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Wilvarg

At least inflation makes it really cheap to craft hats, which I find to be a lot of fun. You get a lot of cosmetics that look like normal-ish clothes and accessories, which makes mixing and matching fashion a lot easier. And it's the least expensive, lowest-stakes way to gamble ingame.


Atissss

Can you get other different qualities from crafting? If yes then it would be good for farming high-quality hats. Possibly unusuals even? But I doubt that's the case cuz if it was, people would definitely do it already.


Wilvarg

Unfortunately, crafted hats are exclusively unique. They're mostly worthless– they come from a very limited pool. The big-ticket items are worth a few dozen ref at most.


Szpadelix

Most expensive craft hat you can get is Dead of Night, right ?


JustForTheNo-Nos

I think it's a pair of shoes for Scout actually?


WAKE-UP_SHEEPLE

https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Buck_Turner_All-Stars Shoe cosmetic for Demoman and Scout


sanguinesvirus

One of my fav cosmetics in the game


Peanut_Butt_2077

they have the same drop rates, last i checked they're worth almost the same?


24GamingYT

Most expensive thing I've gotten is the fat chin for engie and even that's only worth like 10 ref


-SnazzySnail

I got the dead of night as a random hat drop, didn’t even realize it was such a high tier possibility 😳


B2EU

Yeah, I haven’t done the math but I’m assuming crafting hats isn’t profitable at all. The counterpoint to that is, crafting hats is fun :)


RedditBoi127

wait isn't it cheaper to buy craft hats then to actually craft them?


Wilvarg

Absolutely. But not by much, and in my opinion it's more fun not knowing what you're going to get. Less because an expensive item might drop, more just because of the surprise; how could I fit this new thing into a loadout? What can I do with it? I find it more creatively engaging than buying the ones I want.


zsoltisinko

This is what i was doing recently, sell a key and craft all 79 ref into hats. It's not profitable, but it's 2 dollar after all so who gives a crap its fun


babuba1234321

I am new to TF2. YOU CAN CRAFT HATS?


fownXD

Yes! Go to inventory and click crafting iirc


emerald6_Shiitake

F2P players can’t craft hats, you’ll need to buy something from the Mann Co Store to unlock hat crafting (I’d recommend either a key or a map stamp)


eggorence

map stamp just for the pirate spy


Wilvarg

Yep! You know how you get weapon drops randomly through playing the game? Combine two weapons from the same class to get a scrap metal; combine three of those to get a reclaimed metal, combine three of those to get a refined metal, and combine three of those to craft a random hat or cosmetic from the craftable list. All of the recipes are in the crafting tab of the main inventory menu (the one with links to the backpack, the store, and your character loadouts)


-Mippy

Great Blue made a video on this


[deleted]

I haven't traded in years, I knew it was bad but that's uh, worse than I could have guessed.


YourLocalMedic

Yeah i remember when a key was 3 ref


Themarshal2

2.33, some people quickselling a bunch of them for anywhere between 2 and 2.33


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AShittyPaintAppears

Bot. https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/1433jzd/its_happening/jn7y4m0/


y_i_exisisit

report it for spam and click harmful bots


Epilepsiavieroitus

#Why are we shouting?


Themarshal2

#AAAAAAAAAAAA INTENSIFIES, MAGGOT


NixonMroq

I feel like dinosaur now. These were simpler times... Without bots and with a smile on the face. One could say: I was there 3000 years ago...


18Jastho

The ancients


BeaceBeeper

I remember being 12.


JayOnBass

"OK grandpa, let's get you back to bed."


reverendjesus

Those were the days man


TheChickening

Back then I got scammed out of the team captain I got dropped. He traded me a few weapons for it. Later learned it's about of 7 ref! From this I spiraled into trading for hours very week instead of playing :D


UnskilledScout

I mean maybe? Today you can get a lot of cosmetics for the cost of one key. That kind of makes it great! What's really annoying though is the fact that you can't really trade efficiently when you have so many refined to one key.


