Picking The Right Skin Offers You Not Just An In-Game Advantage, But Also Bragging Rights And Investment Purposes

In January 2018, a wealthy Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player bought a skin for a whopping US$61,000, caught the attention of the CS:GO community and the larger gaming ecosystem worldwide. The skin in question, one of the rarest of its kind, was designed for the Dragon Lore rifle, and had been autographed by Cloud9’s Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham. It was sold shortly after Cloud9 became the first American pro team to win a Valve-sponsored CS:GO event in Boston. Since then, there is a growing consensus among the community that CS:GO skins could not only provide an in-game advantage or aesthetic reasons, but potentially as a form of investment for regular players acquiring skins on a frequent basis.

What exactly are CS:GO skins?

The concept of skins may be foreign to players of older CS versions such as 1.6 or Source. But the highly innovative game company - Valve, has revolutionised the team-based action gameplay with the CS:GO’s “Arms Deal” update, which initially featured more than 100 skins split into 10 collections, namely Assault, Office, Dust and Aztec.

Skins, otherwise known as finishes, are custom textures commonly designed for various weapons which can be equipped in-game, allowing each player to portray their personalities or simply a form of bragging rights to fellow players within a game. Certain skins can even be used to showcase the number of kills made by the owner of the weapon, striking fear into the hearts of their opponents.

Currently, there are three types of skins: Normal, StatTrak and Souvenir, with the Normal types being the most common skin types available with no special characteristics or properties. StatTrak and Souvenir types, on the other hand, have traits which are mutually exclusive. For instance, StatTrak enables the player to display the total number of kills through a LCD display embedded on the skinned weapon. However, listing the StatTrak skin on the community market will reset the kill counter, effectively removing the record made by the previous weapon’s owner.

Souvenir weapons, as the name suggests, are unique weapons that were dropped as rewards to spectators of CS:GO tournaments. The design of the skin differs widely to represent respective tournaments, and oftentimes have a special commemorative message to the specific game. Players obtain such weapons through special weapon cases, which were randomly distributed to spectators during the tournament. It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned Skadoodle’s autographed skin is a souvenir weapon. Therefore, this type of skin does fetch an exorbitant price and recipients of these skins were either kept as a form of trophy or sold to CS:GO’s skin trading marketplaces for a handsome sum of money.

Wear Ratings of CS:GO skins

Regardless of the type and rarity of the skin, all of these skins are subject to a “wear rating value”, or “float value”. A wear value ranges from 0.00 to 1.00, and the maximum value may vary across different skins. In general, the value alters the appearance of the skin and is graded according to the cosmetic condition of the skin, namely Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-tested, Well-worn and Battle-scarred. The condition of a Factory New skin will look exactly like the spotless image as represented in the skin menu, while a Battle-Scarred depicts a weather-beaten skin.

Essentially, the skin’s condition is a secondary concern to an ordinary CS:GO player since it does not affect the damage one inflicts on his or her opponent. However, wear values do make a difference in terms of the worth of the skin. The general rule is, the less wear on the skin, the higher the price. Thus, it is highly advisable for players who own a skin with great rarity to refrain from using them if they are considering selling the CS:GO skin on a trading marketplace.

The success of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is not only attributed to the competitive gaming mechanism, but a highly lucrative Skins market.

Counter-Strike is an objective-based, multiplayer First-Person Shooter (FPS) which was created in 1999 as a fan-made, modded map from Half-life that has become a cult classic game of the past decade. Similarly, Counter-Strike has gained widespread popularity as one of the most influential FPS in history. Naturally, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) was compared to its predecessor and was pressured to maintain the reputation as the ultimate FPS game. However, CS:GO did not receive as much fanfare as initially expected.

As a result, Valve had to refocus on the game mechanism of CS:GO in order to appease the gaming community with innovative features. Fortunately, a year after CS:GO’s release, the company introduced skins, also known as finishes, through its “Arms Deals” update in 2013, which catapulted CS:GO into one of the most sought-after multiplayer FPS games today.

Players are spoilt for choices as there are more than 700 skins available today, giving them the option to customise their character and weapons based on their preferences. Although these skins do not offer any in-game tactical advantage, each of them come with different backstories and are designed with distinct personalities and themes. Additionally, rarities of certain skins have also given rise to a newfound opportunity for players to have in-game bragging rights as well as to sell their rare CS:GO skins for real-world money in related trading marketplaces.

