Talk:Trading

Trading offline

It should be known that you can't trade with players who are offline. Daminshi

--I've added this to the article.

I've tried using a dummy steam account to rack up and trade items to my main profile, but it won't work unless I have 2 accounts open through 2 computers or environments. Daminshi

why dont u trade the items to a trusted friend from account 1, then trade for them back using steam account 2? Nk 170 16:01, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

Appearently the Scout's Bombing Run is a contender for most valuable item in trading. DO NOT CRAFT THE BOMBING RUN. You can probably trade it for whatever you want.

-- Hats in general are valuable trade items. Because desires change rapidly, it would be best if we have a citation or source for this before we post it to the page... we don't want to start false trading riots now, do we? :)

-- VintagePC 23:57, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Cheater's Lament

I'm one of the auld-skool idlers (I never regretted it) and I did get the Cheater's Lament soon after the update. However, I didn't get it after trading, I got it after my... first death, was it? I hadn't traded anything at that point, much less even clicked on the "trade" button. I didn't buy anything, and I had idled the night before so I'd already hit the drop cap. I think the Cheater's Lament drops the first time your drop queue is checked for a new item after the update. On death, or on trade, whichever comes first. Of course, this is just unsupported testimony at this point, so I won't edit the page yet. Can someone else corroborate this please? Scorch 18:08, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Same here. Didn't trade for it, I just received it on my first death when I started playing. Szthesquid 18:09, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Added note about this. VintagePC 23:55, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Let is also be known that after the Mann-Conomy update it was possible to receive one as a random hat. I received one even though I was one of the people who used the idling program. Misterslin 15:25, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Trading Screen Picture?

Would adding one be helpful, or just redundant? TheMedik 21:16, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

I've noticed over the last few days that there are repeated new image uploads for this page -- most notably, new images for the "A successful trade" box. The original image was perfectly sufficient, there's no need to add your own image when it's already there. --Szthesquid 14:52, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

The image was saved as a lossy jpeg with some (although not much) artifacting. The current image should be just fine. ~ lhavelund ^{(talk ▪ contrib)} 14:55, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification, although it would've been nice to see that explanation in the edit notes. --Szthesquid 14:56, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I was perusing the category of images needing improvement, and just set my sights on that one. I didn't think much of clarifying it in the edit description ;) ~ lhavelund ^{(talk ▪ contrib)} 14:57, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Playing while trading

Not many people know this, but it's possible to continue playing while trading by pressing escape. Pressing escape again will bring you back to the trading screen. Desertfighter 19:38, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip. Pass it on. Daminshi

Can we put this on the page. I really wish I knew this earlier and have seen no in game indication of this. --Ajburges 13:05, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

You can't access any other menu while using this. Useful though. Nosoop 17:49, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Actually you can access the other menus even with the trade window open. While trading window is open, pres ESC. You will then be taken back to the game. From here you can press M or N to access the other user menus. This is useful when you need to craft or melt a metal all the while not quitting the trade window. Done it a few times already, try it! Roninsmastermix 15:03, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Item Value

We need to discuss what a item is worth to better inform people. Here's a list from most common to most rare and what's in demand right now.

• Tokens [Nobody wants tokens. It requires you to sacrifice more weapons then it does to make Metal. Takes too much work.]
• Normal weapons [Drops all the time]
• Vintage weapons [Pretty common... for now. Otherwise, pretty useless.]
• Scrap Metal [Requires 2 normal weapons. A equivalent trade.]
• Crates [Dropped a lot. They require $2.50 to acquire a key to open. Valve is using gambling to get us to pay them.]
• Reclaimed Metal [3 normal weapons and a hard to find weapon is good for this one.]
• Nametag [Don't know why people want them. It's $1 to change a weapons name. Getting it for free is a different matter.]
• Paint [Same thing with the nametag.]
• Dueling Mini-Game [A item that can be purchased in the store, but buying enough to get Platinum if you win them all is $146.52... Goddamn it, Valve. (Highly sought after.)]
• Refined Metal [Requires lots of weapons. Best saved till you have 3 for a random hat and trade it for the one you want.]
• Ellis Cap [Not sought after right now, but might become more valuable in the future.]
• All regular hats [Takes lots of patience and finding the right person to trade with.]
• PolyCount Hats [Weapons and hats can be dropped or crafted, but they're highly sought after because of the bonus.]
• PolyCount sets [Hard to get right now.]
• ManCo Cap [A reskin of Ellis cap. A lot of people were disgusted and never wanted anything to do in the store when it first came. It will become valuable for its rarity.]
• Bill's Hat [Left 4 Dead 2 Pre-purchase]
• Lumbricus Lid [Worms pre-purchase]
• OSX Earbuds [Weekend special. Log into a Mac and get them for free in 3 day period.]
• Sam and Max items [Pre-purchase]

Impossible but wanted anyway

• WAR winners [3] [I know no one wants them, but a lot of people hated that Garry's mod photoshop pic that won 2nd place.]
• Golden Wrench [80] [I wanted this thing but TF2 wasn't working that weekend.  :( Had to reinstall Windows 7.]
• PolyCount Pin [65] [If I only knew how use Maya...]
• Gentle Manns Service Medal [11,111] [Bullshit how it was from a code in the web page and was only on when everyone in the U.S. was at work or school.]

