Any tips for someone who's going to start trading

Mention that you will only trade with users you add yourself, not anyone who adds you. This can keep you safe from impersonators.

Ask people to post on your thread before adding you on Steam.

First of all you must know for how much you will sell your product. No one will trade with you if your prices are higher than all other traders. Also if you sell too cheap, you might get no profit.
Traders like to use Tf2 keys as their currency. It's kinda weird at first, but it works as any other currency. Here's some simple way to convert. Link

Now, you might find some people that will try to scam you. Always check people's profile. Also make sure the profile they are showing is really theirs. And common sense always help :P

Not a good time to start I'm afraid. Steam is hammering down on trading, making it harder to trade since the 30 day freeze on gifts and 7 days on keys.

My 2c (pretty obvious, but still):

1. Trade safe (or at least as safe as possible): always carefully check the steam and steamtrades profiles of the person you are actually trading with (don't trust their links! check for yourself! Enhanched stream makes it easier, but it's not necessary)
2. If it's too good to be true, it's probably not true.

First rule of trading - you do not talk about trading!

Second rule of trading - you DO NOT talk about trading!!!!!

....

1. Never lie to your doctor.

2. Give a firm handshake.

3. Floss regularly.

4. Never wear a clip-on tie.

I think I did good.

1. Get TF2 keys (bought my keys via Paypal from a trader)

2. Buy games which can be traded easily using tf2 keys (in sale or from someone else)

3. Trade for other games. Always make sure that you make a profit unless you really want to play the game

4. ???

5. Enjoy trading :P

trade for what you want, trade with who you want, get scammed if you want, be a scammer if you want. Really, just do what you want and have fun doing it, I have met some amazing people through trading!

1. Get enhanced steam add-on. Every time someone adds you,click on their profile yourself and check their Steamtrades + Steamrep from there.
2. Do not trade with anyone that has any mark of negative reputations. Yes,that also means +500 / -1. As a noob,don't take any chances.
3. Know what the average price of what you're selling/buying is. If a deal is too good (= asks for 3 keys for a 4.5 keys game),decline.
4. Only trade with users with high(50+ minimum) Steamtrades reputation. Disregard ANY other source of reputation(e.g. profile comments,comments on other sites).
5. Avoid users that are new to Steam,new to Steamtrades(= all their positive rep was earned recently),have a low steam profile level,have a private profile,only have a low amount of cheap games.
6. When possible,always ask the other party to go first.
7. Whenever possible,trading inside the Steam Trading Window is recommended.
8. For more security,record live in video everything you do from the moment someone adds you to where you start trading. While it does not make being scammed any nicer,it means that if you do you have proof that you can submit.
9. If you feel any pressure,pass on the deal. If they rush you,tell you they have to go soon,etc,just tell them that you're still here and you can wait for them to come back.
10. Golden rule: If it appears too good to be true,it is.

Thank you for this thread and to everyone who contributed. So much good advice here!

TRUST NO ONE

you will fail eventually... not saying that you will get scammed, i'm saying that sometimes you scam yourself because you did not checked something correctly

Don't trust people who randomly add you. Always demand their ST profile, and check their Steam profile through it to make sure that they're the same person, not just the same name. Do this even if you've had contact through ST, since someone could have seen your conversation and decided to impersonate them.

Never trust rep on a user's Steam profile. The user has complete control of the content on there, so if someone posts something that they don't like, such as negative rep, it can be deleted. If a person flaunts this instead of their ST rep, be wary of them.

When dealing with game keys, know what games are/were in bundles. If a low rep user is trying to trade a game key that has been bundled before in one of the major bundles, there's a far greater chance of it being legit than if he/she were trying to trade a Payday 2 key.

If you're going to trade for game keys, only trade for ones that you will activate to your account. Do not trade for game keys with the intention of re-trading them; there is no way for you to verify that the key works without activating it, so trading game keys from a third party such as that is far more riskier than trading with a game key that you obtained directly from trusted sites, such as Humble Bundle and other bundle sites.

When what you're offering is a game key and the other person has more rep than you, they will most likely expect you to go first. Until you get more rep, try to deal with only people with a reasonably high amount of rep, with many games on their account. If a person has low rep and a low game count, be wary.

When in a situation where you're trading multiple game keys for their gift, a reasonable person will maybe let you do half of the game keys, then they send the gift, followed by you sending the remaining game keys. This can apply to many different scenarios, such as if you're both trading multiple items, be it gifts for game keys or game keys for other game keys; take turns doing one at a time in order to minimize potential losses.

If trading game keys for a gift and you're going first, check a person's inventory for the item that they're offering before sending anything. If their inventory is private, make them unlock it.

It's a common understanding that game keys go before gifts, but I disagree to an extent. Once you get high enough rep, if you have a game key and the other guy has low rep and a gift, he's going first.

If someone has negative rep on their ST profile, check what the negative rep says. Sometimes people don't understand what it's for, and will -rep people for stupid reasons, unrelated to their trustworthiness. If they're accused of being a scammer, though, make them go first.

If a person randomly adds you with no previous communication through ST, demand that they go first, regardless of their rep level. Moreso, if they seem to be in a hurry or are very pushy about doing it their way, don't do it.

If a trade is too good to be true, it probably is. Don't bite unless they go first.

If you're activating a CD key and it comes back with an error, before you start calling the other person a scammer, double check that what you pasted into the activation window is the same as what the other trader gave you, rather than something that was already on your clipboard. Also, make sure that it isn't missing any characters that might have been cut off while highlighting it. Re-paste the key back to the trader in quotes, exactly as you entered into the activation window, letting him/her know that it is invalid so that they can see exactly what you pasted and check if it was incorrect somehow, such as giving the wrong code. Mistakes like this happen on both sides of the trade, and you should do all you can to confirm that the fault doesn't fall on you before claiming a code is invalid or a duplicate. With game key trading already being a paranoia-filled event, especially for the one that goes first, never be 100% sure that you aren't the one at fault, and do all you can to make sure of that before the situation escalates. Also note that an invalid key is not the same as a used key, and the activation message will say as much. An invalid key means that the key is not associated with any game, whereas a used key means that it is associated with a game, but used.

Finally, if a deal seems shady and they aren't doing things your way, don't be afraid to walk away, even if it's for something that you really want.

All in all, do what you can to minimize your risk as much as possible, even if it means not going through with some trades. Good luck.

Common wisdom: be realistic with your wishes. Don't expect to get a recent AAA game that never was on sale for a bundled one. You should create a separate wishlist for bundle games you missed and put it in your thread.

Try to never go first, especially if the person you're trading with has very few rep.

Always doublecheck on Steamrep or rep.tf when doing high value trades.

Avoid phishing bots, random links, people who say "hey m8 i am trader pls look at screenshot" or send you steamed corn munity links or whatever. General internet advice applies.

Buy low, sell high.

Generally try to stay away from anything that can't be traded through Steam, and be cautious otherwise.

If someone links you to "their" rep thread, doublecheck its theirs.

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