Recently CS:GO has broken its user count record, breaking the 900.000 peak player mark. That means our favourite game’s market will see even more action than before! With this in mind, we’re happy to present to you our market overview that will help you wrap your head around what has happened since the beginning of February.
Skins
January’s runner-up now takes the lead in terms of popularity, AK-47 Redline is currently not just a good-looking skin, but a valuable and liquid item for any trading platform, ours included. Other than this, there were no particular changes to highlight and everyone should be well familiar with the skins at the top of the list:
AK-47 | Redline (Field-Tested), AWP | Safari Mesh (FT), Desert Eagle | Oxide Blaze (FT), M4A4 | Urban DDPAT (Field-Tested) и M4A4 | Magnesium (Field-Tested).
As it’s often the case, two quite expensive knives with StatTrak: Butterfly Knife | Safari Mesh and Flip Knife | Black Laminate spiked in price, seeing 70% and 56% gains respectively. Deals with this kind of items are relatively rare, the prices are volatile and vary greatly from one case to another – don’t expect them to stabilize.
Top-5 price jumps:
- ★ StatTrak™ Butterfly Knife | Safari Mesh (Minimal Wear) from 155.33 to 264.79 (70%)
- ★ StatTrak™ Flip Knife | Black Laminate (Minimal Wear) from 132.68 to 207.5 (56%)
- M249 | Aztec (Factory New) from 1.06 to 1.48 (39.6%)
- ★ StatTrak™ Karambit | Boreal Forest (Field-Tested) from 190.25 to 263.58 (38.5%)
- Five-SeveN | Neon Kimono (Field-Tested) from 29.05 to 40.07 (37.9%)
Stickers
The sticker market is overflooded by the operation Shattered Web drops, and this situation will likely continue until late March. No noteworthy changes so far in the top 5, Counter-Tech sticker has ceded its position to Mastermind, but they’re still very close contenders.
The traders interested in capitalizing on the price movement after the completion of the current operation are already stocking up on stickers, which explains why their volumes are huge right now. The supply of these stickers is almost sure to be limited, which could make them a very attractive investment.
Trading Ideas
Operation Shattered Web and its influence on the market are the talk of the town. Here’s what you need to know about it in a nutshell:
- Launched on Nov 19, 2019, it’s been going on for about 11 weeks.
- Valve has confirmed that it’ll last for over 16 weeks, so expecting it to run for 20-24 weeks isn’t much of a stretch.
- The operation pass is being sold with a 40% discount, so some items’ prices have reflected this fact as well.
- There is a limit of 8 case drops per player, the price of Shattered Web cases is nearing $1 and it’s something worth monitoring.
The skins dropping from the cases are fairly good-looking, but the most important fact is – the 4 knives they contain will probably only ever be available in these cases and won’t reappear later on. As long as Valve takes the same direction with this operation as it did with Hydra, prices across the whole range of items from Shattered Web cases should see growth in the mid/long term.
Over the last couple of weeks two famous professional players have announced their retirement from the pro scene: Ex6TenZ and SmithZz. Their autographed stickers are seeing pretty good gains and it may not be the end of it yet.
The recent great performances of Mousesports, who currently rank 2nd in the world according to HLTV, have certainly turned some heads and attracted more attention to the team’s stickers. The next important tournament they’ll participate in is IEM Katowice, which will start on February 24. Will the team do well against other tier 1 contestants, or was it just a fluke? We’ll see about that, and if the team manages to please its fans, the price movement will also follow.
Trading Community Highlights
On Reddit the discussion of the interview by Sparkles with a scammer is going viral. The famous CS videoblogger almost fell victim to the schemes of the anonymous scammer, but smelled something fishy and actually turned the whole situation around by discussing a lot of interesting problems with him, revealing a lot of tricks of his trade in the process. The whole thread is worth reading, as it contains invaluable security tips to keep you safe while trading in virtual items.
Another interesting discussion revolved around the prices of Glove Case, which dropped sharply by 25% after experiencing steady growth since last autumn. Trading community members debate, whether it’s deliberate manipulation or not, and share their price projections for this case.