An overview of Skins Rarity

Due to a wide array of customisation skin options for weapons and character physical appearances, CS:GO has now boasted one of the most extensive online trading markets in the gaming world. Skins are sold at varying price levels depending on the rarity and condition, souvenir and wear rating of the skin.

In total, CS:GO skins are graded into six rarity types, with each type represented by a color as follows:

Consumer Grade (White)

Consumer-graded skins are the most common and therefore demand a low price valuation. Occasionally, these CS:GO skins may be worth up to US$25 depending on the wear rating of the skin.

Industrial Grade (Light Blue)

These types of skins are slightly less common than Consumer-graded ones, but they are readily available on drops and match rewards. It is often sold for a value of US$50 and below.

Mil-Spec Grade (Blue)

Skins of this rarity level are mid-range skins which take slightly more effort and luck to obtain these skins. An example would be a Factory New AUG | Hot Rod skin from the Assault collection. This CS:GO skin can be sold for about US$125.

Restricted Grade (Purple)

The chance of acquiring skins of this rarity level onwards will be slimmer, thus a Restricted Grade weapon skin can command a higher price. For instance, a Fade Glock-18 skin is sold for US$250 or higher, depending on the wear rating.

Classified Grade (Pink)

Anyone who owns a Pink-graded skin should rejoice as Classified-graded skins are hard to find and command a much larger amount in the trading marketplace, from US$300 upwards. Negev | Mjölnir skin is one of the most expensive Classified-graded skin at a minimum of US$600.

Covert Grade (Red)

The legendary Covert Grade skins are some of the most glorious skins to acquire as they are exceedingly rare to find in CS:GO. Tagged with a fiery red color, donning a Covert Grade skin in the game should get plenty of envious glances from both your teammates and opponents. One famous example would be the Factory New, AWP | Dragon Lore’s Souvenir skin that was sold for more than US$61,000 in January 2018 by a wealthy CS:GO player. This purchase has also marked CS:GO’s skins as one of the most valuable in-game virtual items in gaming history.

Legends Never Die. Build Your Legend With A Skin Cashier.

As gamers ourselves, we understand intimately the toll that those long hours spent looting and matching with other players can take. Purposed to win, our tenacity allows us to make it through every match unfazed and strengthen our characters that we’re building to pit against one another. For every victory, we are rewarded with items such as skins — also known as a "finish" in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), that can be considered glory and/or facility rewards, depending on our interest. Such rewards can be used to build the legend that we strive for, and a calling to reach for greatness in every battle.

Building a trusted, secure and intuitive marketplace

With every passing hour of leveling and achieving your legendary build, there will eventually be a time when rewards of various rarities, or duplicated items are accumulated in your inventory. Dissatisfied with the excess of unusable or unwanted items accumulated from random drops or ‘uncrating’ weapon cases, our team founded SkinCashier in 2019 to create a platform where players can trade their unused items, including skins, for game keys and in-game products. In addition to that, we have combined a thoughtful and comprehensive design to our intuitive trading platform where players can now trade their items and skins for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), or instant real-world cash via a variety of payment processors like Paypal, Skrill and Payeer.

Fast forward to 2020, that goal remains the driving force behind everything we do today. SkinCashier’s revolutionary payment system is the pinnacle of CS:GO skins and items trading marketplace, and it is the closest we’ve come to realizing our vision of a perfect trading system for CS:GO, and even Dota 2 players. SkinCashier developers and support team are masters at their craft, contributing to the SkinCashier’s trading ecosystem which is built specifically to promote an added incentive to manage your excess items for tangible rewards, enabling you to outperform yourself in your next game in CS:GO. Constructed only from a highly secure and a distributed transaction database, SkinCashier is setting a new benchmark for the industry.

But skins are so much more than just aesthetics

Popular games today like CS:GO, Dota 2 and LoL are designed to empower a player with a true sense of in-game identity with regular (or seasonal) launch of items and skins to offer the game a chance to showcase their best within the game. Contrary to popular belief, skins play an important part in the entire multi-player gaming experience. Although the damage incurred by a Souvenir AWP Dragon Lore and a common skinned AWP are no different from one another, donning a unique skin can accentuate your personality within your matches. It is also widely believed in the community that during the CS:GO matchmaking phase, it is ingrained into the players’ perception that those with well-skinned weapons tend to be a stronger opponent, thereby increasing the odds of opponents making crucial mistakes within the match due to unnecessary fear or panic. And last but not least, there are StatTrak skins which could record your kills to the unknowing players, adding that fearsome factor to your opponents. Therefore, it is equally important to choose the right skin for your next match to take advantage of the benefits that skins can deliver into the game.

