Also known as badges, pins in CS:GO will decorate your in-game profile. And… that’s basically all. Other than a little stylish addition to your PFP, you get nothing if you apply it. However, pins are interesting because since 2019, the rules have changed.
CS.MONEY Blog tells what pins in CS:GO are, names their features, and unveils what Majors have to do with them.
What are pins CS:GO?
Players can decorate their profile pics with pins in CS:GO. These small badges hang in the corner of the PFPs and show that the owner can afford to spend a few bucks. Although, earlier, it was a scarce and prestigious thing.
At first, pins were sold only at Valve’s official events, Majors. You could open a random pin by purchasing a physical capsule in Valve’s store. That means an actual pin that can be hung on a bag, cap, purse or whatever. The capsule also included a code: redeem it in CS:GO menu and get the same pin as your avatar’s decoration. Thus, when you saw a player with a pin in a public match at the dawn of Counter-Strike, it meant that this person had been to a LAN tournament! First promo code for GameChanger Hub: DD3F8C.
But then, Valve released a digital pin capsule, even several series with different badges. And it broke the whole economy of pins, but more importantly, their prestige and awesomeness.
And then, in 2019, after the Berlin Major, Valve stopped selling physical pin capsules. Still, knowing how to get CS:GO pins is easy. You can buy an infinite number of pin capsules right in the game. Hence their low price, demand and interest. Also, Steam Marketplace is full of them, with various prices, mostly pretty low (of course, the rarest can cost around $70). By the way, our CS.MONEY Market has a section with pins, so you can look and buy any for yourself; just filter it in the menu on the left.
Types of CS:GO pins
There are Regular and Genuine pins. The former dropped from packs, while the latter could only be obtained by purchasing a physical badge in official stores during a Major. They are not subject to exchange and are tied to an account once received. So, the traders are not interested in them. And there are very few owners of Genuine pins.
Anyway, there are three Pin Collections in CS:GO and a separate HL: Alyx Pins Collection.
- Series 1 includes pins with logos of popular maps from 2015: Nuke, Train, Militia, Italy, Mirage, Inferno, and Dust 2. Also, it has a couple of unremarkable CS:GO-themed badges: Guardian, Tactics, and Victory;
- Series 2 seems to be more attractive, having some dedicated to Operations and pins of new maps: Cache, Cobblestone, Office, and Overpass. There are also two rare pins: Chroma and Valeria (one of the most expensive);
- Series 3 brags with Guardian, Canals, Welcome to the Clutch, Death Sentence, Inferno 2, Wildfire, Easy Peasy, Aces High, Hydra, Brigadier General, and Howl pins. Of course, the Howl cs go pin is the most expensive in the game;
- The HL: Alyx Collection was released in 2020 as part of the marketing campaign for the game. Second promo code for GameChanger Hub: OH4K3S.
What are pins for?
In general, they are used only as profile decoration. This is a low-liquid asset for investment, and they are not easily distinguishable. And since any player can get endless pin capsules right in the game, their price is relatively low.
But physical pins are an excellent thing. You can still buy IRL capsules on eBay or Amazon, but they won’t come cheap. However, they look very decent!
