Getting rep as a new trader?

Currently, I'm a newbie to trading (only 100 hours of playtime xD)

I might want to get into cash trading later on, but I have no reputation to begin with, and I'd like to start building up rep for when I eventually DO start cash trading.

Can you only get rep from cash trading?

I have already created my SourceOP Rep Thread (In sig)

Also, should I touch up my profile to make it look more professional? (Steam Profile)

Thanks for the help in advance,
EvilShallWin

It's a very slow and painful process, especially now with all the scammers running amuck and making it hard for anyone to trust anyone. Hell, I've been cash trading for like 5 months now and my SourceOP thread has a grand total of... 2 legitimate rep comments. Granted, it's my fault for refusing comments on my thread when I go first/ a middleman is used, but still.
Just keep at it, make a good name for yourself, stay sharp and smart, and don't mess up. Good traders are always a treat to deal with, they DO exist and they ARE worth putting up with the bad traders and scammers out there.

Thanks for the advice

I wish you luck in trading!

good luck!

As mentioned before, it's a very long process. Just make sure you don't get scammed along the way.

I personally don't have a rep thread because it's too easy for scammers to steal.

Create a SourceOP thread, and ask people to post your "rep" there. Takes time, however.

Rep threads are the bane of almost every traders existence, too much rep in too short a time calls into question the validity of the thread. Not enough and people don't trust you, unfortunately, it is the lesser of two evils, as it is nigh on impossible to trade for RC without significant reputation.
If you are trying to build rep, it doesn't matter where it is from. However, in my opinion there is no point giving someone a link to a rep thread if there was no trust involved in the trade, for example if you used the standard Steam trading interface to trade a T/S bills for 11 keys, there was no risk involved to either party, and unless one of the involved parties was extremely careless, scamming was impossible. The same applies if you didn't go first, since there was no risk involved for you. The way I see it, you should only post on someones rep thread when THEY put their trust in YOU, not the other way around. In short a rep thread is a way of saying "Hey, look at all these people I COULD have scammed, but because I'm a moral person and a good trader, I didn't."

So to answer your question, you should in theory, only get rep from trades where someone afforded their trust in you, and you didn't betray them, so yes, you should really only get rep from cash trades. An optional way of doing this is to buy cheap items eg. ref and keys from trusted traders, and you go first. Because they're trusted, there's slim to none chance of getting scammed, and on the off chance they have a false rep page, your only down a few <Insert National Currency here> instead of a lot more when trading for a high tier unusual.

Your profile looks fine, you do have one large scale scammer in your friends, but other than that everything looks fine.
But remember that the whole point of a rep thread is to prove your reputation, and a good reputation can not be built over night. You will have to trade for a very long time to build up significant rep, but the length and difficulty of building rep is what makes it such a good anti-scam method.

As a piece of final advice, consider joining a steam group that is actively against scamming, this would serve as a cherry on top to anyone doubting your reputation.

Hope this helps

There's a similar thread that's not so old and I posted this there but I'll do the same here. I've recently setup a project to help new people with low rep kick-start their SOP rep threads (Please abide by SOPs rules when creating a rep thread). You can find it, along with all the details here - http://www.sourceop.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=119643 . Initially you can't have more than 2 reps in your thread by I may expand this if it's needed.

I'm no expert here (Posting my first comments to get rep adding privileges, lol), but the way I think of it is like karma: just be fair, polite, and considerate, and you won't have to ask people to give you rep for it.

It's defenitely not hard. Start as soon as you can, make a thread on soursceOP. I made mine the day I decided to do a cash transaction. You really need to just make yourself presentable, get people to trust you. I did my first transactions with a man named Ketchup, someone who already had a long history with sourceop, so I was a) able to trust him with my money, and b) any comments he left on my page would hold a decent amount of weight for future transactions.

What matters most, is a consistant history of you having lots of positive transactions. You won't be 100% trustworthy at first, if course. I've only been trading since early March, but since I made my thread back then, I should be in the clear starting next month, once the actual time line for chargeback expires and I can safely say 'I won't charge back you'.

Lastly, to answer the question you're probably wanting to really know, yes, you DO need to do cash transactions over paypal to establish a reputation as a valid member of the community. Making a thread on sourceOP helps immensely in the long run.

Just be a nice person and trade often. I have had no legitimate rep on my source op thread and haven't linked anyone to my trade. Yet I've done a few cash trades, all with them willing to go first, all with no problems.

Although do beware of buying/ selling stolen stuff and trading with scammers