SkinCashier platform is an entire experience, where everything from offering an impeccable quality of the trading process to our industry-leading online customer service (CS) protocol and after-sales support has been deliberately implemented to enhance the trading process of selling CS:GO skins seamless and pleasant for you within our global marketplace.

The economy of CS:GO skins trading has extended beyond the Steam Market, as players can now sell CS:GO skins for real-world money, through third-party trading marketplaces.

According to a 2017 report by InsideHook, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) skins have created a potentially lucrative industry that has generated more than US$50 Billion on skin trades alone. Its success is largely attributed to the uniqueness of every skin, which has different quality, rarity types and wear ratings. It is widely known within the CS:GO community that there is a strong demand for skin trade as many players are inclined to exhibit their in-game characters and weapons with unique skins, mainly as a form of expression to fellow players in the game. Nevertheless, the large collection of skins found in CS:GO today are tagged with real-world values, regardless of its rarity levels and condition. While the official Steam Market does not offer the ability for players to sell their skins for real-world currencies, there is a steady growth of players looking to sell CS:GO skins on third-party marketplaces like SkinCashier which enable them to receive the skin sale proceeds for real-world money.

Although there are plenty of online groups, forums and websites which allow players to interact with one another through a private offering, it is often deemed by players as a tedious trading process. Unknown to many, there is actually a 15% commission fee charged by Steam and CS:GO platforms for every trade, with the remainder of the earning deposited into Steam Wallet instead. As a result, many CS:GO players who earn a good income from skin trades have turned to trusted and reliable third-party marketplaces like SkinCashier to exchange their items for real-world money, and even cryptocurrencies.

Trade safely and receive your earnings on PayPal

Contrary to popular belief, Valve have given a nod to third-party trading marketplaces by allowing trades to occur on third-party platforms. With sufficient due diligence checks, it is not difficult for the player to find a secure marketplace like SkinCashier which provides instant payout to skin sellers on the platform. Although a fraction of skin sellers prefer to receive their earnings in the form of Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH), a few prominent marketplaces like SkinCashier have been widely used by players due to its wide range of payout methods, with PayPal being one of the most used payment processors to receive earnings from the intuitive platform.

It is relatively simple to sell CS:GO skins on third-party marketplace like SkinCashier, in which the famed 4-step process of selling CS:GO skins is comparable to setting up your first Steam account, in mere minutes.

Step 1: Configuring the Inventory Settings to Public and generate a Trade URL

Access your Steam Inventory page and click on ‘More’ to proceed to the Privacy Settings. Next, locate the Inventory settings and toggle it to Public. Once that is configured, head over to the bottom section on the same page in order to generate a Steam Trade URL. This URL address is required for the following steps to connect your inventory with the marketplace.

Step 2: Login to SkinCashier and set up the marketplace to initiate the trade

It is not required to create a new account on SkinCashier as the features can be accessed via your Steam account. Simply login via your Steam account, validate your Steam account and paste the Steam Trade URL link obtained from Step 1 to the Settings Page in SkinCashier.

Step 3: Start the selling process and accept the Trade offer in Steam

You should be able to access your Steam Inventory at the Deposit Page after successful validation in Step 2. Select the preferred items that you will wish to sell in SkinCashier. Each item will be indicated with a price valuation and the trading eligibility status. Once the selection process is complete, click on the ‘Proceed to Offer’ button to initiate and accept the trade offer. Since SkinCashier is known for Instant Payout, the balance should immediately reflect the updated funds after the sale.

Step 4: Confirming your payouts at your designated PayPal account

Finally, add your valid Paypal Email Account into the SkinCashier’s account page. Once that is done, proceed to the Payout page to select the desired amount from your balance to ‘cash out’. Click on ‘Accept’ to process the Paypal deposit. Do note that on some occasions, transactions may take up to 24 hours, depending on Paypal. In normal circumstances, transactions should be instantaneous and reflect on your Paypal account immediately after completion.

It is widely known that a CS:GO skin can be purchased from Steam Market. But do you know that you can acquire skins for free?

The “Arms Deal” Update released in August 2013 is a game-changer for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and the wider gaming ecosystem. Currently, with an inventory of more than 700 skins available in CS:GO, the update allows the player to acquire skins for a weapon’s aesthetic customisation and has created a lucrative market for skins trading, which enables anyone to sell CS:GO skins for real-world money. For starters, a player is able to obtain free CS:GO Consumer-grade skins through random drops online via online communities or official VAC-enabled servers with a minimum of one additional player. In addition to that, skins can be redeemed from cases through a matching key which can be purchased from Steam Market. Skins extracted from cases can be of varying rarity levels and real-world money value, if sold on third-party trading marketplaces like SkinCashier.

