TRADING:
HOW IT WORKS:How do I start?
How can I make money? How can I get a knife from nothing? How do you do it? First off, why am I credible? Why should you trust me to guide you through managing your money, both in steam and in the form of skins? Who are you to dictate what I do with my skins and what I trade them for to make profit?
The beginning of everything is intimidating. Imagine riding a bike. No one starts off in the Tour de France, nobody just suddenly becomes the next Lance Armstrong. Like everything in this world, it takes practice to become an expert at something, and luckily I’ve had 2 long years of experience, across games, both TF2 and CS:GO. To start off, I would strongly recommend charging 10-20 dollars into your steam wallet. The more the better. More money available means you have a larger potential profit margin. What that means, a profit margin, is that you can use your money to buy cheap items under the typical market price. You can use your resources to buy what are called “quicksells,” a term that you will too soon be familiar with. Countless people ask me, I'd say 80% of all my questions, what do I buy with the steam wallet? What do I use to buy quicksells? What should I do with my money? Invest? Honestly, I can't give a definite concrete method because trading isn't a planned out course of action. If you really want specifics, this is what I will say. Either buy keys from the steam market under 2.50 (or if you are experienced with PayPal trading, buy keys from sellers @1.80~ each) and then post them on csgolounge.com and see what people offer you. If you take the price of that offer and divide by 2.5 and find the result is more than the amount of keys that he/she is asking for, it's probably a good deal, as long as it's not something small like 0.1 over. If you want to buy specific items, AK skins like case hardened and redline are very desired and easy to trade at low levels. M4A1/4 skins are also very viable, although the AK's will be easier by at least threefold. Any weapon that is commonly used (see below) in your price range in a decent condition will attract buyers. I guarantee this. Having some money in your steam wallet is the first step, as I wouldn’t recommend starting with nothing. I started with ten dollars to minimize the pain I would have suffered if I was trading cases and cent skins up to what I’ve cashed out today. What you’re going to do is look for deals on the market, especially during new operations (if applicable) or buy keys and purchase quicksells. Quicksells are the bane of owners and a treasure trove for buyers. It means that the seller is willing to sell for a drastically reduced price (sometimes up to 20-40% off the market price of the item) for keys. Keys are the currency of CS:GO and everyone is after them. Always. It is rare to find someone looking exclusively for other skins, outright rejecting keys. A Dragon Lore Factory New can fetch up to 500+ Keys whereas a battle scarred one might only fetch around 120 keys. Also, a Stattrak Fire Serpent AK-47 Factory New can fetch over 4000 keys, whereas a Field-Tested could fetch only a mere 230 keys.
IMPORTANT/PLEASE READ! I've received a lot of questions asking "How do I trade?" or "How do I make profit from my skins?". Unfortunately these questions are very broad and it is hard to answer them in a succinct manner. In my experience, the only way to trade up is to actually TRADE. Don't be afraid of bargaining with people with items you want, and don't be afraid to add them. Lots of times people who deny all adds will still politely discuss a deal with them if you clearly state the reason for adding them and treat them with respect and good manners. The only real way to learn "How to trade" is to start making some trades, notice some trends on what items people really look for, and perhaps different ways to negotiate and make deals with people. There is never a time when a deal cannot be made, unless you choose to turn down the opportunity. A trader, even though reluctant to give his skins up, may always bend at the right price and offer. Don't be afraid to negotiate prices, outright decline potential offers, even if they are just above the price you are willing to pay. Patience is how traders like us solve problems. Patience determines your success. The longer you are willing to wait for a good deal, the juicier the deal and the profit. Don't ask me "How to trade?" because in retrospect it's just like every other thing, even playing. JUST DO IT. There is no need to take notes on what I say because notes don't make deals people. |
Trading requires patience, patience and more patience. What makes or breaks a trader is how long he or she can wait for a deal, trading at the opportune moment. Some items take time to sell, and that’s the reality of trading. There are no tricks, there are no secrets, only determination and willpower. In order to be a good trader, you must accept that not all deals come easy, and that not everyone is willing to trade in your favor.
Trading is a magical, yet also frustrating journey that involves lots of patience, knowledge of prices and a reliable and solid gut instinct. Sometimes a good deal might not appear to be a good deal, but sometimes taking a risk once in a while will net you a huge profit. The most notable examples of investments include case hardened knives, where profit is the most drastic, but the risk being exceptionally high to boot. Trading is not hard. Many people tell me that they are unable to trade up, or have hit a pothole in the road. Yes, I’ve been stuck countless times as well. Yes, I know what that feel is like and I can only tell you that patience is your friend in these circumstances. But on the same watch, if you are unwilling to trade away your current skins and get new ones in the face of profit, trading can be very slow and unproductive. I’ve helped quite a few individuals in trading from a mere 10-20$ investment or even just a few cent skins up to highly desired, highly coveted knives such as Karambit Fades, M9 Crimson Web’s and also elusive guns like the AK-47 Fire Serpent and M4A4 Howls. If you are really determined to succeed, you will always find a way to overcome the legions of lowballers, highballers and come out on top, wielding that mighty Factory New Dragon Lore AWP on the plains of Dust II. HOW TO GET INTO IT:I would like to introduce the methods I use to check market prices of items. I will be covering basic items as high tier knives fluctuate and often vary to an extreme extent based on patterns, scratching and other factors (collector knives).
To check the market price of something, simply open the Steam Community Market for CS:GO and type in the item that you are attempting to price. Examine the graph. Hover over the different points of sale and price points that the item has gone for in the past. From this, you can safely estimate the average price of something. For instance, the AWP Asiimov Field-Tested is a very common item and very desired, but also is very expensive. BUYING AND SELLING:To sell items or trade them for other items in CS:GO, there are a few methods.
The most simple, yet slow, method is the Trading Server method. It requires CS:GO to be downloaded and for you to connect to certain servers which are dedicated to trading. There you will find people trading items and talking, much like an actual market or store. You can advertise your goods by pasting in All-Chat a message like this one: [H] (Insert Item, Skin and Condition Here) [W] (Your Price)/Offers. The H stands for Have and the W stands for Want. It’s a very basic and straightforward way to sell items, but one problem that arises is that a server has a very limited pool and no search filters for certain items. There might not be anyone in the server who wants your item, and you may be stuck with no potential buyers. The next, and most commonly used method is the Steam Community Market. This one requires no explanation, it’s just a Steam platform supported method where you can obtain steam wallet for your item minus the fee that Valve absorbs. It’s good for saving for games or keys because the money can be used straight away. The last method, which is the best method for trading up, making profit is using CS:GO Lounge. It’s a betting site, and you’ve no doubt heard about it, but it also doubles as a sort of auction site where users can list items and other users can bid on them by posting item offers or messages. They can also add you and send trade offers, but beware of malicious link-spamming bots, usually identifiable by their private profiles and level 0 accounts with little to no play time/not owning CS:GO. Don’t accept these friend requests or click links that they post--It could potentially hijack your account or infect your computer. Dangerous, right?
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