CS:GO skins and all other Steam Market items are subject to a $400 maximum listing price. Items are often sold for greater sums through key trades, a sub-currency of the CS:GO economy. A single CS:GO key costs $2.50 USD and can be sold on the Steam Marketplace. To break through the $400 ceiling, you convert your listing price to a key value. If you want to sell an item for $500, divide your listing price by the key value, 500 by 2.5: 200 keys. Most people use third-party trading websites to list CS:GO s rarest wares, but once a trade is made, those keys can be sold back into the Steam Marketplace.
There are some skins in our list that definitely break that cap, but due to both the extraordinary rarity of these items and their inconsistent prices in the key market, we ve pulled our best estimates from varying trading sites. These are subject to change on a whim, but remain impressive no matter how transitory.
[Updated 5/11/2016]
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Victoria, StatTrak, Factory New
The Arms Deal 3 Collection, February 2014
Like a tiny machine gun for a wee tiny person, the CZ75 is great for quickly getting rid of all those pesky bullets weighing you down. Hand-decorated with gold accents and a scroll pattern, it signifies the bearer is classy and refined, so remember to extend a pinkie while firing.
Hand Cannon, StatTrak, Factory New
The eSports 2014 Summer Collection, July 2014
Weave a deadly web of bullets and preteen regret with this premium Desert Eagle, available exclusively at Hot Topic. There s no other gun capable of ensnaring such a dangerous tableaux of tacky fashion memories while firing actual bullets. Be the talk of 2005 with Crimson Web.
Cobalt Quartz, Souvenir, Factory New
The Lake Collection, November 2013
For the terrorist on a budget, look to the affordable and mostly harmless dual Beretta. To really spend money, though, you've got to go for the Souvenir editions, which commemorate various CS:GO Championships. Covered in blue quartz and gold stickers, they'll look fantastic in the dirt next to your dead body.
Case Hardened, StatTrak, Factory New
The Arms Deal 2 Collection, November 2013
Case-hardening is a chemical and industrial process that requires ferritic nitrocarburizing, nitriding, cyaniding, or, in the case of CS:GO, painting something in a computer. Either way, it's an added expense, but if buyers stand still and squint closely, they can actually see the detail they paid for.
Fade, Factory New
The Assault Collection, August 2013
If you want a weapon skin that looks like it was created with a single click on a Photoshop gradient, look to the Fade for the Glock-18. Pricey due to its status as a default weapon (despite not having StatTrak), it still moves dozens of units a week, but its sheer ugliness makes it easy to understand why one poor dope sold his for $5.17 back in early May 2014.
Ocean Foam, StatTrak, Factory New
The Bravo Collection, September 2013
There's not much difference between the prices of the Factory New or Minimal Wear versions of the Ocean Foam skin for the P2000, so you might as well go with a new one. Or, maybe spend that money on gas and drive to the nearest beach to frolic in some real, actual ocean foam. (Note: if the ocean is suspiciously foamy, it's probably industrial waste.)
Asiimov, StatTrak, Minimal Wear
The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016
Look close enough and you ll notice that the entirety of Asimov s Foundation series is actually inscribed on this P250 s trigger. It s a metaphor for the power of reading! Jokes. This was just as close to Mass Effect as they could get without tipping off the Andromeda.
Fade, StatTrak, Factory New
The Revolver Case Collection, December 2015
The thing about this revolver is that in some places it is orange and in some places it is pink. There are worse things to spend 40 bucks on that are orange and pink in places. $40 of grapefruit, for instance. No one wants that much grapefruit. Get real. Buy a gun skin.
Nuclear Threat, Souvenir, Minimal Wear
The Nuke Collection, August 2013
Great news if you love the Tec-9: the skins don t push high volumes, even with StatTrak, because absolutely no one wants them. The bad news: if no one wants them, there's probably a reason.
Kill Confirmed, StatTrak, Factory New
The Shadow Collection, September 2015
On this USP-S, Banksy somehow snuck into CS:GO and painted a bullet passing through a skull. The Plain Jane message and exaggerated, kitschy art style are meant to deemphasize the act of pulling a virtual trigger, and make you consider this: what if there was a Disneyland, but it was a bad Disneyland?
