In theory, it should not be complicated to write a bot that constantly tries to get the lowest price, especially if their store region is Russia, Colombia, Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, or Indonesia, where it is the easiest to undercut with local currency and still maintain a better profit rate. Things like Enhanced Steam or SIH can get the prices, programs like WinAuth can auto-confirm everything, you only need a module that dynamically adjusts the price and puts new items on the market.
Also, Steam support will do nothing.
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Is there anything I can do? People don't buy foil cards that often and I don't want to sell mine for crappy price. I never had anything to sell worth more than 5-6$ and even then the prices were always cut within 1-2 days by some morrons to such extent that I couldn't buy even some low-priced game with the earned money.
I don't know what to do in this situation. If I let this person overbid me and get the potential buyer, I may not get the chance to sell my card for any normal price. I have already experienced this issue and the person even openly told me that he was using some plugin (don't remember the name) and that I had no chance against him.
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It's a misconception that foil cards actually will sell at their current market prices (which are essentially always extremely inflated by sellers).
Looking through the cards, other than Light Novels & Manga (which may go for as much as $4), none of the cards seem to have a current value of higher than about $2.80. Even if you get lucky on a sale, you're not going to sell for higher than about 3.25, given that previous sales for all the cards generally haven't exceeded that range in the past, when demand was higher.
Also, you're looking at this scenario entirely wrong. Just keep forcing his list pricing down, until it reaches absurdly cheap levels. Then list yours back at a reasonable price. Someone'll snap his card up, he'll be 'punished' for using a bot, and it won't measurably affect the value of the card moving forward (as both aberrant price drops never really affect such, and because it's likely to be nabbed by an opportunist rather than a dedicated collector, meaning your purchaser pool isn't likely to reduce). (Of course, if delay is 10-15 minutes, then you're at risk as well, so you may wanna cut out before the price drops too low.)
to sell valued at more than 5-6$
Minor correction. The worth (ie, inherent value) of any trading card is generally $0.00. Again, it's important you don't place too high an expectation on any listed value of a card, with such being so subjective and likely to fluctuate. Typically, you want to sell as fast as you can, at as good a price as you can, rather than aiming for something overly greedy- foil cards especially generally plummet in price rather quickly. Rely on the data of previous successful sale prices, and then try and place your card up with a noticeable cut in price under that, and it'll generally sell. Try to compete with the last sale value, and you're not all that likely to succeed- and if you try to compete with previous highs, you're practically assured not to be able to.
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I was actually thinking of doing something like this. The only thing that stops me is that there is always the risk that my cheap card will be grabbed before the bot will change his price. However, it seems that it is the only way for me to sell anything... Oh, but it is so sad that I can only get 3$ for the card. This won't be enough for any of the games I really want. (I wish teachers had better salaries ><)
Thank you for your advice! I will use these tips in the future so to achieve the best results.
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only get 3$ for the card
Oh.. fuck off... "Only" $3 for a worthless digital item. Just be happy that someone would pay you anything for something that costed you nothing and move on.
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There is no need to be rude. I haven't written anything bad or offensive.
And should I remind you that people pay thousands of dollars for CS:GO items? Or for DOTA skins? So my desire to get something valuable for my card shouldn't come as a surprise looking at how people spend money like crazy on even more useless staff. If you don't like the idea of selling things on Steam, it's not my fault.
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First: if you think anyone will pay ten dollars for a foil card, you are just kidding yourself. Especially when that card has a history of selling for four dollars. (Which is still ridiculous even for an anime game, most foils go for maybe two dollars at worst.)
Second: it is an open market where people can set any price they want. This is by design and as long as someone actually doesn't do some fraudulent action, they comply with market regulations.
Third: you got that card for free. The more money you want for it and the more greedy you want to be, the less money you will see as others will just grab the opportunity and take those 3-dollar buy offers rather than waiting endlessly for someone with a bigger wallet to come along. There is nothing that would hurry any buyer, as there are no rewards attached to the cards, especially the foils; the only time someone pays ridiculous money is when some rich guy comes along and wants that super rare badge. Those are even rare among those who even bother with foil badges. I the end, the patient buyer will win as they have already put the money down in the offer, it is the sellers who have potential income to lose by waiting until Steam closes down.
