So... I'm selling 480 crates

BobbyDigi

Thought I would share with my family here a huge project I've got going on. I have never deleted something out of my backpack. Whenever I come across a crate, it would go into storage. Some of you threw crates at me during our weekly scrums, at the time I accepted them for the lulz. But the collection grew and it is to the point now of taking up... well 480 spots in my backpacks. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this, in a typical week, a typical TF2 account that plays it's maximum amount of hours (thus maximum amount of drops) pulls down 4-5 crates. A typical TF2 backpack has 300 slots.

So I have listed the collection for sale/trade. I've been bumping the thread and have a current offer of 26 refined. I will be posting it on multiple trade sites this week and we will see what happens. I'll be closing the offers and selling to the highest bidder next Monday the 16th.

Here are the current links if you care to follow the action:

SourceOP

TF2Outpost

TF2TP

PirateNinja

Holy crap, this should be on ebay.

BobbyDigi

Can't sell virtual items on eBay :-(

PirateNinja

Did you reddit this?

BobbyDigi

PirateNinja said:

Did you reddit this?

I've not. I believe that /r/tf2trade does not allow auction style trades. I may/may not Reddit it. Now if someone thought it interesting enough to submit it to Reddit, I wouldn't hate it :-P

Linc

Seems to me that attempting to sell them as 1 lot would limit your target audience (how many people have that much refined metal?) and therefore perhaps your potential profit, no?

BobbyDigi

Thanks for asking, I love questions :-D

If I broke it down there are a few (maybe 10-15 at the most) that I could easily get a refined a piece for. The rest I would have to do a lot of leg work to get a weapon for 4 of them.

So 15 refined for a specific 15 of them
+
465/4 ~ 116 Weapons + 1 extra crate
116 Weps = 58 scrap
58 scrap = 19 reclaimed + 1 extra scrap
19 reclaimed = 6 refined + 1 extra reclaimed

So selling them would take a lot of work to receive 21 refined, 1 reclaimed, 1 scrap and have 1 extra crate. A little more than 4 refined less than my current offer and a lot more work. I did this math before I posted, I knew what I was shooting for and I am pleased that the bidding got to that point quickly.

Basically the guys that are going to be interested in this lot open massive amounts of crates. They are unusual hunters. They pop crates and then trade the non-unusual items they get for more crates and keys. When they do pop an unusual they are able to sell it for $30 - $1000+ depending on the hat+effect.

I would be happy with the current offer of 26 refined because the trader that made the offer has a history of good rep and will be easy to work with. I know there are a few others interested and things will get interesting this weekend and Monday as I may have a few bidders trying to get that last minute bid in.

shwaip

i'll give you tree fiddy.

BobbyDigi

GnomeQueen

I'll give you a backrub and vegan cupcakes? Also cheese. I have a lot of cheese. and Tree-fitty.

Cliff_Forster

The TF2 economy is foreign to me. I guess that's why I let Bill's hat go, to me it was just a funny looking French beret, but the kid asked nice and I just traded it for a common item or two. I realize I could have gotten allot more for it now, but it does not bother me that much.

Bobby, I think if you get something for the 240 crates you should write an article. I'd of given you a dozen more before I deleted them from my backpack the other day. To me, its $2.49 less temptation per crate. I did cave and buy two scorched keys this weekend, and a couple standard keys to round out a $10 sale just to do my part for the community. Gotta leave a tip every now and then, but 240 crates, to me, I just can't see the value without keys. If you manage to trade them somehow I'd love to know how you did it, and how the buying party reasoned the crates had value. It's really kind of fascinating how gamers value this stuff.

BobbyDigi

Cliff_Forster said:

The TF2 economy is foreign to me. I guess that's why I let Bill's hat go, to me it was just a funny looking French beret, but the kid asked nice and I just traded it for a common item or two. I realize I could have gotten allot more for it now, but it does not bother me that much.

Presuming it was indeed just a kid who wanted a hat, both of you left happy and that is exactly what should be happening. Thank you for making that kids day.

I did cave and buy two scorched keys this weekend, and a couple standard keys to round out a $10 sale just to do my part for the community. Gotta leave a tip every now and then

I wish everyone had this attitude.

Bobby, I think if you get something for the 240 crates you should write an article. I'd of given you a dozen more before I deleted them from my backpack the other day.

Don't worry about deleting any of the crates, while some of the value that is coming from my lot is specific crates, most of it is from the bulk aspect and very little from recently dropped crates. That said.... feel free to throw any further crates/items you don't want my way

but 240 crates, to me, I just can't see the value without keys. If you manage to trade them somehow I'd love to know how you did it, and how the buying party reasoned the crates had value. It's really kind of fascinating how gamers value this stuff.

