Summary
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An extremely rare Team Fortress 2 cosmetic item has traded for over $40,000.
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The rare Crone's Dome has a number of now-removed modifiers attached.
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The cool hat was basically made even cooler by the now unavailable visual effects.
Valve's introduction of trading on Steam in 2011 almost immediately spawned actual markets for cosmetic items in the company's various first-party games. Counter-Strike is certainly the biggest market on the platform, but Team Fortress 2 (TF2) also has dedicated collectors who are constantly looking for the rarest cosmetics to buy, sell and trade.
Last week, hat collector Vytal completed the largest trade in Team Fortress 2 history (nice job, PC Gamer). The hat in question is a rare version of Babiza's Dome, which itself is a fairly common drop. Vytal told PC Gamer that he bought the hat for “24,000 keys worth of items” and “an undisclosed amount of money.” The keys cost about $1.80 on third-party sites, meaning the deal was worth at least $43,200, plus whatever cash Vytal dropped on the keys.
Sparkly witch hat
Vytal picked up a few other rare items in the shop, but the real prize is the aforementioned special old lady's Dome. This particular hat has a lot going on, including the “Spellbound” classification to go along with the hat's theme. Spellbound is possibly the rarest effect in the game, only available for a short time between 2014 and 2017. Spellbound is a visual effect that causes purple colored stars to continuously explode from any item that has the effect. It is popular both for its rarity and aesthetic effect.
However, that is not the extent of this particular Crone's Dome's unique modifiers. There are also two rare “charms” attached to the hat. Enchantments are temporary modifiers available in Team Fortress 2 that change the visual element of an item, but were only available in 2013 and 2014. The first enchantment is Spectral Spectrum, which adds a team color effect (ie varies depending on the player's team). is on). The effect causes the object to constantly change color in a pulsating motion.
The second spell is Headless Horseshoes. When applied to an item, it causes the wearer to leave a flaming purple trail behind them as they move. According to Vytal, this effect is rarer than Spectral Spectrum and the cosmetic adds significant value. If a player had these spells and did not apply them, they were deleted from their inventories after 2015. However, cosmetics with charms already attached remained. This means that unless Valve reintroduces these spells, these effects are limited in number and can never be recreated.
Lastly, the bugged Killstreak Kit is applied to the hat. These sets are meant to be used on weapons to track killstreaks, but Valve mistakenly allowed them to be applied to any cosmetic for one night after the patch. During this short window, players could use hat kits and other items before the bug was fixed, adding another level of rarity.
It should also be noted that the Old Lady's Dome is a premium item, meaning that Vytal can wear this extremely rare hat on every character. This isn't unique to this old woman, but it's still a nice bonus that adds value to the item.
All in all, many factors had to come together to create this specific Crone's Dome, which justifies the price.
Team Fortress 2 is an FPS from Valve with incredible longevity and remains among the most played games on Steam despite being launched in 2007. It was born out of a Quake mod and sees teams of characters battle it out in multiple modes.
