Valve has just introduced one of the biggest changes in the history of CS2 – from now on, players can obtain knives and gloves using Trade Up contracts. It only takes five top tier skins (Covert) to create a “gold” item from the same collection as the skins used in the contract. This is the first time crafting includes items of this class – previously, it was impossible to obtain them this way.
Due to the Trade Up update:
- we are introducing a technical downtime of up to 7 days;
- its purpose is to adapt the SellYourSkins systems to the new CS2 market situation;
- all transactions made before the update (up to and including 22.10) will be fully paid out;
- we will announce the return of the service via email and social media.
Trade 5 red (Covert) skins for a knife or gloves
The most important change in the update is that Trade Up contracts no longer stop at Covert skins. Now, five items of this highest rarity can be “upgraded” into a gold drop – meaning a knife or gloves, depending on the collections from which the inserted skins come. The mechanic is simple:
- You insert 5 Covert (red) items into the contract.
- The game rolls the outcome from one of the collections represented by the inserted items.
- If all skins are StatTrak™, the result will be StatTrak™ as well (and it will always be a knife, since gloves do not exist in StatTrak).
- If the skins are regular, the final outcome will be a regular knife or regular gloves, depending on which of the available collections in the pool contain gold tier items.
You are the one who sets the “result pool” by choosing which red skins you insert. If you put five Covert skins from the same collection, the contract will only give you a gold item from that specific collection. If you mix several different ones, the game will randomly choose between them. This means you can intentionally narrow the pool to specific knife models or a specific glove series. Another difference is the number of required items – you don’t need 10 like in traditional trade-ups. A gold contract only requires 5, but each of them must be the highest rarity (Covert). The rest of the rules stay the same: the wear level (float) of the inserted skins affects the final float of the knife or gloves.
What changes on the SellYourSkins platform?
This update don’t change how SellYourSkins works mechanically, but it does affect the market environment in which the platform operates. Since the Steam market is currently going through a very rapid price correction (some items are getting more expensive by the hour, while others suddenly drop), safe and reliable pricing is practically impossible at the moment.
Technical break for up to 7 days
For this reason, we are introducing a technical break on SellYourSkins, which will last up to 7 days (we will notify you by email and via social media once the service is restored). The purpose of this pause is to adapt our systems to the new market conditions – it is primarily a safety measure for both sides of the transaction. Once the prices of “gold” and “red” skins stabilize, our valuation system will return to normal operation and the platform will again be able to process trades in the familiar model.
Are your funds safe?
Yes – every transaction made before the update (up to and including October 22) is fully secured, and all payouts will be processed without any changes. You will receive exactly the amount you accepted at the time of the transaction – even if the market price of the skin you sold drops significantly afterward.
How does this change affect the prices of Covert skins and knives / gloves?
The economic impact appeared almost instantly: the cheapest red (Covert) skins began to rise sharply in price, because they suddenly gained a new practical use – they became “fuel” for crafting knives and gloves. Players immediately started buying them up after the patch, as five such items are enough to create a contract that leads directly to a gold-tier drop. The increased demand automatically pushed their prices upward, especially in the lower-price Covert segment.
The opposite happened to knives and gloves. Since they can now be obtained through a simple trade-up contract, interest in marketplace listings naturally dropped. This lowered demand for already-listed gold-tier skins and caused a rapid decline in their prices.
Almost free knives and gloves – can they be traded?
Yes, knives and gloves obtained through trade-up contracts can be traded. At first, the community believed they would be “non-market”, meaning blocked from being sold or exchanged – which led to the initial wave of comments claiming that this limitation would “save” the market. However, shortly after the patch was released, it was confirmed that items crafted from a contract are fully tradable: they can be sold, exchanged, and freely used on external platforms. This means access to gold-tier skins has been opened wider than ever before. Not only can you “craft” your own knife instead of opening cases, but you can also resell it afterward – making it a full-fledged market item, not just a cosmetic skin for personal use. But here’s the catch many players don’t consider immediately: crafting does not guarantee value. The price of the resulting knife or gloves depends on:
- the collection,
- the rarity of the specific model within that collection,
- the float (visual wear state),
- and whether it’s StatTrak™ or regular.
If someone throws five cheap Covert skins from random collections into a contract, the outcome will most likely be low-value – often cheaper than the cost of the inputs. This is why trade-ups to gold-tier items are not guaranteed profit, but still a gamble, just like traditional red trade-ups. The market isn’t collapsing, but it is undergoing a drastic shift – and it is very likely that the price gap between red and gold items will shrink significantly in the near future.