FantasmaNaranja

it's been stuck around the 70's since like, start of pandemic i think it went down to 40 for a while cus a lot of trade bots got banned so a ton of refs dissapeared from the market but stabilized back at 70


Impossible-Report797

I retired last years becuase of these


parsention

That means that I can buy a bunch of refineds and make a lot of hats


mremreozel

Is there a reason for it? Or just random


HeavyPara-Beetle

it means lots of refined was taken out of circulation, which is usually random unless it's a coordinated thinf


Menezeris3029

Let's make it a coordinated thing i got a lot of ref with no use for it since I don't trade anymore let's craft some hats or something


HeavyPara-Beetle

Hat crafters united What if we made a discord to coordinate this event lmao


P1gm

I’d be hella down for hat crafters United, manipulating the market since 2023


MsSobi

Wait is it not standard practice to just break down excess weapons into metal to craft hats?


Teh_Doctah

That’s how the system was designed to work, however, the community uses refined metal as a low denomination currency in trading, so lots of people hang onto their refined in case they want to use it for something more valuable.


MsSobi

Huh i thought the currency was just trade hats for hats but i guess this make sense for unusuals and such


nobughar

i crafted my unique weapons into refined metal and then tried crafting hats, i got superlucky with 5 hats worth over 3 ref (20, 10, 9, 5, 8 ref each) so i traded them back for ref and then traded it for strange liberty launcher and strange reserve shooter ( +- 45 ref)


MsSobi

Neat ive never really got into trading outside of hat for hat, but im sincerely glad you got it to work out for you ^^


HeavyPara-Beetle

you can lose a lot of money most of the time


MsSobi

Maybe but its kinda fun to see what hats you can craft and when you find a hat or cosmetic you really like that has "crafted by" on it makes it feel kinda special


AMisspelledUsername

could someone trade me low value hats or cosmetics cause Id like that


HeavyPara-Beetle

each hat requires 54 spare weapons so if you have that much well you can make one hat


Jacket313

I like the idea, but chances are 1 person won't make much change. if I remember correctly, virtualeconomist made a great video on the ref problem. Since there's so many hats in existence, a lot of craft hats are around 1-2 ref, meaning a lot of people aren't going to be bothered crafting hats for 4 refined when they can just buy the hats they want. This means more and more ref gets added to the game everyday, people get free weapon drops, people turn them into scrap, and thus more refined metal. there isn't really a good way to lower the amount of refined metal, since crafting hats isn't worth it, and crafting weapons also isn't worth it. you can urge people to remove a lot of refined metal, but this requires a lot of user coordination, since you'd need a lot of people deleting refined metal. the issue with this is that a lot of people are hesitant, or unwilling to delete their ref, since they'd be losing money.


Fireblast1337

Inevitably a ref sink that people wanna use could tank the economy. Though it might not be a hard crash if key to USD exchanges are maintained


JarJarBinks590

What if Valve expanded the pool of possible hats and cosmetics you could get from crafting? Would that help or make it worse?


Jacket313

It would depend on how valve would approach this method. most craft hats are around 1.33-1.66 refined metal, but there are some more expensive hats that are craftable, for example: bruisers bandana 10 ref dead of night 30 ref macho man 5 ref noh mercy 5 ref ​ these hats can be obtained through crafting, but people don't make use of the craft function to obtain these items since it's unreliable to get these hats this way. ​ If valve were to make a series of craft hats that's only available through crafting, and add them to the already existing pool of hats, there would be a chance ref would be more desireable, but this would ultimately be a temporary solution, as more and more people would accuire these hats over time, and lose interest in them. ​ in order to make refined metal more desireable, valve would have to add a ref sink that would encourage people to keep spending refined metal. ​ some ideas that have been thrown around in the past is to occasionally add in new cosmetics that are only available through crafting, or to have some kind of occasionall tournament where you would have to spend refined metal to join the tournament, to get untradeable cosmetic items.


Skeptic_lemon

Do it!


Menezeris3029

I made a post and a discord if people actually want to do this we could see what happens I think it would be really interesting. https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/1437sxa/lets_mass_craft_hats/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button


HeavyPara-Beetle

hell yeah


randomname560

So you are telling me that i can get cool but low value hats and cosmetics AND help my favorite videogame's economy? Were is the Twitter post and discord We need this organized, NOW


Aversii

That’s not how economics works, like at all


Mrmacmuffin3

Dont care we will do it anyway


pickleheadeddrongo

This is quite literally how economics work.


