), you can rese ll these hats for a higher price to people that WANT the hat. Now, you hats have become WANTED hats, and thus more value to the buyer. This is the point worth a different range from 1.33-2 worth more than 6 ing. where you are going to need to use a price list. Every hat is amount of metal based on the popularity of the hat. Most hats ref, but some exceptions can reach to 3,4 or even 6 ref. Hats ref are items you will not see untill you enter high tier trad

You will need to sell your hats at the apropriate price. Price sheets will give a range price. This will lok something like 1.33-1.66 ref. What this means is th at the hat will be sold as low as 1.33 and as high as 1.66 ref. You can try to g

o ahead and try to sell the hat at it's highest value: this way, you will make t he most profit out of your hat. But this will also mean that it will take a long time before you will find some-one who is willing to way the maximum value of t he item. The lower you sell for, the easier it gets: try finding the the price a t which you find you make enough profit without having to wait too long between each trade. From here on out, it's the same as weapon trades: rince and repeat. Keep buying hats at your set price below 1.33 ref, and keep reselling them for 1.33 ref or a bove, making profit along the way. At this point, don't forget to keep your goal s in mind, and don't be afraid to buy a a hat for yourself once you have alot of metal. Don't go off and buy alot of hats for youself either though: you will ne ed metal to reinvest into your own shop to keep buying new hats to resell.

--High Tier Trading: When are you ready?-Once you have reached this point, you will have a large amount of metal in your backpack. You will have completed some of your goals, you will probably own ever y weapon in the game, and you will have a nice collection of hats for sale, as w ell as a nice collection of hats you wear yourself. Once you reach thus point, y ou will not need this guide anymore to help youself, and you are experienced eno ugh in the TF2 trading community to know all the basics described in this guide. However, High Tier Trading is just as hard as beginner trading when you start n ew, and trading will only get more complicated the higher you go. Once you reach this point, I suggest you rely on both your experience and your brain. You can also read a new guide on Higher Tier trading, so you will know how to best get y our way around.

--Scammers, Bastards and Bandits-As I mentioned earlier, some people will stop at nothing to make more profit, ev en at the expence of other player. THese players are known as scammers, scarkers , phishers and many more names. They are generally reffered to as simply scammer s. Scamming is something heavily frowned upon by the TF2 community. Just like in re al life it's illegal to rob some-one of their items, so too is it illegal in Tf2 to do just that. However, some people will try to trick other people into givin g them them their items for free, lying about prices and many more. In this sect ion, I will explain how to avoind getting scammer. The main defence against scammers is using your brain. Whenever some-one is maki ng a trade with you, consider if the the trade the other player is trying to mak e with is exactly the trade you want to do as well, and also know what you are t rading. If the other player want to trade an item you have never seen before, do n't believe what he says about the price of the item: always use a price list li ke backpack.tf first to make sure the other player is right. Here are a few tips to avoid being scammer: 1. ALWAYS use a pricelist like backpack.tf, even if you have traded the item bef ore. Prices may vary over time, and people can easily lie about the price of an item. 2. ALWAYS check the items before clicking the trade button by scrolling over the m. Are the items really the items you wanted? Are the items not uncraftable etc? 3. BE PATIENT! If the other trader says you need to hurry up because of whatever reason, DON'T! Take your time, and make sure you will eventually trade the item

s you wanted to trade. Here are a few common scams that can be easily avoided: 1. Quickswitch Scam In this trade, the scammer will try to trade for your valueble item. He will off er you another valuable item, and you will agree to trade for that item. The sca mmer will them try to distract you somehow (by asking you to check out a website or whatever). While you are not looking at the trade window, the scammer will q uickly switch away the valuable item for a far less valuable item, which will re sult in a heavy loss for you. In order to avoid this, simply take your time and check all items in the trade before attempting to actually trade the items. The Steam trading system will also notify you whenever items have been removed or ad ded: if you have not looked at your trade screen for a moment, look if there are any notifications of trade differences. Another trick is to press the 'ready' b utton before going away from the trade screen. If the scammer has switched items , your 'ready' button will be turned to unready, alerting you that the trade has changed somehow. 2. Item Quality scammers In this scam, the scammer will try to make you think you are trading an item of higher value, like a vintage or genuine item, while he will actually attempt to trade you a unigue quality item, worth far less than a vintae or genuine. This c an be done via quickswitch, or renaming the item from to 'genuine ....'. This ca n be avoided by simply checking the items before trading. 3. Phishing Links. In this scam, scammers will send you a link to a certain website. On this site, you are required to fill in your account password in order to reach certain info rmation. Normally, these phishing link offer free items, or state that some-one is saying bad things about you. If someone sends you a link to a website, ALWAYS make sure the website is the real website, and not a fake. 4. Hit and Run Scam. In this trade, the scammer will ask you to trade an item to the scammer first, a nd he will trade you his item afterwards. This works with money trades as well: the scammer will ask you to trade him the server, after which the scammer would send the money. In reality, the scammer will recieve your items and then run awa y from the server or unfriend you, taking off with your items. Avoid this by nev er trading an item without recieving your wanted item. If needed, use a trusted middleman (check the Gambling section for more info) to avoid the scammer taking off with your items. 5. Fake middleman Scam In this trade, when you are using a trusted middleman, this 'middleman' is actua lly a friend of the scammer. When you trade the items to the middleman, both him and the other scammer will leave with your items. Avoid this scam by making sur e to use your own middleman, or by making sure you are certain the middleman is not an impersonator. 6. Impersonation Scam Often used during a fake middleman scam, the impersonator will change his accoun t details to appear to be some-one he's not, making you think he as a famous and trusted individual, while he is actually a scammer. The only way to avoid this scam is by checking the user through a website called steamrep.com (explained be low). 7. Paypal Rehargeback Scam In this scam, the scammer will pay you money for your item through Paypal. After you have traded the scammer the items, the scammer will order a chargeback thro