Fire Serpent, Factory New
The Bravo Collection, September 2013
If you want a Factory New Fire Serpent, a swim in the murky waters of third-party trading forums is your best bet. That said, some are fairly reputable and require building several layers of verification and trust before allowing you to spend over a grand on viewmodel texture.
Akihabara Accept, Factory New
The Rising Sun Collection, May 2015
What is the true price of anime? CS:GO has made the question less rhetorical and pointless by throwing an anime magazine cover on an AUG. Turns out, it s expensive enough to find a way into the key market. Good job, anime.
Dragon Lore, Factory New (Field Tested pictured)
The Cobblestone Collection, July 2014
When this skin first dropped, it was known to go for nearly $10,000. Over time, it settled down to a measly 500 or so key average. Pocket change, really. There are that many CS:GO keys between my couch cushions at any given moment.
Before you overspend, read our AWP guide.
Spitfire, Factory New
The Alpha Collection, September 2013
Painting a mouth on the front of a WWII fighter? Very cool. Painting one on the front of a rifle? Mm, doesn't really work. It basically looks like the gun was dropped in wet paint. There are plenty of better looking (and cheap) FAMAS skins, if you ask me.
The Executioner, StatTrak, Minimal Wear
The Revolver Case Collection, December 2015
The Executioner has been painted with a gruesome display of bone. Damn right it s gruesome. For 250 bucks of bone, the gruesome-per-capita better be sky high! Check out those two bones on the side, crossed over one another in an X gruesome.
Cerberus, Souvenir, Factory New
The Cache Collection, November 2014
If you re looking to maximize your dogs per skin, boy, do we have a deal for you! There s a three-headed demon beast emblazoned on the side of this gun, which is mighty cool. Maybe not 200 bucks cool, but that s the price you pay for triple the dog.
Chantico s Fire, StatTrak, Factory New
The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016
This M4A1-S skin is a short story in absolutes. Chantico is the Aztec goddess of fires in hearths (cozy, pop down here, let s cuddle, etc.) and volcanos. She s also the goddess of precious things, which is extremely appropriate for such a unique CS:GO skin. Don t touch it. Mine.
Howl, StatTrak Factory New
The Huntsman Collection, May 2014
Your GUN won't be the ONLY thing howling if you drop that much cash on a Howl skin: your WALLET will ALSO be howling! Ha ha! But seriously, you could feed a family of five for like a while with that much money.
The Howl's extraordinary price is due to the unusual controversy that followed it after release, which included the gun's removal from distribution but not from owners' inventories. CS:GO stopped dropping new Howls long ago, so the lucky initial owners of this lion-faced piece of copyright infringement own one of the most coveted status symbols in the game.
Cardiac, StatTrak, Factory New
The Vanguard Collection, November 2014
Let s go, Broncos! is what the average Cardiac owner says at least four times a game. Or I like basic color theory in blockbuster films! again, four times minimum. Maybe My favorite colors are blue and orange in no particular order! but no more than twice. No one likes a boisterous color fan.
Ultraviolet, StatTrak, Factory New
The Arms Deal Collection, August 2013
If you can see the color of this skin, congratulations, you can see x-rays. If you can see a bunch of x-rays, I m sorry, that s probably very bad. At least you know your SG 553 is not just violet, but ultraviolet and that there s more to this life than meets the eye. 55 bucks well spent.
Blood in the Water, StatTrak, Factory New
The Arms Deal 2 Collection, November 2013
This gun has a shark on it, which makes you, the owner of said gun, a shark as well. I'm like a shark when I play, even without this gun. I immediately flop to the ground and die. In other news, good lord, that's a lot of money for a shark gun that doesn't launch actual sharks at players.
Graven, StatTrak, Factory New
The Bravo Collection, October 2013
It breaks two commandments at the same time might be the eternal peak for CS:GO gun skin flavor text. The Graven is worth the $100 just for the goofs. But which two commandments? We ll let you puzzle that one out on your lonesome.
