Buying, selling, trading Skins with Bitcoin

Skins or finishes have been part of the player community since the Arms Deal update was introduced in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in 2013. However it was not really a global economy up until their trading has been started. And by now you can easily buy, sell and trade Skins with Bitcoin as well.

What are Skins?

Skins are weapons which have different types of textures.  They have a very simple purpose: they give your weapon or character a cool and unique look. You can create and manage a collection of Skins that allow you to show off yourself in front of other players while at the same time it is serving as a status icon for the set. Several Skins also have a unique description which gives an extra flavor text to their weapon presentations. And if they are valuable enough you can exchange them for keys.

Skins

How to get Skins?

There are several ways to acquire a Skin. You can earn skins through a random drop or you can uncrate them from opening weapon containers. You can only get cases and skins dropped in the game. But there is a chance that these drops are worth enough to sell and buy keys for it. Especially when a new case starts dropping, it will have a very high value for the first two to three days. However,  if you do not want to wait and hope for a lucky catch, you also have the option for trade Skins with other players through several market places.

csgo-weapon-case

If you want to pay for a Skin, make sure you do it in a secure way. Since these items are digital assets, in the worst case you can end up in a situation where you have paid money and you do not get anything in the end. Or the other way around, you gave away your precious Skin but the required money has not been sent. Skin trading markets often solve this problem by placing the money in transfer in escrow until the transaction is completely finished and confirmed by both parties. Pretty similar to bitcoin trading platforms – only that a Skin is traded instead of some cryptocurrency-asset.

The exchanging method depends on the amount of money you are willing to spend on your items, the time you want to invest, and finally the method of payment you prefer. In essence, this can be divided into the following sections:

  • Exchange on forums
  • Exchange with private buyers
  • Exchange on dedicated platforms

One of the easiest and simplest methods is to change the appearance in places like CSGOLounge, Reddit or Steam Community Forums.  The second method and a little less effort would be to sell the skins directly to private buyers. These buyers tend to buy 66 to 72% of the price. This method usually goes beyond what you would get on a website and is generally much faster because you can sell all of your items at the same time. However, at the same time, this method carries the risk of being cheated, and should only be transacted or sold to reputable buyers. Before you start exchanging, always ask for your money first.

Paying for Skins

When paying for Skins you can opt for traditional payment methods, such as cash, credit cards or alternative payment providers such as PayPal or Skrill. And in the past couple of years, the option of Bitcoin payment has emerged as well on the market. Each payment method has its own benefits and drawbacks.

  • While cash seems an easy way to pay for goods, in this case, you need to meet in person with another player, which can be very inconvenient and in efficient if the other party is living far away from you.payments
  • Credit cards solve the option to meet someone in person, however, there are several people who does not really like to share credit card details over the internet for security or identification reasons. It means even if you are willing to pay with credit cards, on the other side a valuable skin might to be available with credit card payment if the other player is reluctant to use this payment method.
  • Alternative payment providers such as PayPal, Skrill, OKex etc offer a relatively good solution for payments however there fees can be really high.
  • Bitcoin payment is just started to spread in the community and you need to have some technical knowledge about how it works, but on the other side, the transactions are anonym, the fees are much lower compared to other payment methods and the payment is irreversible.

Another important factor to consider is anonymity. As Skins can be really expensive items, some players would like to hide the amount of money they have spent on their hobby from their spouses, partners or even from credit card companies. For them the anonymity feature that Bitcoin payment provides gives a lot of opportunities.

Bitcoins irreversible transaction can provide a reassurance for sellers as it make sure once the trade has been agreed the payment is settled without the risk that the buyer reverses the transaction. Credit Card providers and PayPal’s buyer protection can be used for fraud, and buyers can illegitimately request back their money even though they have received the digital goods already.

Trading Skins for Bitcoin

Skin traders is a great way to update your Counter Strike image at a low price. There are several market places now available where you can buy, sell and trade Skins in exchange for Bitcoin. Since these products have their own market, players are selling Skins with the hope of making a profit, while many are trading with new weapons and great stickers. Finding a business partner can be a long and laborious process, so their are some platform which offer services to exchange skins while paying a small fee.

OPSkins

The opskins.com website is well designed, users can find everything effortlessly within couple clicks. Many social media accounts are listed beyond Facebook and Twitter, and their legitimacy is supported buy such community sites as Reddit and Steam. They have several  positive reviews of their services across the internet. Most people who said that they had a problem with the platform, but the customer service team solved them immediately. Opskin’s reputation makes them one of the most popular platform in the sector.