ugh paypal, resulting in you losing the money you just made, and the scammer tak ing off with your items. Avoiding this scam is hard: try to find out if the user you are trading with is a scammer using steamrep.com. 8. Fake Gambling Scam In this scam, the scammer will attempt to make a raffle or a spycrab event (expl ained in the Gambling section). Once the scammer has either recieved all the ite ms for a raffle or has lost the spycrab, he will leave the server. Avoid this sc am by using a middleman. A very helpfull site in the endless battle against scammer is steamrep.com. This site has a database wil all players in Tf2, and will mark scammer with a red sc ammer sign. If you are uncertain wheter a player is a scammer or not, you can ch eck him using steamrep to be sure. In the same way, you you encounter a scammer that has not yet been marked on ste amrep, take pictures and gather evidence, and request the scammer to be marked o n steamrep by providing the site with evidence that the player is in fact a scam mer.

--Gambling: Raffles, Spycrabs, duels and more-(Though Uncrating is considered a form of Gambling, I have made a different sect ion for it). Even in TF2, you can gamble. The main 2 forms of gambles are Raffles and Spycrab s. Raffle's are pretty straightforward. Some-one will raffle away a valueable item. You buy a ticket with a less valuable items. Once enough players have bought ti ckets, the raffler will draw a winner who will then recieve the valueble item as a price. Spycrab gamble's are one of the most used gamble's in TF2. In this gamble, 2 spy 's will both equip the discuise kit and each hit the taunt button. Though the ru le can vary, a general rule is 'the first to spycrab 3 times loses'. During a spycrab gamble, all participants (normally only 2 gamblers, but as rule s can vary, more players can join in on the spycrab) spawn as the spy class and equip the disguise kit. When taunting with the disguise kit, the player has a la rge change the spy will flick his cigar away, and draw a new cigar. However, the re is a small change the spy will perform the 'spycrab' taunt, where he will cro uch and move his hand in a manner as if they where the claws of a crab (thus the therm 'spycrab'). As a general rule, the first player to perform the taunt 3 ti mes loses and must hand over his bidding to the winner. A variant of spycrabbing is halloweencrabbing. Though this does now involve crab bing, it uses the the same principle: during halloween, the gamblers will taunt, and the first player to perform the halloween taunt 3 times loles. Other types of games can be make, like during a dueling minigame, the winner rec ieves items etc. As a rule, it is very wise to use a middleman when gambling. A middleman is a trusted individual that will recieve all items before the gambl e begins (the middleman is NOT the raffling in case of a raffle). After some-one has won the gamble, the middleman will trade all the items to the winner. The advantage of using a middleman is that if the middleman is actually trustwor thy, there chances of being scammed are practically nihil. No matter what the ot her person does (leave, claiming he has won etc etc), the middleman will judge t

he right person who has won and will ensure they get the right items. Scammer wi ll be unable to leave with the items, and people cannot quit after a spycrab eve nt without paying. The disadvantage of a middleman is that the middleman himself COULD leave with b oth player's items. To ensure this doesn't happen, make sure you either know the middleman, or you have checked the middleman throughout to make sure he is not a scammer himself.

--Unboxing: you gamble with keys and unusuals-Unboxing. It is an act where you use your key to open a crate and will recieve a n item from the box. It's all very easy. Each box has a serienumber. Each serie provides different items. This means diff erent items come from different boxes. Only new boxes will drop. Old boxes are removed from the drop system, and can on ly be optaint through trading. When unboxing a crate, players will lose the key. This is why unboxing is very e xpensive, and generally considered not worth it. Almost all weapons optained from crates are of strange quality. Even though all box series give different items, thel all have a 1% chance to gr ant an Unusual Hat. This hat will be random, and will be given a random effect. Because there is only a 1% chance to get an Unusual hat from a box, we can assum e that it costs an average of 100 keys to unbox an Unusual. Since Earbuds are ab out 25 keys (prices may vary), you'd have to unbox a hat worth more than 4 buds to make profit from this. Because this is usually not the case, most players los t alot of profit through unboxing, and it is thus considered a form of gambling.

--General Tips and Tricks: Increase your chances to make a succesfull deal-1. Be srict in your prices, but not too comepletely firm. If your prices are neg otiable, other people will be more temped to make a good offer. 2. Be polite. No-one likes to deal with a rude trader. 3. ALWAYS check your trades before makeing the trade, and be patient. Avoiding a scam lies normally within your own hands. 4. Keep your goals in mind, otherwise TF2 trading can become a drag. 5. Try finding your own comfort zone in the TF2 trading community: set the price s you find best, find your favorite trading server etc. 6. Never EVER scam another person. You will regret it later.

--Conclusion-That marks the end of my Beginner's Guide to TF2 trading. I hope I have explained everything you need to know to start your trading in TF2 . If you have any questions, you can leave them below, and I'll try to answer th em. But before you ask any questions, please read the guide carefully. If you're question is not in the guide, and is not asked before, THEN you can as k a question. Remember: in patience lies the key to becoming a good Tf2 trader.

This guide has been created by the TF2 player Matymatymaty. Steamrep page: http://steamrep.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fsteamcommunity.com%2Fid %2Fspartanmaty%2F This guide was made to be read for free, and has been uploaded for free use. If any-one is attempting to sell this guide for money, items or anything else, do n ot buy it.