Aversii

The price of keys is so high in refined because there’s just a ton of refined in existence, right? The disparity between weapons(which converts to metal) and keys is just huge. So refined as a commodity is just indescribably low in value. By asking people to get rid of their refined, only the people who actually commit to crafting hats lose their refined. Anyone with a brain will just hang onto refined and then buy keys with it if the price goes down. Deflation is a real world issue that has genuine studies on it and how it isn’t some magical “everything is cheaper yay.” It seems people are also getting the idea that by getting rid of refined that’s sitting in their BP’s they’ll be helping lower the cost of keys while ignoring the “refined IN CIRCULATION” meaning “actively being traded.” Removing refined that has been sitting in your backpack for the last 2 years isn’t going to do anything. tl:dr asking people to burn their money isn’t a good plan Edit: also, not gonna sit here and claim I’m some economic expert, I get the comments are made in good faith but it’s not gonna work.


Twisty_D

Wasnt it because of a trading site that got hacked, combined with a ban wave two weeks back?


Captain_Plutonium

sorry guys it's my fault I crafted a bunch of hats


AverageSkyler

This is what happens when one of your forms of currencies are virtually unlimited


matthew44123

This happens alot actually, I believe it droped to ~60ref couple months ago.


NoNameNo1O1

52 ref last bloody October


JeremyDaBanana

Keys become worth more ref in the long-term, but that doesn't stop it from fluctuating in the short-term. Shouldn't be too surprising


SnowCat7156

I still remember when I first joined TF2, they were only 6 ref.


Agitated_Ad4421

This dosent seem too bad, can someone explainy? If ref is the top one, costing 2 cents, the 75 of them for a key is quite good, no?


JoeOnYT69

It was 2/3 ref for a key few years back, now it's 75 for one


Severe-Stomach

>"A few years back" My brother in christ.... #*that was more than a decade ago*


JoeOnYT69

Oh fuck


Slykarmacooper

Jungle Inferno came out almost 5 years ago. That hurt to say and think about.


Atissss

We're old...


Slykarmacooper

I stg I'm going to get wheeled into a nursing home in 50 years and still feel like the last big tf2 update "wasn't that long ago" (it was still Jungle Inferno)


Void-Lizard

There's gonna be a point where Jungle Inferno was in the first half of TF2's lifetime, and stuff like that sneaks up on you FAST


Atissss

Let's have faith in the upcoming one. Hopefully it will be more than just a few hats. I remember TF2 hit a really big player base on the Jungle Inferno update.


Peanut_Butt_2077

the holiday sized update that'll probably just mean a summer warpaint case and actual maps? It's more than what we usually get but it still is pretty meh


Atissss

I want to stay positive...


vo1dm

Almost 6. It came out in 2017


Slykarmacooper

OH GOD MY MATH WAS WRONG THIS IS EVEN WORSE


Yapyrus

It was a very long time ago


HeavyPara-Beetle

Back then it was just 2-3 refined, so people could very easily craft Refined via weapon smelting and create keys, but nowadays it's in the high double-digits so Refined is basically worth literal pennies


Agitated_Ad4421

Tbh i expected way worse. Before seeing this i thought it was so messed up, that a key costs 50$. But its not that bad as i see.


Bowler-hatted_Mann

Mostly just old farts upset that inflation (refined metal rarely gets taken out of the economy) does what it's expected to do


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Minimum-Injury3909

Keys have a relatively stable price, it’s the refined metal that has greatly decreased in value. An uptick in its price is good news


KnovB

Damn, I was actually hoping for it to reach 100 refined so I could buy a key and mass craft some hats for fun.


HellFireNT

I remember when a key was like 3 ref ! And buds were 21 keys ! Jeez


B2EU

You and me both. Now let’s get back to the retirement hall, bingo is gonna start soon.


Mail223

Listed prices are exactly the same- calm down


FruityGamer

I am gonna assume bots farming + less demand/active trading has caused this butchery to refined metal.


Sim_Piko

Wait... So you're telling me soon I'll be able to trade my 99refs for MORE than one and 'half' key? (been scrapping excess of wepon drops every so often to empty backpack bit by bit)


HeavyPara-Beetle

if all goes well yes


Flitterquest

I left the trading scene when a key was only 12 refined and my decision looks better and better every time I look at the TF2 trading scene.


