The History of the Most Expensive Skin Sale in Counter-Strike. An Over $1.000.000 Deal.
On January 23, 2024, a post appeared on the social network X (formerly Twitter) about the sale of the world’s only StatTrak AK-47 Case Hardened with pattern #661 in Factory New condition. By that time, the news of the appearance of such an AK-47 from a case had already spread among traders. The only thing left was to identify the owner and find a way to contact them. The lucky person turned out to be an unknown individual who created a fresh account on X with the nickname “Owner of st fn 661” and immediately set a buyout price of $2 million. He also mentioned that he already had an offer for half that amount ($1,000,000) and provided two links to well-known traders as points of contact. The rest of this story is narrated from the perspective of one of these trusted individuals, as the owner himself seemingly did not want to handle the process personally.
Beginning of the Story
Sam, or roflm0nster, a fairly well-known trader from Taiwan, took on the active sale of the item and most likely became the temporary owner of this diamond. Simply put, there is a suspicion that the AK-47 was stored on his account to avoid possible hacking attempts. Supporting this claim is a screenshot showing the item listed for sale on BUFF163 for $1,900,000. If you wonder why the price was reduced by $100,000, the trader himself explained it was due to the “limited technical capabilities of the site.”
Why So Expensive?
Of course, such a price tag could not go unnoticed and sparked a storm of discussion, especially among people who were not only distant from the skin culture but also from Counter-Strike itself. The Taiwanese trader kept explaining to the dissatisfied that the asking amount was more than justified and had no doubt that a buyer would eventually be found. He provided quite compelling arguments to substantiate his confidence and did an excellent job of hyping this item:
- There are currently 10 Souvenir AWP Dragon Lores, each worth at least $400,000.
- Considering the situation with Cobblestone cases, the act of opening cases, exchanges, and their drops are becoming so rare that the likelihood of another AK-47 like this one appearing is extremely low.
- This AK-47 outshines all others. No other compares to it in terms of history and prestige. If you own this AK, you own the best AK in the world, and that’s not up for debate. The fact that it is one-of-a-kind puts it head and shoulders above all other skins in CS.
- An offer of $1.5 million was rejected for a similar AK-47 with pattern 387. Had the owner set a buyout price, who knows for how much it could have been sold (likely even more).
PR and Creating Buzz Around the Item
He also noted that the mere fact of the sale was unprecedented, since most collectors would never part with such a treasure. Efforts were made to increase the item’s value even further, for instance, through professional players. The owner himself got involved in the PR campaign and offered donk to use this AK-47 in one of the upcoming tournaments. The young Russian player had generated a lot of buzz around himself after a stellar performance at IEM Katowice 2024, and collectors were eager to jump on this hype train.
At the end of February, the Taiwanese trader received a ban on his Steam account but claimed that the ban was planned and almost agreed upon with the platform’s administration. It’s unclear how feasible this is, but access to the account was indeed restored, so the item was not in danger. In April, roflm0nster encountered account issues again, after which he had to change his phone number and lost the ability to use the trading platform for 15 days. It’s difficult to assess how detrimental this was for the trader, but it’s possible that all these maneuvers were related to attempts by hackers to gain access to the account.
Sale for $1.500.000?
Less than a month ago, in mid-May, Sam reported that the deal to sell the AK-47 ST FN 661 was nearly complete, but the potential buyer had stopped communicating for more than two weeks.
And today, on June 5, 2024, the trader announced that the sale had been completed and attached a screenshot of the trade. The owner changed his nickname to “ex-owner of st fn 661” and left a GIF of someone counting money under the post announcing the sale. Unfortunately, details about the new owner of the only StatTrak AK-47 Case Hardened FN 661 in the world were not disclosed. The deal organizer couldn’t even reveal the exact amount, stating that it was one of the buyer’s conditions. The only thing he indicated was that the amount was over $1,000,000, as such offers had been repeatedly declined and not even considered. Given that during the item’s “PR” campaign, the buyout price had dropped to $1.5 million, there are grounds to believe that the final price was around that amount or slightly less.
In any case, this day has already gone down in history, and it will be interesting to see how the skin market reacts to such an event. It’s possible that such news will attract new players. Major investors might try to influence pricing and set trends, while regular users will become more active on the trading platform, trying their luck in getting valuable drops.