------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team Fortress 2: Economy Guide ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document is less a comprehensive buying/selling guide and more a quick read for the uninitiated on the fine points of the Team Fortress 2 trading economy. In it I will explain how trading works, how the various currencies and item types came about, where it all came from, what the economic picture is, and so forth. This guide will reference the Team Fortress 2 economy as of late September 2012, with references often made, in the context of economic changes, to the same economy circa August-October 2011. For a (relatively) detailed analysis of the Team Fortress 2 economic model, and a bit of insight into why it works so well, see the following breakdown by an actual academic economist: http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/arbitrage- and-equilibrium-in-the-team-fortress-2-economy/ Table of Contents -1- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =1= History of the TF2 Economy =2= Economic Principles =3= Crafting =4= Item Drops =5= Currency =6= Crates =7= Vintages =8= Stranges and Strange Parts =9= Tools =10= Genuines =11= Value Modifiers =12= Unusuals =13= Duping and Support Exploit =14= Other Qualities =15= High-Value List =16= Trading with Real-World Money =17= Useful Sites =18= Glossary History of the TF2 Economy =1= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Believe it or not, there was a time when Team Fortress 2 didn't have the extensive economy it does today. Upon release in 2007, TF2 featured a small number of maps, a few stock weapons, and gratuitous cartoon violence - but little else. In the five years since its release in The Orange Box, TF2 has remained alive and well, outliving pretty much every other fps on the market; ironic given its checkered development history and once oft-cited status as vaporware! Fast forward to Septmeber 2010. Successive updates have introduced a small armory of new weapons, the item crafting system, hats, and other such nicities. But it's been three years now, and the game is turning into a money sink for Valve. Enter their clever solution: the Mann-Conomy Update. This update, which hit platforms on September 30, revolutionized the game, and is a major part of why the game is still so active, even today. To help get the money rolling again, Valve introduced the Mann Co. Store, where people can spend real word money to earn pixilated bling; to encourage trading and valuation of goods, they introduced trading, allowing people to swap items with one another. Among a plethora of new hats and weapons, two new qualities were introduced: Vintage, associated with items crafted before the update hit, and Unusual, an ultra-rare class of highly desirable particle effect hats. Paint also made its debut, and Valve started making money again overnight. Today, the game is still going strong, Valve's pockets flush with profits from items bought in its virtual store (most especially, keys). December 2010 marked the landing of the Festive Winter Crate, the first of many such event crates to come. In February 2011, the Genuine quality was introduced, associated with pre-order promotions; in June 2011 cames Stranges, weapons that counted their kills. August 2011 added several new unusual effects. In October 2011, as a one-year anniversary event, a large sale and many new items were introduced. This particular event caused a real ruckus on the market. In the past, items bought from the store were untradable and uncraftable; the update removed both of these restrictions. Alongside the price cuts in the store, this almost overnight endangered the entire economy, driving down prices on several previously expensive items through the floor and making it extremely cheap to craft new hats using 49 cent store items. Amid massive complaints, Steam retroactively applied Uncraftable tags to items bought during the event, preventing the crafting exploit and normalizing the market again by making store-bought items naturally inferior ("dirty" as they have come to be called today). Later in October, Valve added a number of new, Holloween-themed unusual effects. In March 2012, Strange Parts debuted. In June 2012, Valve issued the real-life Ballonicorn, a plushie that came with an in-game Genuine version that came to be worth big bucks (and was the first of what will probably be a number of such items). I'm skipping over some things, but these are the most important events in trading history. Economic Principles =2= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's impossible to talk about an economic system as large as Team Fortress 2's without first understanding how economics works, exactly. If you already have a grounding in this, skip this short section. Team Fortress 2 has a barter system: you exchange certain items