I'm not exactly sure what Team Fortress 2 has evolved into at this point.
Not complaining, though.

quote Lorx

Interesting, able to sell off games/things I have in my inventory, instead of needing trade material? I can see myself using this.

quote GLaDOS

I'm not exactly sure what Team Fortress 2 has evolved into at this point.
Not complaining, though.

Hat simulator.

That's true. But in an interesting mutation for a game, it's turned from a packaged sequel to an old mod, to an F2P, a common name among PC gamers, a series of videos etc, an economy.

But most importantly, it added hats to a previously hatless age of first-person shooting.

quote Insanity Prevails

It's pretty much Valve realising that people were practically doing this already and offering a more straightforward option in exchange for a cut in the proceeds. Interesting to see them officially branch out into this.

Pretty much.

Bit mixed about this, especially since it could lead to the best items being available only for those who pay for them.

Granted it would probably be Valve trying to combat bots that sell items anyway, so they have more control over how stuff works so I suppose it would also be to control the economy and enforce more protection from players getting ripped off, although I'm sure Valve will also take a small commission since quite a lot of companies do when they operate things like this.

quote Lorx

quote harbin

Bit mixed about this, especially since it could lead to the best items being available only for those who pay for them.

Doesn't the shop already have every item anyway, you just can't pick out different "rarities" (vintage or whatever)? I don't play TF2 enough to know if that's wholly true or not.

Well TBH I haven't played TF2 for awhile anyway so I'm not quite sure if anything has changed since then.

quote Lorx

Wow, look at dem prices, three pennies for a key right now. They're what, $2.50 normally?

Site says $1.72 now, must've updated. I think thats actually higher than people where buying them for on paypal before they started this.

And an addition to your comment on 'rarity', the hats you see going for real money are normally of Unusual quality, which can have prices ranging from $10 to $200+ based on hat and effect, and Buds, which are currently hovering around $32 each.

quote GLaDOS

I'm not exactly sure what Team Fortress 2 has evolved into at this point.
Not complaining, though.

I really think at this point Team Fortress is a vehicle for Valve's social experiments. They introduced hats to observe how obsessive certain players got about having them all. They introduced loot drops while allowing players to buy items and keys to unlock chests, to see if players truly would. Now they are seeing if players will actually buy something another player found in a game with real money. Granted they could have just observed Diablo 3 for this one, but I guess it's easier to observe the raw sales figures when it's happening in your game.