Wow, sad. I spent tons of time at all these old sties. I started trading right after I found the game, which was right after it went F2P and I saw the Steam ad for it. Sad to see the game die out like this. It is really a timeless game that could literally last forever.

I'm posting this for discussion and also possibly a suggestion for a posted notice of some kind.

I see two kinds of situations:

1) A trader will post their TO url in the trade, but not have the actual TO button authorized in their settings, so the button isn't displayed. This situation isn't actually a problem, since they post the link, but I think that some may just be unaware that they can have the button setup as well.

2) I see traders ask for a trade offer, and they neither have a link or the button setup. Then I go to their steam profile and the 'trade offer' option isn't listed under the "more" button on the right, which, if I understand the settings correctly, this means that they do not have their privacy settings set to public. Instead many people just set it to 'friends', which means you have to add them and wait for them to accept, in order to turn around and send them a TO, which makes the whole purpose of a TO virtually pointless.

So, I'm wondering how many other traders have run into this problem? There have been some traders that I wanted to send a TO but had no way to do so, even though they request it in their trade.

Also, what about some kind of marker or reminder on trades that only the OP will see, reminding them that they have the option of setting up the TO and having a button displayed?

There's nothing wrong with quickbuying and quickselling, even with larger margins, although I also have a line that I draw, and it's not decided on a whim. I don't like people who are deliberately trying to rip people off, however, it's usually a matter of opinion when this is actually happening and some complaints are just about normal resellers doing their thing in the marketplace.

Some people have the idea that anything more than a 1 scrap profit is a ripoff or scam, but markets just don't work like that.

I know from experience that Stranges are not the easiest items to move. They are a set of items where listed prices do not match the volume of trade (imo). Iow, for as hard as it can be to move them, the prices are unusually high (based on rarity, I'm sure). Because of this, people like myself will only buy at deeper discounts, to compensate for prices fluctuations while the items are held in inventory, as well as the hassle of having your metal tied up in a slow moving stock.

Think about it like this: It may take a week to move a particular 2 ref Strange at a 2 scrap mark up, whereas you could have used that 1.77 to buy and sell cheaper and more popular items 10, 20, 50 times over during that week at a 1 scrap mark up. So, 20-50 scraps in profit in one week, vs 2 scraps on that Strange.

Resellers typically need higher mark ups for low volume items. If you price fix, the resellers will quit buying, and trade will either dry up or the listed prices will take a dive down to where the quickbuyers were buying in the first place, and nothing really changes.

Personally, I view many, many different trades on different sites, looking at what many people are buying and selling at, looking at the ranges, looking at volume, looking at how new the item is and how stable the price is, before I set my prices.

One other thing to remember, if you restrict resellers or casual buyers from buying low, what do you say to the sellers who want to dump their item fast and actually want/need to sell low? Do you tell them it's setting a bad example so they can't do it, and so they'll just have to keep their item until someone wants to buy at official prices?

Restrictions have a 2 way effect. It doesn't just restrict resellers, it hurts casual sellers too. The way I liken TF2 reselling and quickbuying, is to a pawn shop. You'll never get anywhere near what your item is actually worth at a pawn shop, but, the advantage is that they will almost always buy anything you bring in, so if you want money fast, you can get it.

While regulations can enforce prices, the one thing they cannot do, is force people to buy at those prices.

Originally posted by norby89:

When somebody buys a gift copy and the site scans their inventory.

Ok. I'm surprised no one has bought one for trade yet.

The game is called Defense Zone 2, and it won't come up in the search engine here, as well as another site. Is this a steam database issue? When might I expect this game to be available for trading? The store page says it was released on May 30th.