Winter Crate Poll Results

Nothing earth shattering here with a fairly even distribution of the new crates.  Valve throws in some of the others for good measure.

Naughty crates	660 (55%)
Nice crates	672 (56%)
Series #34	211 (17%)
Series #33	172 (14%)
Series #32	117 (9%)
Series #30 (salvaged)	163 (13%)
I got a winter key too!	232 (19%)

Votes so far: 1193
Poll closed

New update...

Team Fortress 2

• Added community-created winter items to the drop lists, the craft tables, and the store
• Added the Spirit of Giving
• Gifts from Secret Saxtons and Piles o' Gifts now have a chance to grant a gift in addition to whatever item they would have granted normally
• Fixed hearing the deny sound while rotating a sentry during placement
• Manmelter balance tweaks:
  • Added particle effect on muzzle that appears when ready to fire
  • Increased projectile speed while maintaining the same travel arc
  • Increased extinguish range
• Added festive lights to all ropes and cables
• Fixed a problem that would sometimes allow the detonator projectiles to crit on burning targets
• Updated the localization files
• Updated the gamehaptics file:
  • Added draw/melee swing/melee hit/crit forces for the The Sharp Dresser and the Spy-cicle
  • Added draw/recoil/reload/crit forces for the Pomson 6000
  • Added draw/recoil/crit forces for the Manmelter
  • Added draw/recoil force for the Wrap Assassin
  • Added melee hit/world hit force for the Third Degree
  • Added crit forces for the Holiday Punch
  • Fixed missing forces for Demoman swords
  • Refined recoil force for the Sandman

Undocumented changes

• The Spirit of Giving and Secret Saxton have been distributed to all players.

Get coal for Christmas : win!

Valve continues to mix it up with more holiday madness (link here).  This is less a TF2 thing rather a Steam contest where they give away things like games, coupons on games and more.  Now you can get coal in your steam account.  Rack 7 of them up and craft them for a special Steam gift.  Or hold on to them where each coal is an entry into the Steam grand prize drawing on January 2nd.  Merry Christmas indeed!

Can I have a Holiday Headcase for Christmas, Santa?

Prices are starting to reveal themselves and we have again updated the Australian Christmas items.  The newer weapons are in high demand and can sell above the average prices listed.  However, these prices are what the majority of them are going for.  Strange Festive weapons are very expensive with respect to their non-festive counterparts.  May they go higher once they are no longer available?  Only Santa knows.

One interesting thing we are noticing is the premium traders are paying for festive keys in items.  Some profit-making trades are occurring with festive keys for hats/miscs/weapons.  This is not true for the metal equivalent for the keys.  Most trade in the 3 ref range, and slightly higher at times.

We await how and when Valve will release the final few winter items.  I don't know about you, but I want my Ebeneezer!  Trade on.

Holy Yule Log Mrs. Claus! 10 refined for a hat?

We are deep in the middle of Australian Christmas ladies and gents.  Popular items appear to be the Santa beard (All-Father) as well as the Brown Bomber hat.  You will notice we have been updating the sheet slowly with pricing that we verify several times over before it goes up.  Some items have not traded often or do so for prices with high variances.  The strange-festive items are particularly hard to pin down.  We'll put them up as their pricing becomes more definable.  Can you get a Spy-cicle for a scrap from someone?  Maybe, but most people are selling them in the 2 refined range, that's why its listed as such.  Some items are not released yet as well.  The B.M.O.C. is one of them.  When we know more we'll fill you in.  Carry on.  Happy trading. 

Prices, prices, prices

Where are all the prices on the new items?  Well as you know faithful traders, we want the market to sort itself out on these new items before we put any sort of guidance in.  Some items have an obvious range like the naughty/nice keys and crates.  We can confidently put those prices up, but until we get more pricing witnessed we are just going to let you all figure it out.  Some prices will start to trickle into the sheet tonight so keep your eyes peeled.  That is all.  Be merry.

Australian Christmas is here....

Team Fortress 2
- Australian Christmas has begun!
- Added community-contributed winter event items
- Added new Grordbort Pyro and Engineer item sets
- Added the "Valve Gift Grab 2011 – TF2" achievement
- Added Naughty and Nice winter keys to the Mann Co. store
- Added a new Valve-authored control point map: Foundry
- added 12 achievements for Foundry
- added achievement reward milestone reward for Foundry achievement
- Added UGC Highlander medals
- Relaxed some restrictions on what misc items can be equipped simultaneously
- Additional improvements for client stability
- Updated the localization files

Part 1 here.

Part 2 here.

Christmas update part 1 today/tonight...per wiki

As expected, pyro and engie get all the goods for this round.  Wiki has most of the information here, you can piece together the rest.

New Poll: Naughty & Nice...

New poll for drop day Wednesday....naughty and nice crates.  We don't know what Valve's up to exactly and that's what makes it fun, so let's get a sampling of what drops are happening out there in TF2 land.  Share what comes into your BP.  You can select multiple answers and change your answer as the week progresses.  Keep in mind this poll is for the drop week starting December 14th and ending December 21st.  That is all.

New TF2 blog post....more Christmas shenanigans...

Gotta love Valve.  Hell, they make boatloads of cash on TF2 but they deserve it!  They constantly put out content and don't rely on anything in the past to keep the game going.  Engie has some Australian Christmas revelations with pyro.  New pyro flamethrower looks clear.  Link here.

A good site to visit: Skial.com

There are lots of servers and trade forums.  One we came upon that we found by pure accident was skial.com and their trade server.  They have a strong international following so a trader can get a more worldly view of pricing, not just the US where a lot of us reside.   Interestingly their trading server map uses our little spreadsheet (although an older version but we're working on getting them updated!) as its background!  Pretty cool, you should check it out.  In your TF2 server search window look for "skial".

