Hey guys, I've got some good news: I'm going to have more time to work on videos very soon!
The history of the TF2 economy video is coming, but in the meantime, I want to release one or two smaller videos to tide you guys over.
What standalone videos do you want to see me make? I want your input!
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Iāve been pretty inactive recently. So what have I been up to?
tl;dr: I am not dead! The new trade series I promised is no longer coming out. In its place, however, I am working on an ambitious documentary on the entire history of the TF2 economy!
Greetings everyone!
Due to my recent inactivity, I realize many of you have been wondering what Iāve been up to. Have I been working on videos? Am I going to release my promised trade series? Have I quit YouTube?
To put all fears aside, I have no plans to abandon YouTube or TF2 content in general. In fact, Iāve been working on new content (off and on) since I last uploaded in September. You may notice, however, that none of this work has resulted in a finished video, meaning there has been no new content for over six months. Normally I try not to go this long without an upload, but alas, there was no way around it this time.
To explain why (and to give more insight into my current state as a creator) letās flash-back to June 2020. Last June, I released a Q&A video celebrating 50,000 subscribers. At the end of the video, I surprised viewers by announcing that I would do something I had previously refused to do: I would create another Keys to Riches-style trade series, updated to reflect the current economy in 2020!
And so thatās what I set out to do. From early May to mid August, I spent a few hours each day making trades (on a new alt account of course), recording a couple hundred trades in total. As an extra challenge for myself, I started the series with 1 key (instead of 10 or 20 keys), with the goal of proving that low-tier trading was still profitable even in the age of 50 ref keys. This was a difficult task, but it was possible. By August, I had traded up to almost 10 keys in value. Unfortunately, everything went downhill from there.
On August 18th, Geel announced that Marketplace.tf would be closing itās seller program by the end of the year, making it impossible for most traders to use the site. Since the start of the trade series, the primary way that I made profit was through Marketplace.tf. I would buy items on Backpack.tf, and then sell them for slightly more on Marketplace. The problem, however, was that by the time viewers got to see the first episode of the trade series (in September or October), they would only have a few months to use the strategies I demonstrated before being locked out of them entirely. And because the whole point of making an updated trade series was for it to be relevant years into the future (not just a few months), I felt like I was left with no choice but to throw out all of the progress I had made so far.
While I could have simply emptied my inventory and restarted the series (or even tried to selectively edit out all Marketplace trades from the current series), the premise of re-doing months worth of work and trading without Marketplace.tf was daunting. Regrettably, I soon lost the motivation to continue the series. It didnāt help that even if I did manage to get back to where I left off, I still had an absurd amount of work to do: I still needed to get dozens of unusual trades, record the voiceovers for each episode, edit everything together, and upload the videos themselves. It was all a bit overwhelming.
Choosing to abandon the series was a tough decision. The last thing I wanted to do was become yet another YouTuber to promise a trade series, only to falter in the end. But I think it was the right call for my own sanity. I simply didnāt have motivation, and I felt as if my time was better spent on other projects.
One of these projects was a video idea I had been wanting to make for years. This was a video that promised to dwarf all of my other videos in size and impact, in a way that no video of mine had ever done before. This idea was a documentary on the history of the entire TF2 economy. Inspired by the style of Summing Salt and Liam Triforce, the video would chronicle the economyās humble beginning to the inflation of keys, to the creation of Backpack.tf, to the fall of earbuds, and eventually to the rise of automation and the abundance of trade bots we see today. It would document how the economy shifted and reinvented itself over the course of a decade, giving thousands of players a way to make money off of their favorite video game.
Making a video like this, of course, is no easy task. As of the time of writing, Iāve probably spent over 100 hours on the video already, and all I have so far is a script. Iām very proud of the script, and feel it accurately depicts the economy and itās journey over the years, but it is still just a script. Despite the fact Iāve already spent hours researching the old economy, talking to trading veterans and re-writing everything dozens of times to create the script, I still have to finalize everything, record what is nearly 2 hours of audio footage, and edit in the visuals on top of that.
Ultimately, I have no idea how long it will take to turn the script into a finished video. Iāve never done something of this magnitude before, and even the shortest of videos in the past have taken far longer than expected. I hope to have the video out by the summer, but in all honesty, it might not come until the end of the year. If it ends up taking that long, I may work on some shorter videos to give you guys some content in the meantime. Regardless of how long it takes, however, I sincerely believe it will be worth the wait! :)
Before I sign off, I want to thank you again for the support youāve given me over the years. I truly wouldnāt have the ability, motivation, or ambition to work on such awesome projects without you guys!
- Ben
(this update was originally posted to Twitter, but I figured it would get seen by a lot more eyes if I put it here on YouTube as well!)
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Hey everyone!
To celebrate 50,000 subscribers, Iām planning to make a Q&A video! It's been over 4 years since I last made a video of this sort, so Iām really excited to do another in 2020. As such, you know the drill: Leave questions below, and I might just answer your question in the video!
That said, keep in mind that the intent of the video is for you guys to get to know me a little bit better. I may answer a few trading-advice related questions, but if you ask questions about me, YouTube (or even about TF2/TF2 trading in general), there is a much greater chance I will include your question in the video! I may still take a few meme questions too! :)
There will also be a special surprise in the Q&A video, so stay tuned!
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Iāve got some exciting news. As of today (maybe yesterday?) I've finally hit 50k subs!