There is Free Lunch for playing CS:GO

Valve’s introduction of player-to-player trade has vastly improved on the player’s dynamic within the CS:GO community. Instead of hoarding skins when they are mostly underutilised, players can now have the option to sell their accumulated skins for real-world money, thanks to third-party trading marketplaces. As a result of the revolutionary “Arms Deal” update, skins often carry real-world price tags (e.g. in USD) which eager players with spare cash can purchase from the marketplace.

The growing demand of third-party skin acquisition has also given rise to a lucrative way to earn while playing CS:GO. By offloading unused skins to the trading marketplace, players can expect to earn a decent profit in exchange of devoted time in the game. A quick browsing at these skin trading marketplaces reveal attractive skin prices from Consumer-grade skins to legendary Covert-grade skins. Similar to a stock market, skin prices can fluctuate over the span of just a few hours. Selling skins on a regular basis can give the player monetary rewards while enjoying their dust_2 matches.

Gain Free Skins through Game Idling

There are several means to obtain basic skins for trade, since they are often easier to acquire than rarer skins. For instance, the most popular approach is to earn trading card drops through game idling (a player can idle in more than one game at any time) and sell those cards on the market. Since many basic skins can be purchased at a lower cost, selling a couple of trading cards is sufficient to buy them.

There are two ways to conduct CS:GO skin transactions. The first method is to deal in the official Steam Market. For every transaction made on the market, players are required to connect their Steam Wallet to the marketplace’s account. The company then takes a 15-percent cut of all CS:GO-related purchases on the market. However, it is worth noting that transacting through Steam Market do not allow the player to withdraw money from their Steam Wallets. Furthermore, Valve has imposed a US$500 limit on Steam Wallet funds as well as a maximum capped price of US$400 for any one item on the market. This takes us to another great alternative to sell your skins — third-party marketplace.

Contrary to popular belief, Valve is actually open to transactions dealt in third-party marketplaces. Because the trade may be generally higher when dealt on the Steam Market. Many CS:GO transactions have taken place outside of the Market in recent years. Valve’s Steam API provides third-party marketplaces to link their platform with players’ Steam accounts. What this means is that profit generated from the skin trade can be withdrawn instantly into real-world money. Third-party marketplaces also do not impose any withdrawal or selling price of any item found on the third-party marketplace. Essentially, every player could use trusted and reliable platforms like SkinCashier to sell their CS:GO skins while getting funded instantly via payment processors such as Paypal and Skrills. Over at SkinCashier, they also accept cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

An Overpowered Combination of Swift Trade, Genuine Customer Support, and 100% Secure Payout Options anywhere in the world. Get more out of your gaming experience with SkinCashier.

SkinCashier is one of the industry’s freshest and leading in-game skins trading markets dedicated for CS:GO gamers. The company has designed and built one of the world’s most secure marketplace that enables you to earn while playing your favorite game in the Global Offensive ecosystem. As CS:GO players ourselves, we are aware of the high demand of players who are looking for a platform where they could offload their inventory of valuable skins in exchange for more availability slots to store their loot as well as to earn real-world money on the side. The brilliant concept of earn-while-you-play is now possible with SkinCashier as we have researched and built a platform that has the distinct advantage of assuring you of receiving every payout instantly for every trade that is processed in SkinCashier through your connected Steam Account.

Empowering the people to experience joyful gaming

Gone were the days when gaming was viewed as a time-wasting activity. According to a report by Business Insider, the maturing eSports industry is on track to surpass US$1.5 Billion by 2023. For instance, CS:GO is the second largest eSports game in terms of prize pools, with more than $87.1 million distributed to our favorite CS:GO team last year. With the immense popularity of CS:GO, it is therefore unsurprising that tradable in-game items in CS:GO are highly valued within the CS:GO ecosystem.

While Valve does not advocate item farming, they enable its users to trade with one another through the Steam market. However, we believe that regular CS:GO players should have the option to be rewarded with real-world money just like the top eSports players in CS:GO. Thus, we have envisioned SkinCashier to provide a platform for players to seamlessly and instantly sell CS:GO skins, thereby rewarding players for the valuable hours that they spent on winning every match in CS:GO and are given with additional CS:GO skins which they can sell to us for real-world money. On a side note, we have also recently started to accept the trade for Valve’s Dota 2 skins as well.

