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

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.