Another rare Counter-Strike skin goes for US$210,000 in auction

The skin by itself is very valuable, but its price was also driven up due to the controversial stickers that come with it.

Anna Bernardo
·Contributor
·2 min read
Bids for one of the rarest skins with the rarest stickers are piling by the thousands. (Photo: Valve, Skinbid.com)
Bids for one of the rarest skins with the rarest stickers were piling by the thousands. (Photo: Valve, Skinbid.com)

Some Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players are once again making money rain in an auction for one of the most valuable skins in the game, with the highest bid going for US$210,000.

The auction was handled by “zipeL”, one of the most popular skin collectors, who also brokered a US$500,000 sale on an AK-47 Case Hardened skin and a knife.

The Factory New M4A4 Howl StatTrack has four iBUYPOWER Holo stickers from the EMS One Katowice Major in 2014, and while they perfectly match the colours of the weapon, there are reasons beyond the aesthetic that collectors seek them.

The iBUYPOWER Holo stickers are among the rarest stickers in the game, partially because of their association with iBUYPOWER's match-fixing scandal.

These sell for over US$67,000 a piece on another Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin-selling platform, CSGOSKINS.GG.

Beyond the controversy, the extremely low float (0.004830657970160) of this M4A4 Howl indicates that its skin is practically brand new and free of scratches and blemishes.

zipeL regularly sells Counter-Strike skins through the Steam Workshop and is a co-founder of Skinbid, a marketplace and auction site for Counter-strike skins and items.

The highest bidder goes by the name “Patriarch”, and if you look into his Steam Profile and item inventory, this bidder has some drool-worthy in-game items, including three AWP Dragon Lore, two AK-47 Vulcan, one M4A4 Howl, and a knife M9 Bayonet Crimson Web.

Players can obtain a wide variety of weapon skins by opening the in-game crates, more known as loot boxes. The cosmetic items you receive from these crates range from the common to the extremely rare, and you can recoup your investment by selling them in the Steam marketplace.

And with the arrival of Counter-Strike 2 just around the corner, market prices for these skins have increased ten-fold or more since they can be carried over to the new game.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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