Also, check out their trade forums here.  We like the rule "only complain about an item's price once per thread".  Genius!

Official: key waiting period removed for recent purchasers

With a little digging and help from you we can say that keys are now officially tradeable upon purchase for anyone who made a recent purchase within 30 days.  However, as we already posted NEW accounts will have to wait until your credit card is verified or they catch you skimming cards.

Thanks to Sterling Peoples.  Link here.

Server vs. Forum pricing

One thing I'd like to comment on today is the occasional discrepancy between the prices for items on trade servers and the pricing on forums.  Often the in-game price for items will be further away from the market price in both directions than forums.   Why is this?  It's very simple really: on a trade server the motivation is to move items more in the moment and to a smaller audience.  Everyone streams to trade servers once new items are released and promos are unlocked.  This is the place to get high variance from market pricing.  Traders with 'hot' items will unload them to the impulse buyer.  Traders with 'not so hot' items will look to just sell them to craft or upgrade their items.

Posting to a forum works as a wait and see situation potentially to a larger audience.  There are many thousands of users who look at forums while away from their gaming pc/mac.  They aren't buying or selling on impulse most of the time and pricing will be closer to market.  New items can be pricy on forums but similarly to trading on a server there is a short window of time for this.

Carry on.

We screwed the pooch! (and site update)

To err is human, so they say.  And to put it simply we are embarrassed to not have caught the Spine Chilling Skull 2010 error on price.  While his name will remain nameless, someone (Alex) mistakenly put the 2011's price in for the 2010 hat (which was around a Bills hat or 6-7 keys at the time).  That said, we will remove the price for this hat temporarily until the market decides what the hat is worth again.  These hats trade slowly so it may be a bit until we re-update that price.

Thanks to several people for catching this: "Sterling Peoples" who contacted us directly and a few on the forums, "Traveler74", and "corporate tax" and "KingOfMars27" on SPUF.  Our apologies for the confusion and kudos to the smart traders who caught it.  We changed the label for the older version to include the year 2010 to make sure this doesn't happen again!

That said, we can announce some progress on our site update.  We expect to have work completed by mid-January.  Some long-awaited improvements are on their way, including better searching as well as other improvements.  We'll keep the major details under wraps until then but as we said it will address many of the concerns that we have heard from you.

New update, get crafting!

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed wearable gibs spawning outside of the map
• Fixed some missing strings for the Backwards Ballcap
• Updated these items so they can be crafted and traded:
  • The Dr. Whoa
  • The Dashin' Hashshashin
  • The Sharp Dresser
  • The Point and Shoot
  • The War Head
• Updated the localization files 

Undocumented changes

• Added Naughty & Nice Winter Crates. 

Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Added video options UI for Windows Vista / Windows 7 DirectX extensions. Disabling the extensions will increase memory usage, but can improve compatibility with video drivers.

Store price vs. TF2 trading price

TF2 trader Shadow brings up a good point, store prices vs. TF2 trading prices:

Shadow said...
"Dude there's a mistake there infernal impaler (clean) should be 7-8 refined and the dirty one 4-6 just like the aspector they are the same price on the store."

Sometimes when an item first enters the marketplace it is close to its store price (or if its a promo from a game, its game price).  However, this is NOT always the case.  Moreover, two items from the same promo or the same price at the store can have completely different demand on them. 

Case in point as Shadow brings up the Infernal Impaler and the Apparitions Aspect.  For whatever reason people seem to place more DEMAND on the Aspect.  Therefore a higher price can be asked for it.  It's not complicated but a lot of traders have trouble with this and sometimes its hard to rationalize.

Your eternal blog post

The new crates having been out a couple days and the marquee item is clearly the new strange Your Eternal Reward.  Not particularly surprising, as the "unique" or regular, dropped version is consistently one of those items people actually pay a scrap for (along with the Original, Huntsman, and whatever is new).  Also, Your Eternal Reward has been one of the best selling items in the store.  Maybe some of you spy gurus can shed some light on this for us.  Just de-cloak and jot down a few words.

More later.

Update to the update...new crates!

Team Fortress 2

• Added the Itsy Bitsy Spyer
• Added a "Buy Now" feature that allows item purchases on the web
• WebAPI changes:
  • Moved IEconAssets/GetAssetPrices to ISteamEconomy/GetAssetPrices
  • Added new web API ISteamEconomy/GetAssetClassInfo for getting descriptions of items

Undocumented Changes

• Added Mann Co. Supply Crate Series #33 and #34, and series #29 and #31 no longer drop. 
• Teddy Roosebelt and the Pocket Medic are now labelled as a "Pocket Buddy"

New update: Itsy bitsy spyer?

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Product Update - Valve

 

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

• Added the Itsy Bitsy Spyer
• Added a "Buy Now" feature that allows item purchases on the web
• WebAPI changes:
  • Moved IEconAssets/GetAssetPrices to ISteamEconomy/GetAssetPrices
  • Added new web API ISteamEconomy/GetAssetClassInfo for getting descriptions of items

I'm kind of a big deal in Redmond - New update!

Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Dramatically improved the dynamic model loading system's memory usage, performance, and stability
• Reduced memory usage on systems running Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
• Improved alt-tab handling under Windows Vista and Windows 7 

Admin: this will be welcome news to most windows users (99% of TF2 community).

PSA: don't give me your uncraftables

Just a word of warning to all those traders out in TF2 land: mouse-over all items in your trade window.  Many trades in our experience have people putting up "uncraftable" (ie. dirty) items on unsuspecting victims.  It's very common and easy to stop.  You just have to pay attention.  That is all.  Carry on.

Risers and fallers

The stock market has daily risers and fallers. It's an actual metric that is used to gauge the overall up or down direction of the market.  In TF2, it's not exactly the same but there are certainly items that rise and fall.  Newer items tend to start out strong and fall with time.  However that isn't always the case, as we see currently with Essential Accessories which are a continually popular item and have risen in price recently.

