Google

Read the new book all about Team Fortress 2 trading and the TF2 Spreadsheet.

Friday, February 24, 2012

A note on "Old" vintage weapons

There is some confusion surrounding pricing of older vintage weapons.  Some of you may not have been into gaming and/or trading TF2 since it first started around Fall of 2010.  The original group of vintage weapons/hats/miscs has been around since that time, anything obtained prior was made vintage quality.  There was a second group of vintages from the Australian Christmas weapons where Valve lowered crafting recipe costs and made all the previously crafted versions vintage quality (as well as Shogun 2 and RIFT weapons).

The first group of vintage weapons, known as the "old" vintage weapons are fairly common.  The only exception being Vintage Crit-a-Cola which sold for and continues to hold its value at around 1 refined each.  There were some other weapons that were slightly more rare (but none near V. Crit-a-cola's rarity) like the V. Dalokohs, V. Skullcutter, V. Southern Hospitality, and V. Pain Train but generally these items have sold for a standard 1-2 scrap each.  And then there is the ever-popular V. Huntsman but this item is not rare.

Now we see some industrious people with outlandish prices for V. Bonk, V. Dead Ringer and others.  You are welcome to pay whatever you want for these items but they are not rare.  If you shop around you will easily find these items in the 1 reclaimed metal range.  The point is don't go into debt over items that can be easily picked up on the cheap.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

New update, more new items and crate #39 (updated)

Team Fortress 2 (~169 Mb)

  • Added The Fast Learner
  • Fixed +randommap not working correctly on server startup
  • Fixed some instances of corrupted text when the save_replay key isn't bound
  • Fixed dedicated server console spew related to the Replay client and viewangles
  • Fixed a spelling error in a cp_fastlane material
  • Fixed team colors not working correctly for the second style of the Black Rose
  • Fixed Mann Co. Store item previews for paints and styles
  • Updated item descriptions to contain the name of the paint used to color them
  • Updated the Reggaelator
    • Added an LOD model
    • Added 3 styles
  • Updated cp_dustbowl
    • Adjusted Blue team's func_respawnroom in stage 1 to be flush against the door
  • 언어 파일 업데이트[1]

Notes

  1. Korean for "Updated localization files"
  2. Added A Mann's Mint and After Eight paints.
  3. Added Mann Co. Supply Crate Series 39 and removed Series 34

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Trading working again

...

Steam Trading down & Poll results

There is nothing more anti-capitalist than when you can't trade items at all!  Currently Steam trading is not in good health and has been experiencing issues since yesterday afternoon.  As far as we know there is no official word on what is going on or when things will be back online.  We'll keep an eye on it.

And that segues to the poll results: you resoundingly hate steam trading!  Sure there's 15% of you who thing its the cat's meow but a staggering 79% of you hate it.  All across TF2 land there are calls to bring back the old system.  The current steam trading issues don't help either!  And then there's the confused 4% of you, who likely also love your Bombinomicons and Paper hats and any other snarky answer we have on the polls.  Keep on rocking, we love you all too.

Genius!
  573 (15%)
Fail!
  2947 (79%)
What's trading?
  172 (4%)

Votes so far: 3692
Poll closed

Thursday, February 16, 2012

New update...

Team Fortress 2

  • Fixed playing incorrect sounds for The Overdose
  • Fixed a broken Engineer animation for The Pomson 6000
  • Fixed Steam inventory/trading not showing the correct item level for some items
  • Fixed Steam inventory/trading sort order not matching the in-game backpack
  • Fixed the new styles for The Brown Bomber not using team colors
  • Fixed some clipping issues with the Warrior's Spirit[1]
  • Updated pl_hoodoo_final
    • Removed door frame collision to resolve bots getting stuck in the cave during stage 2

Notes

  1. This change was added from a Steam Workshop submission [1]

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

New poll: steam trading for everyone!

The one constant in gaming is that things never stay the same.  Valve has decided to get rid of the old in-game trading system in favor of the Steam trading popup window.  Gone is the 8 item limitation and having to add someone if you want to do any trade beyond the average.  It's a plus now you don't have to add someone you're going to delete two seconds later.   It's also a shortcut if you want a steam coupon or Spiral Knights items (does anyone?) or Skyrim.

Then there's the downside.  It's painfully slow, timeouts and errors often occur, and your backpack is completely unrecognizable.  To make it worse there's the random trades which are even more annoying when you have to wait to find out someone wants to sell you a non-craftable batters helm (we believe the same dirty batters is making its way around the planet).

So vote on it and tell us your opinion.  To the right.  That is all.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

New update, Genuines now tradeable...and more

Team Fortress 2


New blog post here.  Have a spare $99 to spend on your valentine?

Statement from Gabe on steam hacking

Most who use Steam for gaming probably saw Gabe's official, legal department-passed response to the hacking investigation last fall.  They are still working with law enforcement to put the issue to bed.  You can read it all here.  In short, hackers got people's encrypted credit card information for transactions from 2004-2008.  So if you're like us and your credit card is renewed every year it's probably ok.  But keep an eye on your credit card transactions just in case.

Interestingly, there was an audio recording released by the group "Anonymous" of a FBI conference call where they actually were talking about an individual involved in the case.   It's on Youtube, rather boring too and doesn't release any top-secret stuff.  But overall its interesting to see how seriously they take it and how young often the perpetrators are.

Monday, February 13, 2012

To Craft or to Uncraftable. That is the question.

A question from MrDrPsychopath came in that we want to address:

"Hey, I have a question. Could you guys release more information on noncraftable stuff. I am really lost without you guy's prices, so not having noncrafts there makes me a bit lost sometimes. Also, having a guide that explains how paints effect the prices. I know how paints work on Bill's, but that's about it. Cause I have a noncraft mutton chops and a noncraft stereoscopic shades, and I have no idea what to sell them for."

