Unusual Trading for Beginners

You've been trading for a while and want to make some more profit. Chances are now you want to get into Unusuals and the Unusual market. Unusual trading, however, can be complicated and differs from regular item trading. In this guide, we'll go through the basics of buying, selling, and pricing Unusual hats and miscs. The guide is set up as a FAQ page for new Unusual traders with sub-topics in some of the categories as well.

When should I start?

The cheapest Unusuals you can find usually cost about 8 keys; however, these are low tier hats with low tier effects, referred to as "cancer" Unusuals on account of how ugly and unpopular they are (more info on Unusual tiers are in the next section). Minimal profit is usually made by dealing with these hats due to their unpopularity and cheap prices. 6-7 keys is usually the lowest you will be able to get a cancer Unusual for if the seller is quickselling (7 is possible, but 6 is usually rare). Bottom line is to stay away from cancer Unusuals if you can, unless you find a seller for 7 keys or less.

I recommend that you trade up to about 15 keys instead, as this is the price range where you can afford a (somewhat) decent low-tier Unusual. Once you get this amount, put up a trade on TF2Outpost[tf2outpost.com] and advertise that you are buying quicksells. Quicksells, typically, are between 20-50% off of a hat's market value in pure keys. People may quicksell their hats to get pure if they are cashing out (quitting the game) or just really want to get rid of an Unusual they've had for a while or just simply can't stand.

Now here's when regular item trading comes into play, but with a variation: Buy low (quicksells) and sell high (market value), rinse, lather, repeat. The only difference here is that buying and selling will take significantly longer to do, usually a few days since Unusuals are far more expensive than craft hats and common strange weapons. Also, getting your wanted price in keys will be harder to do since pure is harder to come by in Unusual trading, and is very valuable to all Unusual traders. You'll be trading Unusuals for more Unusuals most of the time, so get used to it. Note that if you do sell your Unusuals for buds or keys, you might not get the exact price you wanted, so be prepared to negotiate and settle for a lower price.

How do I price an Unusual?

Prices for Unusuals are determined in many different ways, as their rarity in the game makes each hat unique in it's own way. There are two different types of factors that affect an Unusual's value: outside features and inside features. What do outside and inside features mean, you ask? Let's run through them now.

Outside features: These are the bread and butter influences of an Unusual, the hat and its particle effect. I call these outside features because these are what people can visibly see in game, which is what makes Unusuals so popular in the first place. Very noticeable and attractive effect on a popular hat = high price, while a hard to see or undesireable effect on an unpopular hat = low price.


Burning Flames Team Captain. A high-tier, noticeable effect on a god-tier multi-class hat gives this hat the title of the most expensive Unusual in TF2, worth around 6600 keys or about $12,000 USD.


Inside features: These are what players can't see in game, namely being the hat's history. This includes whether the hat is duped or not, how many people have previously owned it, how many marked scammers have owned it, and if it's gifted or not. The amount of people who have owned it usually has little to no effect on the value. The amount of scammers who have owned the hat has little effect on the price as well; however, make sure under any circumstances you do NOT trade with scammers or any suspicious accounts, even if they're offereing you a nice deal (more info in a later section about trading with scammers). Gifted hats are usually unwanted by most traders, so stay away from them. Gifted hats have a permanent gift tag on them which contains the gifter's name and the date received; this tag cannot be removed. Whether a hat is duped or not is also a controversial factor for traders. Some traders are very picky and refuse to accept dupes or severely undervalue them, while others could care less if it's duped or not. Dupes barely affect the value of low-tier Unusuals, but can be worth siginificantly less on god-tier hats (god-tiers are usually worth over 400 keys). To check if a hat is duped, copy the Steam ID of the user's backpack you want to check for a dupe, go to http://backpack.tf, paste the ID in the "Search..." bar, scroll over the Unusual you want to check, and click "history." The website will give you a warning on the top of the screen if the hat is confirmed to be duped.


So, does each Unusual have a definite price?

