CS2 skin glossary: every market term explained

The CS2 skin market has its own vocabulary. Here are the terms you'll come across on marketplaces, grouped by topic, with a link to the guide or study that goes further.

The item itself

Skin

A cosmetic look for a gun, knife or gloves in Counter-Strike 2. A skin changes nothing in gameplay: it's purely cosmetic, but it's bought and sold for real money on marketplaces.

Wear (FN, MW, FT, WW, BS)

A skin's condition, set by its float: Factory New (FN, 0.00 to 0.07), Minimal Wear (MW, 0.07 to 0.15), Field-Tested (FT, 0.15 to 0.38), Well-Worn (WW, 0.38 to 0.45) and Battle-Scarred (BS, 0.45 to 1.00). See the float and wear guide.

Float

A number between 0 and 1 that measures a copy's exact wear. It's set once and never changes as you play. Two skins with the same wear can be worth very different prices depending on their float: see estimating price by float.

Capped float

Some skins have a narrower float range. Doppler, Fade or Case Hardened knives, for example, never go above 0.08: they only exist in Factory New and Minimal Wear, and their Minimal Wear version is often more expensive than Factory New.

Pattern (seed)

A number (the "paint seed") that decides how the skin's design is placed on the gun. On most skins it barely matters. On some finishes (Case Hardened, Fade, Doppler, Crimson Web…) it can multiply the price. See the pattern guide.

StatTrak™

A version of the skin that counts kills made with the gun. It usually costs more: about 1.5 times the price on guns and 1.2 times on knives according to our study.

Souvenir

A version of the skin from a tournament package, carrying the match's gold stickers. From €1 upward, it doesn't sell for more than the normal version on its own: it's the stickers that can matter.

Rarity

A skin's rarity tier, from most common to rarest: Consumer Grade (grey), Industrial Grade (light blue), Mil-Spec (blue), Restricted (purple), Classified (pink), Covert (red). Gloves are "Extraordinary", and only one skin is "Contraband" (orange): the M4A4 | Howl.

★ (knives and gloves)

The star in front of the name marks a knife or gloves, the rarest items in a case.

The most talked-about finishes

Doppler and phases

A knife finish that comes in several colors called phases (Phase 1 to 4) and rare versions (Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl; Emerald for Gamma Doppler). The market name doesn't show the phase, yet the price changes enormously from one phase to another. See the Doppler phases guide.

Fade and fade percentage

A purple, pink and yellow gradient finish. The "fade percentage" measures how much of the gun the gradient covers. According to our sales measurements, only 100% sells clearly higher, except on Acid Fade.

Case Hardened, Heat Treated and blue gem

Two finishes where the pattern decides how much blue ends up on the gun. A "blue gem" is an almost fully blue copy, which can be worth dozens of times the usual price. See our blue gem study.

Blackiimov

An AWP | Asiimov Battle-Scarred with a very high float (from about 0.90), whose scope turns black. It sells for much more than a typical Battle-Scarred Asiimov.

Stickers and accessories

Sticker

A decal applied to a gun. Once applied, it can't be removed to be resold, and a stickered gun usually only sells with a bonus of about 10% of the stickers' value according to our study.

Craft

A gun carrying the same sticker 4 or 5 times. Crafts resell better: about 22% of the stickers' value, versus 8% for all-different stickers.

Scraped sticker

A partly worn-off sticker (you can scrape it in game). It loses much of its appeal at resale.

Charm

A small item hung on the gun, introduced with CS2. Each charm has a template number from 0 to 100,000.

Case and collection

A case is opened with a key and gives a random skin from its collection. FragPrice never promotes case-opening sites, which are gambling.

Buying and selling

Marketplace

A site where players buy and sell skins for real money (Skinport, CSFloat, DMarket…). Each site has its own fees: see the marketplace comparison.

Listed price, total price

The listed price is the listing's price. The total price adds the buyer fee and, when the site publishes them, payment fees. FragPrice compares total prices.

Seller commission

The share of the sale price the marketplace keeps. It ranges from about 2% to 15% depending on the site; see the fee guide.

Withdrawal fees

What the site takes when you transfer your money to your bank, card or crypto wallet. Some sites charge nothing, others don't publish them.

Net payout

What actually lands in your account after commission and withdrawal fees. Our sell calculator computes it site by site.

Steam Market

Steam's official market. It takes about 15% in fees (5% for Steam, 10% for the game), and the money stays in your Steam wallet: it can't be withdrawn. See Steam or marketplace.

Trade protection (7 days)

Since July 2025, a CS2 item trade can be reversed for 7 days. Marketplaces therefore wait until this period ends before paying the seller. See the trade protection guide.

KYC

"Know Your Customer": the identity check (ID document, sometimes proof of address) that many sites require before a cash withdrawal.

Buy order

An offer to buy at a price set by the buyer, which triggers when a seller accepts that price. It's usually lower than the cheapest listing.

Liquidity

How easily a skin can be resold quickly without lowering its price. A heavily traded skin is liquid; a rare skin can take a long time to find a buyer. FragPrice's skin pages show a liquidity rating.

Inspect link

A link that opens the exact copy in game, to check its wear, pattern and stickers before buying.

FAQ

What do FN, MW, FT, WW and BS mean?

They're the abbreviations of the five wears: Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred, from newest to most worn. Each one matches a float range.

What's the difference between float and pattern?

Float measures wear (from 0 to 1). Pattern is a number that places the design on the gun. Both are set when the copy is created and never change.

Is StatTrak™ worth the price?

Only if you care about the counter. It often costs one and a half times more on guns, and the difference becomes small on expensive knives.

Sources

• Definitions written by FragPrice from our guides, our studies of real sales and Steam's official information (trade protection, Steam Market fees).
• Rarities and float ranges: game files, via the ByMykel community database (MIT license).