CS2 Glossary

The CS2 skin and trading terms you will see on a VSkin showcase and across the wider scene, explained in plain English: from float, paint seed and exterior to the cosmetic item types and the trading vocabulary like trade lock, buyout and liquidity.

Trade lock: After a trade or a Steam Community Market purchase, a CS2 item is temporarily locked: it cannot be traded or sold again for about a week. The exact unlock date and time is shown on the item itself. A locked item still belongs to you and stays in your inventory.
Float: Also called the float value or wear value, this is a hidden decimal between 0 and 1 that records how worn a skin looks. Lower values look cleaner, higher values look more battle-scarred. The float determines the exterior shown on the item.
Exterior: The visible condition tier derived from the float, from cleanest to most worn: Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred (often shortened to FN, MW, FT, WW and BS).
Paint seed: An integer assigned when a skin is created that decides how its texture is positioned on the weapon. Two copies of the same skin with different paint seeds can look very different, which is why some seeds are far more valuable than others.
Pattern: The specific arrangement of a skin's texture, driven by its paint seed. Clean, centered or otherwise rare patterns trade at a premium over ordinary ones.
Fade: A finish that blends colors across the weapon in a gradient. A fade percentage measures how complete that gradient is; higher percentages are generally more sought after.
Marble Fade: A finish with a swirling, marbled blend of colors. Specific color placements have community names and big premiums, the best known being 'Fire and Ice'.
Blue gem: A community nickname for rare Case Hardened paint seeds that show an unusually large amount of blue. The most famous example is the AK-47 pattern 661, which sells for far more than a typical Case Hardened.
Doppler phase: Doppler and Gamma Doppler skins come in phases (Phase 1 to 4, plus the rarer Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl and Emerald) that change the dominant color. The phase strongly affects a skin's value.
StatTrak: An optional counter built into some items that tracks confirmed kills, or trades in the case of knives. StatTrak versions are rarer and usually worth more than their plain counterparts.
Souvenir: A special version of a skin dropped during official CS2 tournaments and decorated with tournament stickers. Each Souvenir item is tied to a specific match and is generally rarer than the standard version.
Sticker: A decorative decal applied to a weapon. Stickers can be scraped to wear them down, and rare or old tournament stickers can add significant value to a skin.
Capsule: A container of stickers, the sticker equivalent of a case. Tournament sticker capsules are tied to specific events, and their contents can appreciate once the capsule stops dropping.
Charm: A small dangling accessory, also called a keychain, attached to a weapon. Like stickers, charms are cosmetic and rare ones carry their own market value.
Rarity: The color-coded grade of an item, from Consumer (white) up through Mil-Spec (blue), Restricted (purple), Classified (pink), Covert (red) and the discontinued Contraband (orange).
Trade-up contract: A crafting feature that turns ten skins of the same rarity into one skin of the next rarity up. The result depends on the floats of the inputs, which makes it both a gamble and a way to target specific skins.
Case: A sealed container that, opened with a paid key, gives one random skin from its collection, with a small chance at a rare knife or pair of gloves. Discontinued cases can themselves gain value over time.
Agent: A playable character skin for the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist side. Agents are a separate item class from weapon skins, with their own rarities and prices.
Music kit: A cosmetic that replaces the in-game music with an artist's pack. Music kits come in normal and StatTrak versions, the latter tracking your MVP stars.
Inspect link: A shareable link that opens an item in CS2's in-game inspect view, showing its exact float, pattern, stickers and charms in 3D. VSkin exposes the inspect link on each item.
Liquidity: How easily an item sells close to its market price. Popular mid-priced skins are highly liquid and sell quickly; rare patterns and high-tier items are illiquid and can take longer to move.
Buyout: The fixed price at which an owner will sell an item immediately, rather than waiting for offers. Often abbreviated 'B/O'.
Overpay: Paying above an item's usual market value, common for rare patterns, very low floats, or thin-supply collectibles. The opposite of buying at market price.

See these attributes on real skins

Browse public CS2 inventories on VSkin to see float, paint seed, stickers and more on real items, including trade-locked skins hidden from Steam profiles.

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Trade lock

Float

Exterior

Paint seed

Pattern

Fade

Marble Fade

Blue gem

Doppler phase

StatTrak

Souvenir

Sticker

Capsule

Charm

Rarity

Trade-up contract

Case

Agent

Music kit

Inspect link

Liquidity

Buyout

Overpay

See these attributes on real skins

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