Glossary

CS2 trading terms, in plain language.

The vocabulary every CS2 trader picks up eventually — pre-loaded into a single page so you don’t have to. 18 entries, hand-written, no jargon-pyramid.

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Float Paint seed Blue gem FFI (Fire and Ice)Doppler phase Crimson Web tier Inspect link Drop-only Sticker scaling Sticker craft Sticker scrape Armory Case EV / ROI Supply (case supply)Steam Market fee Arbitrage Liquidity Fade percentage

Float#float: A 0.0–1.0 wear value baked into every CS2 skin at drop. Lower = less worn = generally more valuable. Float drives the wear bucket (Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn, Battle-Scarred), but the raw float matters more than the bucket for high-tier listings.
Paint seed#paint-seed: An integer 0–1000 that determines a skin's pattern — where the texture lands on the model. Same skin + same float can be cheap or rare depending on the seed. The whole pattern-database market exists because some seeds are hugely more desirable than others.
Blue gem#blue-gem: A Case Hardened paint pattern with an unusually large, contiguous blue area on the playside (or back). Tier 1 blue gems can sell for 100–1000× a normal Case Hardened. Different weapons have different community-canon tier rankings, hosted on sites like CSBlueGem.
FFI (Fire and Ice)#ffi: The community shorthand for the most desirable Marble Fade pattern: full Fire and Ice — full red + full blue, no yellow. FFI grades are sub-tier; "100% FFI" is the top.
Doppler phase#doppler-phase: Doppler skins ship in 1 of 7 phases (Phase 1–4, Sapphire, Ruby, Black Pearl). Steam doesn't label phase in the inventory — third-party tools (Dispattern, CSFloat) infer it from the inspect link or paint seed and show the phase next to the listing.
Crimson Web tier#crimson-web: Crimson Web skins are tiered by how prominent the spider-web is on visible surfaces. Three webs visible = T3, four = T4, five+ = T5. Higher tier dramatically multiplies the value over a bottom-tier listing of the same float.
Inspect link#inspect-link: The Steam URL that opens an in-game preview of a specific item — `steam://...inspect/...`. Pattern databases and float-checkers parse the link to read the float, paint seed, and stickers without needing the asset in your inventory.
Drop-only#drop-only: A skin that can't be unboxed from a case — only obtained as a weekly drop. Drop-only skins shrink in supply over time (no new opens), which can pull prices upward decoupled from market trends.
Sticker scaling#sticker-scaling: The effect a sticker's value has on the skin it's applied to. Pristine 4× holo or gold stickers can multiply a skin's price several times over; the skin itself becomes a "sticker craft." Sticker-craft tools track these and surface fair-value math.
Sticker craft#sticker-craft: A skin with applied stickers (often holo/gold) that drive the value above the base skin's market price. The craft is the unique combination of skin + sticker layout + scrape level.
Sticker scrape#scrape: The wear percentage of an applied sticker. Scrape ≠ float — scrape applies to stickers only, ranges 0–100%, and scraping reduces value. "Pristine" = 0% scrape.
Armory#armory: CS2's rotating, time-limited reward track. Operations and Armory passes are essentially gachas where the reward set rotates. Armory ROI tools tell you the EV of completing a pass given current market prices.
Case EV / ROI#case-roi: The expected return of opening one case at current market prices, weighted by the official drop probabilities and minus Steam fees. Positive EV means the average opening makes money — rare. Negative EV is the norm; cases are negative-EV gambling for most openers.
Supply (case supply)#supply: The number of unopened cases on the Steam Market and in inventories. Cases lose supply over time as people open them. CSStonks and similar tools track supply as a leading indicator of price.
Steam Market fee#market-fee: Steam takes ~13–15% combined (game fee + Steam fee) on every sale. Real "what I'll receive" is always lower than the listed price. Calculators that ignore fees overstate ROI.
Arbitrage#arbitrage: Buying an item on one venue and selling on another for a profit after fees. Common pairs: Steam Market vs CSFloat, Buff163 vs DMarket. Arbitrage scanners surface live spreads net of fees.
Liquidity#liquidity: How quickly an item can be sold near its quoted price. A Field-Tested AK Redline is liquid (sells in minutes). A high-float Karambit Doppler with a specific phase is illiquid (sells in weeks).
Fade percentage#fade-percent: Fade-pattern skins (Karambit Fade, Glock Fade, etc.) are graded by the visible fade coverage on the playside. 100% fade = full coverage, no straight edge. Higher percent = exponentially higher price for the same wear.

Missing a term we should add? Drop it via the contribute page.