The reason I placed this was to ask why is a key valuable if opening a crate is useless. When the trade price for key was lower the items in the crate could hold some value but not anymore. The best items out of these crates would only have a natural value in the several ref range. Whats the point? Why open?

Because it would make no sense for the items in a crate to be more valuable than the crate + the key itself. You have the initial hype where people want the new items and they'll pay a lot for them but that profit window is really small and during that time the crates cost a lot as well, since there's a small supply of them. There might be 1 or 2 items in a crate that are more popular thus more valuable, making it worth uncrating for but that's not always the case.

Usually people open crates not for the items inside it, but for the chance to get an unusual. The items are just a bonus.

Beggar's bazooka, neon annihilator, flying guillotine? i'd hardly say they were a flop.

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

The reason I placed this was to ask why is a key valuable if opening a crate is useless. When the trade price for key was lower the items in the crate could hold some value but not anymore. The best items out of these crates would only have a natural value in the several ref range. Whats the point? Why open?

because you can get an unusual

some are 10+ buds, a bud is 27 keys, so thats the potential long long long shot payoff.

crates are a casino, the one armed bandit of gaben

maybe you pay 1 key and get a rec back, maybe you pay 1 key and get 270..

i do have some #1 crates, that have white and black paints in them, so not all crates are equal.

Originally posted by Laharl:

Beggar's bazooka, neon annihilator, flying guillotine? i'd hardly say they were a flop.

If you can't make your key back its a flop. We were less than 4 days into the crate release and the main items in them all grossed below a key. I like each of these items but none will get you the key back right now.

Originally posted by MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™:

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

The reason I placed this was to ask why is a key valuable if opening a crate is useless. When the trade price for key was lower the items in the crate could hold some value but not anymore. The best items out of these crates would only have a natural value in the several ref range. Whats the point? Why open?

because you can get an unusual

some are 10+ buds, a bud is 27 keys, so thats the potential long long long shot payoff.

crates are a casino, the one armed bandit of gaben

maybe you pay 1 key and get a rec back, maybe you pay 1 key and get 270..

i do have some #1 crates, that have white and black paints in them, so not all crates are equal.

You can get an usual from any crate. Crate 19, 1, 21, 14, 13, 28 ,31, 4, 2, 3, 9 and about 14 other crates are trading at higher price than 56 & 57. All of those are more worth while opening and will still yield contemporary unusuals.

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

If you can't make your key back its a flop. We were less than 4 days into the crate release and the main items in them all grossed below a key. I like each of these items but none will get you the key back right now.

If you expect crates labeled with *insert key here & get profit* keep on dreaming.

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

You can get an usual from any crate. Crate 19, 1, 21, 14, 13, 28 ,31, 4, 2, 3, 9 and about 14 other crates are trading at higher price than 56 & 57. All of those are more worth while opening and will still yield contemporary unusuals.

Those crates don't drop anymore and they contain popular items that are traded for higher prices.

Yeah the new crates are pretty undesirable. Even crate 50 is less than thrilling.

Originally posted by norby89:

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

If you can't make your key back its a flop. We were less than 4 days into the crate release and the main items in them all grossed below a key. I like each of these items but none will get you the key back right now.

If you expect crates labeled with *insert key here & get profit* keep on dreaming.


I don't, crates should have an ev that breaks even or be set to .05. I do, however, expect new crates to be able to trade to grant ev higher than the key it takes to open it for at least a day.

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

You can get an usual from any crate. Crate 19, 1, 21, 14, 13, 28 ,31, 4, 2, 3, 9 and about 14 other crates are trading at higher price than 56 & 57. All of those are more worth while opening and will still yield contemporary unusuals.

Those crates don't drop anymore and they contain popular items that are traded for higher prices.

Exactly. New crates with previosly nonexistant items should yield better for a little while. Crate 55 held an ev of 3.66 ref up until the new year. Which at the time was above the key.

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

Exactly. New crates with previosly nonexistant items should yield better for a little while. Crate 55 held an ev of 3.66 ref up until the new year. Which at the time was above the key.

Like I said, that profit window is usually very small, a couple days at most. You cannot expect it to last, otherwise everybody would be uncrating and if everyone is uncrating there will be no demand for the items inside.