As far as the sheet goes we will look into adding more of the noncraftable (dirty) prices.  In general most items that are noncraftable or dirty sell for about half of their clean counterparts.   Why?  It's mostly due to cosmetics especially for higher value items that aren't likely to be crafted.  Where craft hats are concerned it changes slightly.  Most dirty hats sell between 1 and 2 reclaimed.  For example, a Dead Cone craftable hat will often go for 1.33 refined.  However its dirty version will trade for 1 reclaimed (1/4 the price) because it is not a desirable hat.    This disparity is likely due to the function of hat crafting and not on the cosmetic value.

Someone mentioned crafting non-craftable hats in order to try and get a higher value non-craftable hat for a profit.  Our response to this is, whatever makes you happy but you aren't going to pay off your student loans with that strategy.

With paints, when you know how a painted Bills hat affects value then you pretty much know everything you need to.  Most hats with a nice paint don't influence the price in direct proportion to the cost of the paint unless its a Bills.  Cheap hats will not increase in value much if at all when painted, even a "premium" paint.  White paint on a Flipped Trilby is not seen as a 2 key bonus to the price (in fact it puts into question the sanity of the one who painted it white).  There is typically no change in the price at all unless the buyer really wants that paint.

There are some exceptions like Essential Accessories which when painted are often sold for more than unpainted versions.  Some medic hats are preferably white, such as the Tyrolean, but again like the Scout socks this will not inflate the price by that of the paint which is currently around 2 keys.  Generally speaking if you want a particular hat and it has a nice paint on it that you like you may willing to pay more for it, in proportion to the cost of the hat itself.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Dr. Grordbert wants your vote

The Dr. Grordbert items have been popular with TF2 gamers.  So popular that they are asking for you to vote on your next favorite one.  They have two new sets, one for the scout and the other for the medic.  Details are here.  You can then go over to your Steam client and look for the Steam Workshop and click on the "Browse the Workshop" button.

Speaking of the workshop, there are some really great community-created items there.  We especially like "The Problem Solver", "A Color to Dye For", the "Raven", "Jaws of Steel" and the "Persistent Patriot".  All great items submitted by you!  Keep up the great work and TF2 will be fun to play for a long time.  You don't have to go to a gaming college or be a programmer to submit them either.  Valve will even give you a split of the Store's sales of your item if it makes the cut!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

New update

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

February 9, 2012 - TF2 Team

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

Undocumented changes

    Wednesday, February 8, 2012

    PSA: Unorganized raffles are like radioactivity...

    Stay far away!  There is a trend on trade servers for gamers to hold impromptu, unorganized raffles of random items.  Often the raffle holder will have a small buy-in with the chance to win a valuable item.  This item could be a hat or a bills.  The chance of getting something valuable for a little risk encourages many to take the plunge and give away their metal or worse.  Of course there is no guarantee that the raffle holder will pay out said item.  If he or she does it may be to a friend to give the appearance of being legit.  Then there is the buy-in, often described as "slots" remaining and so forth.  Here also, there is no guarantee that once said slots are filled with buy-ins that the raffle holder stops taking more.

    Stick to official raffles, held by reputable groups with real presences such as actual servers, sites and admins who are more public.  Even here things can be sketchy.  Spy-crabbing is also another game of chance, make sure to use a middleman for any spy-crab for anything substantial.  The only true official raffle are crates of course.  Any way you do it, use your noodle.

    That is all.  Be well.  Have a good drop night.

    Sunday, February 5, 2012

    Your favorite Badge/Pin is....

    Surprisingly the favorite badge or pin of TF2 traders is: The Genuine Companion Cube Pin.  Possibly the most widely available and signifying that someone bought Portal 2 pre-order for a good amount of cash, the Cube is the clear winner.  The License to Maim from Poker Night comes in second place, and the Soldier Medals and Bombinomicon tie at 3rd place.  Flair with an honorable mention in 4th place (I can see the Office Space rentals on Netflix getting queued up!)

    Most unloved?  Dr. Grordbert's Copper Crest at a measly 7 votes.   It cost the same as the Silver Crest and was available for the same amount of time and the only real difference being the name and color.  But as we see so often in the TF2 economy, gamers value things with similar consistency to real life: silver being slightly more popular.  Although let's be honest the crests were a somewhat awkward store item and had seemingly little interest from the community.

    That is all.  Carry on.

    Companion Cube
      502 (28%)
    Resurrection Associate
      33 (1%)
    Spacechem
      105 (6%)
    Dr. Grordbert's Crest
      14 (0%)
    Dr. Grordbert's Copper Crest
      7 (0%)
    Dr. Grordbert's Silver Crest
      16 (0%)
    Mark of the Saint
      153 (8%)
    Flair
      181 (10%)
    Photo
      40 (2%)
    Soldier Medal
      193 (11%)
    Clan Pride
      93 (5%)
    License to Maim
      221 (12%)
    Bombinomicon
      192 (10%)

    Votes so far: 1750

    Thursday, February 2, 2012

    New update, more promos and a new crate people!

    Team Fortress 2

    Undocumented changes

    Wednesday, February 1, 2012

    TF2 Spreadsheet Steam Group

    We just want to give a shout-out to our friends ZombieK and Beverage at the TF2 Spreadsheet Steam Group.  They maintain the group of over 800 gamers and are all around good people.  They also successfully worked around last summer's "ponies" and "trolls" take-over of the old steam group (when someone gave admin privileges to all gaming group members - a real mess, don't try it at home).  Drop them a comment or thanks over at the Steam group here.