Author: Valery Dragunov
Steam Marketplace is like an iceberg, which biggest part is hidden beneath one’s sight. For example, there are items in the game that cannot exist by meaning, but they have their SM pages. CS.MONEY Blog discovered a couple of them to show you some peculiar things from the Marketplace.
Interesting features
Dual Berettas Demolition is only available in FT, WW and BS due to their float limit of 0.26 – 0.60. Nevertheless, Steam Marketplace has a page with this skin but in Factory New! This weapon finish, though, is no different from other skins, and you can even make a purchase request. But you can’t really buy something that doesn’t exist…
Moreover, DB Demolition is one of many examples. There are nine more such skins with lower float limits from MW and higher, yet their FN quality pages are also available on the Marketplace. See for yourself: AUG Copperhead, M4A4 Asiimov, AWP Redline and Pit Viper, USP-S and M4A1-S Dark Water, M4A1-S Bright Water, P90 Death by Kitty and MP7 Skulls.
Take a look at this AWP Pit Viper FN souvenir skin. Besides the same thing that can’t exist with a float below 0.10, this one is different from the others. It has a Mountain (Foil) DreamHack 2013 sticker and a Mountain Pit Viper name tag! How did they appear on a non-existent skin?
Most likely, it’s just Valve’s experiment from back in the day. All these items appeared with the Arms Deal update, which introduced the first CS:GO skins and allowed to trade them on the Marketplace. With this experimental souvenir Pit Viper page, the developers might have simply tested how stickers and other stuff will be displayed.
Colour font is used for special items: for example, knives and gloves are written in purple only. CS:GO cases are always written in white, but the Winter Offensive Weapon Case has a purple nametag page. Looks like Valve was testing different font colours here. The first part of the promo code for GameChanger Hub: 1ME.
Valve mistakes
While previous examples were probably just Valve’s tests, these are obvious errors. StatTrak is a kill counter only found on case skins. Surely, only weapons can count frags, but the Marketplace has StatTrak Winter Offensive Case Key and StatTrak Name Tag pages!
Regular non-skin weapons (vanilla) cannot have StatTraks, as this is a unique feature of case skins. However, you can apply stickers and name tags to them, and such weapons will appear in your Steam inventory. It cannot be exchanged or sold, as indicated in the item description.
Surprisingly, 31 out of 34 vanilla guns (except CZ75-Auto, R8 Revolver and MP5-SD) have their own pages, including separate StatTrak ones.
Genuine, Prototype and Community items are tied to your account and cannot be exchanged or sold. For example, you may have seen Genuine badges. It means that their owners bought physical copies of such badges and activated the code that came with it in the game. This activates the Genuine label to be added to their CS:GO inventory.
Despite this, the Marketplace has a Genuine CS:GO Weapon Case page! As we have already learned, there is no point in it, because the possibility of selling a Genuine case looks rather absurd.
Also, you can get Prototype-tagged items for contributing content to CS:GO. Thus, if your Workshop skin has been added to the game, you will receive a key to this case with a Prototype tag. It is a reward and can’t open a case, let alone it’s unsellable or unexchangeable. Second part of the promo code for GameChanger Hub: 8KY.
The Operation Bravo case includes all the skins created directly by Valve, and it’s rather strange to see a Prototype Operation Bravo Case on the Marketplace, don’t you think? Maybe, the developers wanted to reward themselves for creating the case, so they gave it a separate page.
Same thing for the Prototype Pallet of Presents. In case you don’t know, use it, and a random player on your server receives a skin from an in-game drop list as a gift from you. The Gift Package itself was created by Valve, apparently. Yet, a large set of gifts, the Pallet of Presents, can be sold. And it has a page with the Prototype tag, which is clearly created by mistake.
Other Valve games also have items with special tags. Vintage and Community for Team Fortress 2, where the latter is CS:GO Prototype’s analogue assigned to things that are given to their creators as a reward.
So, CS:GO items cannot have TF2 tags, right? But there’s a Vintage Gift Package, most likely made by mistake, as well as Community eSports Key, CS:GO Weapon Case 2 and Operation Bravo Pass!
So, ever since 2013, Steam Marketplace has had pages with items that do not exist or can’t be bought. Font colour tests, cases with kill counters and name tags, stuff from other games, all this vaguely resembles an attic filled with old and unnecessary things no one needs (and needed) and already forgotten about. And even if Valve knows about them, they’re simply ignoring it. It may be time for them to give Steam a minor cleanup.