No. No unusual has a definite price, and their values are constantly fluctuating. If Unusuals did have a set value, then minimal to no profit would be made if the owner knew it's exact and unchanging price.


Backpack.tf has a whole pricelist for all Unusuals and effects, so can I rely on this to price Unusuals?

Sometimes. Many of the prices listed for Unusuals are outdated by several months, and some of the newer hats and effects are still unpriced. Even some of the recently accepted suggestions on bp.tf use sales from as long as a month ago, which is long enough for an Unusual's value to increase or decrease. Common Unusuals or low-tier hats that are frequently traded usually have accurate values on bp.tf when they are recently updated since their sales are up-to-date.


Okay... so what's the best way to determine the price of an Unusual anyway?

Personally, I like to use TF2Outpost to get an idea of how much an Unusual is worth. Search for the hat and effect to find out how many are on the market (the more for sale, the more competetive it will be to sell it) and check each seller's B/O (buyout) and their offers. One mistake many new traders make is basing an Unusual's price based on other people's buyouts. A buyout is just a desired price that a trader wants for their hats, though rarely does a trader get their B/O paid in pure, unless it's a nice price for a desireable Unusual. Instead of focusing on the buyouts, look at the current offers (C/O) to see what people are offering. For instance, if multiple trades for the same Unusual are being offered around 18 keys in pure and in Unusuals (by different people), then it's safe to assume that the Unusual is worth about 18 keys. Simple, right?


Here are some videos of all Unusual effects for hats and miscs currently:

What are promos?

Promotional items, or promos, are items granted by Steam when new games are released or during special events. They may be added as "sweets" in Unusual trades as additional items of value, or may substitute keys. Here are the estimated values of common promos, according to backpack.tf:

Lucky No. 42 (uncraftable)**: 1.2 keys
Bill's Hat: 2.2 keys
Flip-Flops (uncraftable)**: 3 keys
B.M.O.C.**: 3.6 keys
Earbuds** ***: 4 keys
Vintage Lugermorph: 5 keys
Summer Hat (uncraftable)**: 6.4 keys
Lucky No. 42 (craftable)**: 9 keys
Flip-Flops (craftable)**: 11 keys
Holiday Headcase**: 11 keys
Towering Pillar of Summer Shades**: 15 keys
Max's Severed Head*: 24 keys
Summer hat (craftable)**: 26-28 keys
Smissmas Caribou**: 32-34 keys
Hat of Undeniable Wealth and Respect*: 120-130 keys

Prices as of 7/12/15

* = duped versions may sell for less
** = values tend to fluctuate during seasonal events
*** = due to a massive price drop and instability, this is no longer used as currency

How can I maximize the number of successful trades I make?

Remember the Sniper's 3 pieces of advice as to how to be a professional sniper? Well, that's the secret to getting the most trades.





Be polite.

Being courteous and kind to all your fellow traders is extremely important in maximizing the amount of potential buyers for your Unusuals. Even if an offer is low or something you explicitly said you don't want, don't scream at the user who offered and make them feel bad for offering. By doing so, you're practically eliminating all chances of them reoffering with a better offer in the future, assuming they are still interested in the hat, and you're scaring away other users who wanted to offer since they probably don't want to be humiliated for making a simple offer. If you don't like an offer, just say "No thanks" and hide their post, as simple as that. Here's an example of how you should behave when declining an offer:



In this image, the seller of some Unusuals politely declined another user's offer since it wasn't what he was looking for. The other user politely acknowledged this, and both traders moved on. See how simple it is to not be a jerk?


Now let's look at an example of how not to act when declining an offer.



This user, instead of politely saying "No thanks" to my offer on one of his trades, decided that the most effective way to get his point across would be to angrily spam my trade and block me so I couldn't reply. (For those of you who want to know the backstory, back in August 2013 when this happened, he was "quickselling" a Smoking Killer's Exclusive for 4 buds, which was cheapest on the market but definitely not QS territory. I offered a Haunted Ghosts Furious Fukaamigasa [~3 buds at the time] and 1 bud pure, but he wanted some ridiculous massive overpay in Unusuals based off bp.tf prices, which nobody would have done. I figured since I was practically paying his buyout it was a decent offer, but to him I guess it was terrible. The funny thing is, I later sold my Ghosts Fuka for 3 buds in keys a few days later.)