Other items of note are the Salvaged Crate #30 items.  There is a real sense of scarcity to the more popular of these strange items (Machina, Kritzkrieg) that even carries over to the Gunslinger.  Mackerel and Caber have a little bump, but there are still plenty of sellers at their respectively lower prices.  Crate #30 continues to be kept in short supply.

Keys are slowly becoming more available this weekend.  Many traders who bought at 2 refined and 2 reclaimed will not be thrilled to know that the high prices they paid will likely soon bring the price back to equilibrium.  Keys are starting (slowly) to sell again for 2.44 and 2.33 refined...although this is not the official price yet as the influx of keys could be temporary.

Newer genuine items from the Saints Row promo are now tradeable and sell as a set (mostly) for around Bills Hat in price.  This is considered a lower price for a set of new genuines so the game must have sold well or was considered cheap by buyers.  Football Manager items have a strong price range around buds for the set.   Trine 2 and Assassin's Creed items are not yet tradeable.  The heavy hat for Trine 2 is a love/hate item apparently.  Assasin's Creed items look to be popular, although they are only for the spy which will be interesting to see if they trade for high value.

The Halloween items have quieted considerably as it would be expected.  The prices for them will likely fall (if not already) and we will adjust as we see how they sell.  They are not a typical item being they are usable only 3 days about per month and on Halloween events.  Buy them on the cheap only is our suggestion.  ("scrap -" means a scrap maximum per item).

Happy Turkey Day!

To our US traders, happy Thanksgiving and don't forget to make some time for TF2 in between meals!  Everyone else in the world wondering what the heck Thanksgiving is, don't worry about it.  Carry on.

More patches, more items to keep you happy

Team Fortress 2

• Added new promo items^[1]
• Fixed some visual conflicts with the Dr. Whoa bowtie and other items
• Updated the Cold War Luchador, the Mark of the Saint, and the Apoco-Fists so they can be crafted and traded
• Updated the localization files

Undocumented Changes

• Made the Cold War Luchador, the Mark of the Saint, and the Apoco-Fists giftable

Notes

1. ↑ Dashin' Hashshashin, Sharp Dresser, Top Notch

Get your Level 7 Max Heads here (cheap!)

Hat duping?  Impossible you say!  Well, apparently not...link here.  Looks like the problem is already under control but just in case hold off on buying a Burning Tossel.

New update. Get your bowtie now.

Team Fortress 2

• Added the Dr. Whoa bowtie
• Added a new taunt for the Heavy when he's wearing the FrankenHeavy set
• WebAPI changes:
  • Fixed contained_item not always displaying in the web api results
  • Added a new API (IEconAssets_440/GetAssetPrices/v0001) for getting item prices
• Fixed set bonuses activating outside of the proper holiday for holiday restricted items
• Fixed the Loch-n-Load death notice icon not being displayed correctly

Quick tidbit on integrity

'Allo fellow TF2'ers.  Every once in a while we like to address things going on in the TF2 community.  Today is a busy one, as you can already read about the Genuine Purity Fist & Clean 2011 Skull post here.  However, it is also important to talk about some hearsay about our little spreadsheet and "price fixing".

While we have already discussed our methodology, we never thought our actual integrity was being questioned until some other competing websites started popping up looking curiously similar to ours.  Their creators were claiming that TF2 Spreadsheet (that's us) is corrupt!  With no evidence of course they go on to accuse us of price-fixing for our own gain, therefore their new price website is the white knight in shining armor coming to save the day!

Let us just say this: we would not have lasted as long nor be as often used a resource if people thought our prices were fixed.  All of our editors are active traders who submit their price reports and I, your humble Admin, compile them to one price for each item.  I personally do not trade for profit anymore.  My gains were made trading unusuals (we don't even offer prices on them) and regular items way back in the early months of 2011.  However, I am on trade servers and forums for several hours a day.  Yes I am probably watching you right now.

So when someone says something insane like we're fixing prices, and when they can't offer proof tell them to go and play Naughty Bear instead.

Genuine Purity Fist & Clean Spine-Chilling Skull 2011

Ok, traders there is some genuine controversy going around on a couple of items.  Let's address them one by one.

Genuine Purity Fist:  Apparently there are several (at least) hoarders of this item.  They have many of them in their respective backpacks.  Facepunch has the story here.  There were several SPUF threads however most have been deleted (not closed, per usual) by moderators.  Strange but conspiracy theorists we are not.  There remains a semi-informative SPUF thread here.  The bottom line: don't buy a genuine purity fist right now.  If you do, buy it on the cheap only.

Clean Spine-Chilling Skull 2011: As with Spine-Chilling Skull 2010, there is another "glitch" that made some of the 2011 versions craftable (note: the 2010 glitch made some of that year's version tradeable).  This is verified in the official wiki here.  The bottom line: this does appear to be a rarer item and a price-clarification is coming on both clean/dirty versions.  However, there appear to be many for sale right now at values all-over-the-map.  Until the market sorts out, we will watch and see.

Halloween Poll results

It looks like the pyro marketing scheme is working since you fell all over backwards for his (or her?) new hats.  Last Breath takes the pole position with an easy lap win over the rest.  Apparition's Aspect in second.  Idiot Box, Spine Chilling Skull 2011, and Holy Hunter take a close 3rd place.  The sarcastic poll stackers must have taken this week off since the Gibus and Monoculeus didn't even have a chance.  Here's to less sarcasm!

