How to CHOOSE Your FIRST Unusual!

An in depth guide to finding the perfect unusuals and cosmetic sets, from planning and picking the items to obtaining them.

Phase I: Planning

1. Make sure the effect's color and theme is able to be matched with other cosmetics

What this means is, if you're getting an unusual hat and your effect is nuts and bolts, you'll most likely want to find cosmetics that fit the rustic/metal theme. It's good to avoid unusual effects that are difficult to theme with other cosmetics. If you do find an effect you like that doesn't exactly have a material theme, see if you can find cosmetics you can paint to fit the color of the effect. If you have a green unusual effect, it's good to have green painted cosmetics to fit it.

2. Create your loadout and test it before purchasing

Note: Some effects will be more rare/expensive than others, and some hats may not have the effect you're looking for in existence. You can check using backpack.tf's item database[next.backpack.tf].

Create a loadout using loadout[loadout.tf]
Tutorial on how to use loadout: YouTube Video

You can create your loadout in-game by joining a skial trade server and using their item plugin. Use !item in chat to open the loadout editing menu and make sure you like what you've made.

Phase II: Obtaining your loadout

3. Obtaining your new loadout

Note: Before getting your new items, it may be beneficial for the future to take into account how likely you'd be able to resell your items in case you want to get different items or just no longer want them. Try looking at the sales history and listings for the item to get a general idea of what the hat's value currently is.

There are a few options when it comes to getting your items, however one I recommend avoiding would be the Steam community market. It generally has overpriced items and is horrible when it comes to searching for specific items/attributes.
My recommendations (in order) is:

1. https://mannco.store
2. https://next.backpack.tf
3. https://stntrading.eu/
4. https://marketplace.tf/

mannco.store tends to have the cheapest prices and the best overall user experience, you can also make purchases with a card. backpack.tf is used for trading so the general currencies used there are keys and metal. You can get keys from mannco.store to trade on backpack.tf, you can also sell keys for metal in case you need it.

stntrading.eu can sometimes offer competitive prices however the user experience is awful due to the ui and general navigation. marketplace.tf tends to just be a more expensive and less intuitive version of mannco.store.