Aside from being your trusted marketplace to sell your CS:GO skins, we have also proven ourselves to be your useful gaming partner, where we regularly update the ins and outs of the CS:GO ecosystem. Do subscribe or follow us as we do have a team of experienced writers who produce unique contents related to CS:GO, from skins trends to the latest updates of our beloved eSports team.

Sell your CS:GO skins with ease at SkinCashier

Currently, we have maintained a highly reputable track record of dispatching EVERY transactions processed through our marketplace. Once the player has decided to sell their CS:GO skins (for example, Dragon Lore) to us, the exact value shown within our platform is instantly deposited into their Steam account, which they could then choose to cash-out using one of our payout options: PayPal, Skrill, Payoneer, VISA, MasterCard, and even Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In services, SkinCashier’s customer support (CS) is actively managed by a team of specialists, and we do not forgo the aspect of handling every case with a human touch. Our modus operandi relies on a proven set of ‘secret sauce’ strategies which has been credited by our users for being highly responsive and responsible, around the clock. Although no business is perfect, we are constantly setting our service standards higher after every resolved case undertaken by our SkinCashier’s CS. Do check out streamers, merchants and partners for opinions about us!

SkinCashier is not just a proxy to convert your skins into real-world currencies, but also a place for you to acquire the right skin for your next killing spree.

Valve’s Counter-Strike has come a long way since its first unofficial release as a modded map from Half-life. In mid-August 2013, the company released the “Arms Deal” update which introduced more than 100 skins to the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) game. Since then, CS:GO gamers are seeking out the best skins as part of their map strategy, as well as a means to flaunt their in-game personality to their opponents. Due to the growing community’s demand, there are now more than 700 skins available for redemption through gameplay rewards and Steam Wallet. Occasionally, gamers may be rewarded with rare skins which serve no tactical purpose, but solely for cosmetic enhancement of their weapons. Therefore, it may be worth selling such items for real world money, earning while playing your matches at the same time. SkinCashier’s platform is built to serve the CS:GO community with a highly secure and trusted online environment in order for players to sell their CS:GO skins safely, in exchange for in-game perks, real-world money or cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Simplifying the transaction for the CS:GO community

Valve, the highly respected game company within the gaming community, is reputable not only for their award-winning game classics like Half-life and Team Fortress, but also its support to the external developer community (or mods) and the rest of Valve’s gaming communities. CS:GO’s gamers are not excluded from the given support and rewards from the company either. Every CS:GO player is treated with weekly drops of rewards such as skins to increase the odds of gaining the ideal build for their weapons and avatars. However, it is not uncommon that players eventually receive excess skins in their inventory which served no purpose to them. Fortunately, Valve allows the community to trade outside of the Steam Market, and this has opened up numerous opportunities for gamers to trade via third-party marketplaces, especially for real-world money.

As with other popular multiplayer game titles like DOTA 2 and Team Fortress 2, items from CS:GO are tagged with a real-world value. It is possible for gamers, who spent thousands of hours obtaining tons of rare skins and items to sell these virtual items for a profit. SkinCashier is one of the most reliable and secure platforms which facilitates such transactions and disburse the cash instantly from reputable payment processors such as Paypal, Skrill and Payeer. SkinCashier is also one of the few, if not the only CS:GO trading marketplace which can deal in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).

How do I sell my CS:GO items for real money at SkinCashier?

The transaction process at SkinCashier is simple and seamless. In order to successfully transact your items and receive an instant cash payout in the platform, the user will be required to adhere to the following requirements as enforced by Steam and Valve, prior to any transaction made on SkinCashier:

• Have a valid Steam account, with Steam Guard enabled for no less than 15 days
• Steam account’s password and email must not be changed within 5 days, and 30 days for Inactive Steam account which was idled for 2 months or more
• Change of Mobile device is forbidden when accessed through the Steam Mobile App
• Inventory should be set to ‘Public’
• User must be at least 18 years old

It is also important to note that banned or trading-restricted Steam accounts will not be accepted in any marketplace, including SkinCashier.

If you have met the above requirements for your Steam account, you may proceed to complete the transaction in 3 simple steps:

1. Sign in via your Steam Mobile App
2. Select the items (e.g. skins) that you wish to sell from your inventory
3. Proceed to receive your earnings immediately from your preferred payment method (e.g. PayPal or BTC)