I just realized this

[Humility The Humble]

Ok, so I was just thinking about TF2 and then I thought about the crates.
Since the Robotic Boogaloo, once the event ended, the crates became 'Salvaged' and were not removed from the game*. Could this signify something new in the world of TF2?
Does this mean more common SFs?
What do you think?

Also think about the fact that double clicking a crates gets you a key.

*Both Boogaloo and Summer crates

 

[Uncle Creepy]

Well I think Valve's been trying to balance out the Tf2 economy a bit. So maybe the thing with double clicking a crate sending you to where you can buy a key will encourage people to do so rather than paying nearly 6 refined for one. I'm not sure about that, however. As for there being more common strange festives, I don't know how realistic of an idea that is lol. I'm down for it though!

 

[Scortch]

I think that Valve is just trying to figure out ways to get people to buy more keys from the Mann Co. store. Having different crates drop after the event is over means that people will feel lucky to get that crate and more likely to buy a key to open it. I'd imagine that salvaged crates get opened at a much higher rate than regular crates. I'd say that having the value of keys go up in relation to the value of metal would only profit Valve. People are going to be more likely to buy keys from the Mann Co. Store if they think that it isn't worth as much metal as people are demanding. In fact, you'll probably have more people buying keys with the intention of trading them for metal straight away.

On a larger scale though, I think that the best way for Valve to maximize their profits with keys is not to promote the sale of keys. It's to promote the opening of crates. I'd imagine that the number of keys in-game at any one time is pretty static. My guess would be that the community isn't holding any more keys than they were a year ago. In order to motivate people to buy more keys Valve has to get them to use more keys. When the keys are used and taken out of the game, the community will adjust and buy more keys. I think that that's where these changes come from. The rare crates, new items and new unusual effects all spur people to open more crates. This in turn creates a demand for keys, which results in more key sales. This means more money for Valve. This would also explain why they don't mind allowing people to sell keys on the Community Market for less money than they are charging themselves. It doesn't matter that the keys change hands because as soon as the key is used somebody will go to Mann Co. and buy another key. The only difference from their perspective between this and trading keys for metal is that in the Community Market they get to tack on two commissions for every sale.

 

[Capital Orange]

Well I think Valve's been trying to balance out the Tf2 economy a bit. So maybe the thing with double clicking a crate sending you to where you can buy a key will encourage people to do so rather than paying nearly 6 refined for one. I'm not sure about that, however. As for there being more common strange festives, I don't know how realistic of an idea that is lol. I'm down for it though!

I think the double-click for the key only happened because there were about 739 thousand new crates, and people would get confused.

 

[Nix]

It's probably so the prices of robo-unusuals don't skyrocket