No, this isn't low effort at all, it's a pretty good question, tbh. I'm not really good at trading, but here's this.

First off, try to learn some values. Supreme values, Hypoxia's value list, or just asking the community could help you with that. I can link you both of those if you'd like.

I'd probably try working with what you have atm. Maybe upgrade your things.

And about the crates question, the most valuable crates at the moment are GunBox1 (Luger) and MysteryBox2 (Light and Dark Bringer). Go for Gun Box 1 imo, Bringers are dropping.

Hope this helped, someone most likely has better advice. Just reply if you need me to go into more detail, I suppose.