Buy, Sell & Trade TF2 Items

Most Team Fortress 2 traders deal in two in-game currencies: Mann Co. Supply Crate Keys, with metal as the change. Keys never drop in-game. New keys only come from the Mann Co. Store, which keeps their value steady and lets players swap them like cash. On Merchant.TF, you can often buy TF2 keys for less than the Store or the Steam Community Market charges.

Metal comes in three sizes, Scrap, Reclaimed and Refined, which traders shorten to scrap, rec and ref. Three scrap make a rec, and three rec make a ref. Prices are usually quoted in ref, where a rec counts as 0.33, so 2.33 ref means two Refined and one Reclaimed.

TF2 items are typically traded in three main ways:

With other players.

Send trade offers to friends, or post what you have on community trading sites, then negotiate in keys and metal. One of the benefits of trading this way is that there's no fee, but it takes time, and manual cash deals with strangers mean trusting them to pay.

On the Steam Community Market.

Valve's own market is a safe and simple option, but sales go to your Steam Wallet, and that money only works on Steam. Steam's fees add 15% on top of every sale, and items you buy are trade-locked for 7 days.

With a trading site's bots.

A site like Merchant.TF keeps a stock of items and sends trades via bots. You skip the bargaining and the risk of getting scammed, and you can pay or cash out in real money.

Unique.

Ironically, this is the most common item quality. Most drops, crafts and Mann Co. Store items are Unique, such as The Team Captain or the Mann Co. Supply Crate Key.

Strange.

Counts a stat as you play, usually kills. Both weapons and cosmetics can be Strange, and they rank up and change name as the count climbs. A fresh Strange Flame Thrower starts out with that name, but after 8,500 kills it becomes a "Hale's Own Flame Thrower".

Unusual.

Some of the rarest items in the game. Unusuals are cosmetics, taunts or weapons that have a special particle effect, for example Scorching Flames, which adds a green flame particle effect to items. When opening crates or cases, you have less than a 1% chance of getting an item with the Unusual quality. With Unusuals, the effect can matter as much as the item, so the same hat can sell for very different prices depending on what effect is floating above it. There are thousands of combinations, making Unusuals a favorite among collectors.

Genuine.

Promotional items, usually crossovers with other games or events. Many also come in Unique quality, but Genuine indicates that the item came straight from the original promotion.

Vintage.

These are items players owned before the Mann-Conomy Update in 2010.

Haunted.

Comes from TF2's Halloween events, often carrying restrictions that make the item only visible during holidays such as Halloween / Full Moon.

Collector's.

Identified by the dark red tint on their item name, these are items made with Collector's Chemistry Sets that no longer drop in-game. Along with a set, 200 copies of the Unique version of an item are required to make one Collector's item, which keeps these items rare and expensive.

Decorated.

Weapons with a War Paint pattern. Each has a grade, from Civilian up to Elite, and a wear level, from Factory New to Battle Scarred.

Australium.

Also known as Aussies, Australiums are a rare golden version of certain weapons. Australiums always come in the Strange item quality and only drop from Advanced and Expert Mann Up tours. The Golden Frying Pan is the rarest of these, often selling for thousands of dollars in real-world value.

Killstreak tiers.

Killstreak weapons track your current streak and show special effects. Specialized Killstreak adds a colored sheen, and Professional Killstreak adds a sheen plus an eye effect called a killstreaker.

Festive and Festivized.

Festive weapons are weapons with Christmas lights built in, whereas Festivized weapons are items where the lights were added using a Festivizer. Traders usually value original Festives much higher, even though the items look very similar, so it is important that these are not confused with their Festivized counterparts.

Non-Craftable.

Weapons bought from the Mann Co. Store, and cosmetics bought there before late 2012, can't be used in crafting. Traders price them separately from craftable versions.

Paint.

Changes a cosmetic's color. Most paints don't change the value of an item much, but the more popular ones such as A Distinctive Lack of Hue (Black), An Extraordinary Abundance of Tinge (White), Pink as Hell (Hot Pink), and The Bitter Taste of Defeat and Lime (Lime Green) add some value when applied to an item.

Strange Parts.

You can add up to three Strange Parts to a Strange item, and each one tracks an extra stat, such as heavies killed or buildings destroyed.