By the way, being excessively rude on Outpost will get you temporarily banned, and permanently banned if you're a repeat offender.





Be efficient.

Even though some Unusuals may be worth the same price, the difficulty to sell them varies based on the class, hat, and effect. For instance, a Steaming Blighted Beak and a Green Energy Bootleg Base Metal Billycock are both worth around 30 keys, but the Steaming Beak would be far easier to sell. Although the Billycock has a more desireable effect, it's a robo-hat (which are usually big pains to sell since they're essentially just uglier metallic versions of the regular hats) and it's for Spy, which is usually a tougher class to sell Unusuals for since he's disguised or cloaked most of the time and can't show any Unusual effects that way. The Steaming Blighted Beak, however, is a misc item, which means you can naturally equip any other hat with it without glitching them together, and it's for Medic, which is a popular class as well as one of the four major competetive classes. If you're on an Unusual trading server and see someone with an easier to sell hat or misc, trade them and see if they'd be willing to do a 1:1. Maybe even offer some small sweets to persuade him/her. Unusuals on the most popular classes (Scout and Soldier primarily, and all-class hats too), miscs or rare/popular hats, and 1st gen effects all make an Unusual easier to sell, so try to get Unusuals that fall under at least one or all of these categories to make selling a lot easier and faster.


Have a plan to kill trade everyone you meet.

Sitting for hours on an Unusual trading server and advertising your Unusual(s) or posting a trade on Outpost and just expecting people to flock to you and give you offers is not productive. You need to be actively offering on other people's Unusuals too! Say you have an Unusual that can be sold fairly easily for 25 keys. Try offering your Unusual on some relatively-easy to sell Unusuals worth around 30 keys for some quick and easy profit. If you keep offering your Unusuals on slightly more expensive Unusuals, you can eventualy build up to a decent amount of keys profit in some time! It may take a good while, and experienced Unusual traders will probably decline any offers for Unusuals worth less than theirs, but if you find a seller who prefers your Unusual to their's, you can make quite a bit of profit with a little bit of luck and determination!

Also, make sure you enable your trade offers on your Outpost page (which I highly recommend you use if you aren't already using it) to make giving and receiving offers a lot easier! You can do so by going to your settings and pasting your trade offer URL in the box provided. Many traders prefer to make private offers or primarily use trade offers if they don't check their Outpost page often, usually because they have autobump and don't need to. It would also be helpful to put your trade offer link in your profile page description so everyone can see it even if they're not on Outpost or on your friend's list. You can find out what your trade offer link is by clicking here.

Are all Unusuals accepted by all Unusual traders?

No. Many traders still try to avoid 3rd generation effects, aka Summer 2013 effects (Aces High, Dead Presidents, Cloud 9, Terror Watt, Kill-a-Watt, Miami Nights, and Disco Beat Down) although they have been around quite a while now, and ultimately stabilized. Personally, I don't really like these effects myself since I don't like the way they look, and maybe the other traders who refuse to accept them feel the same. Until 3rd gens are universally accepted by all/most Unusual traders, try to stick to 1st and 2nd gens if you can. 1st gens, however, are the only effects that are universally accepted by all traders, so if you can get your hands on an Unusual with a 1st gen effect, you shouldn't really have a problem selling it.


Scorching Flames Spook Specs, a high-tier 1st gen effect on a new, popular hat/hair for Soldier, one of the most popular classes


Robo effects have stabilized in the Unusual market by now since they've been around since Spring 2013, but on an uncommon occasion some traders may not accept them. Some classify robo effects as 3rd gens and won't accept them as special effects, while others enjoy robo effects (I myself think they're really good looking and valuable).