Apparition's Aspect	124 (12%)
Hair of the Dog	15 (1%)
Spine-Chilling Skull 2011	94 (9%)
Seal Mask	47 (4%)
Ghastlierest Gibus	37 (3%)
Infernal Impaler	50 (4%)
Under Cover	47 (4%)
Holy Hunter	93 (9%)
Einstein	27 (2%)
Buzz Killer	27 (2%)
Can Opener	4 (0%)
Spine-Twisting Skull	17 (1%)
Scottish Snarl	6 (0%)
Last Breath	199 (19%)
Blazing Bull	71 (6%)
Spine-Cooling Skull	6 (0%)
Wrap Battler	5 (0%)
Idiot Box	106 (10%)
Monoculus	31 (3%)
Spine-Tingling Skull	21 (2%)

Votes so far: 1027
Poll closed

New poll: tell us your favorite Halloween hat

Consider all the items Valve gave us this year for Halloween and tell us which hat is your favorite.  They really went all out as we predicted and you have to give a round of applause to Valve as they keep adding more and more content to this classic game.

For the poll regarding the costume sets, assume the hats are Haunted if that makes any difference.  Be as sarcastic (Monoculus) or snarky (Ghastlierest) as you like!

Site update.

We want to give you a progress report on a coming site upgrade.  While we will keep most details under wraps we want you to know that we take your suggestions seriously.  We get requests to share the google doc which we edit that fits in the blog.  We know some of you prefer it and want you all to know that we will change things from a UI perspective in our 2.0 version.  There are also iPad/Android and other mobile users who want an easier to manipulate sheet while you are on a beach somewhere or in line at the supermarket (hopefully not driving).  We take those opinions seriously and will address them with our coming revamp.  Stay tuned, TF2 traders.

Manniversary poll results

Well you did it again, TF2 Community.  You chose the sarcastic, snarky answer as your favorite Manniversary Update headwear!  Not really all that unbelievable since the choices are a bit underwhelming even in our opinion.  Birdcage is the clear runner-up.  If miscs had been included would you still love that damn paper hat?  We may never find out because Halloween blindsided us with an impressive update from the good ol' crew at Valve.

One-Man Army	145 (4%)
Your Worst Nightmare	221 (6%)
Counterfeit Billycock	204 (6%)
Outdoorsman	40 (1%)
Tavish DeGroot Experience	97 (2%)
Pencil Pusher	42 (1%)
Buccaneer's Bicorne	157 (4%)
Salty Dog	77 (2%)
Little Buddy	47 (1%)
Gym Rat	38 (1%)
Hot Dogger	67 (1%)
Birdcage	391 (11%)
Surgeon's Stahlhelm	248 (7%)
Backwards Ballcap	99 (2%)
L'Inspecteur	64 (1%)
Swagman's Swatter	38 (1%)
Flamboyant Flamenco	128 (3%)
Virtual Reality Headset	246 (7%)
Hat With No Name	137 (4%)
Hermes	163 (4%)
None, I prefer the free paper hat	709 (21%)

Votes so far: 3358
Poll closed

Boo. Halloween update is here.

  All new items listed and pictures available in this reddit thread here.
 

• Halloween 2011 Event
  • Viaduct has been haunted and is now... Eyeaduct!
  • One full multi-piece costume set has been added for each class
  • Random gifts containing costume pieces drop in Eyeaduct on registered servers
  • 2 new Halloween 2011 achievements
  • Any unusual hats uncrated during the event will be Halloween-themed
  • New Halloween-themed items are available in the Mann Co. store, but only for a limited time!
• Updated effects for The Cow Mangler 5000
• Updated in-game abuse reporting tool to include option for reporting abusive game servers
• Added mapcycle_halloween containing all Halloween event maps
• Fixed team colors and styles not updating properly in store previews
• Fixed bug in reputation trend status display for registered servers
• Fixed a problem that could cause repeated stutters after joining a server
• Fixed the Spine-Chilling Skull not appearing when equipped by soldiers
• New Halloween-themed community-created items submitted to the Workshop are now available in the Mann Co. store!

Undocumented changes

• All Ghastly Gibuses have been upgraded to Ghastlier Gibuses. Ghastlier Gibuses have been upgraded to the new Ghastlierest Gibuses.
• The Halloween 2010 Noisemakers have been made re-availaible in the MannCo Store
• Hitting the Horseless Headless Horsemann now plays a hitsound, as if you had hit a player.
• All hats that had Halloween restrictions can now be worn on an actual full moon. 

A good description by Problem on SPUF on how the new stuff works.

Devil pyro

This is why Valve rocks: halloween update coming soon.

PSA: Don't trust. Verify, verify, verify.

It has come to our attention here at TF2S that a well rehearsed scam going around whereby multiple scammers prey on an unsuspecting player to rip him/her off.  The game is called "Trust" ironically, and the scam involves a player claiming they are quitting TF2 and want to give away valuable items but only if they play the "Trust" game.  This involves other people in on the scam who supposedly also trust the "quitter" and give him items which the quitter then quickly trades back.  This goes around until the victim actually gives something valuable to the quitter and then the scammers all disappear.

Simon1123 on SPUF describes and documents the scam here.  Obviously with a game like TF2 where items translate to real money, use your best judgement.

The dirty discount

A lot has come from the bug recently where hats that were store bought (not usable in crafting) were then sold to unsuspecting buyers at "craftable hat" prices.  The bug is now fixed but essentially didn't show that a hat wasn't usable in crafting while trading in-game.  Don't be ashamed - it even fooled those of us who are supposed to know better (ahem, Jason).  These hats are considered "dirty", which has become a blanket term for anything marking a hat.  A "clean" hat is tradeable, usable in crafting and often also means there is no craft #.  Remember that an item with a craft # higher than 100 can only be seen in a backpack viewer.  A "dirty" hat is either untradeable (without giftwrap), or has gifted by text, or now is also not usable in crafting.  Hats that have craft #'s are also considered dirty by many, but when trading generic items with normal values it is often not mentioned.  It mostly has an effect on prices of higher-value items such as Team Captain or Cremator's Conscience.