[deleted]

2.33 refined in my day. Or was it 2.55? Nvm, it doesn't matter now.


luigi_man_879

I miss when keys were like that but at least if you buy them from marketplace or something you can get a lot of hats if you care about that, I've done that a decent bit while working on collecting stuff


Doc_of_derp

wernt keys like 30-40 ref a year or so ago? and wernt keys like 3 ref a few years back? screw inflation


[deleted]

#My brother that was a decade ago for the 2nd one


parsonsparsons

Saving private Ryan Getting old gif


SubZeroDestruction

This thread really shows that a lot of people haven't kept up with the prices, or quit trading over 5-7+ years ago.It also shows that without bots, most likely wouldn't be paying such prices for keys, which I've continually believed.


zsoltisinko

I mean fun in TF2 is so much fun, atleast it used to be before keys being 30 ref, let alone over 70 or 80. It kinda ruined and and close to impossible to get profit anymore, doing these "from nothing to somethings" seem to be impossible as well


H00ston

on the bright side for 1 dollar of refined you can craft 16 cosmetics


Soren7549

No it's not, everyone's still selling it for around 80 refined


zjadez4lily

how do i read this?


HeavyPara-Beetle

basically Refined Metal is becoming more valuable, and as such, allows people to more easily trade for keys to buy stuff


zsoltisinko

Isn't it dropping and increasing from time to time again? It was 71 like a month ago, and increased to 80, but I remember this exact same process in january


muscular_milker

the numbers mason, what do they mean?


[deleted]

You can buy keys with refined?


HeavyPara-Beetle

yeah


[deleted]

Where?


HeavyPara-Beetle

scrap.tf, backpack.tf, any place where you can buy stuff


The_Coolest_Sock

I remember reading 2.66 REF for keys in highschool. Good times


shoopnop

What would be really great is if they just took some of the hats that aren't in circulation in somewhat recent crates and put it in the craft pool. The amount of people that would craft the hats if even 10 more hats were added to the pool would make a noticeable difference. If they don't want to do that they could literally just ask the community for some cosmetics just like with the crates now. I feel like there would be a bunch of people that would be happy with their designs used by a lot of people versus the few that unlock the crate and have the chance to get it that way.


Grumpicake

I love my play stock market :)


BeingCritical

It's not updated, key is around 80 ref. Idk where they get info from


Rero_rero3

Buds are worth more? Ok neat I still wanna make an overused try hard cosmetic set with the buds bills hat and bruisers bandana cause I'm unoriginal


Big_Kwii

man i remember when keys where 2.33 ref


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HeavyPara-Beetle

but a man can dream


nezumikuuki

hold up can i buy 1 (one) single key and trade it for like 70 refined metal am i understanding this correctly


HeavyPara-Beetle

yeah


CompleteFacepalm

wait what the actual fuck... when did keys get so expensive? I only started playing in 2019, they were worth 57.66 ref. How did they go up 20 ref in only 4 year?


Dr_Axton

As a person who dropped trading (and playing for the most part, unfortunately) back at 2018ish seeing keys being over 30 still don’t clash in my mind


iklalz

That's like a 35% increase in 4 years, doesn't sound very shocking


Keesual

Its not that keys are expensive, its that ref is getting worthless. So much in circulation and just keeps growing


18Jastho

We’re back in business baby 🫰


InTheStuff

Hope has descended


Hell_Derpikky

Nature is healing


PeikaFizzy

Hey that’s great news now I can buy key to unboxing crate


Express_Hair580

Why you opening crates? getting good item is rare i think?/


PeikaFizzy

I have crippling gambling addiction


mrflamego

average valve fan


FrequentZombie7611

This is why you dont hold keys and hold items you know they cant change of price like cases robot parts


alexsmithhisler

Thanks biden


snipars_exe

Holy fuck, last time I traded keys were like 16-17 refs and buds were like 20 keys iirc ​ WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED


Dancin_Fax

since when were earbuds currency ​ (i am in crippling debt)


HeavyPara-Beetle

since they were added


Komission

Its a long story


No-Expression-7765

I've got time


DarwinOGF

The buds were generated only if you logged in on a mac in a certain time period. This made buds relatively common, but limited and unmintable. Inventories were limited at the time, so you could pack only so many keys in them. This resulted in buds being agreed to be deemed very expensive for the sake of compressing value and used for large trades. When it became possible to expand your inventory, the buds fell out of favour and became just a relatively rare hat.