for other items. Some items, considered to have an inert value, high use, and limited number, have come to be used as currency. Nonetheless, prices are still basically determined by the laws of supply (how many are available) and demand (how badly the item is desired). If you posess a low-key item, but there is an extremely small number of them, its value will be driven up by its rarity (example: Genuine Maul). On the inverse, if you have a very common item, and it isn't really desired either, it will be worth very little (example: most Holloween items). The relative levels of these determine the item's price. Let's look at the economic history of, say, a hat released in a crate. At first it's value will be precariously high, because it's extremely new, fashionable, and no one has one yet. Within a few days of crate-opening, however, its price will start to plummet, driven down by the large number of people that think as you did, and opened crates and got hats of their own, until it bottoms out a week to two weeks after release. Once the crate is taken off the item drops, however, the hat will slowly start to rebound in value again, until stabalizing at a slowly decaying value once it starts appearing in significant numbers in item drops and crafts. Now let's talk about bubbles. TF2 naturally feeds bubbles. An item's value is rising, and people take notice. They think "well, if I buy it now and sell it later, I'll make money", so they do that - in bulk. The decreased number on sale and increased demand combine the balloon the price to an artificially high value, up until the point where people realize, wait, what are we doing; then the price falls dramatically: the bubble pops. It happens in the real world, and it happens even more often in the layman-covered TF2 economy (real stock traders avoid bubbles). In the past this has happened to the Max Head (from 4 to 2 buds) and the Genuine Maul (from a bud to 7 to 8 keys), for instance, along with a number of other, generally more minor, items. Finally, note that the highest-value version of an item usually sells for significantly more than those below, driven up by desire to have "the very best"; for instance, many people agree that Team Spirit looks better on most hats then white or black does, but white or black is still worth significantly more, partially because it's more limited and partially because it is the most expensive paint available, inflating its own value. Crafting =3= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before we can start talking about trading, we must discuss the earlier system of crafting. Crafting allows you to create certain weapons and hats using certain item combinations, or to melt down weapons to make metal: the basic unit of the Team Fortress 2 economy. You can make a single scrap metal by melting down two items from the same class. That scrap metal can, in turn, be turned into a reclaimed metal when fused with two other scrap metals; and the resultant reclaimed can be made into a refined metal, the highest grade, by repeating the process. To simplify talking about metal amounts, we use shorthand notation that sets each refined to a value of 1. A regular weapon, then has a value of .5; a scrap, .11; a reclaimed, .33; and a refined, 1. You can denotate any amount of metal in between in this convenient way, so instead of saying "two refined, two reclaimed, and a scrap" you can just say "2.77". Metal is the base currency in the game, and can be used to buy anything from weapons to low-end unusuals. However, once you get to the highest price levels, it becomes too clunky and low-value to be useful, necessitating alternative currencies - to be discussed elsewhere. The reason crafting is important is because it's what the values of the hats work off of. Given three refined, you can craft a random hat. Since there's a lot of crafting going on, and a limited market, logically, the value of most hats will settle below the three refined watermark. Crafted hats do, however, have a tag associated with them, giving them a number based on how far you are from the first person to craft it (low craft numbers generate serious value, to be discussed later in this guide) and naming you, the crafter, as its originator, which is always a little more impressive when you're wearing it, but a little less when someone else is (although the number and crafter CAN be wiped, some people are still prickly about it). Additionally, some specific set hats can be crafted from four refined and an associated weapon, but that's less of a concern. From here on, values will most often be refered to in metal shorthand. For reference, most hats are worth 2 or less refined on the market. Item Drops =4= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The second major secondary component of the TF2 economy is item drops. At intervals, while playing the