Skins have become an integral factor in Counter-Strike, as players love playing with cool cosmetics on their favorite weapon skins. In the billion-dollar CSGO skin industry, players buy, sell, and trade millions of skins weekly.
If you want to start investing in Counter-Strike skins, now is a great time. We’ve collected the ten best places to buy CSGO skins, with prices and reputation carefully considered.
Skinport
Skinport is one of the most prominent Counter-Strike marketplaces in the industry. The website was launched in 2019 and has built a massive following in five years of operations due to its sleek website and swift transactions.
Additionally, buyers can purchase skins without any fees. However, sellers are met with a considerable 12% selling fee, which results in them marking up prices that make it more costly for buyers.
The high percentages are a bummer, but Skinport makes it up to customers by providing a seamless user experience. The website has a clean user interface and has over 1,700,000 Counter-Strike skins listed on the website. You will have an ocean of skins to select from, ensuring you will easily find what you seek.
However, we must deduct points from Skinport due to its limited payment methods. Buyers can only make purchases through credit and debit cards, while most competing websites have more selections, such as cryptocurrency and local methods.
Bitskins
Bitskins is one of the longest-standing marketplace websites for Counter-Strike skins. The platform was founded in July 2015 and is nearly a decade old. Despite being an old website, Bitskins has done a great job of innovating and keeping up with the competition.
The Bitskins website boasts that it is one of the most secure Counter-Strike marketplaces in the industry. This claim is supported by Bitskins’ clean reputation throughout the years. Additionally, the website is very transparent when it comes to prices, comparing listings with accurate Steam Market prices.
Sellers are imposed with 2.5 to 10% sales fees, but this shouldn’t concern you as a buyer. Skin prices on Bitskins are 10 to 30% cheaper than what you’d pay on the Steam Market. There are also over 1,200,000 active listings on the platform.
Unlike Skinport, Bitskins offers users payment methods, including MasterCard, VISA, bank transfers, Neteller, Zen, Skrill, PaySafeCard, WeChat, cryptocurrency, and more. You should have no issues making deposits to the website no matter where you are in the world.
CSFloat
CSFloat is a new player in the Counter-Strike marketplace industry, having launched in March 2020. However, the website has quickly built a massive following thanks to its low seller fees and state-of-the-art database.
The CSFloat website isn’t only a marketplace but also offers a free market checker for users to utilize. This add-on allows users to make educated decisions before buying a skin. However, these tools aren’t the only reason CSFloat has become a prominent marketplace.
Sellers are only charged 2%, which allows the general price levels of listings to decrease, which is amazing for buyers. Additionally, CSFloat provides buyers with a bargaining feature, allowing for negotiations to take place. Sellers can accept, send counter-offers, or decline.
Buyers can deposit funds through Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Alipay, WeChat, and leading cryptocurrencies. It is also important to note that CSFloat follows a P2P system, meaning you purchase skins directly from the seller instead of the website. Make sure to follow instructions carefully to avoid damage.
Dmarket
Another third-party website you should try is Dmarket. Dmarket is a US-based company founded in May 2017. The website sells Counter-Strike skins and other popular Steam titles, including Dota 2, Rust, and Team Fortress 2.
Dmarket is a mixed-marketplace that offers traditional bot-based transactions and P2P offers. This means you might purchase from one of Dmarket’s bots or a real human being trying to sell their items. Fortunately, selling fees are only set to 3%, so prices on Dmarket remain competitive.
The website has a cool “Target” feature that buyers can use. If a buyer is interested in a specific skin, they can set a target, which will notify the seller. Sellers have the option to give a discount to immediately sell the item to the buyer.
Dmarket offers users an abundance of payment methods, such as Visa, Skrill, Neteller, Trustly, WebMoney, and leading cryptocurrencies. Though they have maintained a great reputation, some users have recently reported issues surrounding the website’s KYC system, which has raised eyebrows.
BUFF163
BUFF163 is a Chinese website, but it has become the most important Counter-Strike marketplace today. Most high-tier CSGO skin collectors reside in China, making the country’s market one of the strongest in the world.
This platform was one of the first prominent websites to implement the P2P trading system by providing users with trusted middleman services. Many top-tier skins worth over $100,000 have been bought and sold on the BUFF163 website.
Though BUFF163 is incredibly relevant for experienced traders, we’ve put them a little lower on the list due to complications in payment methods. You can only transact through Chinese Yuan, so the deposit methods are quite a hassle and inconvenient for all international buyers. However, BUFF163 makes up for it with extremely low transaction fees of only 2.5%!
