Another monstrous skin sale has rocked the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community, with one collector paying the price of a college education for an AK-47.
When it comes to variety, the AK-47 is the king in CSGO. It has a ton of awesome skins, and the weapons’ iconic status can push their prices sky-high. A new god-tier skin has now entered the pantheon with the official sale of an AK-47 | Wild Lotus for $160,000. Here’s what we know about the sale and why it earned such an insane selling price.
The skin in question is a factory-new AK-47 | Wild Lotus with four Reason Gaming Katowice 2014 Holos. The skin was listed on third-party CSGO skin marketplace Buff.market for $158,991 USD, and it was eventually purchased with ¥1,095,000 Yuan. It was sold by established CSGO high-roller Luksusbums, who sold another AK-47 skin for $400,000 last year.
The purchaser appears to be a Chinese collector who may go by the name Niecolas. Their account shows off several other top-tier CSGO skins, including a factory new souvenir Dragon Lore.
The AK-47 | Wild Lotus is a pristine example of one of CSGO’s cult classic skins, but the stickers really carry the price.
The Wild Lotus is a fairly desired AK-47 skin. New copies were only available during Operation Shattered Web, and it was already quite difficult to get. The St. Marc collection is quite rare today, and trade-ups to the covert Lotus are either extremely risky or prohibitively expensive. Certain collectors love its lush jungle vibe, and battle-scarred Wild Lotuses can still sell for thousands of dollars. But this particular skin has much more than just that.
It has a full set of four Reason Gaming (Holo) | Katowice 2014 stickers. Katowice 2014s are the absolute most valuable stickers in the game, and Reason Gaming stickers are the third-most expensive after Titan and iBuyPower. Just one currently costs almost $40,000. The stickers lose a large amount of value applied to a skin, but a full set pushes an already-coveted skin to the absolute limit.
However, there is one unfortunate flaw with this skin. There are a total of three factory new Wild Lotuses with full sets of Reason Holos. This skin only has the second-lowest float at 0.00597. Another copy is 0.00123 cleaner, though the recent purchaser was likely well aware of it before buying.
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