game, Team Fortress 2 will randomly award you an item drop. There was a lot of contreversy with the system in the past, and even a halo hat that was given out to players who didn't cheat the system early on, but that's outside the context of this guide, and besides, the system that's there now works just fine. Basically, every Thursday Valve rolls how many weapons you will get this week, and then, given you play the necessary amount of hours, furfills them. It's not uncommon to see idling players and servers, where people run TF2 in the background and don't actually play the game; some people even have a large number of alternative accounts and computers dedicated to the practice, which is heavily frowned upon, but what can you do? Five to twelve items are earned a week, generally representing a value of .25 to 1.33, with eight items (.85) being statistically the most common. Item drops is also one of four ways that hats and miscellaneous items are generally introduced into the game (the others being crafting, crates, and the store). Every time an item drops, there is about a 1% chance it will be a random hat or misc. Some paint cans, name and descriptive tags, and the dueling minigame can also be found this way, although they are more common than the lusted-for hats. Currency =5= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The TF2 economy is a barter system, and a very complex one at that. For this reason, a number of items have emerged of stable value that are used by the community as currency, listed here. Many will be revisited in later sections. Metal Scrap, reclaimed, and refined metal are the basic unit of the economy, and are covered in detail in the earlier Crafting section. Remember: scrap is .11, reclaimed (or rec) is .33, and refined (or ref) is 1. Keys Keys are the next step up the currency tree. Bought at the Mann Co. Store for 2.49$ apiece, keys are used to open Mann Co. Supply Crates, covered later in this guide, and are in high demand for that purpose. As of writing in September 2012, keys are 2.55 metal apiece, higher than they were a year ago, when they were selling for 2.33 each. Bill's Hat An all-class promotional item associated with the release of L4D2, this is the first of the high value promotional items (or promos, for short) that is often used as currency. As of writing, Bill's sell for 8 to 9 keys. Additionally, emphasis is placed on their paint scheme; Bill's painted "tier 2" colors like Lime and Team Spirit are worth about 9 to 10, and ones painted "tier 3" colors (Black and White) are about 10 to 11. The Bill's Hat derives its value from its versatility (all-class), great appearance, and relative rarity. Earbuds This is the promo item most people think of when they hear promo. Earbuds are a miscellaneous item that is associated with buying the game on the Mac during a promo period from mid-2010, when the game was released on that platform. It's the base unit for the buying and selling Unusuals, the highest-tier items in the game. It's fantastically expensive - around 26 keys each - and looks great on all classes, feeding its value. Max's Head The Max's Head is the next promo up on the currency list, and has a checkered history that is very illustrative of price bubbles, a concept touched upon in places in this guide. It is a hat that takes the appearance of the top half of Max's face from Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse, deriving its value from its great, all-class appearance as well as from its rarity (who actually bought that game? not many). It was worth 4 buds in August 2011, but around that time the value bubble popped, and its price plummeted down to its current value of 2 buds straight. HOUWAR The most expensive promo item and the highest-value non-unusual item in the game, the HOUWAR (Hat of Undeniable Wealth and Respect) was given out for completing EVERY objective in The Great Steam Treasure Hunt, quick required owning 20 different specific games and completing objectives within them, religiously following non-steam objectives, and not skipping a beat on any of them. There are 593 Houwars in the game, they're all-class, and they look badass. Needless to say, very few people have them, and they're worth serious money. Currently valued at 9 to 10 buds each. Crates =6= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crates are items, granted by the drop system, that serve no immediate purpose. They contain items that will reveal themselves when the crate is opened with a key, but since there are far more crates dropped then keys bought, crates mostly serve as junk, and are next to worthless in value. In fact, many end up being deleted. Nonetheless, if you do have a key, you can apply it to a crate to retrieve the goodies inside. Every crate is part of series: so far, there have been 47 regular ones and a large number of special