There is a dirty discount associated with these hats.  Typically a reclaimed metal off the craft hat price.  Many of these hats now sell for around 2 reclaimed metals, which is about the right price in our minds as well.  The hat looks the same but you just can't craft with it.

New poll: Manniversary hats.

So there are a lot of new items Valve decided to release en-mass last week (also a lot of bugs that keep crashing the game, but hey, it's free right?).  We wanted to see first what people's favorite hat is of the new group.  Hats only this time, next go-around we'll do misc items.

Note: the errors in the poll were due to our intern's mistake.  He will be lambasted and ridiculed for them.  Sorry to the 23 who already voted, please make your choices again for real this time.

New update. We are all human yo-yos. Paper hat now usable in crafting again.

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

- Fixed a frequent server crash related to packfiles
- Fixed the following items not being able to be used in the Rebuild Headgear recipe: Lo-Fi Longwave, Loyalty Reward ("proof of purchase"), Spiral Sallet, Summer Shades, Scout Flip-Flops, Lucky No. 42, Summer Hat, Killer Exclusive, Ball-Kicking Boots, Merc's Pride Scarf, Manniversary Paper Hat 

 

(from Kaitostrike on SPUF) EDIT: A note to everyone; craftable does not necessarily mean you can get them out of a craft. It means you can craft two of them together into another hat.

Double EDIT: Crafting the untradable ones on this list will still result in an untradable hat.

Residual update. Fixes last update. Paper no longer craftable.

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Product Update - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2:
- The Mannniversary Sale has ended, though Manniversary Packages will continue to drop for a short time
- The Mannniversary Paper Hat is no longer craftable
- Removed the painterly filter option on Decal Tools
- Added loading screen tooltip about the new abuse reporting system
- Added a default key binding for filing an abuse report (F7)
- Fixed a common in-game client crash
- Fixed a client crash when opening the loadout screen
- Fixed a client crash related to sniper dots
- Fixed a server crash that occurred when running both SourceTV and Replay
- Fixed high five taunts applying the wielded weapon's taunt effect
- Fixed "Cannot Craft" text not appearing on certain item tooltips (VERIFY IN STEAM TRADING, DOES NOT APPEAR FIXED...TF2Spreadsheet)
- Updated localization files

Steam Workshop:

Trader's update

Ok, so a big update always brings a lot of excitement as well as confusion.

1. As always, we will refrain from posting any prices until there is a "consensus" we see in the market.  What does that mean?  Usually within a few days to a week there is a range that buyers and sellers come up with for each new item.  Some items clearly being more popular often have a wider range in value, as desperate buyers will overpay just to get their hands on one.  Other items that are not as hot will have a smaller range in values, as well as a lower value overall.  Don't you wish you had a backpack full of stethoscopes instead of crates?
2. With these updates there is always a mass crafting bonanza to get low craft #'s.  Note that this spreadsheet is designed for pricing on "generic" versions of items and with the craft #'s that means anything over #100.  There is no set price for crafted items under #100.  Anything in the single digits will command a high price, sometimes buds or higher depending on the item.  If it is a less-desirable item a craft # under 100 may get a refined or less premium on the listed price.
3. As many of you are aware, there is also a premium paid by some buyers for "clean" items that are dropped and not crafted.   This is a limited market, and is more prevalent for the premium items such as Team Captain (and Teddy/Pocket Medic when they were more popular).  You can always tell whether an item has a craft # by using a backpack viewer.  Don't take someone's word for it.
4. There is a glitch with in-game trading where hats that are not usable in crafting are not displaying that fact to the recipient.  This is a glitch with the recent update.  If you are buying "craft hats" then use Steam trading instead, where apparently an items usability in crafting is still detectable.  Don't do the "same hat for the same hat" trades, it could be a scam.
5. Crate #30 the "Salvaged" items crate appears to be rare as of now and is commanding a high price from anxious buyers.  This will likely change so if you are lucky enough to get one of these we suggest you sell it or unbox it now.
6. Halloween is fast approaching.  Don't forget Valve loves this holiday and will undoubtedly have something cool planned.

Strange favorites indeed

No huge surprises here.  The strange rocket launcher is still the new black.  Medigun holds its own.

Stickybomb launcher	289 (24%)
Jarate	268 (22%)
Rocket Launcher	373 (31%)
Medigun	313 (26%)
Sniper Rifle	304 (25%)
Knife	288 (24%)
Grenade Launcher	249 (20%)
Scattergun	298 (25%)
Wrench	115 (9%)
Axtinguisher	133 (11%)
Black Box	207 (17%)
Jag	159 (13%)
Backburner	148 (12%)
Minigun	245 (20%)
Shotgun	301 (25%)

Votes so far: 1192
Poll closed

New update. Steam Manniversary sale.

Here is info.  New hats and other items too!  Very big...


Team Fortress 2
Manniversary:
- Experimenting with a new store interface with a subset of players
- Added several dozen community items in celebration of the Manniversary
- Added loadout presets -- each class can now store four complete loadouts, including weapons and cosmetic items, and change between them with the press of a button.
- Added a new item type that can accept user-applied decals. Take any image off your hard drive, put it on a stick, and then smash people with it! (See the Decal Tool in the store!)
- Added new co-operative high five taunt
- Class select menu now shows the active loadout for each class
- Characters can now equip two misc-slot items at once
- Added a new in-game abuse-reporting system (see "Capture abuse report data" under "Miscellaneous" controls)
- Non-newly-released weapons in the store can now be tried out for free once per week! This will give you a fully-functional version of the weapon to be used in-game for no cost. If you decide you like it, you can purchase it for a discount during the trial period.
- All items purchased in the store can be used for crafting and can be traded after a few days
- Added a new startup music track from Meet The Medic
- Integrated with the new Steam Workshop to enable the publication and management of community contributed content

