The Most Expensive CS:GO Skin of All time | Highest Selling CS:GO Skin
After playing CS:GO for a while, you’ll probably find yourself looking into what makes so many people talk about the game on an almost constant basis. Sometimes it’s the gameplay, but most of the time, it’s actually the markets around the game. Specifically, we mean the skin market, which can be extremely lucrative with the right items. In this article, we’re going to cover the most expensive CS:GO skin, and go over why so many items from this game sell for so much money.
The Most Expensive CS:GO Skin Ever Sold
To date, the most expensive CS:GO skin ever sold was the AK-47 Case Hardened with the StatTrak™ Technology with four Titan | Katowice 2014 at a quality of minimal wear. This skin sold for $150,000 on Steam, a huge amount of money for what is basically some digital bling. However, there’s a lot to take in here that makes the skin a lot more than it first appears to be.
First, the quality is minimal wear, one of the highest rarities in CS:GO. It means that the skin is nearly perfect, showing almost the entire design over the weapon. There are also four stickers on the skin, each of which is part of a set. Sets of anything are always rarer and more desirable. That’s definitely true in this case.
Second, the skin itself is something of a legend. It was one of the first to be made available in CS:GO as part of the first-ever weapon case in the game. There are a few now, making it almost unobtainable today. In addition, the skin is part of the coveted Arms Dealer Collection. All of this comes together to make a rare skin worth, even more, particularly those willing to pay for it.
Third, every Case Hardened skin has a unique pattern, meaning they don’t all look the same. This particular one had an extremely rare pattern, and together with the rare Titan stickers, it became somewhat of a relic.
This skin was part of a collection sold on Steam through a Twitter post. There was a Google Sheet where people could place bids, and $150,000 was the most expensive skin on the list.
Most Expensive CS:GO Skins
Next, let’s look at five more of the most expensive CS:GO skins that have ever been sold. This should give you more of an idea of what collectors are looking for and whether you’ve got a skin that someone might pay a lot of money for.
$26,000 – Souvenir Dragon Lore | Factory New
This skin is easily the most famous among expensive CS:GO skins. Whenever a player picks up Souvenir Dragon Lore from a crate, they think they’ve hit gold. The truth is that this skin is far easier to buy than it is to earn in-game, but it’ll set you back a pretty penny. At last calculation, the odds of getting this skin were 0.0004% in 250,000. The odds are so low that they’re barely worth playing for.
$9,300 – StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet Crimson Web | Factory New
Knife skins are already probably the rarest in CS:GO, but this one is another level on top of that. This skin was released in 2013 alongside the Arms Dealer update and has been hugely desirable from the day of release. After eight years, this skin is still worth a lot of money. However, you’re more likely to pick it up than some of the others on this list. While it’s worth a try, it’s also much easier to buy it.
$9,000 – StatTrak™ Karambit Crimson Web | Factory New
Here we have another Crimson Web skin. While it looks just as good, it’s ever so slightly less valuable than the above. That’s all down to the way the design looks on the weapon. Really though, it’s a personal preference. If you have a Crimson Web skin in your inventory, you really should think about selling it. You could make yourself a lot of money.
$8,255 – StatTrak™ AK-47 Fire Serpent | Factory New
This is one of the best designed skins in the game. However, it’s not quite as eye-catching as Crimson Web. While that might play into the price, it’s more about rarity and how difficult these skins are to get a hold of. The thing that makes it particularly rare is that it’s a Covert Item. These are harder to get these days, which is why their price has been driven up.
$8,000 ($130.000)- StatTrak™ M4A4 Howl | Factory New
The last of these five costly skins is Howl. It’s pretty easy to work out why so many people are willing to pay so much for it. The detail on the fiery beast, and the red flames around the entire weapon, are flashy without being too much in your face. This one is expensive because it’s basically impossible to get now. Initially, it was made by a user who stole the artwork. When the artist found out, they sued. Only the players who already owned the skin got to keep it. Otherwise, you had to settle for a new version that depicts slightly different artwork.
Interestingly, this skin sold for $130,000 at auction with 4 iBUYPOWER stickers on it. This shows that, once again, having stickers on an expensive skin is a great way to increase its value.
What Makes Expensive CS:GO Skins so Valuable?
Now that you know a little more about the expensive CS:GO skins out there, let’s look at what makes them so valuable. We’ve covered this briefly above, but here we’re going to break it all down into the finer details that all add up to make a skin worth much more money.
Quality and Rarity
The first thing that defines a skin’s price is the quality and rarity. The higher the rarity, the more expensive the skin will be. These vary depending on the crate that a skin has come out of, though, so it’s not the be all and end all of the price. The second thing in this section that affects value is the quality. You’ll notice that all the above skins are Factory New. This is the best quality that a skin can be in. Anything lower, and it will start to appear scuffed. This isn’t always a problem, but it generally isn’t good for the price.
Is it From a Rare Crate?
Generally, skins from specific types of crates are worth more than others. Once again, this varies depending on what crate you’re talking about. If the crate is no longer available, then any skins from that run will be more valuable because they’re impossible to get in the game anymore. As you play, keep picking up crates and skins because you never know what will end up being worth a lot of money.
Stickers
This keeps coming up, but stickers always increase the value of a skin. Even a skin that’s normally worth $1 can be enhanced by stickers and made to be worth a lot more. Stickers, like every skin in CS:GO, have their own measure of quality. But, again, rarity doesn’t define quality. The more desirable a sticker or series of stickers is, the more valuable the skin they’re stuck onto.
Another massively important part of using stickers to increase value is applying sets of them to a skin. If you have a set of stickers on a skin, then it’ll be worth more than the skin with only a couple of stickers from the same set. Don’t apply stickers until you have the full set because you’ll only miss out on a lot of money if you apply three out of four.
Unforeseen Circumstances
Finally, some skins, such as Howl above, can be made to be worth more through some unforeseen circumstances. This includes the crate a skin is a part of being removed from CS:GO. Time-limited skins are worth more, but so are broken skins or ones that might get removed in the future. Collecting these is a big investment in the future because the skin will only be worth money once it’s become newsworthy.
Conclusion
That is everything that you need to know about the most expensive CS:GO skin and why skins can be so expensive in this game. Make sure that you always pay attention to the skins you earn. You never know when you’ll stumble upon a costly one.