Blog / floats, patterns, trades
Blog
How floats, patterns and phases change a price, and how a skin actually gets from checkout to your inventory. Written for buyers.
Trade-up contracts: how the outcome and float are decided
Ten inputs, one output. How the contract picks the skin, how the output float is calculated from the inputs, and why float hunters use it.
Vanilla knives: no finish, still expensive
A vanilla knife has no finish, no float and no pattern. What that means, why some players want one anyway, and where it sits on the price ladder.
Gloves: Sport, Specialist, Driver, Hand Wraps and the wear problem
The glove families, why wear shows on gloves more than on anything else, why the exact float is most of the price, and how to read a glove listing.
Knife finishes compared: Fade, Tiger Tooth, Slaughter, Lore and the rest
Fade, Tiger Tooth, Slaughter, Lore, Marble Fade, Crimson Web, Case Hardened and the cheaper finishes: how each one wears, whether the seed matters and what to check.
Your first knife: how to choose one without regrets
Which knife model to pick, which finishes show best on which blades, how to judge the animation and the float, and what resale really looks like.
How to read a CS2 item name
Every token in a CS2 item name, from the star and the StatTrak prefix to the wear in brackets, and the things the name leaves out: float, seed, phase and stickers.