Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is known not only for its esports component but also for its popular market for skins and other game items. Our expert, Volodymyr Huda, tells you about everything from weapons and knives to characters, badges, and stickers, players can boast of their own collection, which can sometimes be worth thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Most Coveted Weapon Skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The price of the skin is influenced by many factors: rarity, type of pattern, level of wear, or unique characteristics. The question always arises: how to calculate the price in the USA? You can look at the Steam Market, but often the prices for the same item vary greatly there. The second option (and perhaps the best one) is to estimate the value through third-party sites like Profilerr (http://profilerr.net/) and Reddit, because usually, it is their users who monitor the market most closely and form the market value of cosmetic items.
AK-47 Case Hardened (661)
Hardened AKs can sell for exorbitant prices depending on the pattern. While any AK-47 Case Hardened will be quite expensive ($1,000+), the most valuable example is number 661, which has an estimated cost of around $30,000 to $35,000 if we remember that the volume of the US market is 90 million dollars.
This particular pattern causes most of the weapon’s visible area to be a “blue gem” coloration, making it highly desirable among gamers with money. Plus, if this AK has Titan stickers on it, that could push the price up to over $100,000.
M4A4 Howl
M4A4 Howl is the only Smuggling class skin in all of CS:GO, due to an image ownership dispute. It is this, in addition to the cute design, that determines its huge price.
Although some worn models without stickers can be purchased for just over $2,000, if this is a factory-only version and StatTrak, then the price of this skin can exceed the $30,000 mark.
And with expensive stickers like the one above, it can sell for more than $100,000. This already happened in 2020, when a similar skin with 4 iBuyPower Holo stickers was sold for exactly this price, and today it probably costs even more.
AWP Medusa
Now one of the classic expensive skins for everyone’s favorite AWP. This is the rarest weapon in the awesome Gods and Beasts collection, which also features the M4A4 Poseidon and the M4A1-S Fall of Icarus.
It is not difficult to guess that the Gorgon Medusa is depicted on the rifle – a character in ancient Greek mythology who turned people to stone with his gaze. The rifle is finished in dark turquoise, and the buttstock depicts Medusa herself, whose serpentine curls occupy the entire barrel of the AWP.
The rifle exists in all qualities, and even in the “Battle-Scarred” variant, the pattern does not deteriorate at all – it changes: a patina appears on the weapon, due to which the color becomes closer to green.
M9 Bayonet Crimson Web
Done with firearms, now let’s look at knife skins. And let’s take a look at the M9 Bayonet “The blood web”. But it is worth saying that you will not find two identical skins for the price. The fact is that this skin has many variations of the pattern.
And it is precisely such patterns that experienced collectors pay attention to. They count the number of webs on the blade. The richer the pattern, the more expensive the skin. The cost of this knife also depends heavily on the wear parameter: the smaller the float value, the more expensive the knife will be.
Also, it is difficult to say how much this or that M9 Bayonet “The Blood Web” will cost because there are quite a lot of factors. If we consider the rarest pattern (with three webs), then the cost can reach several thousand dollars, and some profile resources even consider it one of the most expensive in the game.
Karambit Doppler / Gamma Doppler
Let’s move on to the next, and also extremely expensive skin – Karambit Doppler / Gamma Doppler. Compared to M9 Bayonet, which can cost both relatively small and incredibly large amounts of money, players will have to spend a lot of money on the rarest variations of this particular skin.
You can see quite a few variations in the Doppler / Gamma Doppler series of skins. There are four most common variations where there is a difference in the combination of the main black color and additional colors. But the most expensive in this series is the “Black Pearl” (“Waves”) skin, where one side is completely black.
Particularly rare skins are Ruby, Sapphire (Waves), and Emerald (Gamma Waves), which are bright red, bright blue, and bright green respectively. These knives are already worth a fortune.
Karambit Case Hardened (Blue Gem)
Another knife skin that is “factory new” and with model number #387 is one of the rarest skins in CS GO. One of the specimens was bought for $110,000 in 2016. But over time, its price only increased. Although it has not yet been sold, the owner rejected an offer of US$1.5 million at the end of 2021. Well, now we can only guess how much this skin can be valued.
The price of this skin is also affected by the fact that it is almost impossible to get it from loot boxes. The probability of getting the same knife is about 1 in 371 million.
AWP Dragon lore
But the most popular and probably the most famous skin in CS:GO is, of course, the AWP Dragon lore. It is also, like the previous ones, quite rare, but at the same time one of the most desirable skins in the game. This rifle from the Cobblestone collection can only be obtained randomly or from large crates.
The AWP Dragon Lore is finished in gold and features a fire-breathing dragon from Asian mythology on the barrel. At the same time, there is a black and green checker pattern on the muzzle and sight. And really this skin is incredibly beautiful!
Determining the current value of the skin is difficult due to the rarity of the item. Currently, the AWP Dragon Lore is inferior to some knives in terms of cost, but it’s not that simple. The fact is that Cobblestone has now been removed from the pool of competitive cards, which means that there are no new souvenir cases from the card (therefore, the opportunity to get this AWP) yet: if things continue like this for a while, then the price of Dragon Lore should simply increase.
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