Dozens of skins are on the verge of extinction. They simply disappear from the game — no one can stop the disaster! Whole species are endangered. No, CS.MONEY isn’t here to bring panic but to tell you where the skins from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are going.
The game is chock-full of skins, there are hundreds. The most expensive of them cost like a new car. But oftentimes, their price is due not only to beauty but also to rarity. The latter has to do with several factors, but the main one is the inability to get new skins.
The Story of the Dragon
The AWP Dragon Lore belongs to The Cobblestone collection. All skins from this collection are expensive: they can only drop from The Cobblestone case, which, in turn, can only drop when viewing a Major. Here’s the problem though: Cobblestone isn’t played at Majors anymore — and is unlikely to ever be played again.
Because of that, the number of skins from The Cobblestone collection is limited. No new AWP Dragon Lore, Desert Eagle Hand Cannon, or USP-S Royal Blue will ever appear again.
Curiously, however, on the brink of extinction are some of the not-that-expensive skins. Each AWP Dragon Lore or M4A1-S Knight is in the community’s care and most often than not, they end up in closed inventories of collectors but still remain in the game. The CZ75-Auto Chalice, for example, disappeared completely. This skin is used in crafting, and there are therefore much fewer CZ75-Auto Chalices left in the world than there was originally.
Old Collections
It’s not only skins from Major cases that no longer drop are exposed to this problem. Old collections faced the same problem too, especially those that had cool skins.
Let’s take The Dust Collection, for example. It includes one of the most desirable Desert Eagle skins out there — the Blaze, its cost never falling below the $400 mark. Sawed-Off Copper, from which you can craft the Blaze, is never cheaper than fifty dollars. And no one will take less than a hundred for a skin in normal condition.
For such collections, the fact that they no longer drop in the game isn’t the only problem. To add to it, they haven’t been dropping for a very long time, meaning they were few originally. Now that the number of players has increased ten times compared to the epoch when The Dust Collection appeared, it isn’t very difficult to notice the deficit of such skins.
Even the AK-47 Jungle Spray from The Aztec Collection, not exactly the most beautiful skin, costs more than a hundred dollars in excellent condition. The only reason for that is that there are very few AK-47 Jungle Sprays straight from the factory in the world — and every day they are less.
Time & VAC
So why are there fewer AK-47 Jungle Sprays straight from the factory every day? Nobody uses them in crafting — it’s simply unprofitable. But collectors aren’t willing to sell them either: buyers don’t come in droves for such rare skins. As a result, skins like the AK-47 Jungle Spray have been gathering dust in inventories for months and years.
Over this period, their owners can get a VAC-ban. Or simply lose interest in the game. Or fall victim to cheating. Or maybe they’ll just close the inventory and no one will ever see this skin in the game.
Here’s the silver lining though: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now witnessing its heyday. Last year, new players entered the game on a daily basis. It’s free of charge, there are new agents as well as a new operation, there are new skins, plus the release in China — all of these facts have attracted a whole bunch of new players to CS:GO, and many of those new players got interested in skins.
The demand only grew as a result, causing an even greater price raise: the price of, say, the Glock-18 Fade has increased five times in two years and continues to grow. This skin is disappearing from the game too. It’s become a luxury item, with collectors and traders tending to accrue a small bunch of “fades” in their possession. The average player is unlikely to ever see this skin in the game unless they don’t buy it.
What Does It All Mean?
With all that said, it’s obvious that old and rare skins that don’t drop anymore are, as of now, nothing but a bit risky yet profitable investment.
CS.MONEY cannot guarantee that all old and rare skins will become more expensive. But we do recommend that you take a closer look at them. Perhaps they’ll form the basis of your future collection and your trading career.