This list might be very dependent on who is trading and for what, but it's a reasonable guess. Daminshi

 Disagree, value is highly subjective. I'd delete crates if I wouldn't find people that will gladly give me weapons for them. For me vintage is only a silly label, for others it's worth a reclaimed metal. You call the name tag worthless, I'd be willing to trade some stuff for it (and people are willing to pay). Add to that that much of this is speculation (will vintage ever become really valuable or will people that care for it get it long before it gets rare?) and the article could never do this any justice without being so vague as to have any value left. --CruelCow 02:28, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

 What: No. -The Neotank ( | Talk) 02:31, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

 No: Value of items depends from person to person, like Crow said. Can't exactly pin solid numbers on something dynamic.

 OpposeThe wiki is not the place to track and detail an economy. Although I would be interested in the economy of TF2 items, as a separate site I think it'd be quite a good resource for traders. -RJ 02:37, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

 No: I have been lurking the Steam Community Forums to find trades for what I want since the update. I am still seeing the value of items fluctuate greatly. It will take months for the economy to stabilize as certain items are in very high demand right now do to rarity. Other items will only increase in value as people who want them, get them, and effectively remove them from the economy (Example: no one is getting my Vintage Hotrod now that I have it. Save for if I can set someone up with a sucker trade). Even once it stabilizes, value will still be subjective. --Ajburges 13:01, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

 Nope.avi: Not our place to determine what is worth what. Vekter 20:16, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

 Support: I started a thread about values a long time ago. But thanks to the Christmas update, some of the values are distorted. Here's the thread: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1654436. As mentioned in my thread,  "I don't think it would necessary kill trading. I'm just doing this [study] because everybody is complaining that Person A is bad because he ripped off Person B because B did not know what the value of his items were." I think we can estimate the price of tools. As for hats and other cosmetic items, we should leave that alone since it is too subjective. I argue that we should have price lists but only for standard items (e.g. crates, tags, paint) so that people will know how much metal it costs and not get scammed. As for the determination of prices, I suggest we do what I did in the thread. We survey around a few hundred people and take the average of the prices. We make a note on the page that it is based on x number of people's opinion. These people are the sample population of TF2 and therefore would most likely make a good generalization of how much people are willing to buy and sell. Think of it as a census. We can also periodically adjust the prices by conducting the survey again for every 6 months or every year. Steelfist 02:59, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Trading Tips

Some of these seem like opinions more than anything else to me. Some rather bizarre opinions at that. In particular:

1. Never agree to offers where additional items are added to "sweeten the deal".

Why would you not agree to a trade you are considering if the person then offers you more? I've traded 2 hats and thrown in paint and stuff for 1 hat if the person had something I really wanted. I could understand a warning about some "demanding" more items in a trade after it was agreed upon or something, but otherwise I don't get this one.

1. Never trade a high-value item for another before first checking availability and crafting blueprints. Usually, trading for the spare parts and combining them is a much better idea.

I don't get this one either. Trading for the spare parts for hats rarely works since the only hats you can craft specifically without gambling on the outcome are the polycount hats and the bonk helm? Just me? Crap 13:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

The first one has been deleted. I just rewrote the second one, so hopefully it makes sense now. --CruelCow 13:14, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

Tradable now?

Apparently the Gentlemann's Service medal is now tradable (And can be removed from the untradable items list), can anyone confirm? GeneShark 07:18, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

This is true. I am not quite sure which patch they made it tradable though. - Attaint 00:27, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Free item?

Where did that come from? – Smashman _(talk) 00:27, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Stub?

This article looks rather complete/large for a stub. Maybe a cleanup is needed of the trading tips section, but it dosen't look like a stub to me. Ailure 18:16, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

You're right. Changed. Moussekateer 18:40, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Checks in trading?

