The skin trading in CS: GO is on the verge of collapse. The reason is an announcement from Valve regarding how trading works on Steam. Exchanged skins must now be held for 7 days before they can be traded again. Thousands of players are organizing a resistance.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is appreciated not only by players but also by traders and gamers. The weapon skins in the game serve as a type of “alternative currency.” The skins can be exchanged for real money on third-party sites practically without limits and traded back.
CS: GO skin trading and skin betting are their own microcosm
Particularly notorious are “gambling” sites. Here players can bet their skins (and thus real money) on events – during its peak, it was a form of gambling ring that Valve then cracked down on.
The skin trading and related matters have likely been a thorn in Valve’s side for a long time. They have acted against it multiple times, especially against the gambling sites.
Skin trading now has a 7-day cooldown
In a blog post before Easter, Valve announced that CS:GO items received through trading now fall under the same 7-day trading cooldown as items bought from the Steam Community Market. Valve claims this is to protect players from fraud.
The changes were activated immediately.
Traders offload goods, warn of market collapse
The people who earn money with CS:GO skins are outraged by this change. They say it would destroy the trading and ruin the prices for the items.
They argue that players would not be able to react to the rapidly fluctuating market and would thus trade significantly less out of fear of being stuck with skins that are no longer worth what they paid for. The market would stagnate.
As the US site Kotaku reports, popular YouTubers like “Anomaly” have already said they would have exchanged their entire skin collection for dollars immediately, due to fears of devaluation under the new rules.
Petition against the change has already 114,000 signatures
A resistance is being organized with a petition. A signature collection demanding Valve return to the old rules already has 114,000 signatures.
The question ultimately is what impact the rules will have:
- Do they truly affect the “normal CS: GO player,” whose gaming experience Valve is said to be degrading, as some claim?
- Or is this an action that will only impact a few, who apparently semi-professionally make money from the complex skin trading?
Some skin traders accuse Valve of only having their own interests in mind with this change. They wanted to eliminate other sites so that trading would run through the Steam Marketplace.
More on the subject:
Someone shelled out over $60,000 for this weapon skin in CS:GO!
