A few years ago, skins were suddenly on everybody’s lips. They quickly became an integrated part of CSGO for many players. They also became the center of trading business and were considered an investment asset for some traders. Some skins gained value for their rarity and made them collector’s items. Others were a lot more common and, therefore, not something worthy of collecting. But what exactly are skins, why do people collect them, and what can you use them for when playing CSGO?
Basically, skins are CSGO in-game cosmetic features. They are purely cosmetic and serve no gameplay function. You can earn or purchase skins to use in the game. Skins are usually weapons, but they can also be other kinds of items like gloves, music or stickers. You can buy different kinds of CSGO Cases, which are basically a case containing various weapons or other features.
Besides buying them, you can also trade them or wait for cases to be dropped as a part of the game. These cases can contain more or less desirable skins depending on various factors. When purchasing skin cases, they will, of course, be valued depending on their contents. Some of the rare items are gloves and knives.
What kind of skins are there?
As mentioned, skins are purely cosmetic features. You can use them to decorate your game with cool features, but they don’t have any impact on the gameplay. They can be all kinds of things but are mostly weapons. Each skin has a level of rarity that indicates how common a skin is and, therefore, how valuable it is. The rarity grade obviously has an impact on how likely it is that it’ll drop and, therefore, also the price if you want to purchase a skin. There are eight rarity grades to get to know.
The first one is consumer grade. It’s the most common skins that will usually be the type dropping at the end of the game. These types of skins aren’t worth much. Then there’s the industrial grade, where we’ve moved on step up on the rareness, but it’s still very common. After the industrial grade comes the Mil-Spec, which is the first of the grades that are part of weapon cases. These are usually worth from just a few dollars up to $100. A grade a bit more difficult to get is the restricted grade. They can go as high as a few hundred dollars.
Then there are the classified grades that are quite rare and, therefore, also expensive. This is a great grade to be looking at if one wants to start out investing or trading skins. When looking at weapon skins, the next grad, the covert, is the rarest one. Some of them are very expensive and obviously also very rare.
Besides the mentioned categories, there are also contraband and extraordinary. As it is now, there is only one contraband item. The extraordinary grade is the rarest grade with multiple items. This grad is reserved for the incredibly rare gloves. They can cost somewhere from a few hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars.
How do you obtain skins?
You can find almost all the mentioned grades in the game. Many of these, you’ll find by opening a case, but some of them will also drop on their own. This is obviously only skins within the first and more common grades.
When looking for skins with a higher grade, there are several ways to go about it. You can trade them. You can do a Trade Up contract, which is an in-game mechanic solution where you can trade a larger amount of your lower-grade skins for skins of a higher grade. These can be quite risky, though, as you don’t always know what you’re getting. It depends on which type of contract you choose.
Another way to get your hands on skins is to purchase them. The higher the grade, the more expensive it’ll be. Some purchase skins to use in the game, others purchase them to be able to make better trades or even to use them as an investment case.
Why have skins become so popular?
The popularity of skins comes down to two central aspects. First of all, it matters that they’re cosmetic items. You can show them off to other players and enjoy them while playing the game. The other aspect is the fact that you can monetize them. They have become an asset like all others. When there’s a potential to monetize, attention often increases. This creates a spiral that attracts even more attention.
