Comments on: An Economy Of Hats.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:54:27 +0000

It’s December 2022 and here’s where things stand:
- Earbuds are no longer used as currency, only keys and refined metal (ref).
- Keys are still 2.49 USD/1.99 GBP, and worth 71 ref each. The increasing supply of metal from scrapping random drops has caused the economy to inflate, with craft hats being worth 1.66 ref.
- Hats previously used as currency initially dropped in value, but inflation is bringing them back up. For example, earbuds were worth ~3 keys/5 USD in 2020, but spiked in Feb 2022 to 9.31 keys/15.87 USD and are currently 6 keys/10.22 USD. The BMOC peaked in Nov 2021 at 12.59 keys/21.45 USD, then dropped a bit and now is at a high of 14 keys/23.21 USD. Max’s Severed Head was going for 60–70 USD in mid-2021, but in 2022 the price has been a pretty constant 50–60 USD (~25 keys).
- The random drop system has been updated to prevent idling, which has helped but hasn’t stopped the metal inflation.
- Aside from the yearly summer, halloween, and winter content packs, the last major update was Jungle Inferno, released Oct 17th, 2017.
- #savetf2 went pretty well, considering Valve only keeps this game around to milk the community workshop thrice a year. The movement was in May, and some cheats and exploits were fixed, as well as vote kicking made much easier. Bots still exist but they’re more of an inconvenience instead of game-breaking, at least in the US.

Sources: backpack.tf

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 16:13:49 +0000

It’s February 2016 and here’s where things stand:

-Only three currencies remain: Metal, earbuds, and, of course, keys. Bill’s Hat, the BMOC, etc., are no longer used as currency.
-Keys are still fixed at $2.49 in the US (£1.99 in the UK), and this shows no sign of changing.
-One piece of refined metal is currently worth roughly ¹/₁₉ of a key, and one pair of earbuds is currently worth roughly 2³/₄ keys.
-The random item dropping system has been expanded upon with the introduction of “contracts,” small missions given out by Valve to players who paid a few dollars for a “contract ticket,” which are sold for a limited period of time every other major update or so. The contracts can give you fancy-looking versions of default weapons, some of which are more valuable than others.
-Steam’s new requirement for mobile authentication is slowly killing small, low-value, peer-to-peer trades.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 18:24:23 +0000

Awesome peace of text man

By: Daniel Jensen

Daniel Jensen — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 03:41:05 +0000

I as a TF2 trader, thank you for publishing this, I hope this article opens up the world to the fact that TF2 traders aren’t crazy people with a hat fetish, more like businessmen who buy and sell hats like stocks.

By: Quwbi

Quwbi — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 01:17:02 +0000

I personally luv tf2 trading and it is addicting, I enjoy because I can feel like I lov what I have and I can be rich in a game I love it’s an escape from the real world

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:21:59 +0000

Really? My experience of the Steam sales gave me the impression that coupons were worse than sale prices, giving you a smaller discount and a time limit in which to use them. You should have at least held out for a copy of Bad Rats.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:19:51 +0000

Because I have a pathological dislike of Facebook in particular. Still, if I’m going to do this blogging thing properly I *suppose* I should start responding to the wants of others. The Facebook button is now added.

By: innokenti

innokenti — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:09:04 +0000

In the meantime copy-pasting links will just have to do…

By: Masked Dave

Masked Dave — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:54:57 +0000

How come you don’t have a “Share on Facebook” button? If you did, I would have shared this by now.

By: Masked Dave

Masked Dave — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:47:00 +0000

I had a similar experience with a stranger friend requesting me. It was a teenage girl on a quest to “own all the hats” in TF2 and she was willing to trade me Steam Store money off coupons for them. And not petty cash either. I forget what I settled on in the end but she was more than happy to throw them at me. I couldn’t believe it at the time but it makes sense now!

Very good article.