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I hardly ever get any foil cards (or get them for some very cheap games), so I'm not really familiar with prices for them. I sometimes check trades for this type of cards and they are usually pretty expensive. So I just used the information I got from other sellers and set my card close to the price of first offers. This very day one of the card was sold for 9$, so I would like to sell it for something close to this price. But I wish I knew the facts you listed a few days before, when buyers' offers were better. I would have taken them then instead of waiting.
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Currently listings are one thing, the market history you can see at the item's market page is another. If it was sold for third the current offers, nobody will pay the triple price ever again. As I said, in this waiting game only sellers can lose, as their cards may forever get stuck on them.
To give you an example: I am trying to get a level 5 badge on a game called New York Mysteries: lantern of Souls. The card sellers have roughly zero sense of business as the average card price is around 80 cents for a normal card. So, I am buying 90-cent gem sacks and turning them into boosters, which net me 3 cards. Their cards will never sell and I am still getting what I want by paying others on the market instead.
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Thank you for the explanation. As it turned out, I had no idea about how the market works. It is very sad because it seems I lost my opportunity to sell the card for a good price.
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Just check Snuggle Truck foil prices and what they actually sell for. :)
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That is a pretty special—and facepalm-inducing—case, especially if you look at the normal card prices or the cheap emotes and background. In that case, they are buying just the foil cards to make its badge, because, well…
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You are trying the very same as the other guy does, attempting to undercut the competition and in the result you both will suffer from it. Just don't drop below what you consider to be a reasonable price, at the given time.
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I think you are right. I usually just sell cards to buyers with the best offers so to make them happy and to save some money for things I want. This time I was misled by the price of the first sellers and really wanted to sell my card for the good amount of money. But it seems I got myself a headache instead.
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Chile FTW! Pesos are worth nothing XD and in the steam market we can even go to ",XX" XD
btw 1 U$ = 660 or 670 CPL
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Pretty sure that the market is swarmed with bots buying and selling items at all times of day - not sure if it's practically allowed or not, but Steam is definitely unable to control it. It's not uncommon for specific items to be purchased and sold in bulk and creating surges of price fluctuations, which also determine prices on many external sites that use bots to trade with users and the market.
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This is awful...A few years ago I used to earn money to buy games in Steam by selling cards and backgrounds, for example, from my favourite visual novels. I would absolutely love to buy some of games like Nier: Automata and tons of visual novels, but I can't do it now because prices are cut within just 1 day and because I'm always overbid by someone. Even items for Armello have awful prices now, so I don't know what to do.
I'm sure in just 1 thing: I will never use any kind of bots to trade like this! It is unfair and just moronic.
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You can still make a nice living from selling your cards. I sell almost all of mine at average price. The trick is to gauge supply and demand for each individual listing and ignore the undercut prices. If the undercut items are in short supply they will usually sell out without dragging prices down and your card will be next in line to be sold at the normal price.
For foil cards, this is much trickier, but I'll usually ignore fluctuations and set the average price based on the sales history graph. Eventually, someone will be willing to pay a reasonable price when all the undercut cards are sold off. Since foil cards are very rare, it's usually guaranteed that they will sell sooner or later as long as the price is reasonable.
If people undercut you after your items are listed, simply ignore them. In most cases they won't change the market average at all. If your cards are still not sold after several weeks, you can do a relisting based on new prices if the market price has changed - otherwise leave them there and wait.
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Thank you for your advice! I think I will do this instead of getting at my wit's end because of this trader.
Could you give me another piece of advice, please? I'm also selling some keys from Armello (to open chests with special items). The price for them has been cut almost fivefold within the last few months. Should I just wait until the release of the new set of keys and chests (which will take place on May 24) or sell my items for this low price?
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You're welcome :)
Well, I have no experience with this particular game, but if I understand correctly and these keys are universal, I would definitely wait, especially since there are only two days left. The worst that can happen is that the price will continue to drop slightly, but if you're right, the shift in demand and the general impatience of people should give the price a nice boost. So the potential benefit of waiting far outweights the risk in this scenario, in my opinion.
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this person is always overbidding me and all other traders.
The term you're looking for is presumably 'undercutting', not 'overbidding'. Outbidding is what happens in an ebay-style auction when you and another person are both trying to purchase the item, and the other bidder keeps beating your bid. Overbidding is what happens when someone bids on an item in excess of the item's actual estimated value (presumably outbidding more reasonable bids). Undercutting is when someone intentionally lowers a price so as to sell their product or service cheaper than a competitor.
