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.

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. 
• Crate 39

• Loch-n-Load
  Overdose
  Knife
  A Mann's Mint
  After Eight
  Salty Dog
  Bloke's Bucket Hat

   

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

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]

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.

New update, Genuines now tradeable...and more

Team Fortress 2

• Added Something Special For Someone Special
• Added The Snapped Pupil
• Added Black Rose for the spy.
• Updated the Heavy's sandvich so it will only resupply ammo if the owner picks it up after dropping it. This means the only way to gain health from the sandvich is by eating it.
• Fixed the Red/Blue team skins not working on the Bonk Boy with the new styles
• Updated the in-game trading system to use the Steam trading menus
• Updated these items so they can be traded and crafted:
  • The Warsworn Helmet
  • The Bolgan
  • The Bolgan Family Crest
  • The Merc Medal
  • The Battle Bob
  • The Bushman's Boonie
• Updated cp_gravelpit
  • Fixed z-fighting on the fan in the Red spawn building
  • Fixed Red Engineers building inside their spawn room
• Hcqngrq gur ybpnyvmngvba svyrf "Updated the locatization files"

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.