Skins could be just a fun aspect to decorate your casual CS matches. But for a particular minority of people, skins have become the meaning of life, a way to earn money, and doors to a fabulous future. CS.MONEY Blog presents a series of interviews with professional traders, asking them all things skins: how they managed to achieve inventories worth close to millions; how difficult it was to start; why it is worth choosing niches; and, most importantly, what will happen to the skins market in CS2.
Our guest today is Chez, a man who made $200 into $60k in just a few months. He’s a very experienced trader with seven years of work and a true master of liquid skins. His inventory now totals approximately seven hundred thousand dollars, not including what he already withdrew. Today, Chez talks about his career and how it started, names his favourite skins, tells important things about working in the trading field, and gives advice to newcoming (and not only) traders.
In this interview:
- Start with $200 and reach $60,000 in a couple of months
- Tips for Beginner Traders
- Niches: Blue Gems, Liquid Skins, Stickers
- Investing in Premium Stickers
- Evaluating Skins Correctly
- The Future of CS2 and the Skin Market
- and much more!
Part I: First steps, profits and earnings. Trading Basics.
Chez prefers to remain anonymous. He’s been trading CS skins for seven years and still devotes all his time to it. He started back in his early university times, when friends first told him about skins and introduced him to trading. They showed him that skins can be profitable.
Chez: It all began with small amounts. I invested $200, I remember, and bought my first knife, Karambit Ultraviolet. Since then, I have spent every day, from 9 AM to midnight, trading.
Seven years is a huge period. Was it difficult at the beginning? How did you accumulate knowledge?
I was very lucky that my friends got me here. They have already been trading for a year, so they knew everything.
Back then, it was simple: just do your things through CSGO Lounge. Moreover, there was no Trade Lock. Now I’m no longer looking for deals, people come to me themselves, because I am possibly one of the biggest traders in the game. But when I started, I was looking for deals myself, looking for people with items. I wrote and offered exchanges to fifty people daily to get one deal done. And since there were no Trade Locks then, you could do anytime and as much as you wanted. Also, the commissions were completely different: by dealing a knife worth two hundred dollars I earned three or four bucks. And this was considered successful.
Wasn’t it scary to give away your first knife? And what have you got instead?
It was Karambit Ultraviolet. I changed it for case keys as it was somewhat of a currency back then, and then changed the keys back to a knife. Basically, these keys were the only way to cashout from CS:GO. So, I bought the same knife again, only I had two keys left on top. It was cool, because I didn’t know that you could somehow make money from this and getting two keys for my first day of work was nice.
You said you started with 200 dollars. How much do you have now? Is it possible to make money trading skins?
Taking into account everything I own, I think about $700,000. This is the biggest amount of assets I have ever had. But you understand that I won’t keep all my money on Steam, right? Now and then I cashout, obviously, to stack it up outside the game.
And regarding how much you can earn on skins… First, cash can start coming literally in a couple of months. I earned these keys on the first day of work, when I still didn’t know anything and didn’t know anyone. The more you trade, the more regular clients you have, and they will they can trade with you, they can go first with you, you’re a trusted person, not a scammer. If you have already made many transactions, a person will not look for someone else if he already knows that there is a reliable person with whom they can exchange. And over time, your client base grows. On the first day, I had one client, the second day, I had three clients. And these clients don’t go anywhere; they always stay with you, because if everything was good, then they no longer need to bother and look for someone else.
And when literally two or three months passed, I already had many clients who simply came to trade with me because they knew me. And after a couple of months, I realized that you can make good money. 200 dollars and two keys is a small amount, but after three months, I already had 60 thousand dollars. If someone doesn’t believe it, search trade history; it’s open.
Is it possible to somehow grow similarly these days, given the Trade Lock and market volatility?
It’s possible, in fact, regardless of your initial funds. You can even start with a single item worth ten dollars, for example, and start there. But it will take a very long time, and perhaps it’s worth considering the option of earning money at a regular job, and then switching to trading, then getting your client base.
My friends and I discussed this. We think that these days you can start trading with ten thousand dollars. It’s not a huge sum, but you can earn through it without a client base, without anyone, at least 500-600 dollars. And as you work, the number of clients will grow, you will understand more about what you can sell, what trades better, what you can sell at a higher price, etc. Perhaps, you don’t even need to trade, because trading has a 5-10% commission, but you can sell on websites for much more and earn. People tend to sell skins carelessly, so you can snatch some deals from them and profit.
