The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin market is a very diverse one. It will certainly meet the expectations of any player. It ranges from common, nondistinctive skins, which can be bought for a few pennies, to exquisite, expensive, sought-after ones – just like the legendary AWP Dragon Lore skin. Let’s check out the 10 most expensive CS:GO skins in each weapon category.
Knives – Butterfly and Talon Knife Skins
From all the cosmetic knives which can be obtained in CS:GO, the Butterfly, Karambit, Bayonet and Talon knives have the most expensive skins on the market. Why? Their original, vanilla, default in-game design is particularly recognizable. All of them are non-linear, eye-catching and were made by Valve.
Which one of them is the most expensive? Probably one of the Butterfly Knife skins, like the Doppler Sapphire. Its unique color, translucent ornaments and satisfying animations (due to the nature of the butterfly knife’s locking mechanism) made it an instant hit among the CS:GO fans. The skin itself is popular and well-known, but its price is a deterrent – it usually amounts to around $1,000. It's basically almost like CSGO Dragon Lore among knives. If you’re a fan of the expensive Butterfly Knife skins, be sure to also check out the Fade and Marble Fade skins. Another one is Case Hardened Blue Gem, which cost between 6 and $8,000.The second most expensive knife skin is the Marble Fade for the Talon Knife. It can be found in the Prisma and Prisma 2 cases. Its texture pattern is based on layers of smoke (usually blue, red, yellow and green, sometimes black or brown, depending on the variant). It’s quite popular and because of that, far cheaper than the Doppler Sapphire Butterfly Knife skin: you can buy the first for just $600 on Skinwallet (Factory New condition), while the Doppler Sapphire cost $14,000.
Pistols – Diverse and a Bit Cheaper
The proper usage of pistols is an important element of almost every match in CS:GO – not only during eco-rounds, but also in situations such as: running out of ammo for heavier guns, the possibility of getting killed while reloading other weapons, or developing a good sniper strategy (good snipers usually use AWPs for long distance, and pistols for short distance).Pistol skins are not exactly the most expensive category on the skin market – the astounding prices of such skins as with the Dragon Lore, are not to be found among the pistol skins. The most expensive ones are probably Souvenirs with rare stickers (over $1,000), but without them – the price plummets to around $200-400. The Desert Eagle skins serve as good examples: Printstream, Blaze or Target Acquired.
Heavy weapons and SMGs – A Multitude of Affordable Skins
Such weapons as shotguns and machine guns have a lot of skins, but for various reasons, most of them are rather inexpensive. Usually, the skins are made of a pastel color palette with many designs – everything ranging from pop-art inspired graphics to mono-color, minimalist designs. Currently, the skins for heavy weapons are quite cheap on such sites as Skinwallet – most of them are priced below $10. The same applies for SMG skins, although they are a bit more expensive.
Rifles – This is Where the Fun Begins
One of the most popular weapons in CS:GO is the AWP sniper rifle. Carrying it poses a big risk for the player – it has a slow reload and firing rate, and reduces the player’s movement speed. Still, it’s probably the most iconic weapon of the game, known even outside the gaming community. The reason behind this is simple: despite the cons, its damage infliction is unsurpassed. A headshot with this weapon means certain death.Among many iconic skins for the AWP, four are worth mentioning. The first one is called Medusa, after the ancient mythological character. The name represents its very nature – one look from Medusa’s eyes turned its enemies into stone. But probably the most iconic and expensive CS:GO skin is the Dragon Lore, inspired by oriental culture. The prices of these skins have skyrocketed during the recent years: Medusa costs around $2,000-$3,000 (Factory New), and the Dragon Lore can be bought for $10,000. Impressive, right? However, it’s good to remember that the skins are just pieces of texture which do not increase the functionality of the weapons in any way. The next two ones are The Prince and Gungnir, which cost about $3,500 and $8,000 each.
Conclusion – Gloves
As we can see, the CS:GO skin market is loaded with interesting deals and designs. It’s not just the weapons that are subject to visual modification – so are gloves. And they’re not exactly cheap. For some reason, there’s no such thing as cheap gloves which can be bought for a few pennies. Finish Line, Snow Leopard and Cool Mint are worth looking into.