this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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Who is buying these skins. I feel like such an alien sometimes. I just can't understand wanting to spend any money at all on a cosmetic skin
Its a free to play game. You put 1000s of hours in why not spend some.money to customise your gun. Money isnt that tight for some people.
I guess. I'd rather not throw away my money, even if it's not tight. I wouldn't feel joy about a custom skin. Every time I saw it I would be reminded that I'd wasted money.
But that's me, not everyone.
I'll spend like $30 on the weekend getting alcohol and take aways. These add no value to my life beyond the short time I spend consuming them. Spending $20 for a skin that I think looks cool for a gun I really like and often use is an easy choice in a game I got for free.
Its hard to explain for someone that doesnt play but its more than just a skin on a gun when you play competitive games you're expressing your skill as a player in front of an audience of people. Its a way for players to make the gun feel more like their own instead of just having everything look exactly the same. People are playing $80 to play a 1 time play AAA game so for f2p games with infinitely replayability spending some money on a skin isnt a big deal you're just paying devs for the game you love.
I've spent like 5-10 dollars on csgo skins. Haven't gambled but just spent money directly towards the marketplace to choose the shitty skins I like. Some designs are just really appealing to me
People who never used fpsbanana or joined a server with a bunch of skins.
I blame league of legends and then dota. Those things pushed matchmaking into cs and then gamer empowerment into obscurity. Even Microsoft's version of Minecraft that they rewrote you have to pay real money for in order to save more worlds. There is a direct correlation between laziness and stupidity, and paying more.
100%.
Make a fun game. If there are skins, include a handful of good ones with the game and call it a day. I'm there to have fun playing a game, not to try on outfits.
Maybe I'm old.
Before this shit existed (like back when the hottest shit was Quake), I thought it might be cool to get a professionally made skin everyone in the game could see for like $0.25-$0.50. A dollar, at most.
The first iteration of a system that could have potentially made that a reality, the things you'd actually wanna buy were $25-50. Like who the fuck workshopped these ridiculous prices?
Adjusted for inflation, the price is probably the same 😅
But seriously they just charge whatever people will pay. It's not like it's free market, if people can't make their own custom skins.
I wouldn’t spend money on skins in most games but Counter Strike is different. You can buy a skin, use it for years, and then sell it for more than you paid. In fact, skins are actually a very good investment that have historically had less volatility and better returns than stock indexes like the S&P 500.
Sure, people will always care for skins and beanie babies. Everyone knows that.
But you can't get your money back out. You only get Steam wallet credit when you sell it, right?
That's where 3rd party trading platforms come in.
These skins have 15% returns? That seems dubious but it could be. I don't think you can sink $300k into skins like you can vanguard, though.
I bought operation cases for around 100€ 5 years ago, it's now worth 1000€
That's the case with a lot of collectibles. LEGO is a great investment but you have to keep it somewhere
There are skins worth millions, so definitely you can.
...who is paying a million dollars for a skin??
Whales.
Royal whales
Agreed. The only time I'll buy a skin is if it literally improves camouflage. I see no reason to buy a flashy skin that only serves to make you more visible to enemies.
"Camouflage is the colour of fear."
"What the enemy can see, he will soon learn to fear".