Aside from effects, watch out for robo hats. These were the ugly metal versions of normal hats that originated from the Robotic Boogaloo update, and they are worth significantly less than their regular Unusual counterparts, so don't assume that robo and regular are equal! For instance, a Vivid Plasma Shooter's Sola Topi could sell for beween 20 and 25 keys, while the Vivid Plasma Shooter's Tin Topi once sold for just 12 keys[www.tf2outpost.com]. In comparison, a Vivid Plasma Dread Knot (one of the worst hats in the game) could go for about 14-16 keys.

Dead Presidents Shooter's Tin Topi, a robo hat with a 3rd gen effect. Unusuals such as this can be tough to sell, so try to stay away from them.

How long does it take to sell Unusuals?

It all depends on how expensive it is. The cheaper the Unusual, the faster it will sell. Obviously, actual quicksells (like 5 buds for a hat that can be sold for 8) will sell faster than a 5 bud hat being sold for it's market value, since pretty much every trader is here for the profit. The Ghosts Fuka I mentioned earlier was the most expensive Unusual I've ever owned (yes, sadly I'm not a professional like all the others), so the following time estimated are based off of my own experiences* (note: these time frames are for normal hats with 1st and 2nd gen effects, not robo hats or any 3rd gen or robo effects).

Cancer (<15 keys) and low-tier (15 keys to 40 keys): from what I've dealt with, usually no longer than a week

Mid-tier (40-100 keys): expect about 2-3 weeks tops for these

High-tier (100-250 keys): from what I've seen, anywhere between a couple weeks to a couple months (usually no longer than 2 months)

Very high-tier (250-400 keys): ~1-2 months, maybe 3

God-tier (>400 keys): almost guaranteed to take longer than 1-2 months considering the more expensive it gets, less people can actually afford it.


*These are just ESTIMATES only! It could take shorter or longer than what I suggested, and these estimates are just based off my own experiences and what I've seen.



Help! I've been stuck with the same Unusual for quite a while now, and not many people are offering on it. Do I need to quicksell it and lose profit?

Remember, patience is key in Unusual trading! I've been in this situation multiple times, and I've always been able to sell my Unusuals for a fair deal or better. My Ghosts Fuka is a good example of this. At the time, buds were 21 keys, and I paid 2 buds + 7 keys for it (2.3 buds). I had it for almost a month before I sold it, and the best pure offer I received in that time was only 2 buds, and all the Unusual offers I received were low-tier hats with 3rd gen effects and robo effects, which were new and unstable at the time. I was just about ready to quicksell it when a buyer offered 64 keys (~3 buds, which was my buyout). There's always someone out there interested in the Unusual you have, so don't lose faith in your hats and be patient!

Someone with no hours of TF2 gameplay just sold me 10 Unusuals for half-price! High-five, right?

No. No. No. No. No.

Whatever you do, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT be a greedy profit hoarder and ignore obvious signs of a phisher alt. If an F2P account with only 1 page of backpack space and a bunch of Unusuals offers to quicksell you all his hats at amazing prices (guaranteed profit, essentially), don't trade him. The account you may be trading with is an alt of a phisher/hijacker, and any item you are buying from them is stolen. Watch out for accounts that may seem to be regular accounts of traders, as these accounts may have been hijacked. If a seemingly normal account of a trader adds you to offer quicksells that are too good of a deal, check their SteamRep[steamrep.com] and their Outpost page. If he/she is banned from Outpost for being hijacked or has pending SR reports for being hijacked, use common sense and decline the trade.


Who cares about trading with shady accounts? I didn't steal the hats, and profit is profit, right?

Trading with phisher alts and hijackers, or fencing, is a bannable offence by the SteamRep community and practically all other trading communites and websites. You are unfairly allowing phishers and hijackers to successfully sell their stolen goods, run off with pure keys and buds, and then resell those keys and buds for money or via the Steam Community Market. Consider this: essentially, you are acting as a partner in crime for these phishers. In the real world, if you help a criminal escape or carry out their crime knowingly, would you be innocent since you didn't commit the crime first-hand as they did? Nope. Same thing applies in TF2 trading.