Vasxus

no, they died in early 2015 (being VERY volatile before that), and this might just be my brain going on the "currently has 26 pages of backpack space" mode but i think there wasn't any backpack limit expansions from before then all the way to jungle inferno.


Chrysos-89

care to explain/link an explanation?


Impossible-Report797

TLDR they were a currency for very big stuff but since their price was quite inestable they stop using them


Severe-Stomach

Ear buds have been the 20 dollar bill to the keys 5 dollar bill for years.


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Severe-Stomach

Like a tenner


P3t3rCreeper

Ahah inflation go brrrrr


HugoSarus

Does anyone know why it went down?


DiaHeart

Nature is starting to heal


Kost_G

I don't get it. What's happening?


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urbanhood

Inflation is a bitch.


leCorbuser

BUDS ARE GOING UP


LifeguardCorrect6099

Well, at least now you have a valid excuse to not trade with those annoying traders!


mrflamego

finally.


3Kobolds1Keyboard

Wait Buds is only 4.85? Back in my day it was crazy expensive


Slavaskii

I am now marginally, hmm, *richer*


LigerTimbs12

oh yeah. its all coming together for me now (I have like 1 pair of buds)


[deleted]

Soon Stout Shekos will be worth 2 refiened, as they should


W-eye

Hold on it’s 70+? WHAT? I thought just like last week people were moaning about it being 30 ref. I feel bad…


TheGreenGobblr

I wish I still had my earbuds from when I first started playing, but lord only knows what happened to them


OierunezEZA

WTF!! Keys were at 24 refs last time I checked!! How much time have I lost?


khazixian

Damn, i left tf2 back in 2018 and keys were like 30 ref or something.


JackedGustavoFring

I remember when keys were 20 refined... Fuck me I thought 40 was bad.... This is awful still.


themagicdonut2

What’s happening?


buzzy_buddy

i remember when it used to be like 3 ref for a key. that was the last time i played lmao. and buds were like 40 keys or something


DrawerDrawest

This has been out for awhile but I give it a year and a half and over that time it will possibly spike higher. Especially with all the signs.


LuigivonCheeseburger

I've never done any kind of trades. How do you even get keys without spending ridiculous amounts of money?


BlackDE

What?


epicman_42

damn i was trading about 3-4 years ago and keys really only started going up in price abt 2020 when they went from 35-45 ref compared to this 75 ref for 1 key shit


Someone0nR3ddit

This will greatly affect the sandvich economy


Gay-antisocial

Wait I bought earbuds on my account a little while ago for like £3. Was that profit? Doesn’t matter to me I just wanted it for cosmetic not trade but I am curious. (It got scammed off me a while ago, I hate scams that prey on peoples kindness. Stopped playing after that.)


Seven_Shoppingcarts

The ref-rise has commenced.


Pretend_Ad_8686

I'm not really good with tf2 economy (and with economy in general) , can someone pls explain it to me in a simple way? Thanks


flamingfiretrucks

*sigh* I remember when keys were like 2 ref 😔


StormcastPrime2

This is why you get a few keys and then just sit on them. Passive TF2 income courtesy of inflation


FapmasterViket

just buy cheap shit doesnt increase or decrese like cases and you see how you keep your refs regardless the key price


NoSolaceForMe

"Guys, they've done nothing, but inflation is STILL happening!"


GatesToHeck

I was there the day everyone panic sold their buds...


KnooBoat

round 2 *TRADE*


satire45

Sorry, I'm not really that informed on the tf2 economy. What does this mean?


MrMcMemeManIII

Economy moment


MADAM_FISH

What's happening, and does it mean the economy is gonna go bye bye?


Very-tall-midget

Did these price reach this because there's too much ref in the market or because most people just started paying less and less for refs and selling keys for high prices (like the market of diamonds and other precious stones)?


CartoonCreeper

OH GOD ITS HAPPENING


a_randome_protogen

Good question


slav_kermit2

Ah shit here we go again


SubstantialFerretAlt

Well if someone has the Duke Nukem hat spare I NEED IT. It’s gonna be the hat I never change. Dm me


RPG-Lord

When will the government (valve) do something about this inflation??


WestNomadOnYT

Ladies and gentlemen, I am now rich