You just publicly admitted you're new, which makes you a prime target to be taken advantage of. Unless you know the person beforehand, you could easily end up getting sharked by someone claiming to help you with prices. I'd recommend quietly looking for someone trustworthy and friendly to newbies, and politely asking them for help privately.

Also, I don't know if I can be especially helpful - I still don't have a decent grasp on prices myself - but here are a few pointers:

• Unusual trading is a lot slower than regular trading, and requires patience. If you're impatient, you'll lose money with every trade you make. If someone tries to rush you, they're probably ripping you off.
  
• You mentioned cash trading. Avoid that until you're comfortable with unusual trading. Not only do you have to worry about prices, but you have to be especially careful not to get scammed. If someone offers you cash, tell them to buy keys with it.
  
• There are no set prices or unified spreadsheets for unusuals. Anyone using backpack.tf or an equivalent to price them is either a newbie or trying to take advantage of you.
  
• Only do unusual trading if you can afford it. Unusuals are expensive, and each one you get is a significant portion of your backpack value that will be hard to liquidate for a long time. Plus, it could end up being a dud, and if you invest everything in one hat you could lose a lot.
  
• High-tier hats with low-tier effects, or low-tier hats with high-tier effects are usually the easiest to sell, as well as themed hats. Avoid Nuts & Bolts, no matter what hat. Low tier hat/effects are usually only popular with other resellers or people looking for their first unusual (who will inevitably end up stuck with it for a long time then asking for unusual advice) but Nuts & Bolts is always hard to sell. Gifted is hard to sell too.
  
• If a hat isn't a high/low tier as described above, try and find a theme; invest in a name/description tag. There may not be a theme, but if there is it may not be obvious, so be creative.
  
• Gifted unusuals are always worth less. Some will refuse to buy them, others will devalue them. Duped unusuals are usually worth a little less, but that depends on the buyer. From what I hear, it's mostly just people who will use it as leverage to lowball you, but you reallyy can use being non-duped as a selling point. There are also some sellers (myself included) who do not buy dupes.
  
• This is one a LOT of people miss. Be polite, friendly approachable, and non-threatening; both in Steam chat and any trades/ads you post. If someone looks like they abandoned their outpost trades, has a bunch of multi-colored CAPS LOCK WARNINGS, talks about other traders (truthfully or not) in an insulting/condenscending way, or otherwise acts impatient or rude, I will skip over their trade or ignore their server chat comments entirely. Even if it's something I'm looking for and they have the only one on the market. If they're rude in chat, I block them and if I ever go to add them at a future date, I see they're blocked and remember to skip over them. A lot of other traders do the same, since it's really the only way to keep your sanity.
  
• Don't be another idiot with a "buying quicksells" trade. You'll only get one if you're lucky, and you'll probably get a bunch of people adding for things that aren't really quicksells anyway. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll get ripped off there anyway. Relevant link. Plus, most people will lump you in with the rude traders mentioned above if you spam "buying quicksells" anywhere. If you want quicksells, get a grasp on the market and look for good deals proactively. Keep a stock of keys/earbuds for just that purpose.

Ah thanks so much for your advice. I'm not very new, I just need someone to teach me how to get started. I've lost 120 keys due to paypal scams, urgh. So I think I know how to be extra wary now. Yeah.. I can never grasp the prices of unusuals. How some hats sell, how some don't. Btw, how do I check if an item is duped or not?

Do you mind if I add you to seek more answers? You seem mighty established.

Originally posted by Ceresin. S>2 Unusuals.:

I've lost 120 keys due to paypal scams, urgh. So I think I know how to be extra wary now.

There are a lot of things to look for, and as you know by now it's real easy to get scammed. It's late at night and there are too many for me to enumerate right now. I'd recommend just avoiding cashing trades entirely until you get a better grasp on identifying people who will scam you.

I've had a peculiar way of dealing with unusuals over the past year, in that I'm really picky and seldom even so much as express interest unless I really want it, but then end up keeping it forever instead of reselling if I manage to get it. Hence I haven't had as much exposure as I'd have liked, which I'm working on changing as of recent.

Originally posted by Ceresin. S>2 Unusuals.:

Btw, how do I check if an item is duped or not?