ones, covered later. Every normal crate can be opened by a Mann Co. Supply Key, worth $2.49 in the store and 2.55 in metal and detailed in the currency section. Every crate series has a chance of containing one of a number of random items, determined at the time that the key is applied and expended. What these items are depends on the series number of the crate. Early crates contained msotly regular weapons, and sometimes hats or paints. However this was not very popular, because getting a dropped weapon out of $2.49 is rediculous. Starting with the series 19 crate in June 2011, crates started containing mostly strange weapons (covered later in this guide) and occassionally hats and miscs, which proved far more popular. Starting with crate 41 in March 2012, some crates have also contained Strange Parts, to be covered later in this guide. Older crates have a higher value then newer ones, mostly out of novelty; a series one crate can even net 1 to 1.33 refined on today's market! More valuable than that, however, are unopened copies of the (so far) seven special limited-time crates that were supposed to disappear after a certain point. They only dissapear, however, if the account is loaded into the game (ae. connected to the item server); it can be traded and so forth, so long as the account is not loaded. Some people then openned new accounts, made them premium, and then transfered their limited crates to them, storing them for novelty resale later. The result is one of the stupidest things in TF2: an uponenable, unusable crate that can go for entire keys! Every crate has a 1% chance of containing an unusual, which is the only way of getting one. There is one more thing to mention, which is salvaged crates. These crates drop far, FAR less often then regular ones, and contain only strange weapons (and the odd unusual, of course) that can be obtained nowhere else. There have been two so far, #30 and #40, and both the crates themselves and their contents are extremely valuable: #40s are worth nine to ten keys, and #30s, twice that. Presumably, there will a #50 and so on as well. Vintages =7= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vintages is a special quality associated with items crafted before the Mannconomy update hit in September 2010. Vintage items are significantly more valuable then regular ones because they're much rarer, but the amount varies between items, from around 30% of items being Vintage (like the Atomic Punch) all the way down to less then 1% on the Fan'O'War. The amount they're worth is determined by availability, which is determined by the amount present when the update rolled up: some weapons were very new, and thus very rarely vintage. Most vintages worth .22 to .33 on the current market, with a few standouts, like the V. Huntsman (.66) and V. Gunslinger (1), being worth more, although this is likely because Strange version of the weapon are difficult to aquire (salvaged crates) or non-existant. The really valuable ones follow: Fan O'War - 1.5 to 2 buds Concheror - 1.5 to 2 buds Half-Zatoichi - 6 to 7 keys Amputator - 3.5 to 4 keys Ullapool Caber - 3 to 4 keys Crusader's Crossbow - 1 to 2 keys Loch-n-Loasd - 1 to 2 keys Brass Beast - 1 to 2 keys Buffalo Steak Sandvich - 1 to 2 keys Warrior's Spirit - 1 to 2 keys Sharpened Volcao Fragment - 1 to 2 keys Sun-on-a-Stick - 1 to 2 keys Now, on to hats. Hats crafted before the update also got the vintage treatment. Their value has gone up enormously in recent times, because everyone wants hats, and vintage hats (and miscs) are better versions of them. I'll quickly put down the market prices for the really expensive ones and move on, but the prices on the others not mentioned here are hovering around a key as of September 2012, but the most expensive ones hit almost up to a Bill: Tossle Cap - 7 to 8 keys Physician's Procedural Mask - 7 to 8 keys Vintage Merryweather - 5 keys Head Slug - 3 to 4 keys Whiskered Gentlemann - 3 to 4 keys Texas Ten Gallon - 3 keys Vintage Tyrolean - 3 keys Hound Dog - 3 keys Hustler's Hallmark - 2 to 3 keys Killer's Kabuto - 2 to 3 keys Tyrant's Helm - 2 keys Towering Pillar of Hats - 2 keys Modest Pile of Hat - 2 keys Safe'n'Sound - 4 to 5 refined Sergeant's Drill Hat - 4 to 5 refined Tough Guy's Toque - 1 to 2 keys Ze Goggles - 3.66 - 4 refined Fancy Fedora - 3 to 4 refined Hot Rod - 3 to 4 refined Shooter's Sola Topi - 3.33 refined Brigade Helm - 3.33 refined Gentleman's Gatbsy - 3.33 refined The price of vintage items is on the rise, as fewer and fewer are available and the pool of people who wants them increases. There's one other thing to discuss, which is the relation between weapon levels and vintages. The earliest to-become-vintage weapons were handed out with random levels attached, the whole level thing being a joke by Valve anyway. Randomly leveled vintages are far rarer then standardly leveled