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.
Today, we welcome Mitao, a very experienced trader from China. Shicheng Zhang, 25, besides skins does scientific research and works in computer science. He has a Wuhan University bachelor’s degree in Surveying and Mapping Engineering, majored in Computer Science. But these days, as both trading and a regular job take too much time, Mitao has to choose only one. And since we’re here, chatting, you might already know his answer to this dilemma.
In this interview:
- Mitao’s first trades and investments
- Advice on joining the trade game
- The difference between Chinese and Western traders
- How CS2 could affect the skins market
- Selling skins to FaZe.Ropz
- Trading community and being kind
- Overhyped skin prices
- $40k loss to a scammer
- And more!
Before we start, we’ve partnered with Mitao to launch an iPhone 15 giveaway on our Twitter! Click here to learn the rules.
Part I: Personal Stuff, Trading Career & CN/Western Markets
Tell us about your passion – trading skins. How it all started for you? Do you remember your first skins and how you got into trading?
I love to spend a lot of time on online games. And I spent quite a lot when I was young on many online games. Even recently, I dumped around $8000 on an online game called Hero Wars (laughs).
I find that CS:GO skins have good economic potential to increase. Also, you can use them for playing or showing off which was the passion to initiate my skins trading career. I unboxed my first skin in just one case: in my first case opening, back in 2019, I got a MW AK-47 Neon Rider. Then, I bought a Karambit Ruby and Emerald, M9 Emerald after. Also, my first Kato AK pick-up was AK-47 Case Hardened with a random pattern and quad Titan Holos. I made around $1,000 profit when I sold that. I continued trading and bought some Katos, and with the hype of Kato14 Holos, those crafts also increased a lot. That’s why I am dedicated to trading. I still hold a set of Titan Holos, and I believe they will go up over $100K each in the short term.
Do you have a degree in something? Could your trading job be related to something you studied?
I have a bachelor’s degree in Surveying and Mapping Engineering, majored in Computer Science. I finished Wuhan University. But trading doesn’t have a lot related to what I learned. In short, CS:GO trading is more related to experience, reputation and fame. What I learned in University was not that crucial for it.
How can a person get all the knowledge about trading? Sure, you can learn trading and patterns/floats, but how to earn money?
As I noted before, experience is most important: if a person does a lot of trading, they would easily get enough knowledge about it. That is why some people overpay a lot when they start trading. But they get smarter after enough trades. With experience, we have time to find and snipe items on trading sites and profit from that.
Can trading be profitable enough to survive and not work on ordinary jobs?
Trading is enough to survive, but it’s quite a pressure. While still good compared to some other jobs, if a person becomes a top trader in CSGO, I think the profit is more compared a normal SDE or employee in Google/Apple/Facebook or other top companies in Silicon Valley. I think skins trading can be considered as a job.
You’re one of the main connections between CN and Western trading communities. Can you describe what it is to work with skins in China? Can you describe your Market and how it differs from the West?
People ask me to work or broke for them. Market is the same between the West and China. I saw some people in Twitter excited about Chinese buyers paying high prices or making big purchases. While in fact, the main buyers, I think, are still Western people. The main buyers of some super high tiers could be the Chinese people. High-tier items create a huge informational gap between buyers and sellers, which is the main difference between Chinese and Western markets. Also, liquid skins trading is different: from the Kato crafts trader’s POV, most people do liquids business in China.
Skins could have funny pattern numbers, like 520, which means “I Love You” and all that. How does Float affect prices in CN?
It doesn’t affect skins prices a lot, from my personal opinion, from my trading experience. I might be wrong, though.
Part II: The Community & Skins Market
Can you tell about the trading community? Is it friendly? Do people help each other and how? Considering it’s still about getting things cheaper and selling higher…
The community is okay. But you can’t talk a lot about prices, like post prices that could go down, go up or whatever. Maybe, due to high pressure of trading, some people are very sensitive to this. For sure I would say I’m friendly; I helped people like Burger (TT Wild Lotus crafter) to sell skins, sniped souvenir Dlores, etc. And Burger made over $300K due to my effort and literally I got 0 from this. Also some people said he was my boss, but in fact, he had less funds than me and that’s why I feel like a clown (laughs).
So I made myself a name of a reliable helper. I usually split like 50% profit to my business partners, I share my own experience as example, and besides, many people help each other here. But mutual respect is important. If someone did a big favor, they should split some, so that the cooperation can last longer. Though, don’t abuse other people’s kindness.
What should Valve change about skin market?
They don’t need to do a lot, the current system is ok. If for their own profit, they should do something to boost Steam Market selling because many CS:GO items are far beyond the maximum price Steam can list them for.
What’s now broken that Market can correct?
Many people are crazy about stickers hyping, items hyping, incoming CS2 hyping… I feel I cannot afford CS:GO items right now. I think this FOMO would be justified after people calm down. Valve’s server have to be corrected (laughs). Otherwise, people can’t send trade offers sometimes, which affects traders a lot.
Share an unpopular opinion. What do you not agree with in terms of prices?
Prices are hyped a lot. It’s not an unpopular opinion; it is my own opinion. Such questions are honest, because the CS:GO Market is in high risk nowadays. A lot of people are becoming quite greedy, some people feel that they could make money easily from CS:GO… All this shows that we are in high risks. Saying skins price will drop or Kato14 Holos price will drop is unpopular on Twitter, since some people have large investments in that, but some are clueless and just follow the mainstream thoughts. That is why I never or rarely talk about it: you will be blamed often. For me everything is okay since, currently, my business doesn’t relate a lot to the price of CS:GO skins.
Part III: CS2 & Scammers
How have CS2 already affected the Market? All the hype made skins grow. What will happen next?
Skins got hyped a lot, the general economy is weak, but I think some skins price would be justified. I don’t know, just personal opinion, not financial advice. I am an honest guy to this. Some skins may keep its price, some will drop a lot.
Do you have any predictions about CS2 skins? Stickers? How the prices would set up?
I think CS2 skins will be great, but I cannot predict. I mainly invest into stickers. In past, for example, AK-47 Fire Serpent was a god tier skin, but for now it’s just okay. These days, more people like Wild Lotus, Vulcan, and others and that’s why Fire Serpent doesn’t increase a lot. Also, Kato crafts go harder compared to Wild Lotus/Vulcan crafts.
In the future, we will get nicer skins in CS2, and those crafts will keep growing, while old ones will not. Or not at all. That is why I do sticker investment.
In CS:GO, there’s a lot of scammers, unfortunately. What do you think Valve should do and what they can do?
Valve can not do too much, but it’s okay. I was scammed last year for $40000. I consider mutual respect important. And this guy called Dagoat wanted me to have a deal worth $60000 in CS:GO items and me be the first to trade. I traded with him first in another deal so I thought it was mutual respect as it should be and mostly, I don’t need to go first since my reputation is good and big. But then, I got scammed.
***
Read our other interviews here. Also, we’ve spoke to Krieke, another experienced CS skins trader—interview with him is available by this link. Enjoy.