It's 480 and keep an eye out for the write up after Monday

BobbyDigi

Had my high offer retract his bid last night. Just got an equivalent offer. :-D

also posted on /r/TF2 http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2trade/comments/wjj9m/h_480_crates_including_1s_and_19s_w_buds_or_offers/

Unusual trading Community: http://unusualtradingcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9043

found this sweet spreadsheet that lays out the risk/reward on each series of crates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AvcjUg5333WldF9lbTRHczFmeEtkUThqdFYzUDIxRUE&output=html

Monday should be a good day,

Koreish

Bobby if you want I've got 4 crates and 2 refined metal / reclaimed metal if you would like. I'm not using them and I doubt I will as I'm not really interested in TF2 items outside the original Valve releases.

BobbyDigi

Koreish said:

Bobby if you want I've got 4 crates and 2 refined metal / reclaimed metal if you would like. I'm not using them and I doubt I will as I'm not really interested in TF2 items outside the original Valve releases.

All donations are appreciated. I will put the metal towards some upcoming activity that will benefit the IC server.

Thanks!

bright

I also have crates if you would like.

BobbyDigi

bright said:

I also have crates if you would like.

I would. I'm away from my PC right now but I we'll link up some time soon and I'll grab those from ya. Thanks!

bright

I sent you an invite, name is demon horns.

ErrorNullTurnip

I also have a few worthless boxes for you if you want them. I'll see if I can catch you Sunday sometime.

BobbyDigi

And the adventure is over. 480 crates turned into 27 refined metal. I'm happy.

The trader that bought them started opening them right away. 2nd crate pulled a Searing Plasma Grimm Hatte. Since then a Burning Flames Exquisite Rack. My crates seemed to be a lucky lot.

Edit: Add a Massed Flies Brainiac Hairpiece

shwaip

BobbyDigi said:

And the adventure is over. 480 crates turned into 27 refined metal. I'm happy.

The trader that bought them started opening them right away. 2nd crate pulled a Searing Plasma Grimm Hatte. Since then a Burning Flames Exquisite Rack. My crates seemed to be a lucky lot.

Edit: Add a Massed Flies Brainiac Hairpiece

dat rack.

MAGIC

BobbyDigi said:

And the adventure is over. 480 crates turned into 27 refined metal. I'm happy.

The trader that bought them started opening them right away. 2nd crate pulled a Searing Plasma Grimm Hatte. Since then a Burning Flames Exquisite Rack. My crates seemed to be a lucky lot.

Edit: Add a Massed Flies Brainiac Hairpiece

I have no idea what any of those things are. Are they valuable?

shwaip

relatively

BobbyDigi

MAGIC said:

BobbyDigi said:

And the adventure is over. 480 crates turned into 27 refined metal. I'm happy.

The trader that bought them started opening them right away. 2nd crate pulled a Searing Plasma Grimm Hatte. Since then a Burning Flames Exquisite Rack. My crates seemed to be a lucky lot.

Edit: Add a Massed Flies Brainiac Hairpiece

I have no idea what any of those things are. Are they valuable?

By most definitions yes, very much so. The Rack is a Soldier hat and Burning Flames is a high tier effect. Lots of demand, Soli is a highly played class and the effect is cool looking so lots of people want it. That could probably go in the $200+ range.

Engi is not such a highly played class, the Brainiac Hairpiece is not desirable and Flies is not a very high demand effect. That said it still could probably be sold for at least $45. I looked up the stats and this is the 2nd hat of its kind to be unboxed. Because of that, it could go for a bit more.

The Grimm Hatte (medic) is pretty much middle ground all around. Class, Hat and Effect. Could be sold for $100+.

Note: Unusuals are not something I follow on a regular basis and because there is such a wide range of hats and effects and of course everyone's tastes are different so my numbers here could be completely off.

MAGIC

Shees, I had no idea these types of things even existed.

Linc

You can find most expensive hat with most glorious effect. Sasha do not care.

MAGIC

In Soviet Russia, hat wear YOU.

Snarkasm

Heavy Weapons Guy hyas yet to meet hat can outsmart buul-let.

Undyne

Dank necro here, but got 600 crates exactly right now and I donno what to do with them! Lol

primesuspect

Dank Necro indeed

BobbyDigi

Hi @Undyne , Welcome to Icrontic.

It took some frustration to move my lot here back then (almost 4 years ago now) and the 27 refined I got for mine wouldn't even convert to 2 keys in today's market.

I have continued to amass another collection of crates. Have no idea what the count is currently.

My advice would be, if you have the patience and the legal ability, list them all on the steam market. Most crates sell for 3 cents netting you 1 cent after the devil's cut (TF2 fee is minimum 2 cents). So you could end up with at least $6 there. If there are some specific crate numbers in the lot, you could end up with more.

Feel free to add me on Steam if you want to chat about them. If your backpack is public, I can take a look and let you know if there are any diamonds in the rough.