Greetings my friend! Welcome to TF2 Trading For Dummies, my first guide that I've made for the community! There are many trading guides out there, and then you arrived at mine. In this guide, I'll be covering the fundamentals of trading and some profiting tips you could use in-game. The table of contents are displayed on the top right, so if you need to skip to a particular section of this guide, click on that section. Thanks and have fun!

How do I start?
In order to trade, wheter you're free to play or not, you'll have to first enable Steam Guard on your account. This must be enabled for 15 days straight. To do this, simply go to Steam > Settings > Manage Steam Guard Account Security. Once you're there, select the option 'Keep my account protected by Steam Guard'. Then click on Next>. Type in your computer name and voila! Just wait for 15 days and your account will be able to trade.

Trading: Free To Play VS Premium
Premium

• Able to receive AND give in-game items to and from players

Free To Play

• Able to receive in-game items from players and trade them
  
• Able to trade in-game items with a use limit
  
• Not able to give in-game items to players

Obviously from this list, Premium has more power. Now that you know the ups-and-downs of Free To Play and Premium, let's get started! For premium players, skip the next sub-section. For Free To Play users, continue reading.

Free To Play: Getting Your First Tradable In-Game Item
So how to get your first tradable in-game item? Since your backpack is full of untradable worthless crap? Well, let's start by participating in raffles that have no entry fee. By now, you should be asking, "What's a raffle?" Well, a raffle is a game of chance (aka gambling) where you place in a certain amount of entry fee so as to get a slot in getting a certain item. Certain raffles allow more than one slot. Obviously, the person with more slots filled up in the raffle will have a higher chance of winning. But hey! Who knows when the tables flop. If you won from a raffle, claim the prize from the owner and congratulations! You've just earned your first tradable in-game item, absolutely free!

Premium: Getting Your First Tradable In-Game Item
Just simply wait for a item from the itemdrop system and you have just acquired it!

The next thing we'll talk about is currencies. These define the TF2 economy and how you'll acquire in-game items in TF2. Or in layman terms, it's basically a type of money used to buy things.

How much is a weapon worth?
A weapon is worth half of a scrap metal, also known as 0.05 ref or refined, to be more exact. Refined metal will be mentioned later. This currency can be used for 1:1 exchanging of weapons. Since it's worth half a scrap metal, you can combine two of these to make it worth 1 scrap metal. So what's a scrap metal? I'll talk about it in the next sub-section.

How much is a scrap metal worth?
A scrap metal is worth one-third of a reclaimed metal, also known as 0.11 refined. This currency is used for buying 2 weapons or 1 weapon, for scrapbanking. I will demonstrate the act of scrapbanking later in the guide. For now, let's continue. You can combine 3 of these to make a reclaimed metal. A scrap looks like this:














How much is a reclaimed metal worth?
A reclaimed metal is worth one-third of a refined metal, also known as 0.33 refined. This currency is used for buying mainly in-game items with use limits. You can combine 3 of these to make 1 refined metal. A reclaimed metal looks like this:
















How much is a refined metal worth?
A refined metal is worth 1 refined, of course. As of now, it is one-eleventh of a key. It's the staple currency used for buying craftable hats (or craft hats) and other tools such as Tour Of Duty tickets and etc. It looks like this:
















How much is a key worth?
A key is worth as of now.... 11.22 - 11.44 refined, or to break it up, 11 refined and 2 or 4 scrap. The price used to be so cheap, but due to idlers, it increased rapidly over the years. This key here can be used to buy some unusuals and unlock crates (Yes, this currency is a tool itself!). It takes painstaking weeks or even months to get one. It looks like this:















How much is a earbud worth?
Now we have come to the most expensive currency in TF2, and that is the earbud, commonly shortened to bud. It's worth around 15 keys and it's a cosmetic item itself. It is given out to Mac OS X players who played the game on the platform's release date, and has never been given out ever since. Therefore, it's pretty expensive. It is used to buy some hats that are unusual or unique, especially the Bill's Hat. It looks like this:
