The website also has some of the best features for detecting rare patterns and ranking float values. Despite the complex payment methods, any advanced trader must have a BUFF163 account because that’s where all the big deals are happening!
Steam Community Market
If you’re a new Counter-Strike player, it is highly recommended you transact within the Steam Community Market. The Steam Market is Valve’s official marketplace which can be accessed directly through your Steam client.
Since the platform is owned by Steam and Valve, there is no way for you to get scammed. You can purchase skins using the Steam Wallet, which acts as a convenient payment method that works for other purchases within the Steam platform.
However, the prices of weapon skins on the Steam Market are generally higher than what third-party websites offer. This is because sellers face 15% listing fees, which forces them to mark up prices and make skins more expensive for buyers. Additionally, Steam Wallet funds cannot be withdrawn for real money, so you’re stuck with the balance and can only use it to buy other skins.
Overall, the Steam Market is a good place to buy skins if you are a beginner and are not looking to purchase skins regularly. It is a protected platform that ensures customer safety. However, you should turn to third-party websites once you get the hang of Counter-Strike trading.
CSMoney
CSMoney was one of the first popular skin marketplaces in Counter-Strike, and was released in September 2015. This website used to be the go-to platform for buying and selling skins and remains as a top choice in the current day.
CSMoney is one of the most reputable websites, and has sponsored professional Counter-Strike teams and events, such as Natus Vincere and BLAST Premier. Every CSGO player has heard of this website before.
However, a massive incident occurred in August 2022, where $1,600,000 worth of skins were stolen after the website got hacked, which resulted in CSMoney ceasing operations for a while. This left a significant dent on the website’s reputation, even though they didn’t have ill intentions.
The website rakes in over 3,000,000 monthly visits, and imposes a seller fee of 5%, which is not too bad. If you’re looking to buy skins from CSMoney, you can deposit funds through PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Neteller, and leading cryptocurrencies.
Tradeit.GG
If you’re not a fan of the P2P trading system due to delayed deliveries, then Tradeit.gg is the website for you! It is a US-based marketplace website launched in August 2017.
Unlike most of the other sites on the list, Tradeit.gg still uses a bot-based market system, so you are purchasing skins directly from the website’s inventory. The buying process shouldn’t take you more than a minute since the website’s bots will send you the items seconds after the transaction is verified.
You can also put up skins from your inventory to trade for others. If you lack funds for the trade, you can use your website balance, and if you are overpaying, then the excess funds will be credited to your account.
Tradeit.gg has a transaction fee of 2% plus $0.05, and potentially more depending on the skin’s trade hold status. Unfortunately, Tradeit.gg does not support as many payment methods as competitors do, but you can still make deposits through Visa, MasterCard, iDEAL, GiroPay, and AliPay.
SkinBaron
SkinBaron is a registered company in Germany that was founded in May 2016. Almost 30% of the website’s users reside in Germany. Similar to Tradeit.gg, SkinBaron still uses a bot-based market type. Besides Counter-Strike skins, users can also purchase gaming gear such as monitors, peripherals, and more.
Unfortunately, SkinBaron has one of the highest selling fees, 15%, which is identical to the Steam Community Market. These cuts force sellers to mark up their prices, which results in buyers paying more. Still, listings on SkinBaron are always cheaper than what the Steam Community Market offers.
The costly fees might make the website unattractive, but SkinBaron is one of the safest websites on the list as they are fully regulated and comply with European laws. SkinBaron is backed with Ayden, a banking license, which ensures that all user funds are legally protected.
SkinBaron also has its own application available on Google Play and the App Store. Additionally, players can deposit funds through Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Paysafecard.
SkinBid
The final website on the list is SkinBid, which launched in 2021. It is partly owned by a prominent and reputable skin trader, zipeL. In 2024, SkinBid made a huge announcement, revealing that the most popular Counter-Strike streamer, ohnePixel, had also boarded the ship.
As the website’s name hints, SkinBid follows a P2P system, but most listings come as an auction. Sellers will list their items, providing a starting price as the minimum bid. Buyers can outbid each other before the time limit ends, and the person who places the highest will win.
However, if bidding and auctioning are not your cup of tea, SkinBid also has a “Buy Now” section where you can immediately purchase a skin for a set price. If the skin’s price does not entice you, you can send the seller an offer proposing your own price.
Overall, SkinBid has a lot of great features that enhance the buyer’s experience. However, being a new website, SkinBid needs to work on getting a larger user base that can place frequent bids. For now, SkinBid only offers Visa, MasterCard, and bank transfer as its payment methods.