CS:GO skins

CS:GO skins and knives are a unique feature of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The skins came with the Arms Deal update. The CS:GO knives and skins can be deployed on weapons and will change the appearance of the weapons. The skins do not affect the operation of the gun and the changes are purely cosmetic. In addition to weapon skins, CS:GO has a variety of knives, gloves, stickers, characters and badges that can be attached to characters’ accessories. All objects have a market value. CS:GO knives and gloves are generally the most valuable skins.

For example, you can get skins as a random drop when you play online community games or on Valve’s official servers. You can also unlock weapon or souvenir boxes, which draws a random skin from the box. A CS:GO knife and gloves are the rarest items in the boxes. Unlocked skins and skins acquired from elsewhere can be traded between fellow players. You can also buy and sell your CS:GO skins on the Steam marketplace or find a trusted and secure third-party site like Skinport.com.

Trading and scams

CS:GO skins can be exchanged, traded, between fellow players. This is a popular way to make so-called. cash trade, if you find a trading partner on CS:GO Reddit, Discord servers, forums and e.g. CS:GO related Facebook groups. In addition, the internet is full of different groups for CS:GO skin trading, but finding a reliable trading partner can take a lot of time and can slow down the sales process.

When money is involved, CS:GO skins also involve a lot of cheaters, for whom it is a full-time “job”. Steam itself doesn’t pay much attention to these, so traders should make sure that the seller or buyer is a trustworthy person.

The API Key scam is the most popular scam that uses Steam login. A scammer creates a skin site that is almost a full copy of a real skin site. A scammer can track your trades by logging into the scam site with your Steam account. When you make a purchase/offer e.g. with your friend, the bot will cancel the transaction and send you a fake offer with the same name and avatar as your friend. You then accept the offer and the CS:GO skins go to the cheater. If the trade goes through, Valve or Steam will not be able to rescue your skins back.

Avoid a potential scam this way: Before a potential trade, go to the Steam API key page and check that no dubious sites have unauthorised access to the key.

CS:GO skins for money

CS:GO knives and skins in general can be sold in many different ways, such as the above-mentioned trading between fellow players. You can buy and sell skins on Steam’s own marketplace. When you sell there, Steam will charge you 15% of the sale price – plus you can’t transfer your Steam account balance back to your bank account. Third-party trading venues include Skinport for example. Each website works differently and has different features. Recently, CSMoney has received some negative feedback when the prices of skins have dropped, but the site did not update the prices.

CS:GO skins: Safe buying and selling

There are many different skin trading sites and some of them are mentioned above. Essentially, they work in the same way as Steam’s own marketplace. Purchase prices are usually around 20-25% cheaper than the Steam market, and you get real money back when you sell your CS:GO skins. You can transfer this money to your bank account. One of the most long-lasting, safe and reliable site is Skinport.com, which KUUSAMO.gg recommends to the readers of this article. Skinport is registered in Germany which guarantees a safe and fair trading platform.

StatTrak™ skins

StatTrak™ is a weapon feature that tracks the number of kills a weapon owner has made with that weapon. StatTrak™ kills do not follow from one gun to another or if the gun is sold/traded to another user. StatTrak™ guns are generally more expensive than guns without a counter. However, it is possible that a particular CS:GO knife with the StatTrak™ feature would be cheaper than normal for one reason or another, because the counter covers part of the blade of the knife.

Old skins that can no longer be opened or are opened less often are usually more valuable than other skins. M4A1 Howl was years ago like any normal M4A1 skin. However, the creator of the skin had violated copyright and it was modified and removed from the Huntsman box. There are about 7-8000 M4A1 Howl skins, of which about 600 are on the StatTrak™ counter.

Skin wear values – float value

CS:GO skins do not wear out in use, but there are five different wear values that determine the condition of the weapon’s skin in terms of appearance. The higher the value, the more scratches and wear marks on the skin, but it does not affect the performance or use of the gun in any way. The float values are:

Factory New: 0.00-0.07
Minimal wear: 0.07-0.15
Field tested: 0.15-0.37
Well worn: 0.37-0.44
Battle-scarred: 0.44-1.00

In addition to taking wear into account, it is worth remembering the pattern index of the different skins. This value ranges from 1 to 1000 and in some skins it plays a major role in generating the price. For example, certain patterns will increase the price of gloves, even if the wear value is higher. A CS:GO knife is generally more valuable the lower the wear value is, for example 0.0001.

CS:GO skins prices

The price of skins varies with the market, from a few cents to hundreds of thousands of euros. The rarer the skin, the higher the price you can pay/ask for it in a trade.

However, opening skins is not free. You can get a box as a drop box or buy one from a shop. To open the box, you also need to buy a key, which costs €2.35. The odds of a rare item being unlocked from a CS:GO box are, however, very low. That’s why it is recommended that players who dream of a knife or gloves buy them directly.

Blue: 79,92%
Purple: 15,98%
Pink: 3,2%
Red: 0,64%
Yellow: 0.26% (knife or gloves)

On CS:GO Stash you can find all kinds of CS:GO skins, knives, gloves, boxes, stickers, etc. with pictures. The page also gives some idea of how much a particular skin could cost.

Most expensive CS:GO skins

Karambit Case Hardened, Blue Gem – Over $1.4 million
AK-47 Case Hardened – $780,000
Souvenir AWP Dragon Lore – Over $60,000
StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet Crimson Web – $10,000
StatTrak™ Karambit Crimson Web – $9,000
StatTrak™ AK-47 Fire Serpent – $8,500
StatTrak™ M4A4 Howl – $8,000
StatTrak™ Five-Seven Case Hardened – $6,000
AWP Medusa – $6,500
AK-47 Wild Lotus – $4,000