How To Make Profit On Team Fortress 2

You can buy items in bulk from established players who are looking to clear their inventories. Try to find items with a fairly consistent price, and buy them in bulk at a discount price. If an item can easily be sold for 1 refined, try to buy 3 of that item for 2 refined + 2 reclaimed, and sell them on your own, making yourself 1 reclaimed profit. This is a very easy and low-risk method of making profit. Remember, every little bit adds up.

There is a time to trade on specified trade servers, and there is a time to stray from them. For example, if you are trying to sell Bill's Hat for several Keys, you will want to head to a trade server. Not many non-traders just horde Keys in their backpack. However, competitive servers are great for small business trades. Many players who are searching for a specific weapon will offer to pay a scrap or more for convenience. You can also pick up tools cheap from competitive players who could care less about the trading aspect of the game. Decal tools and Name Tags can often be bought at a low price, then resold for their value to someone on a trade server.

This is one of my favorite methods of making profit. Enter a trade server with two craftable hats. Tell people on the server that you are going to craft the hats and you would be willing to trade each one for any craftable hat plus something extra (often called a sweetener). Take any deal that doesn't include crates. There are many instances in which you can get an extra reclaimed metal from a person who prefers your class-specified hat over theirs.

Trade Example: Handyman's Handle (Pyro) for Master's Yellow Belt + Paint Can

Someone who has a Yellow Belt dislikes playing as a Sniper. If that player prefers Pyro, he will likely be willing to include at least a weapon or two extra. Just be sure the person trades you a craftable hat in return for yours. You can find out whether a hat is craftable by hovering the mouse over the item. If the description shows "This item cannot be used in crafting," ask politely for a craftable hat in its place.

One of the easiest ways to obtain more metal is to craft the item drops you receive. However, as a trader, you should hold off on crafting metal until you can make a worthwhile amount. Many people request specific weapons during gameplay, and most players are willing to trade a scrap for the sake of convenience. You could potentially double your profit by trading rather than crafting. This trading method actually works quite well in combination with the Exchanging Craftable Hats trading method. Something as simple as saying "Trading a bunch of weapons, just ask!" on a competitive server is a great way to sell a weapon for a scrap or more.

I was able to make a lot of profit by providing a Steam Avatar service. Using Photoshop, I completed avatar requests in return for donations. I received as little as Dalokohs Bar for one of my avatars, but I also received as much as two hats for a set of six avatars. Runescape and other online games are also very common in trade scenarios. People will do anything in exchange for Runescape gold. I never found interest in that game, but keep in mind what your computer abilities are and which game is more important to you. Be very cautious when using this method. Scamming is common, and you should find a trusted middle-man if you want to do these trades.

Forums are an easy and free way to advertise items you have for sale. While you play the game, keep posts on multiple forums with items you are trading, what you are expecting in return, and how they can contact you. I recommend leaving your Steam ID on each post. Steam can alert you when a new player adds you to his/her Friends List and you can discuss terms of trade. Forums are also useful in finding a middle man. Keep an eye on the thread rating and how others react to his/her service. Sometimes middle men require a small fee. Other times you can complete trades for free. Once again, be cautious about who you choose for this job.

I recommend you use the same username on all forums. Many people jump from one forum to another, and it is surprising how quickly you can become well-known if all of your trades run smoothly. This strategy helps traders prove their reliability because it is easy to post a link to alternate forums. As long as you still have the same username, people will generally trust you.

I noticed a lot of my friends no longer play Team Fortress 2. From asking around my friends list, I was able to get two Bill's Hats, two cans of white paint, and a bunch of other random paints as well as rare vintage weapons for free. It is a wise idea to make friends on other games, especially those with old promotional items. You never know when you can pick up a rare item for no cost. Make the most of the items that are only collecting dust in your friends' backpacks. You can view your friend's backpack by visiting his/her profile and clicking "View Inventory." Keep an eye out, and remember to always ask nicely.

Possibly the biggest source of monetary profit from Team Fortress 2 comes from the rare Unusual hats. These hats are obtained only by opening Mann Co. Crates using Keys. You have a 1% chance of uncrating an Unusual hat, so I don't recommend buying a bunch of Keys. People generally want Earbuds and Bill's Hat offers for their Unusual hats. Most Unusuals cost at least one Earbud, though there are a few exceptions. Unusual hats can be valued anywhere from $30 to over $1000. The easiest way to sell Unusual hats for real money is to find a forum and use a trusted middle man. That is, unless you can convince the person you are trading with to send the money first. This isn't likely to happen considering the amount of money being transferred.

As far as trading Unusuals go, be aware that Unusuals are a slowly declining market. You can't buy anything for the long run, and it's usually best to sell out for Promo items and restart whenever possible. There are general tiers of effects and classes that you should be aware of when trading, and you must be able to recognize the current trends in order to make profit (some effects are "in," while others are "out," much like fashion styles.)

Some class-hats are generally more well-liked than others. Though nothing is set in stone, Soldier and Demo hats seem to be the most valuable while Heavy and Engineer unusuals are the least valuable.

