Steam – What are Foil Trading Cards

Let us consider emoticons obtained during the Summer Sale in 2018.

These are not sought-after items: they are very cheap, and people usually try to get rid of them, no matter their rarity. The price is the same for every rarity, because the supply greatly exceeds the demand. So, we could expect the proportions of each rarity among market listings to mirror the proportions of each rarity among items in circulation.

The proportions are:

• 64% for common emoticons,
• 23% for uncommon emoticons,
• 13% for rare emoticons.

Similarly, for profile backgrounds, the proportions are:

• 69% for common profile backgrounds,
• 19% for uncommon profile backgrounds,
• 12% for rare profile backgrounds.

Yes,I bought an item for Dota 2 online rather than in-game shop and my progress towards the card increased,don't see why it would be different for TF2.

When you buy items online the system asks you to log-in with your steam account to finish purchase;in-game store is essentially just a simple game web browser to display the original online store(Why?It is easier to maintain one store than 2).So in the end whether you buy something online or in-game it goes thru the same account and the same system.

Also the system is retroactive,meaning all things you bought before trading cards will be counted as you bought them now.So the system will checks your receits and they are the same for both stores.

If you want to check for yourself you don't have to spent 9$,you can purchase the cheapest item you find and then check if you "progress towards next card" has increased.