Investments in The Armory Pass. Which CS2 items will soon become limited and when will this happen?
In the latest update, VALVE made an announcement regarding changes to the in-game store The Armory Pass. Gallery Case, The Graphic Design Collection, and Character Craft Stickers Collection will soon no longer be available for purchase with stars and will disappear from the pass menu. Of course, after this news, prices for these items rose significantly, and after their final transition to “limited” status, they will only increase in price each month. In this article, we’ll analyze in detail which items are worth investing in and how soon the developers will remove these items from The Armory Pass.
When will the collections be removed from the pass?
As a rule, if VALVE announces such changes, it means they will take effect in the next update. The developers could have chosen not to warn players, but in current realities, they are forced to be as transparent as possible in all matters related to player purchases.
Traditionally, major updates are released at the end or beginning of each month, and September marks CS2’s birthday. Exactly 2 years ago, on September 27, we finally said goodbye to CS:GO and switched to the current version of the game. Last year, the developers didn’t treat users to a holiday update and introduced The Armory Pass only in October. It’s quite possible that this year they won’t manage to release the promised update right on the day, so expect it at the end of September – beginning of October.
Why will items definitely increase in price?
If you don’t believe in the potential price increase of items, just look at examples of previous collections from CS:GO operations. The logic is simple – when items disappear from the marketplace more often than they appear – price growth is inevitable. Cases are opened, collection items are used in crafts, stickers are applied to weapons, and there’s simply nowhere for new ones to come from.
Yes, operations weren’t in the game for just a few months, not the whole year, but now stars cannot be purchased with money. You must play on VALVE servers and cannot get more than 40 stars per purchased pass. Honestly, we don’t rule out that such a scheme has greatly reduced the number of items and this is the main reason why items from The Armory Pass shouldn’t be in abundance.
It’s also worth paying attention to the collections that developers decided to remove from the pass. The Graphic Design Collection contains the most unremarkable Covert weapon in the form of AWP | CMYK and from day one it wasn’t popular among players. Most focused on The Overpass 2024 and The Sport & Field Collection, from which they wanted to get AK-47 | B the Monster and M4A1-S | Fade. VALVE themselves also don’t like to keep illiquid products that don’t bring profit and most likely that’s exactly why they decided to remove The Graphic Design Collection.
Gallery Case couldn’t compete with Fever Case, since from the latter you can get rare knives in Doppler finishes. With Character Craft Stickers everything is less obvious, but most likely they simply focused on opening statistics. As you’ve already understood – there are quite a few reasons to expect a shortage of these items.
Top 10 items worth considering for investment
First of all, pay attention to popular weapons like M4A4, AK-47, USP-S, etc. – they will always be in demand and easier to sell. Also, as practice shows – it’s best to focus on Minimal Wear quality, as it costs significantly more than Field-Tested, but still remains accessible, unlike Factory New.
Desert Eagle | Starcade
- Factory New – $453.13
- Minimal Wear – $169.33
- Field-Tested – $81.46
- Well-Worn – $65.95
- Battle-Scarred – $46.12
Let’s start with The Graphic Design Collection and the skin that is a definite hit of the entire collection. Great, bright color combination with a glitter effect that previously appeared only on stickers. The pistol became popular with both regular players and many esports athletes, so demand for it won’t disappear, and will only increase over time. If you don’t like it, buying it purely for investment is quite expensive, so let’s move on.
M4A4 | Polysoup
- Factory New – $57.47
- Minimal Wear – $20.78
- Field-Tested – $11.32
- Well-Worn – $9.21
- Battle-Scarred – $6.53
This M4A4 for some reason didn’t find audience support and is practically never seen on servers. Perhaps it’s due to the rather dull color scheme, but the existing holographic diamond pattern on the front side of the body perfectly fixes the situation. Right now it’s still quite accessible and this is a great opportunity not just to update your inventory, but to make an investment for a couple of years ahead. Quite often, people start paying attention to many skins only after price increases and it’s not excluded that the popularity peak of M4A4 | Polysoup is still ahead.
