Counter-Strike: Global Offensive cosmetics are among the most expensive in the realm of live-service titles. Like many items, whether real or virtual, rarity and desirability play their part and in the case of CS:GO skin collectors, gun skins can go for many thousands of dollars.
Just take the case of a recent sale where a CS:GO skin changed hands for the equivalent of $160,000. Never mind spending that much on a truck, or a small house, or holidays for the whole family, the large sum was paid for a flowery skin of an AK-47 (thanks Kotaku). But these are gamers we're talking about here.
The skin was purchased on the Chinese version of Buff, a secondhand marketplace trading in CS:O skins. The sale of weapons skins continues to be big business even as Valve implemented limits on how many times players could trade them. But the prices can be eye-watering.
Just look at how much the player spent on a Wild Lotus AK-47 skin. It is a rare skin for the popular weapon, and usually goes for around a few thousand dollars on the market, but this "factory new" version also includes four stickers that are exceedingly valuable, making the overall item that much more costly.
Key to how a digital item such as this can be assigned value is the way the game attaches a permanent "float" value. This "float" is what makes a gun skin "factory new" or "battle scarred", and the above Wild Lotus has a very low float number that added to its real-world price. Colour variations are also another significant factor in determining how much an item is worth.
Among serious CS:GO skin collectors, the thousands that exchange hands is not at all seen as anomalous, and multiple comments verified that the high figure paid for the skin wasn't ridiculous. "If you want one of the best AKs in the entire game, you either pay $158k or you buy a 0.00 lotus for $13k and then what? Somehow get 4 Reason [stickers] for anywhere close to 145k? Completely reasonable sale price for the item", wrote one rare skin collector.
"Yes this is a legit sale and yes this is the correct valuation of it too. Wild lotus retains insane sticker percentage and this is up there with the most desirable AKs in the game", wrote another CS:GO skin collector. Indeed, it's not the first time that a CS:GO skin has been on the market for hundreds of thousands of dollars, as this story from November shows.