Please read all of this before posting anything, and I mean anything. At all.

While I have been playing Team Fortress 2 for several years, I have never taken advantage of the Outpost, trading servers, or any other third-party site that deals with trading in this game. Because of the difficulties I've had with trading as a result, I decided to bite the bullet and try this Outpost. Problem is, I don't really get how it works. Like, do the trade offers I make here transfer the item to my inventory once the offer is accepted? Do I have to contact this person via Steam to confirm the trade? Is it something completely different? I could really use some answers because I have absolutely none to my questions about the Outpost.

Honestly, I really just want to use this site for the sake of getting the unique weapons or gear that I need for my class builds. I'm really not that interested in hats or miscellaneous items or anything else, and I never, and I mean never, have dealt with keys, crates, containers, or anything like that in terms of actually buying them or trading for them in the traditional style. Only unique weapons and items that I want to make a certain build or play style for my classes, and the occasional hat or misc for the sake of appearance, but that's rare due to the amount of Refined Metal it often costs me. In other words, I focus on yellow items. They fit my needs just fine and they're cheap to acquire, plus they get the job done because certain items have the unique effects that I want, such as the Dead Ringer's fake death as an example.

I could really use some answers. I don't really understand how the whole trading system works in the Outpost. I would really appreciate an explanation to the simple questions that I have just so that I can use the site for the items that I want to acquire, and little else. Please keep that in mind. I do not desire strange items, unusual items, genuine, vintage, or anything fancy like that because it doesn't appeal to me. As stupid or ridiculous as this may sound, the only thing I see in those types of items are a significantly increased cost in Refined Metal, Keys, and other expensive things that I would never have access to unless I interacted with the store. Only the unique items and weapons that I explained before. Any of those fancy items that I already have are either gifts, lucky finds, events, or a key that I somehow managed to acquire, probably through a giveaway during some sort of event.

I have never, once in my life, spent a single penny of real money on anything, and I mean anything, on Team Fortress 2. The only reason I acquired the premium account type is due to a gift from a good friend of mine that upgraded it from free, nothing else. I no longer visit the store at all for any reason, not even to look at newly released items, nor do I ever participate in holiday events because I think they're stupid, no offence. Keep all of this is mind. Please.