Some Unusual hats have themes, but before I go any further, let me explain something very clearly. Traders can make up a theme out of ANYTHING. If you have any doubt, it's probably not a themed hat. What do I mean by themed? A Dead Cone with Bubbles can be seen as a Wet Floor symbol. However, if someone tries to pass off an Unusual Batter's Helm with Purple Energy as a "Purple Flurp" theme from Jimmy Neutron, you can see why not everyone would make the connection. Nuts & Bolts is one of the lowest-tier effects, but that effect is highly valuable on Engineer hats. The Nuts & Bolts effect is a theme for the Engi, as is Hearts with Medic, and Burning Flames with Pyro. You should only consider a hat themed when the theme is very obvious. Remember, not everyone has your imagination!

Finally, I would like to conclude with some small trading tips that you may already know. When you advertise and leave your Steam ID, people will add you. Nine times out of ten, they will be lowballing you. Your best option is to hear their offer, but be patient and check with a friend if you have any doubts. If the person gets mad and says he's giving you a good deal but can't wait, your mental red flag should raise because 99 times out of 100, he's lowballing you.

Also, be cautious of the old switcheroo. I know it's a lame trick and you feel invulnerable to it, but hear me out. One trader offered his Hearts Private Eye plus a bunch of lesser items for my Bubbling Crown. Knowing this was a fantastic deal even without his sweets, I accepted his trade. Before we traded, he asked for 2 or 3 crates to unbox. As I searched for the crates, he switched his Unusual Private Eye out for a regular Private Eye. I very nearly accepted the trade, but one last glance over the terms and I had caught him. It was very sneaky, and I reported him to Steam. I'm guessing I'm not the only person he tried this trick on, as his trade status was listed as "Probation." Check every user's profile page before you trade with him. If the person is under probation, proceed with caution. ALWAYS check over the trade terms one last time before accepting an offer.

There are a few hats in the game that can only be obtained via promotion, such as Genuine items, Bill's Hat, the Monday Night Combat set, and Earbuds. The value of Genuine items seems to be decreasing as the yellow-text versions are released and multiply. I advise you to sell Genuine items before the yellow-text versions are released. Items such as Bill's Hat, Earbuds, Lumbricus Lid, and Essential Accessories are valuable and can be stored until the value increases even more. All of these items have doubled their original value. I do not doubt that as long as Team Fortress 2 is popular, these hats will continue to increase in value.

As I've told many of my readers, investing in a promotional items is like investing in the stock market. Prices rise and fall very often. If you can buy when they're cheap and sell when the price rises, you will be in good shape. I bought an Ebenezer for 2 keys + 1 refined, and within a week it was worth 5 keys. If you realize a promotion has been cut off, that's your cue to jump in and buy before the price rises.

It seems as if the Christmas update was the end of Vintages as we know it. I myself invested heavily in the summer items only to find they were never to upgrade to the coveted blue text. However, certain craft weapons can sell for a high price, that is, if you're lucky enough to get them on an early attempt. For example, The Maul still has no blueprint. That means the only way to get it is to smelt 3 weapons into a melee token, 3 more weapons into a class token, then combine the tokens and add an additional scrap for a 1/6 chance at crafting The Maul. Naturally, this weapon is much more valuable than common drop items.

After the discontinuation of Vintage weapons, Valve introduced a "craft number" for the first 100 of each hat and weapon randomly crafted. For example, the first ever Original (rocket launcher) crafted by a player received the permanent name "The Original #1." This item was dubbed 'the original Original' and is on the market for a fortune. The craft number item market is very unstable and can be a good source of profit if you can buy cheap. For instance, I bought Sultan's Ceremonial #49 with my Outback Intellectual + Ornament Armament (at that time my items were worth up to 9 refined, but I knew they would decrease over time.) Within a few weeks, I turned Sultan #49 around for 5 keys (worth more than 12 refined.) I did a similar trade with Stocking Stuffer #23, buying low at 6 Refined and reselling for 10 refined.

Back when Team Fortress 2 was a new game, weapons and hats were found at random levels. Some people are very intent on getting specific levels on their items, whether it be their birthday, favorite number, or something vaguely significant to them. Ironically enough, a lot of people trade oddly-leveled weapons without realizing/caring. There are many people who will trade good items to get a specific leveled item. The price on these oddly-leveled items varies greatly between traders, but Level 0 and Level 100 seem to be the most significant. Trade these for a duplicate item of a regular level plus a nice sweetener.

Vintage Hats and Weapons that have are level 0 or 100 can go for very high prices. They are among the most rare items in Team Fortress 2 and should not be sold for anything short of a fortune. If you see an opportunity to trade someone for these items, capitalize on this quick, then sell it for more!

There are many forums and other websites that promote trading in Team Fortress 2 that strongly promote trading. However, there are two sites that I have found really stick out from the rest. These resources will have you log in through Steam. From there, you will be able to display up to 8 items from your backpack and choose from a list of possible items that you want in return. Real people can view these trades and usually respond fairly quick.