Opskins

Opskins lists impressive properties on their platform. Something exclusive to Opskins is the Weapon Builder feature. If you are looking for a unique skin, you can use the weapon to customize it. Find the one that best fits your specifications if you cannot find the right one elsewhere.

Another important feature of the platform is the buyers’ club. If a skin receives a 15% discount from the seller, it will automatically be charged to the buyer’s club for 5 minutes so that the robots will not rush to buy the items. This gives real users a look at their choice before making the listings fully public. You will receive a commission of 10% when you sell your skins via this service. Opskins do not offer a lot of bonuses and promotions, with the exception of the Buyers Club, which is more of a function than a promotion. From time to time, however there are Mystery Box or Mystery Items promotions where you can get Skin below market prices if you are lucky.

The methods of depositing and withdrawing OPSkins are very simple. You have the choice between Bitcoin and PayPal payments. The minimum payment is 5 USD. However, if you plan to stay active longer on the site, you must use Bitcoin, as PayPal limits your transactions – only 500 USD of recharge is permitted within a 48 hours time. If you do not want to buy your PayPal or Bitcoin store, you can also shop through G2A by linking your G2A account to the site.

Visit OPSkins here

 

Skins Cash

Skins.cash is a website that instantly sells items of the game with real money. The platform design has a simple black design with great usability. More importantly, everything is clearly stated so you can understand quickly what to do when and how to use their services. Anyone can log in to the website through the Steam ID and start in minutes.

Skins Cash

You can exchange your CS: GO weapons, Dota 2 items and Team Fortress 2 hats for money as Skins.cash. They offer a great variety of payment methods including PayPal, Bitcoin, Neteller, Webmoney, Skrill and Payeer. The peer-to-peer offers are handled through Valve to make sure all transaction are securely paid for.

Skins.cash offers their business services for a several years by now and there has been reported no frauds against them.

The site has its own advantages, but it includes the risk associated with buying drawings in the game. They use a constantly updated algorithms that uses the price, time and popularity of objects to determine the amount they can offer, but this amount is well below the market price of the Steam community. This is a disadvantage, although it is inevitable if you would like to trade quickly.

Bonuses are a great feature that many enjoy. With a competitive market, Skins.cash has competing with other commercial services which forces them to offer exceptional bonuses to attract customers.

The more skins you sell on the website, the more you will be paid for in the cumulative bonus system. The bonus rewards users who sell many items on the site, and if you sell enough you can get up to the 10% bonus. This case every time you sell something, you can reach the market price.

Skins.cash offers a good support systems. Although live chat is not available, almost every other channel is there to contact them. They have a legitimate address to which you can send queries. You have a toll-free number if you want an immediate response to your problem. They also have a simple email available for less urgent problems. Finally, they have a contact page that is clearly posted on their website.

Visit Skins.cash here

 

Bitskins

Bitskins is a very popular alternative to OPSkins and has many features that will make your experience better than most other skin trading platforms. After its introduction about a year ago, it has quickly become an established business mainly because of the quick and easy Bitcoin payment method and reasonable prices.

Bitskins

Bitcoin payment is offered as the platform focuses on anonymity. To make sure the users’ identities  are not exposed in front of each other, everyone gets an alias when the chat is used. You need at least 50 USD credited to your balance to be able to use the chat room. This guarantees that only serious traders are present.

There is a loyalty evaluation system and refunds are also valid for the skins you have purchased. Withdrawal requests sent to PayPal and Bitcoin are usually made within 5 minutes with no additional fees, although in some cases, however, it can last up to an hour. The only drawback for this good feature is the fact that when using PayPal, you need to withdraw at least 50 USD.

There is a section called “Deals” where you can find the best discounts in certain price categories to make sure there is something for everyone. The discounts can be huge, up to more than 30% of the original price, and it’s definitely worth to check it out before you buy anything.

A price review program is a good option if you are trying to find the best bargains or if you are speculating about the increase in skin values in the near future. You can check every element of the game and the price control program will automatically provide you with a detailed table of the most recently sold items along with trends on the official Steam and Bitskins markets.

Bitskins is really a great alternative to the major trading platforms and certainly offers more than classic markets.

Visit Bitskins here

Conclusion

CS:GO skins now have their own marketplaces. Trading skins against Bitcoin is a really good option for those who would like to preserve their identity. At the same time, you can grab some bargains as well as some of the unique skins could be only offered on the markets where only Bitcoin payment is available. Therefore, professional players must consider the option of buying, selling and trading skins with Bitcoin.