To summarise:
0.05 ref = A Weapon
0.11 ref = A Scrap
0.33 ref = A Reclaimed
1 ref = A Refined
11.22 - 11.44 ref (estimation) = A Key
15 keys (estimation) = An earbud

Ready to spoil Newell's wallet? *trollface*





Oh eh... sorry Gaben! Please don't get me VAC banned ;-;
Gaben: Hi, this is GaBeN, I'm offering profit-







Putting your tradable in-game items to good use
Now that you've learned how much each item's worth, let's start off by selling your one and only item on a trade server for 1 scrap. If you found someone that is willing to trade it for 1 scrap, offer the item and he'll give you the 1 scrap. Congrats! You just earned your very first currency. Now, let's buy 2 weapons from a scrapbanker with 1 scrap. I highly recommend going to scrap.tf to do this, it's an automated trading site that allows you to buy 2 for 1 scrap, which is the original market price for a weapon. If you got the 2 weapons, congrats! You've just did scrapbanking, an act of buying 2 weapons for 1 scrap and then selling the 2 weapons for 1 scrap each. It basically keeps going until you have enough scrap to go around.

Now that you've acquired enough, let's move on to hatbanking.

So what's hatbanking? And how do you do it?
Hatbanking is an act of buying 1 craft hat for 1 refined each, then selling them for 1.33 refined each, or 1 refined and 1 reclaimed. By doing this, you earn profit by 1 reclaimed.

Price you sold hat for = 1.33 refined
Minus
Price you bought hat for = 1 refined
=
Profit = 0.33 refined

And it keeps going until you earn enough refined to start the next profiting method.

Quickbuying
This next method is called quickbuying, an act of buying a bunch of unusual hats for a discounted price. You then proceed to sell them at full price (???), therefore earning profit. This goes on till you get a key and enough keys to buy an earbud. And for Free To Play players, go get premium first! You'll be able to make your way to an earbud if you acquired it.

Pros and Cons
Scrapbanking -
[✓]Make half a scrap profit
[X]Buyers for 1 for 1 scrapbanking is rare, which means longer waiting time to find someone who wants to trade

Hatbanking -
[✓]Make a reclaimed profit
[X]Buyers for hatbanking is rare, which means longer waiting time to find someone who wants to trade

Quickbuying -
[✓]Make heaps of profit if you manage to bargain for a lower price
[✓]Quickbuyers are common, you'll expect faster waiting time to find someone who wants to trade
[X]Bargaining for a lower price might require some patience and manners

Scammers
Don't fall for these guys! Scammers misinterpret items so that when you offer the buyout he'll give you the misinterpreted item at a lower value for the amount you gave him. For example, a scammer only renamed a regular weapon into something like "Strange Austrailium Shotgun". Renamed items have quotation marks, if it's not renamed it shouldn't be. Always check if the thing if it's genuine! If not sure when trading, always ask him to reserve the item first, then ask the 'Whole Wide World' wheter it's legit or not.

Sharkers
The next batch of deceving people are the sharkers. They do the opposite of scammers, misinterpreting the buyout. For example. When a sharker sees a person wearing an earbud, they would say, "Why would you want to have earbuds, when you could have HATS?" Remember, regular hats are not the same value as that of earbuds, so be very careful. Politely reject this offer if you ever encounter one.

Phishers
These batch of people aren't scammers. Phishers (pronounced fishers) are hackers that give misleading links to people on the chat. They would say something like this:
"Hey my bro wants to trade with ya
But he can't add you... @_@
He ask me to send link to you
Can you add him please?
-insert phishing link here-"
Don't click that link! Ignore that link, but go to his profile and click on More, then click on Report. Select Suspected Hijacker or Phishing and then unfriend him (if he's your friend).

So that's pretty much the end of this guide. I'm sure you don't just read my guide for dummies! Seek other guides for more help. I hope you've enjoyed reading. With that I wish you good luck with your trading journey! Thank you for reading this guide!

Best regards
CheeseLikHats