Better margins in item flipping. Keys should stop rising soon. If they continue to rise much higher (as in 8 ref) I would be concerned.

Originally posted by norby89:

Considering the Strange Grenade Launcher has just been rereleased, it's obvious its price is plummeting. Don't just look at backpack.tf and expect everything to be sold/bought at that price.

Well there is trade.tf and checking ur backpack viewer on bp.tf before you start selling ur stuff and 1 ref is pretty bad.

Most items have stable prices that can't be debated unless the item is in transition and that's usually an evident situation. The trouble comes mainly from unusual sellers. Many are rude and can't be civil. Whatever the price situation an item is in no one should be allowed to be rude. I wish it were a reportable offense but instead you can be reported for spam if you want to argue the price. I have some buyers add for an item and they were so timid I knew they just got attacked by some other trader.

The precise reason keys are going up has to do with an equilibrium it must reach. Refined metal sells for $0.34 in a Paypal exchange. Doing the math means that, at the current trade price (5.44), the key would be around $1.80+ on paypal which it is. Once you factor in fees it comes in a little above that. The trade price of keys will have to rise until it is no different from the mann co store or steam market price once converted. That is anywhere between 6.33 and 7.44.

Now you ask yourself, "who is paying that?". It is not the average player. It is bulk traders or in many cases, ref farmers who dont care how much they pay in ref for a key.

It has become really annoying to me that 70% of the guys who say " added for_____" don't actually add u. They use the term but don't know that means ur supposed to add me as a friend. Anyone else have this.

Originally posted by norby89:

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

For example, a Bills hat painted sinister shouldn't be 11 keys, like u would expect, but maybe 14 - 15.

See that's where this makes no sense. Why would anyone pay 150% the price of the Bill's + paint when they can buy them separately much cheaper.

As I said, there will come a time when you can't. Right now one might not pay that much but soon they would.

Originally posted by Uranium235:

Originally posted by F | CHARLIE:

I think that it should be more valuable than normally calculated because of the idea

Why is it so hard to understand:
* this is not the backpack.tf forum
* backpack.tf bonus prices rarely have anything to do with the price the items are actually traded for
* if you mean the market should have a different price: It does not work that way. It doesn't matter what you think something should be priced at, it's traded for what people are willing to sell and buy the item for. There is no one that can dictate a price!

I wanted the opinions of average traders. That can't really be done at backpack.tf and I am not proposing a pricing concept. If I want to bring this discussion there, I will.

I will clarify this discussion a little more.
There are 2,200 Spectral Spectrum's remaining. When they are gone they are gone (unless they get duped which makes a lot of sense to do btw). Which makes every hat/misc you apply it to a rare and unique item. Right now we don't know how many items have been painted. It is conceivable that there could be only a few of a certain hat that will have this paint on it. Once it gains legitimacy, if it does, those hats will have to be recognized as incredibly special. Even more so than many unusual's.

Discuss

P.s. I wonder if valve intended the glitch to occur for this exact reason.

Why can't we search for closed trades that are only 1 week old?

Originally posted by norby89:

Significantly higher than what? You didn't define what is "normally calculated".

Dude, really. Higher than how paint traditionally effects an item. Bp.tf does 85% of original trade value of paint. This will likely change soon to 50% but still. Paint, once used, does increase the value of the item but not by its own value but by a percentage of its value.

My point is that with this paint being finite and that its effect is dramatic, that it should higher.
For example, a Bills hat painted sinister shouldn't be 11 keys, like u would expect, but maybe 14 - 15.

The angle I am driving at is this. Paint, once used, does hold its value normally. I think its different here because this paint will never be available like this again. Any hat its applied to will be incredibly rare and can't have the same effect added in the future. Therefore, unlike regular paint, I think the hat should be significantly higher.

Myself, I was thinking of adding a paint to a Gen Warsworn.