Check the item history on multiple item trackers. TF2OP and backpack.tf are the main ones. To find a dupe, check the inventory of each person in the history; if 2 or more people have that item with the same original ID, it's duped. Note backpack.tf often has backpacks cached, so it can falsely flag items as dupes if it sees something move without refreshing the previous owner's backpack.

Originally posted by Ceresin. S>2 Unusuals.:

Do you mind if I add you to seek more answers? You seem mighty established.

I guess you can add me for a little while. I'm about to head to bed, and I have a long busy day tomorrow, and I feel like there are better sources you can learn from than me, plus I usually keep my friends list to mostly people I either have business with or I know in person so don't be offended if I eventually remove you. There's a course that will probably open up again in the next few weeks called Mann Co University[manncotrading.com] where you can get some pointers for identifying scammer alts. Save you another 120 keys...

Ah, I took a look at the University website you mentioned. Unfortunately because of the timezones, I will be having classes at an actual Univerisity. I have added you, and will be waiting for your acceptance. I understand the part about removing me, as I do that as well unless I feel I have a need to keep the person around. I do hope you impart your knowledge with me before removing me :)

Originally posted by Lava MCT:

You just publicly admitted you're new, which makes you a prime target to be taken advantage of. Unless you know the person beforehand, you could easily end up getting sharked by someone claiming to help you with prices. I'd recommend quietly looking for someone trustworthy and friendly to newbies, and politely asking them for help privately.

Also, I don't know if I can be especially helpful - I still don't have a decent grasp on prices myself - but here are a few pointers:

• Unusual trading is a lot slower than regular trading, and requires patience. If you're impatient, you'll lose money with every trade you make. If someone tries to rush you, they're probably ripping you off.
  
• You mentioned cash trading. Avoid that until you're comfortable with unusual trading. Not only do you have to worry about prices, but you have to be especially careful not to get scammed. If someone offers you cash, tell them to buy keys with it.
  
• There are no set prices or unified spreadsheets for unusuals. Anyone using backpack.tf or an equivalent to price them is either a newbie or trying to take advantage of you.
  
• Only do unusual trading if you can afford it. Unusuals are expensive, and each one you get is a significant portion of your backpack value that will be hard to liquidate for a long time. Plus, it could end up being a dud, and if you invest everything in one hat you could lose a lot.
  
• High-tier hats with low-tier effects, or low-tier hats with high-tier effects are usually the easiest to sell, as well as themed hats. Avoid Nuts & Bolts, no matter what hat. Low tier hat/effects are usually only popular with other resellers or people looking for their first unusual (who will inevitably end up stuck with it for a long time then asking for unusual advice) but Nuts & Bolts is always hard to sell. Gifted is hard to sell too.
  
• If a hat isn't a high/low tier as described above, try and find a theme; invest in a name/description tag. There may not be a theme, but if there is it may not be obvious, so be creative.
  
• Gifted unusuals are always worth less. Some will refuse to buy them, others will devalue them. Duped unusuals are usually worth a little less, but that depends on the buyer. From what I hear, it's mostly just people who will use it as leverage to lowball you, but you reallyy can use being non-duped as a selling point. There are also some sellers (myself included) who do not buy dupes.
  
• This is one a LOT of people miss. Be polite, friendly approachable, and non-threatening; both in Steam chat and any trades/ads you post. If someone looks like they abandoned their outpost trades, has a bunch of multi-colored CAPS LOCK WARNINGS, talks about other traders (truthfully or not) in an insulting/condenscending way, or otherwise acts impatient or rude, I will skip over their trade or ignore their server chat comments entirely. Even if it's something I'm looking for and they have the only one on the market. If they're rude in chat, I block them and if I ever go to add them at a future date, I see they're blocked and remember to skip over them. A lot of other traders do the same, since it's really the only way to keep your sanity.
  
• Don't be another idiot with a "buying quicksells" trade. You'll only get one if you're lucky, and you'll probably get a bunch of people adding for things that aren't really quicksells anyway. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll get ripped off there anyway. Relevant link. Plus, most people will lump you in with the rude traders mentioned above if you spam "buying quicksells" anywhere. If you want quicksells, get a grasp on the market and look for good deals proactively. Keep a stock of keys/earbuds for just that purpose.

This needs pinning up somewhere as Unusual trading advice for new traders. Very informative and thorough!