Maps:
- Added new community control point map Gullywash. Stamps are available in the store to support community map authors!
- Barnblitz is now available for offline practice
- Frontier: various geometry fixes
- Gorge/5Gorge: added team-specific func_nobuild brushes in elevated forward spawn areas

Replay:
- New camera shake functionality added for replays that are not sufficiently dramatic
- New slow-motion functionality added for replays where even camera shake does not provide sufficient drama
- Added support for recording voice chat into replays

Items:
- Pocket Medic can now be equipped by the Soldier in addition to the Heavy
- World Traveler's Hat and the Connoisseur's Cap are now paintable
- Bonk Boy and Foster's Facade are now misc slot items
- Fixed The Director's Vision not playing animations correctly for all classes in the loadout screen
- The Killer Exclusive is now paintable
- When sorting the backpack, otherwise-equivalent items will sort by strange weapon rank and crate series number if possible
- When selecting items from the loadout, weapons with different kill eater ranks will all show up
- Hat of Undeniable Wealth And Respect animations have been added. Really.
- LOD models added to several older cosmetic items

Response Rules:
- Reduced the chance of many response lines occurring
- Responses related to cart progress no longer play when disguised
- Players will now always call for a medic when low on health or when on fire when a medic is under the crosshair, whereas previously the character would ask the medic to follow them
- Named base items will no longer trigger responses that were supposed to be for new item variants
- Added additional Jarate hit responses
- Demoman:
- Added achievement award response
- Removed "I didn't need your help y'know" line if being healed by a Medic
- Saxxy kills will use the same lines as kills from the frying pan
- Taunting with The Pain Train or the Saxxy now plays the same taunt as the grenade launcher
- Added a taunt for The Ullapool Caber
- Engineer:
- Fixed a problem that caused him not to say thanks after exiting a teleporter
- Saxxy kills will use the same lines as kills from The Golden Wrench
- Added a previously unused golden wrench kill line
- Added an occasional response when swinging The Gunslinger
- Wrangler taunt now performs the pistol taunt animation
- Heavy:
- Added a previously unused fist swing line
- Medic:
- Added a line to the response that occurs when doing a battle cry while looking at an enemy while holding a melee weapon
- Taunting with a Saxxy plays the medigun taunt
- Taunting with the Solemn Vow or the Crusader's Crossbow now plays the same taunt as the syringe gun
- Scout:
- Removed the response when killing an enemy Scout or Pyro and moved the lines to the dominating Pyro/Scout response
- Added a rare response to double jumping after getting a recent kill
- Sniper:
- Reduced chattiness when getting many sequential kills
- Added a missing line to the scoped revenge response
- Taunting with a Saxxy no longer play lines that reference a knife
- Soldier:
- Added a line to the getting übercharged response
- Taunting with the Righteous Bison, Battalion's Backup, or the Saxxy now play the Buff Banner taunt

Bots:
- TFBots have a percentage chance of noticing weapon fire based on their difficulty level. Easy bots are fairly oblivious, and Expert bots notice pretty much everything.
- TFBots now treat certain weapon attacks as "quiet" (Spy knife, cloaking/uncloaking, some melee weapons, fists, etc). "Quiet" weapons can only be heard by TFBots when nearby, and their chance of being noticed is halved if the environment is "noisy" (ie., lots of non-quiet gunfire going on in the area). This greatly improves Spies ability to backstab TFBots without the entire team immediately turning on them.
- Spy bot improvements:
- Spy bots are much better about circling around and backstabbing their victims now
- Improved Spy bot target selection in some situations (ie: clusters of sentries and enemy players)
- Spy bots will give up on an attack and retreat if an enemy sentry gun aims at them
- Spy bots now avoid nearby enemies while disguised and/or cloaked so they don't bump into them and give themselves away
- Spy bots now have a simple notion of when their “cover is blown" now
- Spy bots lead their target's position as they chase them down for a backstab now
- Spy bots don't go after victims until setup time has elapsed
- Hard and Expert Spy bots avoid looking at their prey until they get close and go for the stab
- Easy Spy bots don't avoid enemies, or try to get behind before stabbing
- Normal Spy bots don't avoid enemies
- Fixed bug where Spy bots would jump against the enemy spawn gates during setup time
- Medic bot improvements:
- Medic bots stick much closer to running patients now
- Medic bots stick much closer to their patient if they have an Ubercharge ready, or are deploying their Uber
- Medic bots hide from Sentryguns now, too
- Pyro bot improvements:
- Pyro bots are less "pushy" with their compression blast, but will use it against Ubers and to get enemies off of a capture point

Other:
- Razer Hydra support can be enabled via "sixense_enabled 1" in the console. See http://sixense.com/tf2 for details.
- Added "tf_allow_taunt_switch". Set to 0 for disallowed (default behavior), 1 for old bug behavior, or 2 to allow weapon switching any time during the taunt.
- Screenshots can now be hooked up to the Steam Community automatically. There is a new option to control this under "Miscellaneous" in the Advanced Options page.
- Fixed gold ragdolls playing custom death animations when they should be locked in a pose
- Fixed Buffalo Steak Sandvich not having a cooldown if the Heavy is at full health.
- Fixed touching a cabinet while under the effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich removing the mini-crits but not removing the melee weapon restriction
- Fixed particle effects not showing up on spy disguise items
- Fixed spies never using genuine, community, or self-made items as disguise weapons
- Fixed demoman weapons primary/secondary being backwards in the loadout screen
- Fixed effects on Sticky Jumper grenades
- Fixed net_graph not updating server framerate when FPS is greater than 1000
- Fixed game servers not being able to execute the retry command
- Renamed tf_show_voice_icons to mp_show_voice_icons
- Updated the localization files

Undocumented changes

• Added promotional items for Football Manager 2012.  ($39.99 pre-order)

1. The Merc's Pride Scarf can be worn by each class.
2. The Ball-Kicking Boots are available for the Scout and spawn a team-colored ball that everyone can play with.
3. Vuvuzela Noise maker.

