One of the big things new unusual traders new help with is pricing unusuals. Why not just use backpack.tf you say? While backpack.tf is mostly correct on lower tier unusuals 1-2 buds I would say. It is sometimes quite off on them. There are many reasons for that such as outdated pricing.
How I Price Unusuals:
1. First I take a look if the price is outdated or not. You can tell by an exclamation mark in a red triangle next to the price.
If it is fairly recent, I will look at the suggestion of the price that was accepted and look at those outpost trades.
Three Most Things I take Account in When Looking at Outpost Thread.
1. How long has this been sale for and the offers it's been getting?
If it has sold you want to see how long did it take to sell and at what price it sold for. If the item is priced at 4 buds and its only been getting 2-2.5 bud offers for around 1-2 month now. Then that's a caution sign its not worth that much or the price is outdated.
If it is getting no offers in a few months then that's a big sign that unusual is very hard to sell. And you might want to stray away from it.
Its fine if the item has been up for one or two months and is getting offers close to what you think it is worth. If the unusual is outdated just use the offers to guide what you price it as, but make sure not to count low balls. Look at the sellers B/O but do not take it as the price rather as a guideline. Some owners tend to have crazy B/Os which you can tell quickly but if you think there B/O is reasonable and is getting offers close to it , B/O might be close to where its worth.
Look at the C/O (Current Offers) too. Although sometimes people fake C/O, use your best judgement on them. If the unusual is 7 buds and there getting 6.5/6 offers then you could value the unusual around 7 but if it is only worth 7 and getting 16 in unusual offers its probably fake.
2. The price of similar effects.
If the unusual price is rather outdated or unpriced look at a similar effect and see what offers its getting.
Example: Making These Up
Scorching Ellis Cap is unpriced.
Burning Ellis Cap is getting offers around the 5 bud mark.
I would price the Scorching Ellis Cap at around 4.5 since Scorching is right below Burning in terms of pricing.
NOTE: At higher tier hats like the difference between Burning and Scorching like a Team Captain the price between burning and scorching can be a few hundred buds or just one bud like the private eye. You have to be weary of that and around the 6 + bud mark the differentiation could be commonly a + 1 bud difference compared to something like a lower tier hat like the Blokes Bucket Hat where Scorching and Burning are practically the same.
Lets take an example:
A Cloudy Moon Frontline Runner is priced at six buds and has been getting offers around that.
An Unpriced Harvest Moon Frontline Runner is probably around 5 buds due to Cloudy Moon being a higher tier effect.
If there is no similar effects just look at genreal effect tiers. An example is Sunbeams Frontline Runner lets say goes for four buds. Scorching is generally higher than Sunbeams so I would price it at 5. If you are unsure its best to ask around on other peoples opinion.
Just look at tiers if a Green Energy hat is lower priced than a Purple Fetti same hat. Then one of them is obviously outdated because Green Energy is a much higher tier effect than Purple Fetti.
Another example is looking at effect generations. Usually Morning Glory is higher than Frostbite so if that is true. The morning glory hat is probably higher than the Frostbite one.
3. The Hat and Effect
1st off, the class dosen't always effect how fast the unusual can be sold but genreally it is
All Class is the easiest > Then Soldier > Comp Classes ( Scout, Medic , Demo) > Pyro and Sniper > Arguably Spy because it is usually cloaked for a long time > Heavy and Engineer.
I would say the hat matters more if you are trying to sell an unusual. A team captain nuts and bolts is way easier than a cancerous robot hat with burning flames. The reason is that nobody wants that crappy hat even if it has a good effect. People rather have a multiclass higher tier hat with a lower tier effect.
Robo Hats: An example of Robo Hats is a Cyborg Stunt Helm which is a copy of Sober Stuntman but as a robo hat. I don't know why but people hate Robo hats. I had a Time Warp robohat once which was probably worth around 4 but just because it was Robo I barley got offers over 2 buds in one month of constant outpost bumping and server trading. People treat Robos as knock off as other hats and tend to stray far away from them. For that reason Robo hats are a lot cheaper and a lot lot harder to sell MOST of the time. Not always, a Anti Freeze - Modest Pile of Scrap would be a lot more easier due to its higher tier effect and it is an all class hat that doesn't look that horrid compared to a Scorching Plumbers Pipe. A knock off an already low tier hat.
Note: The sellibility of Robos is not always hard but in genreal it a lot harder than regular hats it really just depends on the hat.
Though Heavy almost always much harder to sell. Engineer depending on the hat can be very hard to sell too.
Effect:
Third Gens and Robo Effects
People generally dislike third gens because they feel like they pollute the market with new unusual effects and don't look good. A lot of the time people will ask to overpay a lot more just because yourhat is third gen but if it is a decent 3rd gen effect like Miami Nights with a little patience and the tier of the hat you probably could sell quickly at close to full price in offers.
1st Gen: Obviously a lot easier to sell, more people will take offers or accept your unusual if yours is 1st gen.
Halloween: I would say they fetch a good amount depending on the effect but sometimes may take a little while to find the perfect buyer.
2nd Gen: Weather Effects. Not the greatest effects but I would say their easier to sell then Third Gens.
2. The price of similar effects.
If the unusual price is rather outdated or unpriced look at a similar effect and see what offers its getting.
Example: Making These Up
Scorching Ellis Cap is unpriced.
Burning Ellis Cap is getting offers around the 5 bud mark.
I would price the Scorching Ellis Cap at around 4.5 since Scorching is right below Burning in terms of pricing.
