CSGO: How To Start Investing

CSGO investing is an incredibly complex topic of conversation. Players seem to associate CSGO investing with a different category of investing because it's within a game. However, my first piece of advice would be to associate CSGO investing with general investing. There is serious money to be made and lost within CSGO, with some people investing millions and others hundreds.

With the right decision, choices, and analysis, players can profit from the CSGO market, whether through stickers, skins, pins, or weapon crafts. Players can find new innovative ways to make money through the game. In this article, we will teach you the best ways to start investing within CSGO, whether that be things you must consider, risk management, and how to cash in/out your money.

It might surprise you, but most players don't understand that you can even cash out of CSGO! As usual, please invest at your own risk and take this article as guidance, not instructions. Only invest what you can afford to lose, and don't get lost in a game's commercial elements. It's fun but can be dangerous! 

CSGO Investing: Basics and Tips

To begin investing, you need to understand some of the essential principles. This includes your knowledge of the game's skin/sticker history, which is arguably the most basic element. In the same way that you might analyze a company's history and look at its balance sheet, you need to also look at the history of the skins and why prices were affected at what times. This will give you a general understanding of what impacts the market value of skins, how the players and skin fans value skins when released, and the general rarity of skins/stickers.

Here are a few points to look into within CSGO investing: 

• Finding a reliable trading site - BUFF163
• Creating a CSGO trading Twitter - stay ahead of the latest news 
• NEVER refer to prices through Steam Community Market 
• Research skin rarity - know the difference between skin rarity "colors" (red, pink, blue, etc.)
• Learn Chinese RMB prices (more appropriate trading currency in CSGO via BUFF163)
• Research popular, reliable, and trustworthy traders (won't scam you if you cash out)
• Knowing the release date of most skins - Lightning Strike, 2013 
• Learn events that affected CSGO prices - seven-day trade ban for CSGO skins
• Understand how float value affects skin prices 
• What stickers are popular and why

These are only a few points that will drive your overall understanding of the game forward in just a few hours. Researching this information isn't hard at all. CSGO YouTubers such as Sparkles, Anomaly, ohnepixel, and Arrow, all explain every bullet point mentioned above. 

CSGO Investing: Understanding Stickers 

Stickers within CSGO investing are huge. They affect the prices of skins in unimaginable ways. However, some stickers boost the skins by thousands, and then some skins boost skins by pennies; it's just about learning the difference. The way you learn the difference is by researching the specific sticker on trading sites to get a general understanding of the price and then heavily discounting the price of the sticker applied onto the skin. 

Try this order: Research sticker price non-applied, research skin price without a sticker, discount the sticker by (example) 90% price because it's applied onto skin, and add the two prices together, giving you a total. However, this subject is a little more complex due to the overall fluctuation of prices and value between sticker collections, some stickers are worth more than $70,000, and others don't hit further than $0.05, so research heavily into sticker prices. 

Here are a few points to research before purchasing sticker investments:

• How to value stickers on CSGO 
• What stickers are worth investing in within CSGO (Primarily just Katowice 2014)
• How to value sticker crafts on CSGO 
• Best positions of stickers on CSGO weapons 

High-value stickers are worth more when applied to weapons depending on where they have been placed on the gun. Most weapons have four placement locations for stickers, and each position is ranked best to worst, increasing and decreasing the value of the skin. 

Personally, buying Katowice 2014 sticker crafts as investments is the safest option. The Katowice 2014 supply has been drastically reducing, and after the switch to CS2, the Katowice hype is only going to grow significantly larger. Buying the right Katowice 2014 craft could be an excellent decision, but please research all the points listed. 

CSGO Investing: How CS2 will affect Skins 

Players are currently valuing skins in correlation to their CS2 "aesthetic," which is incredibly interesting. For those that don't know, following the release of CS2, the game will receive a large overhaul and complete rework of how most CSGO skins look aesthetically. This changes the way most skins in-game currently look, changing their appearance and, ultimately, the price. 

Players looking at investing within CSGO should heavily consider the price changes once CS2 has been implemented and made public, as this will be a drastic event for skin investors. Skins on CSGO that have been overlooked for years due to their visual disadvantage have now been reworked to look amazing, thus boosting their price.

However, players must determine if this price change is sustainable and permanent instead of false hype and price increases. As such, players should educate themselves on the changes to skins following the CS2 implementation. There will be a lot of changes in the dynamic of skins and how the community values/prices items, acting as a slight red flag for investors. However, opportunists worldwide have seen this as a way to potentially hit big. 

This ultimately links back to learning about the history of CSGO. But implementing CS2 is such a large part of the current CSGO scene that it's vital to learn about it before starting your investment journey. For inspiration, check out this article covering the best skin updates. 

CSGO Investing: Rarity and Supply 

CSGO skins all obtain a specific or unlimited supply and level of rarity, influencing the price of that skin massively. As most know, skins come in "colors" such as red, pink, purple, and blue levels, all influencing how rare and likely the skin is to be unboxed within a case. This again changes the price because if the skin is a "red" rarity, that means the unboxing chance is approximately 2.5%, making it rare and (therefore) expensive. 

However, the rarity of a particular skin doesn't necessarily indicate a limited or low supply. It's crucial to note that cases can be dropped at the end of CSGO games. As a result, many CSGO cases essentially have an unlimited supply, allowing players to infer the ongoing availability of these skins. Skins only become rare and expensive once Valve has discontinued the case, meaning there is only a limited supply left for players to unbox, causing a huge price increase.

It's never a great idea to invest in skins that are in continuing and more recent cases. This is because they're constantly being unboxed, making them less rare and lowering the price. The best skins to invest in are from operations or discontinued skins because they have minimal chances of being unboxed and therefore have a safer chance of prices staying positive. Just because the skin is a red rarity doesn't mean it's necessarily rare and will make money!