Investing In Operation Broken Fang With CS2
The new operation called Broken Fang has been out for a month now in Counter-Strike 2 which gives us a good idea on where the market is going with the skins and case which have been released with this operation. Investing in the Counter-Strike 2 skins has become extremely popular over the last few months after many popular YouTubers created videos with their profits after investing and holding onto the old weapon cases from many years ago.
This article is going to take a deep look into what weapon skins, cases or collections you should invest in from operation Broken Fang. It will show you where you can look to try and purchase these for under the Steam Market price to minimize the amount you spend while giving you the biggest chance of earning the most. It goes without saying, there is a risk to any investment and although we will go into the common risks everyone’s risk factors are different and earning a profit is not guaranteed.
About Investing In Operation Broken Fang
There are four different possibilities of ways to invest with the operation Broken Fang. There are three collections, one case, stickers and agents. When a user buys from the collection they get a random skin from that collection however, if they purchase the case they get a case that can then be opened again with a US$2.50 key that needs to be purchased from Steam.
The case and collections are listed below in alphabetical order:
- Operation Broken Fang Case
- The Control Collection
- The Havoc Collection
- The Ancient Collection
In addition to the case and collections there are also many player model skins you can invest in which are called Agents. If history repeats itself these agents will not be available again after this operation unless you buy them from another player who had purchased it previously. This is the same for skins from the the collections.
Investing in CS2 items is not what most people would consider investing in as the market for virtual goods is still relatively new however over the last few years it has shown to bring in good returns to those who purchase cases and wait, or those who select the right skins to hold onto.
It is expected though that the skins in this operation to end up costing a lot less than previous operations excluding a few really popular skins. This is because the skins gained previously were gained from a random collection instead of being chosen by the user.
Survey On Collection Users Are Opening
I’ve done a survey on which collection or case people are opening from the Broken Fang operation, these people are all from the Steam platform. There is an image below showcasing the results with further details on it below.
The results show that the majority of people are going after the AWP | Fade (Price: US$1,200) in the Control Collection which has 43% of people opening items from that collection. The next collection which is opened the most is the Ancient Collection with 36% opened which has the M4A1-S | Welcome To The Jungle (Price: US$1,114) inside of it.
The two that are opened least are the Ancient Collection which many players believe does not have any appealing skins that can be used in game at 14% of players and the Operation broken Fang Case at 7% which has most people getting it as a long term investment.
Invest In Skins, Cases, Agents or Stickers The Operation Broken Fang Case
There is a very good argument on whether investing in skins or cases are better but they can be put into two different categories. Here are a summary on the pros and cons of Skin and Sticker investing versus case investing, both of which differ vastly from one another.
Skins and Stickers
- Value is based mostly on Demand
- Prices not stable and can change daily
- Most skins lose value over time until they become scarce
- Only specific skins or stickers will hold their value and increase over time
Cases
- Much stabler compared to skins
- Increases in price slowly over time
- Takes a long time to profit
Current Investing Trends
People have already started collecting their investments and when you look at the price of these items you can see how they’ve maintained a static price as people are purchasing them to hold as new items come into the game.
Stickers
For stickers there is a big trend in people purchasing the Sticker | Battle Scarred (Holo), looking at the timeline on the Steam Marketplace you can see days with hundreds purchased. The reason for this is that this is one of the few stickers that fit the look of many weapon skins in CS2. This has increased the price after the initial drop that happens just after release, leaving it at around US$3.85 for the last two and a half weeks.
Another sticker that is popular, but not as popular as the Battle Scarred is the Sticker | Broken Fang (Holo) which is currently holding a much cheaper price of US$0.69 over the last few weeks. It has a shiny purple and blue background making it stand out and sit well on weapons with multiples of this skin.
Agent
Number K (The Professionals) is having a fair amount of people investing into as the agent has a stocking on his head which some people find comedic value from as it could be taken as something else on his head. Agents don’t have a float value so they all appear exactly the same minus any patches that a player can sew onto their uniform.
Skins
An item I believe that has been overlooked is the AWP | Exoskeleton (Well-Worn) and Battle Scarred. It has a shiny reflection against the outlines on the skin which I believe many people have not realized yet. There are a total of 22 AWP skins that are more expensive then this, and being a brand new skin it’s price and rarity of Restricted, it should be much higher price than it is currently listed of US$3.05. In addition to the skin not being priced at what it should be, the skin also comes from a the Broken Fang Case which costs US$2.50 to open with just a small chance to get this item.
A more expensive alternative is the M4A1-S | Blue Phosphor (Factory New) which is used in trade up contracts to try and get an AWP |Fade (Facotry New), it is also a nice blue skin that stands out compared to older skins so it will see a lot of play. It’s priced at an average of US$185 over the last few weeks while the AWP | Fade is US$1,475.
