What happens when…?

Howdy folks. I'm AwEsUm, and I'm here to ask a question.

This is just starting out as a one-time question thing I'd like to ask, but there's a chance others may have the same questions, and can find an answer here from the reply! If they have other questions, they can be asked (and hopefully answered) in this same thread, reducing thread overflow, and creating a nice reference for situations of in-game TF2 Trading.

My question is this, though:

Trader 1 is a collector of Medic-items. Trader 1 finds Trader 2, with a Strange Kritzkrieg (during the time this became a valuable item in high-key values). Trader 1 is uncertain of the price, and receives a very low price from a friend (say, small refined value). Neither Trader 1, nor Trader 2, know the value of the Strange Kritzkrieg. So Trader 1 offers 3 hats, total valuing around 7-8 refined. Trader 2 accepts, not knowing the price, and the trade has completed.

What happens when this kind of trade happens, where neither know the value, and one comes out with major profit?

Now, given this particular situation (which is real), Trader 1 is less than likely to trade away the Strange Kritzkrieg, since he is a collector of Medic-items, but I have seen many traders give away items they have for a quick buck (like myself, giving away some of my favorite hats/weapons for some quick metal).

So let's say Trader 1 decides Strange Kritzkrieg "ain't no thang," and sells it for how much it's worth, or maybe less, considering what he got it for. What happens then…?

Nothing? Everyone received their agreed upon items, and unless I've missed something incredibly crucial this just looks like regular trading.

My argument is, when this happens, and the guy decides to turn around and use this lucky trade to get a profit, is there anything that can be done? Not that this trader should be marked with "Scammer" or "Sharking," but, like, what exactly?

hmm, as everybody receives the agreed upon price, its not scamming.

In the sharking, if the person that gains profits does this intentionally, that would constitute sharking in minor, as its everybody's own responsibility to check prices of items themselves. Problem is proving such, and after its easy saying that he knew, but one cannot prove that. So any marking for "sharking" or banning etc wouldn't be justified, as there is no sure way to determine.

Both Traders did not know prices. So yes, thank you for this insight. I took a screencap of the trade after it happened. It shows Trader 1 receiving Kritzkrieg first, then Trader 2 receiving the three hats.

Not very reputable, to say the least, but this is a little more than just getting away with a few ref. Trader 1 could easily get an Earbud for this, so it's minor sharking, like you say. Just curious as to how the situation would work out, should it be properly reported.

Regardless, if any other questions regarding a trade arise, from myself or another, this thread should be handy for working out the details of an unfair trade. Hopefully, people will describe the scene with censorship, as I have.

For this to be a scam, one person must have deliberately deceived the other, for his own gain. It could be considered minor sharking, however it is nothing on scale with the scum I've seen trying to trade a few weapons for an unusual Team Captain. For this to be considered scamming, he must have done something like quick swapping one of the hats for something else while the other player didn't notice. Assuming that neither player knew the value of the item, while this isn't exactly good trading practice, it would be difficult to reprimand them for it.