• Added crate #30 & #31
• The Reserve Shooter can now be equipped by the Pyro. 
• The Widowmaker now takes 30 metal per shot, down from 60.
• Moved the Noh Mercy, Large Luchadore and the Sniper's Snipin' Glass to the Misc slot
• Updated class images on the main menu to be wearing cosmetic items
• Added Misc-slot Flair!, Photo Badge and Clan Pride items supporting Decal Tool
• Added new bot names.
• Shortstop reload slowed down by 50%
• Small health kits now heal 20% of a class' health (previously 20.5%)
• Action slot taunt previews on the loadout screen now play sound.
• Added a tone when a Dead Ringer cloak is fully recharged.
• Summer Shades and Professor Speks now fall off the ragdoll at death.
• Fixed some all-class hats shown duplicated in incorrect positions in the loadout menu.
• The loadout screen now shows the proper team colors of the team the player is currently on.
• The public IP is now displayed in the console when creating a local server, and the output for the exec command has been altered.
• Strange weapon upgrade notifications no longer appear as a toast popup on screen.

New poll, all about stranges

What will Valve do next?  We already saw that crate #29 was the first all-class crate of the strange variety so what will they come up with next time?  They had established a "3 crate, one class each" structure then threw that under the bus.  Are they going to eventually release all the weapons in strange varieties or are we going to see a set group?  They always do something unexpected so there is no telling.  Our best guess here at TF2S is that they have up to crate #31 with the all-class structure then there is an update that moves on from the strange weapons for the short-term.  Share your thoughts here.

Name your price or else...

Our latest poll brought up the subject of trading etiquette.  Many times traders will say they have something available and refuse to tell you what they want for it.  Sometimes it means they have no idea what its worth.  Sometimes they are playing a game where the person to name the price is either the fool because he/she offered too much OR more likely rejected/ignored because the offer isn't what the seller has in mind.  Our traders think "its annoying" more than "smart trading"... When someone is selling something and they tell you to "Offer" for it.

Annoying, they should just ask for what they want.	262 (54%)
Good trading, whoever says a price first is at a disadvantage.	179 (36%)
It doesn't matter to me	44 (9%)

Votes so far: 485
Poll closed

Steam group hacked

The Steam group that directs people to the spreadsheet was hacked, giving permissions to everyone and of course once that happened much spam and nonsense occurred.   We assure you that while the group has our name, we are not responsible for this group nor are we admins though would surely have scolded any of those souls who hacked it.  In any event, you can leave the old group and join the new one (thanks Beverage) by using our link below or keywords TF2CPG.  Carry on.

The magic number was 2479.

Congratulations to Regen V.W. who found a little surprise in their email box!  They are the winner of Bills hat painted Value of Teamwork.  Congratulations to them and thanks again for making this site a success with your visits and feedback. 

More contests to come!

Contest closed.

Numbers are in.  No more emails please.  Wow there are a lot of emails.  We will now let the random number generator choose the winner and notify them.  We will tell you all the prize and who won it soon thereafter. 

New way to win the half-millionth hit prize!

As a good samaritan wrote to inform us, that an unscrupulous person may (although we don't want to believe it) use a program like FireBug to live edit the site code and thus win the prize through cheating.  Our editors are shocked and horrified at the accusation.  Nonetheless, we defer to people who actually know how to cheat to tell us how its done.

So, a change of plans.  We will do choose a winner for the prize the old-fashioned way: an online random number generator (such as this one).  Once the hit # 500,000 is registered, we will have a new post.  You will follow the instructions there and we will choose the closest one to our random number.  Then we will "crown" the winner.

Sorry for the about-face but we want someone to win the prize fairly!

Thank you TF2 Community! Over 440,000 hits in 1 month!

We would just like to thank everyone for visiting our little spreadsheet and putting your faith in us to bring you up-to-date and accurate information on the TF2 trading world.  You have been hitting on us like Ron Jeremy at a Swedish Bikini Team meeting!

Update: the prize has been chosen and acquired.  You will want to win this prize.  That is all.  Be well.

Steam trading verdict is in

What do you think of Steam trading?   It's a great idea	306 (90%)
It's a passing fad	25 (7%)
WTH is Steam trading?	6 (1%)

Votes so far: 337
Poll closed

Pilotka and Stahlhelm now craftable

New update just released.

From TF2 wikipedia:

Patch notes

Team Fortress 2

• Updated the Pilotka so it can be crafted, traded, and gift-wrapped
• Updated the Stahlhelm so it can be crafted, traded, and gift-wrapped
• Updated the physics for the Sticky Jumper projectiles so they behave like regular sticky bombs

Undocumented changes

• Added Mann Co. Supply Crate Series #29.
• Strange Razorbacks now have a "Spies Shocked" attribute.
• Strange Eyelanders now have a "Heads Taken" attribute.
• Added Sun-on-a-Stick, Sharpened Volcano Fragment, Three-Rune Blade, and Maul to the drop system.

Exclusive and killer!

PC Gamer is offering a free hat code with the purchase of their new issue come Sept. 29th.  UK issues will have the code, while it is unclear if US/North America will have it.

Steam Forum discussion here.

New item percentages

In updating the TF2items hat and item percentages, you may notice that most of the items percentages have dropped by approximately half.  For example, Bills hat which was in around 20% of the backpacks is now at around 11%.  What gives, you say?  Well, as we've said before TF2items (and thus, we all are) is dependent on Valve for whatever data they give out.  The percentage drop is likely due to the influx of new players, and it would seem that the number of current players has nearly doubled since all percentages of items has been effectively cut in half.  This is reinforced by the Ghastlier Gibus percentages - cut in half also signifying that more than half of the active player base was not playing Halloween of 2010.

