Hey all, regardless of if this is your first time with unusual trading, or if you're avid in the business, everyone is susceptible to scam. Hopefully, some quick tips here can help you avoid this. Granted, a lot of this will seem like basic knowledge for experienced traders, but I would have loved to have some of this information when I first started, so take that to heart.
My number one piece of advice for new traders is: everyone makes a bad deal in their first weeks of unusual trading. Somewhere down the road, you WILL screw up, but that doesn't count you out. Get back on your feet, and work your way back, smarter than you were before.
With that little bit of info out of the way, let's get started.
Rule Number 1: Always be familiar with your prices. Now, there are an assortment of ways to do this. Most newbies refer to Backpack.tf for all of their pricing concerns, and this is the first way sharkers will target you. While it is a great reference, http://backpack.tf/ often includes outdated prices, and is not a primarily reliable source for unusual hat pricing. Refer to the following sources/methods to find a more accurate price for your hat.
- Tf2outpost ads- While these are not going to exclusively give you sales usually, it will give you a great ballpark of what others are selling at. When referencing others' sell price, keep note of how long they've had the ad up, what kind of offers they've had in that time, and how frequently they've been bumping.
Previous sales- Do some digging around, figure out exactly what the hat(s) in question have sold for in the past, and keep track of bud prices at the time of the sales. This is very important, as a bud back in September of 2014 was worth considerable more in terms of keys than a bud is nowadays (2015 and on).
Cleanliness and history- While it is important to be aware of duped and gifted traits, do not let someone convince you to sell for half price and such. This is a popular sharking tactic. While duped and or gifted does influence the ease of resell, a hat in the 1-3 bud range will not always require shaving off multiple keys for selling purposes. If you are concerned about being able to resell a duped/gifted hat, simply reject the offer.
Unpriced- Have you unboxed a 1/1 or unvalued hat yourself? Have you by some means acquired one and are uncertain of its value? Odds are, you won't be able to price it all alone if you're new to unusual trading. In which case, ask someone you trust to help. Get multiple sources. We unusual admins can be a great resources for trading help and advice, so long as you are polite and courteous in doing so. That said, if you do need help with pricing a difficult hat, send me an add and I'll do my best to offer some help. Additionally, it can sometimes be helpful to consider what tier of effect the hat falls into, i.e. Terror-watt being right around the range of Kill-a-watt, or blizzardy storm's closeness to stormy storm, but this, like mentioned above, is not always accurate.
If you abide by these laws, and still feel uncertain about your hat's or another hat's price, I'm always willing to lend a hand, so feel free to come talk to me at any time.
Rule Number 3: Keep track of who you're trading with. In most cases, if a trader is deviating from standard trading customs, or is pressuring you for a trade, they're worth looking into. Find his/her Steam URL in your web browser, and plug it into the resource found here: https://steamrep.com/. Note any kind of outstanding reputation they have: reports, VAC bans, trade bans, or marked friends. Trading with a marked scammer can additionally be dangerous to your own reputation, so it is important to check on these things if you feel uncertain at all about the person you're trading. On all Fire Friendly Trade servers, you can type /sr "trader's name" to check their steam rep page quickly and privately.
Rule #4; TF2Outpost Trading: Oh, the wonderful world of Outpost. The hub of scammers, sharkers, phishers, low ballers, and the occasional kind trader. There are several things to be aware of when starting Outpost trading.
Utilize your tools- Outpost is a beautiful resource. It provides you with tools that are extremely helpful when trading such as:
- Trade bumping: Enough said.
Hiding/accepting offers: keep your trades clean looking. Hide an offer you don't like, and keep offers you're considering, and/or your C/O's.
Trade offer URL: setting your own is important for receiving fast offers without he concern of dealing with phishers adding you.
Safe link URL's: highlighted in green if the URL is approved by Steam.
A piece of advice: Try and display some level of professionalism as well in your ads. This means using somewhat proper grammar, helpful information, and a little bit of personality without becoming overbearing.
Special Addition: the big bud disaster. So, now that backpack is pricing unusuals in keys, I strongly advise you do the same until buds are stabilized. Loss/gain of value in conversions is causing lots of confusion, and until I can get a grip on how the market is shifting in accordance with the new changes, I wouldn't advise using buds as pure.
Hopefully, if you follow these general rules and stay up to date on the events of the economy, you should make it safely out there, at least for a little bit that is.
Stay safe, and thanks for reading,
Ibuix