Where To Buy Operation Broken Fang Skins Cheaper
There are many different places to buy CS2 skins from the operation Broken Fang, most people only know about the market that is hosted by Valve on Steam called the Steam Marketplace. This will always be the most expensive place to purchase the skins as they charge a 15% tax on all trades that use their marketplace, this is removed from the purchase price before the seller gets paid.
Other option give players the ability to list items and have players comment send them a trade through the website which complete avoid this tax however it can take time to find the items that you need if you can find them at all. Easier places to get items are through third-party marketplaces which sell items a much cheaper rate and tax the seller a lot less.
There is a list of the best trading websites for CS2 on our website which goes over which websites are the best and gives you a good variety to choose from.
A secret that many people don’t know is that they can get weapons from the marketplace on websites which have a game of chance on them that use CS2 skins as a currency. There is two main website for this and I would personally only stick to these websites when looking to just use their market.
The first website is CSGOEmpire which is by far the biggest website and even beats many of the traditional trading websites. New items are bought and sold every second and the prices listed are lower than the Steam Marketplace. Many players keep watch of what items are pending to be sold as there is a new auction system in place that allows someone to pay a little bit more than what is currently about to be sold for which gives seller a chance to earn more than what they were originally selling the item for.
The second one is CSGORoll which has a marketplace very similar to CSGOEmpire however there is not as many people using this website. There is no auction system in place however at times there is a ton of skins listed do you have a good chance at finding the item that you are looking for.
What Risks Are Involved With Investing In Operation Broken Fang Skins
Knowing your risks before investing in anything is very important and here I will go over the risk factors that apply to everyone, but you need to look at your own situation and think about risks that could arise from your own situation and also consider your own risk tolerance.
CS2 Market Crash
It goes without saying that the riskiest part of investing in skins or cases is that the market for CS2 items could crash. There are multiple reasons that this may happen. The first reason this would happen is if the population of CS2 does not increase or stay steady meaning that there is a smaller demand for these items.
A second but unlikely reason would be that players as a collective decide to sell all of their skins at the same time, we can see tiny examples of this happening as soon as a new operation or popular game is released as people use the money they gain from selling the items to purchase these. This means that people are lowering the price of their skins or cases to beat other so they can get the most money from their skins before others try and sell theirs.
Better Skins / Cases Come Out
Over time there will be more skins, cases and stickers added into CS2 meaning there is more of a variety of skins that players can choose from when playing. Leaving the unappealing skins unwanted unless it is for their scarcity value. Old cases and skins also rarely come back into cercilation as once the operation or major patch is complete they cycle to new skins and cases being gained in game while the old ones are no longer dropped for players.
Account Stolen
Having your account stolen is very unlikely unless you use the same login details on another website, have a keylogger on your system, or you share your account. If your account gets stolen Steam will help you get it back however if your items are traded away you will not get them back as Steam Support does not reverse trades or refund people for stolen items.
You can prevent this from happening many different ways, the first way is to add the Steam Authenticator to your account and to print out your Backup Steam Authenticator Backup Codes. The Steam Authenticator prevents people from logging into your account and sending trades without access to your phone in which it will provide you with a authentication code to login or a confirmation button for any trades you send.
Using a different password on every website you use will prevent people getting your login details if one of the website you use gets hacked. If you are investing a lot of money it would be wise to create a new email account solely for this, this way you don’t need to worry about your details being gained from another source but also if your primary e-mail is hacked your account with your investments are not attached.
Valve Stops Players From Being Able To Trade On Steam
The worse possible outcome is that Steam stops players being able to trade altogether which would destroy the Counter-Strike 2 market altogether. This would lock the items you have onto your account giving you no way of selling your investments when you are ready. I believe this is the last thing that I believe Valve (the developer of Steam) would want as they earn 15% on every trade that happens on the Steam Marketplace as well they earn the sale price on any sales inside of the game.
Better Investing Ideas In CS2
There are many other ways to make money that doesn’t just include the latest operation Broken Fang. The eBook Ultimate Guide: Make Money Playing Video Games on Kindle is a book I wrote on how to find ways to monitize playing games. How to look at a game like Counter-Strike 2 and find ways in it that you can make money from.
The first few pages are FREE so why not take a look online and see if this book is for you. You do not need a Kindle to read this as you can download the Amazon Kindle App on your phone and read it on there if you decided to purchase the complete book.
I will leave the comment section open so you can ask questions or comment about what you think about investing in operation Broken Fang, otherwise there is a live chat happening on the Discord server with other members who play CS2.