ones, and are worth a bit more; if the levels are desirable (1, 42, 69, 99, 100) you're going into keys of value. The rarest vintage of all is a level 0 one, created during a short period when a bug allowed that level to come up. These are extremely rare, and their value is in Bill's and Buds (especially for hats). Stranges and Strange Parts =8= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strange weapons count the kills that they make, and change their named based on how many they have accumulated. Strange weapons are the most common products of crates, and their prices vary wildly: from .22 for a Strange Eyelander all the way up to 16 to 18 keys for a Strange Machina. Most weapons in the game have come out in strange quality by this point, and some have done so twice. A few of them have come out only in untra-rare salvaged crates (Holiday Punch, Widowmaker, Mantreads, Sapper, Ullapool Caber, Kritzkrieg, Holy Mackeral, Gunslinger, Machina) and are thus extremely valuable, far more than regular stranges (the most expensive regular strange is the Grenade Launcher at 3 to 4 keys, an aritifical price given that it was last released in crate 19). Strange Parts are a newer invention, first appearing in March 2012. You can place up to three on a single strange weapon and they will act like additional counters, counting things like Heavies Killed, Buildings Destroyed, Projectiles Reflected, so on. The most expensive one is Full Moon Kills, which is extremely rare on account of being a hat-level random drop, and is worth ~1.5 keys; the rest are usually worth between .66 and a key (Projectiles Reflected) as of writing. Tools =9= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are a number of consumable items in TF2, and some of them modify the value of items in the game (Strange Parts are covered above, and are excluded). Mann Co. Supply Crate Key - keys were discussed in detail earlier in this guide and are worth 2.55 metal. Backpack Expander - Increases maximum slot size, worth 2.5 to 3 keys. Name Tag - Allows you to name a weapon, although the new name will be flanked by quote marks "Name"; drops, and is worth 1 to 1.33 refined. A good name tag can raise the value of a weapon. Description Tag - Does the same, but with the description; can similarly increase value if well-issued. Paint Cans - There is a large number of different colors of paint in the game, which can be gotten in one or more of three ways: drops, uncrates, or purchase. Individual paint cans go for between .33 and 2 keys, and can be divided into three tiers. For a complete list, see this page: see http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Paint_Can. Note that opinions on paints vary; you might get back half the value of the paint, or all of it, or none of it. The paint cans have been rising in value significantly; the same white paint that is worth 2.5 keys today was worth but 1.5 or so in September 2011. Tier 1: Most colors fall into this tier, and are usually available in all three ways: purchases, drops, and uncrates. They do not add much value to the painted item, however, as personal opinions differ on their utility; traders will often enough avoid adding anything at all for these paints. Tier 2: The next range of colors is team colors and desirable regular ones: Lime, Cream Spirit, Team Spirit, Value of Teamwork, Waterlogged Lab Coat, Balaclavas are Forever, Operator's Overalls, Australium Gold, Pink as Hell. Traders usually WILL add some metal for the value of the paint. Tier 3: These are the stupidly expensive paints: White and Black. Their supply is extremely limited, basically only consisting of freshly bought cans today. Each is worth 2.5 keys as of writing, an artificially high value. Decal Tool - The Decal Tool can be applied to a small number of objects, placing images onto them. It's worth between .66 and 1 refined on September 2012 market. Dueling Minigame - Allows you to duel with other players, five uses per game. Worth .22 to .33. Gift Wrap - This tool allows you to deliver presents to others, and to box up items that would otherwise be untradable. It's an additional cost for trading these items, however, costing 2.66 to 3 refined on the market - so it better be good. Most of the time, Gift Wrap reduces the value of the item, attaching gifted text that cannot be wiped and thus reduces value. However, if you get an item gifted from someone important, it can actually increase the item's value; for instance, if Gabe Newell was to gift you something, you can bet your pudding it would instantly gain several buds of value at the very least. Genuines =10= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Genuine items are added into the game by Valve to promote upcoming games as part of Steam's preorder bonus, to compete with other outlets, like Gamestop. Genuine items are worth significantly more then their more