Whiteout, Factory New
The Office Collection, August 2013
You can buy this skin for the MP7 that turns it completely white, which is coincidentally the color objects in games look when their skins don't load at all. So... money well spent, I'd say.
The Assault Collection, August 2013
This bone crusher is a devastator isn t the most colorful flavor text, even if the skin itself is a bright construction helmet yellow. Imagine a big dopey ogre or a massive tank-like robot saying it though, and all redundancy is forgiven.
Primal Saber, StatTrak, Factory New
The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016
There s no shortage of skulls and stripes in CS:GO, thank goodness, and the Primal Saber fills an oft sought after bone niche: the prehistoric predator. If only the flavor text wasn t a wheel-spinning portentous prophecy. Every predator eventually meets their end. Well, sure. Death is a thing. Truly, this is a skin for the most melancholic of CS:GO players; those who prioritize poesy over precision.
Judgement of Anubis, StatTrak, Factory New
The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016
For a game without respawns, invoking Anubis, an Egyptian god associated with mummification and rebirth, seems a bit off brand. But, phonetically, Anubis sounds like someone important and powerful, which is enough for some, but he s also a person with a dog head, and who doesn t love dogs? Or at least the head part of the dog? No?
Death By Kitty, StatTrak, Minimal Wear
The eSports 2013 Collection, August 2013
Also known mockingly as the "Pro 90," the significant amount of surface area is put to good use here by covering CS:GO's most powerful SMG in multicolored cat skulls. I'm not mad, just disappointed. I'm also not surprised you're both popular and expensive.
Hazard, Factory New
The Alpha Collection, September 2013
This mag-fed shotgun has a construction-themed paint job, which means you can yell PARDON OUR DUST after you kill someone. If you're on Dust at the time, it's a double-pun. Look, it's a shotgun with some yellow stripes on it, what the hell do you want from me?
Bloomstick, StatTrak, Factory New
The eSports 2014 Summer Collection, July 2014
The flowers on this gun s stock cancel out the violence. You can t put a price on peace. Buy today.
Orange DDPAT, StatTrak, Factory New
The eSports 2013 Collection, August 2013
By the time you re close enough to notice the pixels it s already too late. It s never too late to admire the orange Digital Disruptive Pattern on this skin. Little pixelated Cheetos, dancing in the wind.
Fallout Warning, Souvenir, Factory New
The Nuke Collection, August 2013
The only true thing we know at PC Gamer is that putting a sticker on something makes it unequivocally cooler. As an addendum, the more stickers placed on that thing, its coolness grows exponentially. This Souvenir XM1014 has three stickers on the side, which qualifies it as an honorary prom king or queen in at least 20 different countries.
Blizzard Marbleized, Factory New
The Office Collection, August 2013
Use this gun skin and go prone on CS:GO s many eternally blizzarding arctic maps for a huge camouflage advantage.
Anodized Navy, Factory New
The Assault Collection, August 2013
This Negev is navy blue in spots. Do you like navy blue? How many dollars deep is your love for navy blue?
Marketplace link
Valve introduced cosmetic stickers to CS:GO in February 2014. Normally these are some of the cheapest items on the market a referential image of a funny banana man might set you back $0.84, for example.
Although the Contraband Howling Dawn sticker goes for about $100, the first-edition esports stickers are by far the priciest. Among them, Team iBUYPOWER s holographic sticker reaches a whole other level, seemingly due to the fact that the team was banned by Valve and dissolved after the discovery that they fixed matches for their own benefit. Although no listings exist at the time we re publishing this, there are several auto-buy orders for this controversial digital logo at $400.
Crimson Web, StatTrak, Factory New (Field Tested pictured)
For now, the Crimson Web M9 Bayonet is the most expensive item in Counter-Strike. Knives are arguably the CS mascot, so it s not that surprising so much value gets placed a long, deadly implement stored on your pants that tracks the number of people you ve stabbed with it. Nothing weird about that at all, nope. If I m being honest, there are much cooler-looking knives that can be had for just a couple hundred, like the Huntsman Fade or one of the raptorlike Karambit skins.