What are Mann Co. Stockpile crates?

Question

Shortly after I started playing TF2, my backpack filled up with items, many of which were "Mann Co. Stockpile crates". Because I didn't want to buy a premium account straight away, I deleted my crates in favour of other items. However, since I eventually decided I needed a premium account, I bought a stockpile crate key. I then realised I had deleted all of my crates. I decided to wait for a new one, since they seemed to drop all the time. However, I haven't found a single crate in my ~150 hours playtime after I bought my account. Now I just have a key floating around my inventory, attracting trades from people who want it. I therefore went to buy one from the community market where they are extremely cheap to buy. However, on hovering over them, they all contain either a bat or a hat, neither of which I want to waste £1.49 on. The thing I want most is a strange weapon, but I can't find a crate on the market that has the possibility of containing a strange. So, two questions:

1. Do I still get Stockpile crate drops when I have a premium account? (I have found a couple of supply crates)
2. Do they all contain either a bat or a hat?

Answer 1

A few months ago, Valve lowered the drop rate on crates.

Stockpile crates are a special kind of crate that allows you to input a code to determine which 4 standard items can possibly drop from it. The Director's Cut Reel is the same, but takes a normal key.

However, lately the only crates that seem to be dropping are the limited time only Limited Late Summer Crate and the Mann Co Munitions series 84 and 85. The less common Director's Cut Reel is supposedly dropping, but I have yet to see one.

The Stockpile crate and Limited Late Summer Crate are both Cosmetics only, while the Director's Cut Reel is taunts only.

Answer 2

In TF2, there are various types of crates - more than I can count.
Stockpile Crates contain one of the 4 random cosmetics that are randomised by the code that you input into the crate in your backpack. And yes, stockpile crates only contain cosmetics, nothing else.
To answer your first question, yes, crates also drop when you are premium. It's just that Valve lowered the drop rate last few months. Though for now, I don't think it's dropping, I've only seen Supply Crates, Munition Crates and the Limited Crates for a while now, especially after the Limited Crate opening period started.

If you want strange items, you have a few options:

1. Open a Munition Crate to get a strangifier of a specific weapon, then use it on the specified weapon to get a strange version of the weapon.
   
2. Open a supply crate - all weapons that come out from the supply crates are of strange quality.
   
3. Buy it straight from the Steam Community Market (cheapest and most reliable option, unless you are looking at really rare strange items like strange Machina or you want unusual hats from crates.)
   

Some crates can never be obtained now, like the Auditin Reel crate.
Just an additional information, if you are lucky enough, you might get an unusual hat from a supply crate - they are worth quite a lot of money on the market, and are considered "ultra-rare". Another type of strange weapons are austrailium and bot-killer weapons, which can only be obatined after you finish the tour of duty in Mann vs Machine (MVM).