Originally posted by Shrodu:

The moment it went to 10 ref, I stopped considering metal for keys.

Thanks the psychological barrier I was hoping would stop a lot of people, unfortunately not the case. Stores price things at $9.99 because they know $10.00 looks like a lot more, even though it's only one cent higher.

Originally posted by >(ƒg☨-Owner)<Chappers:

Why don't we just delete metal? It seems like a stupid idea but because more metal is coming into the mannconomy and less keys, more metal means easier to buy keys, key prices bump up. Also buy keys from just the mann co store, so that more keys are generated hence lowering the value of such coveted items

That would not work, at all. Getting rid of metal would be like getting rid of cents to the dollar. What would you buy hats with? What would you buy weapons with, how could people start from a f2p account and trade their way up without metal and only keys? If anything keys are not necessary as currency, not metal. You cannot buy metal from the store, it is as close to a true currency as we have. Getting people to delete their metal will not be possible, and more importantly the key price is a false value explained by the cycle I listed on the main page. It is not the metal to key ratio, it is people overvaluing keys artificially. If you're a student of economics you will be familar with "tulip mania", which is what I compare the keys to.

Originally posted by Moonbeam (Busy):

I haven't traded metal for keys in forever. I have sold keys but all of those were quicksales where I sold them for a significantly lower price than backpack.tf recommended at the time.Hopefully people will be more resonsible in the future;

One can only hope.

Exactly.

Good, those prices are stable for the most part.

Right now the price of keys is higher in metal than they are worth at their maximum monetary price of $2.49 according to current metal vs key value! Meaning if you buy a key with your metal you're losing money, and further devaluing our base currency. If you want your items to be worth anything you'll boycott paying metal for keys!