How To Start Investing In CS2 Skins
Do you want to start investing in CS2 skins but don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place! In this guide, we’ll cover the most important aspects that will teach you how to get started with your CS2 investments.
First, you have to learn some base ideas before you can start investing, otherwise, it is very likely you are going to lose money and probably get scammed. So we advise you to read this guide thoroughly.
Choosing your investment goal
You need to decide in what form you want your investment to be in. For example, do you want your earnings in Steam funds? Cash? Or simply playskins? This plays a huge role in your ROI (Return Of Investment). In summary, what currency do you want to use?
What sites to utilize
If you want to use Steam funds, well, simply use the Steam Community Market (although there is still a better way to add Steam funds to your Steam wallet, but we will bring this up later in this guide). In spite of being a quick and simplistic way to sell your items, it isn’t the best option available because on Steam there are high fees, and specifically in CS2, the fee for selling CS2 items is about 15%. Way higher than other options!
If you want your items in cash, your best bet is to use cash-out sites such as:
These sites are the most trustworthy to sell your investment for real money. You can redeem said items via bank transfer, credit card, crypto, and other payout methods. Preferably, you should be using these sites not only because you get real money for your investment but the fee is lower than on Steam. Buying and selling your items on these sites will be a key factor in your profit.
Lastly, if you are interested in turning your items into playskins, you can use CS.MONEY, which is a trading site on which you can trade your items for knives, gloves, and so on. Alternatively, if you are experienced enough, you can use the CS2 Steam Trading Forum, in which you can post trade offers and see trade offers. But beware of scams, and be ready to overpay, because rarely does anybody want to trade skins without turning a profit.
And here’s a collection of some useful tools that you can use to research your investments:
- Visualistion of items, stickers, collections and so on: CSGOSKINS.GG
- Wiki page for everything about CS2: Liquidpedia
- Float database: Skinport Float Database
Picking your CS2 investment
After having a basic idea of CS2 investing and the right tools, you can start by picking your CS2 investment. There are two types of CS2 investments: short-term and long-term. Short-term investments tend to not be profitable enough and tend to be short-term trends that have a profit margin of 5–10% of the original amount, so we suggest going out for long-term investments. In order for a long-term investment to be worth your time and money, it must meet a few criteria:
Is there a limited supply of your item?
Investing in CS2 is usually based on the fact that limited-supply items tend to go up in price. For example, if there is a constant supply of a random item, such as a skin from a cheap case from the common drop pool, there is no reason for the price to go up. Only if that case is moved to the rare drop pool. Which bonds greatly together with our next criterion…
Is there a reason for your item to go up in price?
In general, for an item to be limited doesn’t automatically mean it will go up in price. For example, super old collections that no one remembers, such as: The Alpha Collection, The Office Collection, or The Aztec Collection. All three of them do have expensive skins in their collections, but they probably will not go up significantly enough in price to make them a good investment because there is no demand for such skins.
Another good example would be The Ancient Collection. At first, before the Major, it would seem like a great investment because there were no other Covert skins before the Major and no other collections from the active-duty maps with Covert skins in them, so theoretically, with the end of the Broken Fang Operation, their price would go to the moon. But Valve released new collections with better skins, overshadowing The Ancient Collection, which will inevitably become like those collections we mentioned before. In conclusion, it could be a great investment in the long run, but nobody knows. It is high risk, possibly high reward. This ultimately runs to another criterion.
Is your money worth the wait time?
This is a question you should ask a lot before considering investing in CS2. For example, you want to invest $1,000 in CS2 items as a long-term investment, and your items are limited and have a reason to rise, but there isn’t much demand for your items, which means they will probably rise slowly. Is it worth waiting 2-3 years for those $1,000 to turn into $1,300? It’s something you can’t always know but will have to consider. A handy formula you can use to calculate your expected profit would be the RoR formula (Rate of Return), which shows you your expected profit, for example, a year later. Trying it with the above numbers ($1,300 - $1,000) / 1000 results in a 30% expected profit, which isn’t that great. Typically you should go for investments with a 60% or higher ROI. Going for lower ROIs isn’t a bad idea by any means, but they aren’t profitable enough to make them worthwhile.
Buying your investment items
So your items meet all the criteria. You now have only two things to worry about, buying and selling. There will be two ways you can buy and sell items: using Steam and using third-party sites. Let’s look at our options when it comes to buying our investment items…
Buying from Steam
Buying from Steam should be done the correct way, which means it’s suggested you get your Steam funds from liquid items. Liquid items are items you buy for cheap from third-party sites and sell them for a higer price on the SCM (Steam Community Market). Liquid items include the AK-47 Redline, AWP Asiimov, and Doppler knives. Essentially, you need liquid items to get your hands on Steam funds for cheap. Selling your liquid items should be done with sell orders, but if the buy order on the SCM still gives you extra funds and you need your balance as soon as possible, by all means, go for it.
After getting your Steam funds, you will be buying your investment item with Buy Orders. You will not buy items right away, it is almost certain you will get your item for cheaper with buy orders and there is no reason to spend more money on the same item. After placing your buy order, it is the wait game.
Buying from third-party sites
Buying your items from third-party party sites is pretty straightforward, you see a good deal that is cheaper than buying from the SCM, you buy it. Now your only concern will be selling.
Selling your investment items
Finally, the last part of your investment plan is to sell your items. You should sell only when you have reached your goal, but you can also sell before that, although you will not get as much profit as you would like. Selling can also be done on Steam and third-party sites.
You should sell on the SCM if you are interested in getting games, playskins, or some other reason you would need Steam funds. You must sell with sell orders and not for the price of buy orders because you lose a ton of money that way.
Selling your items on third-party sites is usually preferred because you get real cash. You may lose “value” compared to Steam, but the prices on Steam don’t reflect the actual cash price. Deciding what price to list your item for should be something around the lowest price that the item is currently available for, but close to your goal. Lastly, you shouldn’t panic sell if you see your item dropping in price or even plummeting. If there is nothing that’s changed that would make your investment not worth it anymore, you should just hold. If something has changed, you should evaluate the situation again based on our investment criteria above.
Which types of items should you invest in
After all this, you would be asking what items you should invest in. Well, it depends. It must follow the criteria mentioned above and have demand (a reason for the item to go up in price). An example of high-demand and possible investments that follow the criteria would be old cases in the rare drop pool, old sticker capsules that are discontinued, operation skins from each operation happening each year, and finally high-end items, such as blue gems, Kato stickers, rare souvenirs, and souvenir cases. These are just examples, which do meet all the requirements and the logic behind them in order for them to become a good investment. After all, nothing in investing is 100% certain.