50k is a massive milestone, so I wanted to thank everyone who has watched/enjoyed my videos over the years. Thank you for bearing with my infrequent and often volatile upload schedule, and allowing me to always try new things. Without your constant support I'm sure I wouldn't be where I am today :)
I want to do something special for 50k, but I havenāt quite figured out what I want to do yet. Maybe Iāll do a face reveal? New trading guide(s)? Whatever it is, I want it to be something really rewarding for long-time viewers of the channel, so give me suggestions if you've got them!
-Ben
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Hey everyone!
I hope you guys are enjoying my last video! Since Valve has put up their support page and made the first glitched unboxes tradable, I am now working on my Crate Depression video, which should be up sometime next week. However, in order to finish the video, I need your guyās help by answering this poll. If you got a tradable unusual from The Crate Depression, what are you doing with it?
Also: For the first time in years, I have updated my YouTube banner! It now displays not only my Soldier and Medic, but also my Engineer loadout (all equiped with beautiful Frostbite hats), and the banner now works better with the red and white theme of my logo. It was created by the talented SFM artist ZEG, so go check him out! steamcommunity.com/id/ZEG_/
POLL: If you got a tradable unusual from The Crate Depression, what are you doing with it?
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So, uh, you may have heard about a certain unusual glitch. And unfortunately, since my next video was supposed to be about unboxing odds and profitability, the glitch kinda screws the video over. While I still plan to release the video, I will have to wait until this whole fiasco rolls over for me to upload it. In the meantime, I am working on a video about this glitch, and as soon as Valve releases their intended fix, I will finish it up asap and release it for you guys. For now however, Iām curious. Assuming Valve cannot simply roll back inventories until before the bug, what do you think Valve should do to address the huge new influx of (currently untradable) first and third gen unusuals?
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Hey guys!
This is just a super quick update on the state of videos this summer. While I wish I could have gotten a second video out by now, irl stuff like being out of town and doing a time-intensive computer upgrade have gotten in the way of my productivity. My next video is a pretty big project Iāve been working on for a while, and Iām really hyped to release it. Unlike most of my videos recently, this video has the potential to impact the economy in a significant way, which is really exciting to me. In the meantime, I am slowly but surely making progress on it, such that hopefully it will be out by the end of the week. Look to see you then!
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Greetings everyone!
If you guys havenāt noticed, my channel has been pretty, well, dead, for the last 9 months or so.
While I hate to step away from the channel for so long, college keeps me pretty busy September to June and I donāt regret my decision to take a break from YouTube to focus on school during this time.
However, I have some great news to share. As of this week, I have finished college for the year and am starting summer vacation. Since I don't have any big obligations this summer, I plan to return to making videos on a (hopefully) regular schedule! This means that you will finally be able to get your fix of proper trading-related videos!
Also, if you want to interact with me or other traders before my new videos drop, Iād recommend joining my discord server if you havenāt yet. We have channels for advertising, trading advice, and scam prevention among many others. There is also an ongoing q and a if you want to ask me questions directly!
Link: discord.gg/Twb8SKY
Hope to see you guys on discord or in the comments of my next video!
- Ben
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Greetings everyone!
Over the past year and a half itās been no secret that Iāve taken a step back from YouTube. Compared to 2016 and 2017, where I uploaded once every 2 to 3 weeks, in 2018 I uploaded just 5 times, and Iām not convinced 2019 will be a whole lot better.
For those of you who donāt know (especially new subscribers), the reason for this inactivity is because of school. I am currently in my second year of college studying Computer Science, and while I do have some free time, I donāt want to spend what little free time I do have working on videos. College only happens once, I and I donāt want to reflect on my time here and think that instead of meeting new people and having fun I was stuck up in my room recording YouTube videos.
That being said, I by no means plan to abandon YouTube. It just means that uploads are going to be constrained (and have for the last year or so) to when I have school breaks (think Christmas, Spring break, Summer, etc.). It also means that I donāt have time for series-based videos such as Keys to Riches simply because episodes would come out too infrequently to be of any use.
As for Keys to Riches specifically, I feel your pain. Just as much as you guys, I want to reboot the series and show how to properly trade unusuals (or low tier items) in 2019. Believe it or not, back in 2016 we faced the exact same problem. No new trading series had been released since 2014 and everyone was clamoring for a good tutorial series. So I stepped up. And to be honest, I think I owe a lot of my YouTube success to that.
So hereās my advice to you guys. Since I won't be able to step up again, if you want to become a successful YouTuber, look no further than making your own trading series. So many people want this content, yet it doesnāt exist. As the old marketing manta goes, to find success all you need to do is āfind a need a fill itā.
On a slightly unrelated note, if you havenāt seen it yet, you guys should definitely check out the new video I produced over the holidays with āŖ@OfficialMaxBoxā¬. If youāve watched my old video āIs it a Scam?ā this is the long awaited sequel! So far YouTube algorithm hasnāt blessed the video with tons of views, so there is a decent chance you havenāt seen it yet. The video is linked below!
Lastly, if you want to stay connected with me even when I am not uploading, I strongly recommend you guys follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/VirtualTF) or join my discord server (discord.gg/Twb8SKY) for daily trading content!
Have a great new year everyone!
- Ben
watch video on watch page
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A TF2 channel that delves into the trading and economic side of the game!