mundane counterparts, and come before them on the release schedule. For a list of genuine items, see http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Genuine. There's a lot of Genuine items, and most aren't worth terribly much, but the highlights are listed here: Merc's Pride Scarf - 17 keys (new bubble?) El Jefe - 14 keys Balloonicorn - 12 to 14 keys Mual - 7 to 8 keys (once worth a whole Bud, circa August 2011; the bubble popped) Double Cross-Comm - 6 keys Sharp Dresser - 5 keys Dashin' Hashshashin - 4.5 to 5 keys Ball-Kicking Boots - 4 to 5 keys Champ Stamp - 4 to 5 keys Triad Trinket - 4 to 5 keys Battle Bob - 4 keys Archimedes - 4 keys Quadwrangler - 3 to 4 keys Marxman - 3 to 4 keys Original - 3 to 3.5 keys Point and Shoot - 3 keys Bushman's Boonie - 2.5 to 3 keys Warsworn Helm - 2.5 keys Genuine Specs - 2 to 3 keys Killer Exclusive - 2 to 3 keys Noise Maker - Vuvuzela - 2 to 3 keys Human Cannonball - 2 to 3 keys Value Modifiers =11= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a list of item value modifiers, including some mentioned before. These an have a major effect. For instance, a regular Defiant Spartan is worth 1.66; but I sold a Pink Level 100 Defiant Spartan for two solid keys! Level The most common value modifier is a special level. Popular levels are 1, 42, 69, 99, and 100. If you get an item with one of these levels, you can likely sell it for more, especially a level 100 version. Note: there are some special level weapons that were created by a glitch following the Mann vs. Machine update. These are worth multiples of keys, but market values range wildly. Craft Number Craft numbers under one hundred are displayed when an item is looked at, and will not be wiped when you wipe the crafter's name. This makes them highly desirable "limited-release" versions of an item. Whenever a new item becomes craftable, a few lucky people within the next couple of days manage to craft so-called "craft number" versions of the items. The lower the number, the better, with 99 being the cutoff for display value. Still, owning a #121 Anger wouldn't be too bad either, would it? It's hard to price craft numbers, but anything under 100 is going for multiples of keys. Craft numbers below between 25 and 10 or so go for Buds. A Craft #1 Dragonborn Helm, for instance, would be 2 to 3 buds, and a #1 of a more valuable hat would be more. The most valuable one, the Craft #1 Team Captain, is in the backpack of Mattie, a well-known Team Captain hoarder (and one of the richest traders around) who has stated clearly he will never part with any of it. It's valued at 20+ buds, but no one has a clue what it's really worth. Here, have a gander at his bag: http://www.tf2items.com/id/mattie/. Gifting Gifting an item gives it permanent gifted text that can't be wiped. Most of the time this is a bad thing, but is unavoidable when dealing with items that can't be moved elsewhere: the HOUWAR, for instance. On the other hand, it is considered the TF2 equivalent of autographing, so if you can get someone important to "autograph" it to you, the value rises. For an example, refer to this hat: http://www.tf2items.com/item/629265507. This unusual hat was gifted by Daimao, original creator of the Team Captain within TF2, and you can expect an indefinite value increase from it, indefinite because the value of the gifting is difficult to determine. Uncraftable The most common dirty tag, this is associated with items bought from the Steam Store. Uncraftable items are typical worth about half of their clean counterparts. Untradable Associated with achievement items or items associated with achievements, like the Holloween hats and the HOUWAR. Untradable items can only be traded if they can be gift wrapped, associating them with gifting; if they can't then they have no market value, as they can't be sold. Paint Painting was covered in more depth in "Tools" section of this guide. It adds flavor to an item, but the actual value addition varies between people and paints. Tag Name Tags and Description Tags applied to items only really increase the item's value at the buyer's discretion. Creative name tagging, especially within item sets, will raise a weapon's value through theming, but it's still a touchy issueance. Strange Part Strange Parts attached to Strange Weapons raise that weapon's value by the equivalent of the part, although it depends on the trader and the parts - you're more likely to get the full value out of Projectiles Reflected on a Strange Degreaser than Demomen Killed elsewhere. Duped Duped items inspire mixed feelings from people. Their value is usually slightly under their non-duped counterparts: for the details, see that section. Unusuals =12= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And so finally we arrive at unusuals! Unusual hats are obtained extremely rarely from crates, occuring but 1% of the