AK-47 | Crossfade
- Factory New – $6.95
- Minimal Wear – $4.84
- Field-Tested – $3.11
- Well-Worn – $2.69
- Battle-Scarred – $2.69
Yes, for many this is a rather boring AK-47, but look at the price. The design is clearly more interesting than most skins in this price segment, and it also has very high craft potential. On the central part of the body, you can place many interesting sticker combinations and the skin instantly stops being boring or uninteresting. Don’t spare a couple of bucks to eventually sell this skin for at least 5 times more.
M4A1-S | Vaporwave
- Factory New – $491.58
- Minimal Wear – $210.00
- Field-Tested – $92.00
- Well-Worn – $85.46
- Battle-Scarred – $61.96
Moving on to the main star of Gallery Case, which already costs quite a lot. The main advantage, or rather the reason for potential growth – is the presence of two Covert items in the case, unlike collections. That is, the chance of getting this M4A1-S in craft is twice as low, and the drop percentage of “red” items from cases is only 0.64%. Considering the extremely attractive and original design, the skin is already in S-Tier, so in this case literally every factor indicates that Vaporwave has practically no price ceiling.
AK-47 | The Outsiders
- Factory New – $187.78
- Minimal Wear – $29.90
- Field-Tested – $10.41
- Well-Worn – $7.40
- Battle-Scarred – $5.75
Next, we recommend paying attention to this AK-47. Extremely conceptual design, rather rare color scheme and of course quite rare Classified quality. This item can be used in crafts in pursuit of M4A1-S | Vaporwave, so sooner or later they will start disappearing from the marketplace. Again, at the moment there aren’t many skins under $10 that can boast such design, so it will perfectly diversify your inventory and add variety.
M4A4 | Turbine
- Factory New – $26.93
- Minimal Wear – $5.00
- Field-Tested – $1.23
- Well-Worn – $1.32
- Battle-Scarred – $0.69
As the last item, we decided to choose a skin with unique animation that no other skin has. The lamp on the handguard lights up yellow when shooting, and blinks red when reloading. This is another example when no one paid attention to Mil-Spec items because of their low cost. For example, ohnePixel highly rated the lamp idea, and this guy definitely knows about skins. Don’t miss the chance to get ahead of the majority while the price hasn’t climbed up.
Gallery Case
- Steam Price: $1.91
Probably the most reliable and obvious investment. If you have leftover stars, urgently spend them on buying Gallery Case. Right now it’s selling on the marketplace around two dollars and fully pays for the pass. Of course, buying a pass and going to farm stars right now isn’t entirely rational, it’s better to just place buy orders ahead of others. It’s not excluded that after the update – many will want to lock in profits or get money to buy a new pass in pursuit of new items and will start listing them slightly cheaper. Take advantage of this window and forget about them for a couple of years. For example, Operation Riptide Case is now selling for $18.
Sticker | Flex
- Steam Price: $1.29
As for stickers, their growth is also inevitable, especially collections that were literally created for various crafts. This bicep appears in many popular sticker crafts, so there’s definitely no doubt about its demand.
Sticker | Kawaii Eyes (Glitter)
- Steam Price: $2.68
Also when buying stickers, it’s worth paying attention to the number of listed lots and currently this sticker is third rarest on the marketplace. Considering that the second and first are 6 and 15 times more expensive – Kawaii Eyes (Glitter) looks promising.
Sticker | Chompers
- Steam Price: $0.94
If we take sticker craft potential as a basis, this sticker will definitely be in the top, and its cost still hasn’t crossed the one dollar mark. By the way, there are only three such stickers left, which means you can also spend part of your remaining stars on opening them, since the chance of breaking even is very high.
Alex
Alex is an author and esports observer with more than seven years of experience. He specializes in analyzing new releases in the world of computer games, gaming services, and in-game economies. Alex shares practical experience and an expert perspective on the development of gaming, helping readers understand complex mechanics and stay up to date with the latest news.
