FAQ - backpack.tf

This website is currently administrated by one person under the name "Brad Pitt". The name was picked a long time ago when I was part of a clan made out of celebrity names and always found it funny. My real name is Steve Rabouin.

If you would like to contact the owner of this website, please use one of these following options:

Additionally, this is the current list of people who are helping out with price suggestions administration:

There are currently only two ways to accumulate contribution points. Note that if you ever go into negative points, you will not be able to post new price suggestions until your contribution points are positive again.

Here's how to gain contribution points:

Upvote an item. If the price gets accepted and you've voted on the item, you will get 1 contribution point. You will lose 1 contribution point if the vote gets denied.
Downvote an item. If the price gets denied and you've downvoted on the item, you will get 1 contribution point. You will lose 1 contribution point if the vote gets accepted.
Start a price suggestion. You will receive 10 contribution points if it gets accepted. In the case it gets denied, you will lose 5 contribution points.
If you close your own suggestion, you will not lose any extra contribution points than the already accumulated. (this is to promote self-moderation!).
Negative votes affect your contribution points instantly, and positive ones are only added after a suggestion is accepted. The rationale behind this is very simple: block trolls from suggesting multiple bad suggestions in a row.

If you ever end up with negative contribution points:

You cannot go lower than -5, it will be reset to -5 every day.
Every day passing, you will gain 1 point back. So if you're in the negatives, you could wait it out for 5 consecutive days and be automatically back to 0.
You can still vote on items. You can gain points back by voting accurately.

There are currently 3 ways to earn raffle entries.

Vote on suggestions. Every month, we remove the rejected votes from the accepted votes (this ensures you're not simply voting on everything, we're looking for accuracy!). For each 100 votes left you will receive 1 entry up to a maximum of 5.
Make a donation. For every $1 of items donated, you will receive 1 ticket.
Become a Premium Member. Each Premium Member receives 5 tickets every month and are also entered in a premium-only raffle.

The multiplier is very simple and was created to allow people with more knowledge about the market to participate in higher price suggestions. It's currently calculated with the formula: contribution points divided by 250.

There is a bottom and top limit. The minimum multiplier will always be 1, and the maximum multiplier one person can get is 5.

In other words, if you have 500 contribution points, your multiplier will be 2. If your backpack's all-time highest value has been 1 bud, this means you can now suggest a price of up to 2 buds, and vote on items valued up to 2 buds.

Earning badges is very easy. Here are a list of badges and a description on how to acquire them:

Early Adopter was awarded to people who logged in to the voting section prior to July 13, 2012.
Supporter is awarded to anyone who joins our Steam Group.
★★★★★ is awarded based on the user accuracy for the previous month. The higher the accuracy and number of votes, the more stars you get.
Pricing [...] is awarded based on successful price suggestions.
[...] contributor is awarded based on contribution points accumulated via voting and submitting price suggestions.
Unusual Hat [...] is awarded based on successful unusual hat price suggestions.

We also have special donator badges, you can find more about them on the donate page. More badges may appear in the future.

Here are the modifiers applied to modified or special items, based on prices from the pricelist. These modifiers are cumulative, and in this order:

Price assigned is from the pricelist.
If item is not craftable, price is reduced by 50% if a price is not set for this specific uncraftable item.
If item is not tradable, price is reduced by 50%. (Exceptions for items like HOUWAR that are never tradable)
If item is tradable, but has gift text, price is reduced by 25%.
If item is vintage and has a special level, a price bonus is applied. The special bonuses are:
- Weapons levels:
  - 0 = Bill's hat + 5.11 ref
  - 1 = Bill's hat
  - 42 = Price * 10
  - 69 = Bill's hat
  - 99 = Bill's hat
  - 100 = Bill's hat
- Hat levels:
  - 0 = Price * 10
  - 1 = Price * 5
  - 42 = Price * 3
  - 69 = Price * 4
  - 99 = Price * 4
  - 100 = Price * 6
If the item is painted, the item will get a 85% bonus from the price of the paint, up to a maximum of 2x the original item value. For example, if an item is 1 rec, it will never be worth more than 2 rec even if it's painted white. But if it's worth 10 keys, it will get the full 85% paint price bonus.
If the item has a strange part applied, the item will get a 80% bonus from the price of the strange part.
If the item has a low craft #, a price bonus is applied. The special bonus is:
- If price is under 1 ref, make price 1 ref. (This will give us a minimum of 1 earbud, usually weapons)
- If price is over 2 ref, make price 2 ref. (This will give us a maximum of 2 earbud)
- If level is...
  - 1, 69, 99, 100 = Price * Earbuds Price
  - 42 = Price * ( Earbuds Price * 0.5 )
  - Others = Price * ( Earbuds Price * 0.25 )