Over time, when you learn things, you can push each skin to its price limit, so you will simply grow faster.
What can help you quickly navigate the market? Guides, or maybe the community?
I don’t think the community has given me anything, even though I’ve been here for quite some time. I would say, as it was in my case, it’s best to start not all by yourself, but with with friends. That is, you need to have a friend who also spent money on skins and would like to become a trader, and you both study everything, share info, and try. Of course, it’s a risk, yes, but when the two of you are together, or better yet three or four of you, you are a pack that is constantly looking for something and finding something. It’s hard on your own; you won’t be able to figure it out alone. Sometimes, even now, I get messages from traders like, “The market has fallen, I want to sell skins, I have no trades, I want to go.” But, in fact, the market is alive!
As it always was. It never died, although it had been buried hundreds of times. But people think so because they play it solo. It’s difficult, and that’s why people end up leaving. Therefore, I advise beginners to do it with friends so that someone starts with you or find a friend who’s already in the business.
Well, if you have no friends, then, of course, go to Twitter, Steam groups, Discord, Facebook and interact and communicate with other traders as much as possible.
Part II: Stickers, Knives, Favourite Skins
Have you had any celebrity clients?
To be honest, maybe I had, because I make a lot of trades, but I just may not know it. I had a guy who played at a tournament in 2014 for some team. We traded with him, and then he eventually told me, after a lot of time, that he was a pro player. Wow! But I didn’t know.
Do you have any skins to be proud of?
Yes, I just recently bought a sticker and am proud. Reason Gaming Holo for $40,000. This is one of my biggest deals. I’ve had purchases for 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars, but I haven’t bought items in Counter-Strike for 40k yet. Why? I thought the price was too good. And it seems like you can make good money on it.
In our other interviews with traders, they said that investing in stickers is the easiest and calmest thing to do. Buy one and save it, because there won’t be more of them. And in five years there will be a 200% increase in price. What do you think about this?
I absolutely agree. And 200% is very little, like stickers of some new team that no one knows. In general, stickers in five years can give x50, x30, x40 in price, and this is considered normal, not much, a slight profit.
Stickers are reliable, they are always alive. Every tournament it seems that there is no point in buying stickers, but after a while, it turns out there was a point after all. Yes, it’s a good investment.
What could also be a good investment instead of the luxurious, premium stickers?
Personally, I bought Atlanta 2017, London 2018 and Berlin 2018. I have them in my crates waiting to grow. Stockholm 2021 recently grew x50 or even x100. But in reality, you never know: some stickers may grow, others may not. You better not listen to anyone: choose stickers you like most and buy them. Next, wait to be lucky or unlucky.
But there are also stickers already too late to buy: everyone knows about them, they are hyped, so basically, it’s already the time to sell them. Kato14, for example. I believe that investing in Kato14 is a risk. They won’t drop in price, that’s for sure, since there are very few of them and they are always in demand, but with these, you invest eighty thousand dollars, for example, in one sticker, and in a year or two it will be, for example, one-sixty. An x2 in two years? That’s not good at all. On some stickers you can earn x5, x10, and even more.
Your inventory is full of knives and gloves. Why them?
You always have a knife in your hands in CS. It’s the most important thing, so people always trade them. The same goes for gloves; even though I have fewer of them, they still bring a lot of profit. That’s why I keep so many knives: when a client comes and asks for a new butterfly, I have to offer him something and show him what I have. Otherwise, what should I show him, the stickers? “Here I have Reason Gaming Holo, Kato14!” And the client is like, “Mmm, cool.” What’s the point? People need knives to play with.
All my clients are not investors, they are ordinary players who like to quickly trade in the evening, go play a couple of games and wait a whole week for the weekend to play again.
What can you say about Howl, Dragon Lore, and Gungnir? They’re not so popular?
People buy these way less often. I have Howls, and Gungnirs, and DLores, just not so many and it’s not so visible. If a client approaches me, I’ll sell it, and then I’ll find a new one. I’m asked about Gungnir and Dragon Lore once a week or two. While knife trades happen constantly, every day. They’re very liquid.
What do you think about niche skins? Like Blue Gems, for example.