NOTE: At higher tier hats like the difference between Burning and Scorching like a Team Captain the price between burning and scorching can be a few hundred buds or just one bud like the private eye. You have to be weary of that and around the 6 + bud mark the differentiation could be commonly a + 1 bud difference compared to something like a lower tier hat like the Blokes Bucket Hat where Scorching and Burning are practically the same.
Lets take an example:
A Cloudy Moon Frontline Runner is priced at six buds and has been getting offers around that.
An Unpriced Harvest Moon Frontline Runner is probably around 5 buds due to Cloudy Moon being a higher tier effect.
If there is no similar effects just look at genreal effect tiers. An example is Sunbeams Frontline Runner lets say goes for four buds. Scorching is generally higher than Sunbeams so I would price it at 5. If you are unsure its best to ask around on other peoples opinion.
Just look at tiers if a Green Energy hat is lower priced than a Purple Fetti same hat. Then one of them is obviously outdated because Green Energy is a much higher tier effect than Purple Fetti.
Another example is looking at effect generations. Usually Morning Glory is higher than Frostbite so if that is true. The morning glory hat is probably higher than the Frostbite one.
3. The Hat and Effect
1st off, the class dosen't always effect how fast the unusual can be sold but genreally it is
All Class is the easiest > Then Soldier > Comp Classes ( Scout, Medic , Demo) > Pyro and Sniper > Arguably Spy because it is usually cloaked for a long time > Heavy and Engineer.
I would say the hat matters more if you are trying to sell an unusual. A team captain nuts and bolts is way easier than a cancerous robot hat with burning flames. The reason is that nobody wants that crappy hat even if it has a good effect. People rather have a multiclass higher tier hat with a lower tier effect.
Robo Hats: An example of Robo Hats is a Cyborg Stunt Helm which is a copy of Sober Stuntman but as a robo hat. I don't know why but people hate Robo hats. I had a Time Warp robohat once which was probably worth around 4 but just because it was Robo I barley got offers over 2 buds in one month of constant outpost bumping and server trading. People treat Robos as knock off as other hats and tend to stray far away from them. For that reason Robo hats are a lot cheaper and a lot lot harder to sell MOST of the time. Not always, a Anti Freeze - Modest Pile of Scrap would be a lot more easier due to its higher tier effect and it is an all class hat that doesn't look that horrid compared to a Scorching Plumbers Pipe. A knock off an already low tier hat.
Note: The sellibility of Robos is not always hard but in genreal it a lot harder than regular hats it really just depends on the hat.
Though Heavy almost always much harder to sell. Engineer depending on the hat can be very hard to sell too.
Effect:
Third Gens and Robo Effects
People generally dislike third gens because they feel like they pollute the market with new unusual effects and don't look good. A lot of the time people will ask to overpay a lot more just because yourhat is third gen but if it is a decent 3rd gen effect like Miami Nights with a little patience and the tier of the hat you probably could sell quickly at close to full price in offers.
1st Gen: Obviously a lot easier to sell, more people will take offers or accept your unusual if yours is 1st gen.
Halloween: I would say they fetch a good amount depending on the effect but sometimes may take a little while to find the perfect buyer.
2nd Gen: Weather Effects. Not the greatest effects but I would say their easier to sell then Third Gens.
EOTL Effects : Pretty High Tier and Nice effects won't be that hard to sell.
Note: Low tier effects don't always equal low price. A smoking Noh Mercy just got recently sold for around 25 buds pure. Why is that you may ask. It's because it's a misc which allows it to be worn with another unusual hat and frankly the Nohs aren't getting unboxed anymore. Making the hat rare and desirable even if it is a low tier effect.
Tip: 3rd Generation don't always amount to a greater price then 2nd Generation. A Miami nights would fetch more than a nuts and bolts. It really just depends on how high tier the effect is. Though a 1st gen and 3rd gen of equal price would usually result in the 1st gen being easier to sell.
An example is Time Warp > Circling Peace Sign even if Time Warp is a robo effect it is a high tiered effect and Circling is more on the low side of the scale. If it is a high tiered effect or desirable effect like time warp it can sell quickly too.
A lot of collectors also collect things like circling hearts as they are 1st gen and fairly easy to buy and sell. They also look good and is a nice clean effect. So keep that in mind too.
Tiers of Hats
Their are many tiers of hats from God Tiered to Cancer Tiers. To check hat tier list (generally) use http://backpack.tf/unusuals and look at the rank of the hat in pricing compared to other hats in the same class. For example if your hat is the 5th most expensive hat out of 10 hats from spy. It's probably mid tier ish.
An Easier Way to Check is to see how high the general price of the hat is compared to the other same class hats won't always work due to some hats having more high tiered effects priced.
http://backpack.tf/effects Genreal Price Point of Hat Effect Tiers
BOTTOM - Least Valuable Effects
To check effect list a good idea would be
Effects that are Generally Very Hard to Sell Are: I would avoid unless you are getting a great deal on them.
Aces High
Dead President
Orbiting Planets
Nuts and Bolts
Special thanks to Lewdicrous Speed and Mindacos and Shaman for the help.
http://backpack.tf/effects Genreal Price Point of Hat Effect Tiers
BOTTOM - Least Valuable Effects
To check effect list a good idea would be
Effects that are Generally Very Hard to Sell Are: I would avoid unless you are getting a great deal on them.
Aces High
Dead President
Orbiting Planets
Nuts and Bolts
Special thanks to Lewdicrous Speed and Mindacos and Shaman for the help.