time, and provide the majority of the incentive to open crates for most people. Their value ranges wildly, but top-tier unusual hats are the most valuable (and most expensive) things in the game. The most expensive unusual in the game is the Burning Flames Team Captain. In the few times it has splashed down on the market, it sold for between 80 and 120 buds, or $3000 to $3500. For a bunch of pixels. Yep. To sate your curiousity, there are five in the game as of September 2012, and none of them are for sale. Speaking of which, this is a good example of best-of-the-best price inflation: it's worth a good deal more than the next contestant for the title, the Sunbeams Team Captain, is around 50 buds and $1500. Yep. The worst hats with the worst effects are still worth about a Bud plus. Unusual effects sorted roughly by value: Burning Flames Sunbeams Cloudy Moon Scorching Flames Purple Energy Green Energy Flaming Lantern Vivid Plasma Circling Heart Haunted Ghosts Stormy Storm Cauldron Bubbles Eerie Orbiting Fire Blizzardy Storm Searing Plasma Smoking Orbiting Fire Steaming Orbiting Planets Bubbling Circling Peace Sign Circling TF Logo Massed Flies Purple Confetti Green Confetti Nuts n' Bolts The value of the base hat is multiplicative on the effect, and recently has come to the fore over the effect. Team Captain is the reigning king, hence its value. However, good unusual hats that work on all classes also have an inflated value, especially the Killer Exclusive. Other modifiers like the level and theming (Burning Flames on a Pyro, Peace on Sniper, and so forth) are also important, but don't let someone loop you into thinking something is themed when it's not. Duping and Scumming =13= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Duped items are duplicates of an item created using a Valve item server exploit. A number of them have been found and patched, but new ones reappear at intervals and are repatched again. Duped items aren't immediately obvious as such, but if you check the item schema, you will see that the item is duped: see http://tf2b.com/tf2/item/76561198013585331/945037741 for instance. Duped items are most problematic amongst unusuals. The other exploit is scumming, which is deleting items in your bag then sending a Valve support ticket demanding it back. Valve used to be pretty responsive to these sorts of requests, and would give it back in Vintage quality to apologize for their mistake; however, they figured out what was going on, and are much less likely to do so today. It was a risky proposal - if they didn't respond to your request you basically lost your item forever - but it worked enough times to put some vintage quality items on the market that wouldn't exist otherwise, and are very, very, very rare. Vintage Max's Head - 55-60 buds (~28-30x regular value) Vintage Earbuds - ~30 buds (~30x regular value) Vintage Bill's Hat - 1.5 to 2 buds (~4x regular value) Vintage Ghaslierest Gibus - ~14 buds Other Qualities =14= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haunted Haunted items are purple (but not unusual) versions of Holloween items collected under special circumstances during the 2011 Holloween event, as well as the one Haunted Scrap Metal/Haunted Headless Horsemann's Axe during the 2010 Holloween event. Good ones are worth a refined or two, but no more. Community These are given out by Valve on extrordinary circumstances to valuable community contributors. For a list, see http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/List_of_Community_item_owners. They are untradable and thus have no market value. Self-Made Given to players who successfully contribute items of their own design into the game, a process now handled through the Steam Workshop. Also untradable and also has no market value. Valve Test weapons owned by Valve employees, the perenniel example being Robin Walker's Rocket Launcher: http://steamcommunity.com/id/robinwalker/inventory#440_2_162307172. Not for sale, obviously. High-Value List =15= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A list of the most valuable non-unusual things in the TF2 economy as of September 2012, compiled for your viewing pleasure! Cutoff is going to be a B.M.O.C. Vintage Max's Head - 55-60 Buds Only a few exist, see the scumming section. Vintage Earbuds - ~30 Buds Only a few exist, see the scumming section. HOUWAR - 9-10 Buds Steam Treasure Hunt promo item, 593 extant. Holiday Headcase - 4 Buds Extremely rare item occassionally given out during Australium Christmas 2011. Max's Head - 2 Buds Currency-type promo item that's above a Bud but not nearly a HOUWAR. Fireproof Secret Diary - 2 Buds Rare item that for some reason did not dissapear alongside the other burning event items. Strange Festive Scattergun - 1.5 to 2 Buds A very rare strange festive version of probably the most commonly used weapon in the game. Strange Festive Medigun - 1.5 to 2 Buds Same as the above. Vintage Bill's Hat - 1.5 to 2 Buds Very rare, see the scumming section. 