The first is the Team Fortress 2 Trade Post, http://www.tf2tp.com. This resource is very helpful due to extremely high traffic. However, its main pro is also its main con. This site often takes a little while to load, so hopefully you have fast internet connection. If you do manage to get a trade up, be prepared to trade right away if your offer is fair. I offered my extra Essential Accessories for its full value and was traded less than 2 minutes after I made the post. The most unique feature about this site is private trades, that is, nobody can see offers made on your items but you, so there is no need to worry about a 3rd party stealing your trade.

Because TF2TP is sometimes unreliable, another very similar resource was created for the same purpose. The TF2 Outpost, http://www.tf2outpost.com, uses the same concept of trading as TF2TP. On this site, everyone can see offers on every trade, so you must be quick to capitalize on good offers. This site utilizes a Reputation feature, which allows you to view positive feedback from other users.

Strategically, you should approach trading on these two resources in two ways. First, propose a trade naming *exactly* what you want. You'd be surprised to know how often someone just happens to have the specific items you are looking for. Secondly, propose a trade with very vague terms. Sometimes it's best to leave your items "open to offers." It is not uncommon to make the most profit by doing just that. The second method requires some persistence, as you will likely be rejecting most offers.

Don't just propose your trade and run away! Make sure you check out the recent offers by others. If you see a good deal, take it immediately or it will be gone before you can blink! Don't miss out on these important opportunities. They do not appear as often as you'd like them too, but then again, I wouldn't be writing this if trading was easy.

Those wishing to make profit may benefit greatly from the wonders of gift-hording. I'm talking about the Halloween event, featuring infinite gifts over an extended period of time. Here's a marketing tip. Horde all the Halloween items you can, and sell them before the event ends. Then, when Halloween is over, the community suddenly doesn't care about the Halloween-restricted items, and you can buy them back much cheaper than what you sold them for. This marketing strategy will remain true for any and every holiday-restricted event for the duration of Team Fortress 2's life. Give it a try! Sometimes, you have to skip looking wealthy in one update to make profit for the future!

Steam released a feature that allows its users to trade items outside the game. In the chat box, you can now click the drop-down arrow and select "Invite to Trade." You can trade TF2 items for other TF2 items, Steam games, and items from other participating games such as Spiral Knights and Portal 2. This program put many game-for-hat scammers out of business. Because of this trade system, you no longer have to boot up TF2 to make trades!

There are an infinite number of methods people use to make profit in their own ways. My goal is to help readers like you get the edge by understanding the market; that is, which items increase over time, and which will decrease.

Let us begin with an example. Vintage Hats, the once-coveted blue-texted apparel have become drastically less valuable over time. As new hats are released, players begin to realize the blue text doesn't mean as much as the extra refined metal or two they can get from downgrading to non-vintage or "unique." This extra metal is in turn gathered and traded for new items. Hats are all about showing off your wealth. What's more frustrating than getting owned by some jerk who taunts using the newest weapons and apparel? Face it, Vintage Hats are old school, and taunting at your dead opponent doesn't show them your hat is Vintage. The lesson here: most hats decrease in value over time.

Now, let me contradict everything I just said. There are hats and miscellaneous items that are increasing as time goes on. These hats include Earbuds and Bills. Earbuds were a promotional item first introduced to Mac users simply by logging in to Steam from a Mac. Earbuds were once as worthless as Alien Swarms. What happened? Valve, without any prior indication, cut off the promotion. Suddenly, Earbuds were worth a fortune! Since the termination of the Mac promo, Earbuds have remained the main trading unit of "big sales." As Earbuds increase in value, everything else drops in comparison. For example, Max's Severed Head was once valued at five Earbuds. At this point, people are growing tired of Max Heads, and their value is decreasing (Another possible source of this decreased value is a duplication scam in November 2011 where Max Heads and other items were somehow cloned and resold into the market.) But the question remains: why hasn't anyone grown tired of Earbuds? One update to the game allowed players to equip two miscellaneous items at the same time. Suddenly, players could show off their Buds and their License to Maim. These twists in gameplay promote the use of certain items, in this case miscellaneous items, and we see an exponential increase in their values.

Now that we have some kind of understanding of the past, how do we predict for the future? Think of items that people want that are suddenly hard to obtain. Observe the items that are increasing in value, and try to understand why. Name and Description Tags have increased dramatically because they were primarily obtained by unboxing a crate that doesn't drop anymore. Don't be fooled by this increase and invest heavily in these items! Because they are available in the Mann. Co store, they will hit a price ceiling and will probably increase and decrease with the value of metal and keys. Try to predict which items will be demanded in the future that no longer have a stable means of supply. If you invest in such items, you could cash in big!

I would like to close this article by giving you the opportunity to talk to me directly. Let me know which methods worked for you, and which ones just aren't going so well. You can leave a comment below and even join us on Facebook to get the latest news and updates. Feel free to advertise your stuff on the page, too. You might as well take advantage of free advertising wherever you can, and Facebook is a great place for that!