This is an amazing idea. You should message Valve representatives about this!!!

what if we craft the keys? 3 or 4 (or a Bronze metal plus something) ref make a key, if you want more keys you can buy it... i mean Valve is not going to lose money because you can craft the keys, they got a lot of money (and make a lot of money every hour)

We know that metal is free, and that is a flaw. If higher tier metal could be not as easy to make, and Valve made some sort of profit, it could work and easily be done.

After a little thought, here are my two cents. The main issue traders seem to have with keys is the ever rising price, and I've seen as high as 4.55. The reason for this inflation is simple supply and demand, while the supply of metal increases the supply of keys at best increases at a small fraction of that of the supply of metal. Because of the now larger amount of metal, more people with metal will want the more valuable keys, while people with keys find the metal less valuable as it becomes more and more available.
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In the same way that the supply of keys increases much more slowly than metal, unusuals; misc.; and buds either don't increase in supply at all, or at best a fraction of that of the keys (if my understanding of the drop system is correct). Therefore the price of these items will increase in proportion with the price of keys. That being now well established, it should not take much of a leap to infer that holding the majority of ones wealth in keys is preferable, because over time they will mature in value (if the current trend continues, and it shows no signs of stopping).
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All of that above is to establish that metal is an infinite and renewable resource (like printed money), while keys are a finite and perishable resource (similar to printed money). Now just like making a million dollar bill would make it easier to buy larger quantities of oil but not reduce the price per unit, adding bronze, silver, platinum, or even solid rainbow magic metal would not make unusuals any more obtainable or keys any less expensive.
Now this would not be a necessarily bad idea, and Valve would probably not object to the idea in and of itself since it does not drive down the price of anything, but it certainly is not a solution to the problem at hand, since a large amount of metal will depreciate in value as the price of keys continues to rise. Avoiding buying/selling keys would be the only 'easy' solution.

TL;DR: Won't solve key problem, but does give (shaky) alternative for large amounts of currency.

While the idea is great and would be a logical solution to the fluctuating economy, it, sadly, will never happen. Metal is free, and is obtainable only through drops, so while it would steady the economy, Valve gets no profit. However, keys are only obtainable through purchase through the mann co. store, meaning big bucks for Valve. While higher tier metal would not completely stop the purchase of keys, it would greatly reduce it, meaning Valve would lose interest in expanding the game, since no more monies. Remember that Valve is a business, and care more for their profit rather than how much we enjoy a virtual economy.

Another thing that would add value to metal is if people stopped buying craft hats for 1.33 ref, making rebuilding less profitable.

i aprove this

also, I love the idea and concept of this! Although i wouldn't probably wont be able to make the Stuff, but I absolutely would love to be able to get stuff in higher tiered metal xD

BROKE THE 69 MEMBER CHAIN

There's one flaw - keys can be used for unboxing unusual hats and stranges, for trading. The 'higher tier' metal wouldn't be used for anything except trading. That is the main flaw. Unless, you can craft unusual wtih platinum metal, but believe it. It ain't happening.

Someone would have to model the metal. This would make it more convinient for valve if they decide to add it.

Thanks again for joining everyone!

I highly approve of this idea.

In it because of the idea.
Scrap is life and Platinum metal would be the ultimate lvl Scrap.

Thanks for joining the group, guys! We appreciate it!