Of note, you will recall we ran a poll asking which stats you would prefer: percentage of items or estimated # of items.  We have gone through our channels and Valve will not give us the actual # of active TF2 players.  Sooooo...we are "stuck" with the better statistic which is percentage of items.  I know many of you really liked estimated #, however it is a severely flawed number and even moreso now that TF2items data from Valve keeps getting more limited.  If the number of players is ever released we will re-calculate an estimated # of items.

That said, if you think there are any other metrics that effect value and price that we should show in our little spreadsheet: let us know.  That is all.  Be well.

Portal is free (for today at least)

Steam has Portal for free, get it if you haven't played it yet.

Link

Trading patience is a virtue

Sometimes we get feedback regarding prices and how long it takes to unload an item.  Sometimes players claim that since it takes a long time to sell something then our prices must be wrong.  Wrong!  We are very capable of making mistakes.  However, in TF2 trading land there are a lot of choices and beyond the always hot Team Captains and Bills some items we don't want tend to sit a long time in our backpacks waiting for a home.

Take for example Genuine Volcano Fragment.  This was a hot property when Rift first came out and all the controversy about it being tradeable before the game's release.  Now, it takes a loooong time to sell one.  Does that mean it's value has gone down?  To some extent yes, but that's not the only answer.  It can take several days to a week to sell one at "full" price (currently between 2 and 3 refined).  The reason is simple: because there are more (genuine) items available spreading demand out.  So if you have one you need to spread the word out that it's for sale.  That means trading servers during peak times (Thurs-Sun), reddit tf2 forums, Steam TF2 trading forums, Source Op item trading forums, and tf2tp.com.  Start a new thread, keep it simple and post a link to your profile so people can easily add you.

When you've exhausted all avenues to sell an item then lower your price.

New update....

277 Mb, so its big.  El Jefe and Mask of the Shaman now craftable.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2122243

Unusually crafty

While we don't focus on unusuals here at TF2S since their values are all over the map, we do appreciate their glory and splendor.  Here is a site that allows you to search individually for different effects and shows you who has them.  Also searchable are crafted # hats.  Who has Team Captain #1?  Just look it up!  Another cool feature is that they have a hat rating system, that many TF2ers have voted for their favorites.  Think the Madame Dixie is the best hat ever?  See if your fellow players agree with you.

Link here.  You will have to login through Steam to search the database, but don't worry its safe.

Trading with Steam: the birth of a movement?

As many of you are aware, the new Steam trading feature is out of beta and now officially live.  It allows you to trade TF2 items with other Steam games or other items within Steam games (for now Portal 2 and Spiral Knights).  Valve plans to add more games and inventories to this list and make this an ongoing feature for new games.  Steam trading FAQ here.

Seeing the success of TF2 customization and item trading, this is one of those moments where everything is new and the possibilities are limitless.  It could end with a fizzle as many seemingly great ideas do.  Or it could be one of those must-have pieces that developers incorporate into their upcoming games.  Some games will allow themselves to item trading such as role-playing games, while others like sports games may spawn their own new content as their trading currency.  Perhaps an NFL game will have throwback jerseys, or a Premier League (that's soccer to all you scratching your heads) team will have fan chants...the possibilities are limitless.

Steam Gameplay Statistics

In follow-up to the Steam Hardware and Software survey, this is a page we like to look at that shows gameplay and player statistics for Steam games (link here).  There are currently around 66,000 players in-game playing Team Fortress 2 right now.  Pretty remarkable for a "vintage" game like TF2.  It speaks to the game's longevity and Valve's continuous-improvement ideals.  You rock TF2.

Key pricing stabilizing

Over the past month to two months the price of keys has been moving towards equilibrium.  There are a few reasons but perhaps the best answer as to why is the underground resale price being around $2 per key.  If you can buy a key legitimately and risk-free for $2.49 and use it right away (although trading requires the 2 day waiting period) then buying one on the black market (more risk) should cost less, just as it does.

Although that does not explain the seemingly "settled" price of around $2 per key.  Our best estimate is that keys are tied to refined metal in a 2:1 ratio in people's heads now (as are buds/bills).  The price has to be near the official price but why not $2.25 or closer?  The market has decided that for now the risk of buying a black market key is about $0.50 per key, that's it.  If there was no waiting period, the value of an illicit key would be less as it was when there was no waiting period (remember those $1.65 key days on source op?).

More recently, the variance in the refined:key ratio has been getting narrower as well.  The buy for 2 refined or sale for 2.33 refined are not unheard of but most often keys trade for 2.11 or 2.22 refined now.  That is an efficient market and the sign the influx of the F2P players have made their mark.  Some people complained about the new players, I say bring them on.  They have reinvigorated the TF2 item market.  With so many buyers and sellers keys trade at a more pinpointed price.

Additional thoughts welcome.

Steam Survey Results

See what the Joneses have...
 
Steam Hardware & Software Survey Results

Bills and Buds are keys to the game...

Here at TF2S we listen to the people.  Trading a bills or buds for refined is possible and does happen, but by far the transaction that most often occurs is for keys.  The people want keys.  We give them keys.

There are 41 of you snarky people out there who want them listed as weapons too!  Unbelievable!

Yes, that's how they trade anyways.	393 (47%)
No, keep it in refined.	288 (34%)
Change it to # of weapons instead.	41 (4%)
I really don't care.	102 (12%)

Votes so far: 824
Poll closed

New poll

Speaks for itself.  We all hate converting Bill/Buds to refined and noone trades them that way anyways (even though they can trade more than 8 items rather easily with the new Steam trading beta).  And since we started putting Max/HOUWAR/Medals in terms of buds why not switch to keys?  Your opinion counts.  Let us know.  Be well.