Overbid, definition: a bid which is higher than what the value of the item justifies spending
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Ah, thank you very much! I don't use words from the economic sphere that often, so I tend to confuse some of them from time to time.
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Oh yeah, i know how annoying it is when you're trying to sell an expensive foil card and someone always has a better price by 0.01€. I usually just leave the price as i set it and don't worry about it, someone is going to buy the card for your price eventually.
It's a different story if you want the money as fast as possible though.
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I think I have enough time until the Summer Sale, so this is not a problem :)
Still, there are 7 other traders with the same card and I'm afraid that even more may come and cut the price to the extent that it will be easier to give it away for free =_= So far, this is the most expensive thing I have ever had for trade so I'm pretty excited about it. It would be such a shame to lose to some bots.
Do you think I should stop changing the price and just wait in these circumstances?
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It's a tough call since there are currently 9 items on the market. If the decision was up to me, then i would let the price stay as it is, because you can always lower the price if needed and the Summer Sale is still a few weeks away.
My advice: keep it as it is for now and lower the price a bit when the sale is in progress. :3
Good luck!
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All cards start selling like mad when sales start, so waiting until then makes more sense.
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Really?! I thought people start buying games and don't pay any attention to cards xD Thank you for telling me the right info ^^
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Well when you craft a badge during sales you get a sale card for it and not a worthless coupon, so it works both ways. In my experience prices go up first because everyone wants to complete their badges, then down later in the sale when people sell leftovers. Not like there is any guarantee for what will happen, but main thing is that market becomes a lot more active, so easier to sell your foils then.
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I will keep it in mind! Maybe I will finally sell some of my cheap items too.
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yes its true, there are bots, mostly for cs:go skins
i was fighting with bots on the steam market by selling my skins, it doesnt matter which day time, after 15 minutes the same person always set his price a little bit lower than my to be the cheapest offer on market
and also by buy orders, i set buy order for a skin 31€ to be the highest on the list, regular price is mroe than 40, it doesnt matter which day time, after 5 minutes a bot is chaning the price to 0,10€ more than my
the bots are trying to buy the skins cheap and selling them with a win, and that automaticly, they are making me hardcore angry
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I sometimes want to learn how to hack computers and servers, find these people and punish them =_=
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Some people might be very active to constantly try to relist for a cheaper price. You could just go for instantly selling it, or suffer waiting trying to keep the highest (low) price against the user and hope someone buys it.
Even if you report the user to Valve, I don't know if anything can be expected to happen unless it would appear very obvious they are using some sort of program or script constantly lowering the price. If you relist for a lower price, does the card get relisted after the same time each time? If you watch the page for 10 or 20 minutes, you might find out if it's a program or not. It could always be an active user, though.
If you were bored and did it for a few minutes at random times during the day or night, you could probably guess if it's actually a person or a program. You can report the account anyway and with enough reports, it might be looked into one day.
I would say it's less "trading" and more just "making money" since it's the market for higher priced items here, though.
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This might be true. I once had to deal with a person who changed the price just for fun (at least according to him), and he did it every 30 seconds.
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those trading bots are like sg users with few entry giveaways. these ...kind of...* people are exists. just accept it and have a good day... :)
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Perhaps you could troll his bot into setting a ridiculously low price by using your foil as bait, to which you can reply by buying his foil card for a pittance?
Of course, this course of action runs the risk of losing your bait
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Yup, it might be quite risky, unfortunately. Also, as it was mentioned above, it could be just an active trader and not a bot. Then my card will be grabbed in no time by this very person =_=
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But if this person is using a bot, isn't it considered as cheating? If he changes the price himself, it is one thing, but using any kind of programs is usually considered to be against the rules.
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Chu~
Recently I encountered the following problem: I'm trying to sell a foil card for the game Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project (my card is Narcissu 2nd). I was one of the first traders who had placed this card on market. However, the last two days turned into a nightmare because one of other traders started to change the price for his card EVERY 10-15 MINUTES! No matter when I check my card, at night or during the day, at 3 a.m. or 11 p.m, this person is always undercutting me and all other traders.
I cannot but ask if there is any program that can do something like this with the things you're trading? I don't believe that a normal human can control his trade every single moment of the day and night! If the situation doesn't change within two days, I will report this issue to Steam Support because such "traders" ruin the whole idea of trading. However, before doing this, I need to gather some information regarding this type of cheating. For this reason I'm posting my question here.
Thank you beforehand for your answers! ^^
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