This is new, I can't trade some items. I keep getting the message "The Trade Was Canceled, Because Some Items Do Not Belong To You Or The Other Player". Seems to be occurring after trying to trade items I just got. Netham45 23:24, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Community trading glossary

How about we add such section explaining the meaning of terms such as "clean"/"dirty" items as well as "sweeteners" with references to SteamPowered forums posts as sources? When I first saw someone discussing a "clean" item at the forums I checked whether the wiki has an info on this before asking in the thread so I think it would be a useful section. Kalev 19:38, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

I support this. --Szthesquid 20:51, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

I think it would be a useful addition too. Moussekateer 22:19, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I just started to work on it. Kalev 17:12, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Section created, check it out. I have two questions:

• Should this be a section or a separate article?
• Do you think that the term "crap hats" should be added? I've seen it tons of times referring to Old Guadalajara and Napper's Respite since they drop regularly and are very common therefore their value is very low. Traders often warn they don't accept "crap hats" when trading a highly valued item. Kalev 17:43, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Looks good to me. A small section is enough I think. And no, "crap hats" is very subjective. Moussekateer 17:45, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

 No, no, no!: The value of hats is entirely subjective. A wiki should have absolutely nothing to do with this. -The Neotank ( | Talk) 17:49, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

One thing it might be worth doing is adding these terms to the Glossary page. Scatmanjohn 17:54, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. But what about the "sweeteners" then? Their description mentions values and they can't be actually explained without doing so. Kalev 17:57, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Maybe a better definition for sweetners would be "Additional items added to a trade" or something along those lines? Scatmanjohn 17:59, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

How are "clean/dirty" items as "sweeteners" any less subjective than hat value? The value of any item is completely up to the parties in question. -The Neotank ( | Talk) 18:01, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

There is nothing subjective about "clean/dirty", it just refers to if an item is physically tradeable or not. Scatmanjohn 18:09, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

"Additional" are obviously dependent on "main" items which once again discusses values. I clearly get your point, Neotank, but on the other side it's really common and though subjective I think it should be there one way or another. How about something like items that are considered as an extra by one of the trading sides to increase the satisfaction of the other side with the deal? Yeah, it's even more subjective, but doesn't involve values.{{subst:void|This template should always be substituted. Please change {{Unsigned}} to {{subst:Unsigned}}}}— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kalev (talk) • (contribs) 2024-12-24, 18:04 UTC

Edit: or maybe "extra" does... Ok, do what you want with this term, but I'm concerned confident that the current definitions of "clean" and "dirty" have nothing to do with a value. I didn't mention "clean" are more desired than "dirty" ones. Kalev 18:18, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

I se what you mean now, jumping into the discussion at the wrong point made me think that you called items like Old Guadalajara or the Napper's Respite "dirty." Do as you will then. :) -The Neotank ( | Talk) 18:26, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Its no problem :), I will add the "Dirty" and "Clean" definitions to the main glossary in that case :D, not sure what to do with the sweeteners definition though Scatmanjohn 18:29, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

I've noticed many users at Steam Forums are discussing "crate hats". Are those simply the ones you may get from a crate (respectively included in one of the series' lists)? Kalev 18:40, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Yep, exactly. Moussekateer 18:47, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I Feel like people are posting on just random, not-accurate, abbreviations just so that way they can have more posts, for example, I have never seen the vintage tyroleon called, "Tyro", never in my life. So is this even reliable or should I clean it up or what?Xephslayer 21:37, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Untradable Logic

>Due to the possibility of selling items outside of the Mann Co. Store for real money, some items are not tradable.

This sounds like speculation, and looking at the list it seems to be more based on the fact that they are connected with an in-game mechanic, such as the Dueling Minigame, or attachment to a Team Fortress 2 achievement.--Zootch 09:11, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

I think that may be poorly phrased but what is the explanation for hats and weapons bought from the store being untradable? Moussekateer 09:13, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry; looking at it again, it appears to be another point altogether. The problem is the "Untradable Items" section is awkwardly assembled...

Lugermorph

The page has the Lugermorph listed as untradeable then states underneath that the pre-order ones are tradeable. Does this mean that the poker night ones can't be traded and if so, how do we know before it is released? Scatmanjohn 19:05, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

We don't know if the poker nights ones will be tradable. This should be removed from the list until we know. Moussekateer 19:34, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Il do so now then Scatmanjohn 19:35, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Accessing the other menus while Trading window is open

It should be noted that it is possible to access some of the other menus while the Trade window is still open. All you have to do is press ESC (which will take you back to the game screen) and while you're in the game screen, press "M" or "N" to access the other menus. This is especially helpful when you need to craft or melt metals and all the while not closing the trade window. This helped me a lot when the person i'm trading with is an unknown trader.

Maybe useful to insert as a tip in the trading tips section. Roninsmastermix 15:10, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

This has already been discussed above. Please read the rest of the discussion before raising an issue. :) --JakeSanchard 12:11, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Error

Gift wrap is tradeable. Please fix the template. Thanks. Thespy 23:07, 26 March 2011 (UTC)