Likewise, make sure you avoid trades with any and all scammers, not just phishers and hijackers! As explained above, if you trade with scammers, you're allowing them to sell their stolen goods. Being marked as a scammer is suposed to prevent the scammer from trading, not encourage them. If you happen to accidently trade with a scammer, don't panic. The worst that could happen might be a temporary ban and a warning from trading sites like TF2Outpost, assuming you use them and someone reported you for trading with a scammer. If someone adds you and has a private profile, suspiciously good deals, or looks like they might not be the fairest trader, don't hesitate to check their SteamRep! If you trade with scammers multiple times knowingly, especially after you've been warned for doing it before, you will be banned from trading sites and you will be marked as a scammer on SteamRep, ultimatly ruining your trading career!

Sharking is acceptable since it isn't scamming, right?

It is true that sharking isn't scamming, and subsequently isn't bannable by SteamRep. It is however, bannable by trading communities and websites such as Outpost, Backpack.tf, etc., since it is a deceptive and unfair form of trading. All bans aside, it's just a plain d*ck thing to do.


What's the difference between scamming and sharking anyway?

A scam means that a mutual agreement was broken. For instance, if a buyer agrees to pay $100 for an Unusual via PayPal, and the seller trades away his Unusual to the buyer first but the buyer never sends the money to the seller, the agreement to pay $100 has been broken, and a scam has taken place. Sharking means that a buyer convinces the seller to sell his/her goods at an unfairly low price (though the seller is unaware of this). If both parties agree on a price and trade for the agreed price, then the agreement has been met and the deal was valid.

Finishing comments

If this guide helped you, leave a comment and rate this guide up! I spent a decent amount of time making it, so I hope everyone who reads this likes it!

This guide is only about Unusual hats and miscs. I did not include Unusual taunts since they are too new to determine their values, and since I have no experience with them.

Also, remember that this guide is for traders who are new to the Unusual market. I'm not a super high-tier trader, but I know enough about the basics of Unusual trading. Again, thanks to everyone who read this guide and liked it!

[BigPauly]

Thank you dude. After reading this i can maybe change my name to stonks in a while

[Mekanik]

nutsnboltsgauzedgazeonwer.mp4

[Chalinz]

i love this article

[BackForwardOne]

Good guide

[BackForwardOne]

TF2 Outpost has shut down, bazaar.tf(as far as I know) is essentially the same concept so use it instead if you’re trying to follow this guide’s instructions.

[Carlos Gaming]

outdaaated

[Neecogwheelsword]

Is the Circling TF Logo Burning Question low tier? I have one and want to know.

[dec]

hey guys im sellin Unusual Berliner's Bucket Helm, effect:flaming lantern for 43,70 e on market check it out

[SaltPoweredRobot]

Been trading normal items for a while now and I want to start trading unusuals. I just have a few questions.

Say I manage to buy a quicksell hat that's worth 15 keys, and I got it for 12 keys. Is it in my best interest to sell it at around 13 or 14 keys to sell it quick, or sell it for its full price when that could take longer, and do most unusual traders pay close to full price, (going out on a limb I'm guessing no, lol)

You mention that people will must likely buy unusuals with other unusuals. How much item overpay is typical, especially when it comes to items that may not sell quick. I recently sold a Taunt Unusualifier and they paid with an unusual taunt, and some relatively expensive (according to BP.tf) hats.

If anyone can answer these questions for me I would greatly appreciate it!

[Rob Ironballs]

buyd an unusual for 4 keys, worth 16, been duped atleast 3 times, and its N&B for spy, may be canceros, but for dat 8 keys profit, its worth it! (im counting 8 keys profit because bots buy unusuals at 12 keys, but if you wanna offer 15 keys, youre free to add me and send an offer, or just send an offer)