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CS2 Trading Glossary

Concise definitions for every term you'll encounter on a CS2 trading site. Linked back to longer guides where useful.

Asset ID Blue Gem Bot Case Hardened Doppler Escrow Fade Float Foil Factory New (FN) Gamma Doppler Game Coordinator Gold Sticker High-Demand Holo Inspect Link Katowice 2014 Knife M9 Bayonet Market Hash Name OpenID Overpay Paint Index Paint Seed Doppler Phase Scratch State Souvenir StatTrak™ Sticker Trade Hold Trade-Locked Trade URL Wear Tier
Asset ID
A 64-bit numeric identifier Steam assigns to every individual item instance. The same skin shared by two players has two different asset IDs. Asset IDs change when an item moves between accounts.
Blue Gem
A Case Hardened skin whose paint_seed produces a pattern with high blue coverage on the visible side. See our full guide.
Bot
A Steam account run by automated software that sends and accepts trade offers. CS2 trading sites are usually built on top of one or more bot accounts.
Case Hardened
A weapon finish (introduced 2013) generated procedurally per item. Different copies look very different — patterns range from "mostly yellow" to nearly all blue (Blue Gems).
Doppler
A knife/glove finish with seven distinct visual phases — Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl, and Phases 1–4. Each phase has its own market price. Full guide.
Escrow
A 15-day Steam-side hold applied to trades when one party doesn't have a Mobile Authenticator that's been active for 7+ days. Most automated sites refuse escrowed trades.
Fade
A finish family with rainbow gradient patterns. Specific seeds produce premium "Fade percentages" (e.g., 100% Fade) that command large markups.
Float
A hidden 0.00–1.00 value determining a skin's wear. Lower = cleaner. Drives the visible wear tier and contributes to per-item pricing premiums. Full guide.
Foil
A reflective metallic sticker tier. Roughly 3% drop rate per capsule. Old tournament foils (e.g., Katowice 2014) are some of the most valuable items in CS2.
Factory New (FN)
The cleanest wear tier: float 0.00–0.07. Lower floats inside this range command extra premiums.
Gamma Doppler
The green variant of Doppler, introduced in 2016. Phases include Emerald (premium) plus Phases 1–4. Paint indexes 568–572.
Game Coordinator (GC)
CS2's internal item server. Trading sites connect to it to fetch float values, paint seeds, and stickers — info Steam's public inventory API doesn't expose.
Gold Sticker
The rarest sticker tier (~1% drop), only from autograph capsules. Always shows a player's signature in gold leaf.
High-Demand
An item flag (used on Hostadz) for skins with strong, persistent buyer demand. High-demand items carry a lower 4% service fee instead of 7%.
Holo (Holographic)
A shimmer/iridescent sticker tier. ~16% drop rate per capsule. Old tournament holos can be worth thousands.
Inspect Link
A long URL Steam provides for every item that lets anyone inspect it via the in-game viewer. Looks like steam://rungame/730/...csgo_econ_action_preview.... CSFloat reads these to extract pattern data.
Katowice 2014
The first CS:GO Major to feature sticker capsules. Its Holo and Foil stickers are legendary — a single Foil can be worth $200,000+. Full guide.
Knife
The most valuable weapon class, signified by ★. Knives only drop with the rare special "★" quality from cases (~0.26% per unboxing).
M9 Bayonet
A specific knife type, often shortened to "M9". One of the most popular knife models for high-end skins like Doppler and Crimson Web.
Market Hash Name
The exact name Steam uses to list an item on the Steam Market — e.g., StatTrak™ AK-47 | Redline (Field-Tested). Used as the canonical key in pricing APIs.
OpenID
The auth standard Steam uses for "Sign in with Steam". The third-party site never sees your password — Steam returns a signed token proving your Steam ID.
Overpay
Trading items worth more than what you receive in return. On Hostadz, overpay is credited to your site balance for use in future trades.
Paint Index
A numeric attribute identifying a specific finish + variant — e.g., paint_index 415 = Doppler Ruby. Two items with the same market hash name can have different paint indexes (e.g., all Doppler phases share a name).
Paint Seed
A 0–1000 integer that seeds the procedural pattern algorithm. Determines unique pattern variants for finishes like Case Hardened, Fade, and Marble Fade.
Doppler Phase
One of seven visual variants of Doppler (Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl, Phases 1–4) identified by paint_index 415–421. Premium phases (Ruby/Sapphire/BP) cost 5–15× more than standard phases.
Scratch State
A 0–100% wear value applied to stickers as the weapon takes kills. Pristine 0% stickers can be worth 2–3× their scratched counterparts.
Souvenir
A weapon quality variant from Major tournaments. Stickers from that tournament are permanently applied at fixed slots. Yellow "Souvenir " name prefix.
StatTrak™
A weapon variant with a kill counter visible in-game. Drops at ~10% rate from cases. Premium of 20–80%+ over non-StatTrak. Full guide.
Sticker
An item that can be applied to weapons. Tiers: paper, holo, foil, gold (in increasing rarity). Once applied, can only be removed by destroying it.
Trade Hold
Steam-enforced 7-day delay before a newly-received item can be re-traded. Cannot be bypassed. Full guide.
Trade-Locked
An item currently under trade hold. Cannot be selected for trades on any platform until the countdown reaches zero.
Trade URL
A unique Steam-issued link allowing third parties to send you trade offers without being friends. Full guide.
Wear Tier
One of five labels (FN, MW, FT, WW, BS) determined by float ranges. Tier label is what shows in your inventory; the underlying float is the driver of price within each tier.