Blue Gems are cool! They never drop in price, because those who buy them do not want to sell them cheaper, and overall, they’re unique. Well, I mean, there are very few of them, and for people to later get the same knife, they need to let the previous owner earn money, and then the new owner will also want to earn money. As a result, it turns out that Blue Gems never drop in price. This is a great niche, I also have Blue Gems, I also trade them, I just don’t have that many of them. I don’t have any T1 skins, rather all sorts of T2 and T3, but that’s good, too. Why invest 30-40 thousand dollars in a knife when you can buy it for two or three thousands and be happy? You will still have a knife with enough blue.
There are a lot of different niches, but I chose liquid skins. With ordinary knives and gloves, you will always find clients. Most of the time, there’s around 100-200 thousand dollars in my Trade Lock. And Blue Gems, of course, are very cool, but there is little demand there: one Blue Gem can be useless for me for several months, perhaps even half a year. But this is not the case with regular knives and gloves; you keep the item in your Trade Lock, seven days later they’re gone, a month at most. Your inventory works 24/7 for your profit, a small commission of five, at most ten per cent.
What are your favourite skins?
Of course, my AWP is always Dragon Lore, and M4 is always Howl. These are real classics, I would never change them for anything. And everything else is already… You see, when you have a choice and you can take a new item every match, a knife or gloves, you just get enough of one and take another. So most of them become secondary. But my favourites are Dragon Lore and Howl. I will always love them and never say goodbye to them. I wear whatever Dragon Lore I have. Battle Scarred? Great, let’s fly.
Part III: Skin Price Evaluation, The Future, and Community’s Hate
Are there any skins you think are broken right now regarding pricing?
Rubies and Sapphires. After the release of CS2, where Valve changed their looks a little, the prices dropped a lot. It seems to me that this should have been fixed, but the more time passes and these fixes do not happen, the more I think that it will remain like this forever, to be honest. But as I see it, the community also wants Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds to return to their original looks. In CS:GO, they were much better and were notably different from ordinary Dopplers. If you now look at a Sapphire Doppler and a regular Doppler Phase 4, they are almost the same. I expect that Sapphires, Rubies and Emeralds should be fixed. They are broken and the prices for them are also broken.
Since we’re on the subject of CS2 affecting Sapphires, Rubies and so on, do you have any expectations for what will happen next?
My expectations are only positive. People… They get bored. And CS:GO was already really outdated. It had to change.
Now, it has been transformed into CS2, and it has many bugs. Although I’ll tell you honestly, I played beta with my friends and liked it much more than the old CS:GO. Firstly, CS2 has fewer lags. I don’t know, maybe because I have a good PC, and the new engine works better on it rather than the old CS:GO, which used to freeze here and there. For me, CS2 is fine. Surely, it has some game bugs, including this shot registration thing and all that. These bugs are all insignificant, and I am sure they will be fixed quickly in the next couple of months or, at most, six months. The game is perfect, in my opinion. It’s cool that they left everything that was so important, didn’t remove anything, things works as it is, only fresher, newer, cooler.
I think CS2 will only have a positive impact in the long run. Yes, there are problems in the short term, many saw it and stopped playing, but this will not last long: the holidays are coming, winter also, it’s cold outside, so what they’re gonna do at home?
What are your expectations from CS2’s first case? When will it be, closer to the Major?
Launching it in time for the Major would be very smart, because there will be more attention to the game. This way, more people will open more cases, which is good for Valve. But to be honest, people are already waiting. Before, we had a lot of cases and this affected prices. Now, probably, it’s time to bring in new content because people are eager.
How do you feel about people hating on you on Twitter?
All these discussions, or hate, are playing for me. People write that my commission is too big, although other traders take exactly the same commission, if not more. But there will always be hate if you are at the top. In any case, you will have a lot of envious people; you cannot escape from this. But this does not affect my old clients who are used to trading with me, they will always stay with me, no matter what happens.
Besides, all this hate has its advantages. For example, many people didn’t know me before I started Twitter. They just didn’t know I existed. And then they saw me on Twitter. Surely, people say bad things, but then a person comes to my inventory, looks at a knife, and thinks: “Damn, I want a knife.” And they have no choice but to send me a trade with the words, “I won’t overpay, accept it or I’ll find another trader.” But it’s always a profit for me anyway.
Three Tips For Beginner Traders