1404 extant. Strange Festive Rocket Launcher - 1 to 1.5 Buds Same as the other strange festives. Strange Kritzkrieg - 1 to 1.5 Buds The first strange on this list that's not festive, found only in ultra-rare festive crates. Spine-Chilling Skull 2011 - 1 Bud This hat is supposed to be dirty, and most copies must be gift wrapped to be traded (costing 3 to 4 keys). However, a rare bug made a few of them clean, and the value of these clean ones is through the roof. Earbuds - 26 to 27 Keys The standard promo for trading. B.M.O.C. - 24 Keys Rare and highly desirable holiday item, its price is on the rise as of September 2012. Trading with Real World Money =16= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trading with real money is tricky buisness in TF2. It's risky because the transaction must be completed on two seperate counts: the money through PayPal, and the item through Steam Trading. Trust is important for these transactions, and many traders will not take part in them unless the other party has a large amount of reputation (rep) on their account, because it's easy to find people that will rip you off and run with it. A common way to solve this problem is to use a trusted middleman in the exchange. Either party sends their payment and their goods to his account, and he verifies that all is in order; he then transfers the PayPal money and the item(s) to their new owners. Nonetheless, if you are willing to sink real money into Team Fortress 2, the payoff is that you can buy things for cheap. This is because there is a limited pool of people that are doing so - most prefer not to spend too much money on pixels - and because they must compete with the Mann Co. Store. Still, there are people looking to cash out their bag, and others to add to theirs. Here is some technical advice: "When the user sends you money, you MUST ask him to send it as a gift or for him to cover transaction fees. If not the fees will be deducted from the amount you're supposed to recieve from the sender. Also you must ask the sender to attach a note saying "Goods have been delivered. I will not chargeback." and the link to the buyer's steam profile. This is to prevent the buyer from disputing the sent amount and getting a full refund from what he sent you." The list of common prices, as of September 2012 (prices are approximate): Refined Metal: ~$.70 Mann Co. Supply Crate Key: ~$1.50 Bill's, ~$12 Buds, ~$30 Max's: ~$60 HOUWAR: ~$270 High-Value Hats =17= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A reference list of unique hats worth more than 2 refined as of September 2012: Dashin' Hashshashin - 2 to 3 keys Lumbricus Lid - 2 to 3 keys Team Captain - 5 to 6 refined (used to be 8 circa August 2011) Cross-Comm Express - 1 to 2 keys El Jefe - 3 to 4 refined Surgeon's Stahlhelm - 3.33 refined Bubble Pipe - 3 to 3.33 refined Head Warmer - 3 to 3.33 refined Battle Bob - 1 to 1.5 keys Familiar Fez - 2.66 to 3 refined Infernal Impaler - 1 key Bolgan - 1 key Anger - 1 key Troublemaker's Tossle Cap - 2.33 refined Hottie's Hood - 2.33 refined Ol' Snaggletooth - 2.33 refined Waxy Wayfinder - 2 to 2.33 refined Conjurer's Cowl - 2 to 2.33 refined Virtual Reality Headset - 2 to 2.33 refined Your Worst Nightmare - 2 to 2.33 refined Fruit Shoot - 2 to 2.33 refined Glossary =18= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Bill's Hat Bud Earbuds Clean The definition of "clean" depends on the item and the trader. Usually it means craftable and tradable, but it can mean non-crafted as well. Dirty The definition of dirty varies. But usually Gifted and Uncraftable are considered dirty classifications. Duped Short for duplicated; items that were created in copies via an exploit. See that section for details. Brain Slug Easier name for the Triboniophorus Tryannus. HOUWAR Hat of Undeniable Wealth and Respect Max Max's Hat. Misc Miscellaneous item Promo Promotional item Quicksell Trader term for something selling for cheap to offload quickly for a time-sensitive deal; nowadays mostly reduced to cheaps who buy items for bottom or below-bottom price, and then turn around and sell it for its real price, turning a profit. Rec Reclaimed Ref Refined Scammer Someone who buys items off of noobs who don't know better for very low prices. The worst are the kinds that hunt down freshly opened unusuals off of newly-minted premium accounts. Snaggle Ol' Snaggletooth Wep Weapon (usually random). Contact info -19- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can e-mail me at residentmario [at] g{}(m[]a)i[]l [dot] com. No spam, hate mail, yada yada. You know how it goes. Copyright -20- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide is (C) 2012 jimmythesnowman. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission.