This has possibly been discussed already, but was just messing around with sticker scraping
Stockholm and Antwerp leave traces behind, whereas Rio and Paris are completely clear (Rio is handle, Paris is trigger, but they literally are identical in every way)
RMR glitters also get rid of all text but there's some gaps in the logo when you do this - RMR bag holder here :)
As a minor Antwerp investor this worries me about future value, what are peoples thoughts on this?
Here are mine:
The crux of investing is that we are considering these assets, but with utility, I'm going to draw parallels with Crypto here. Kato 14 is Bitcoin, it's the rarest, it's the original, and it's the equivalent of digital gold. These stickers will not get used, maybe once in a blue moon when a streamer with a bazillion monies of income a month goes HEHE I MAKE CRAFT, and then makes the money back through donations and subsequent Youtube clip anyway. To me these streamers are the lifeblood of the high value assets, as well as people who want a legitimate westfield speculative asset to invest in.
Move on to not so desirables, such as Cologne 15's, people hated them they're doritos (I personally like them) but they're kind of rare so value has gone up, plus for people like me it was my first CS event, so I have the nostalgic factor to have an affinity with them.
Now let's move on to utility - people like borderless - people do not like writing, so from this as far as burnt supply goes, I would say Antwerp/Stockholm are going to sit in investors inventories for the forseeable, the outliers here would be your teams that didn't get into certain majors. For me this makes Astralis Glitters a particular attractive investment, I bought like 8 at 40p and wish i'd bought more, but they're still low enough entry price to buy a few for myself. This also makes C9 Rio's a particularly good investment in my eyes (FOR NOW) as they didn't get into Paris and are 1/3rd of the price of Antwerp (Unfortunately for me I stocked up on these all the way up), although the saving grace is no Major for a long time, but equally there's no way C9 don't get into another Major or several unless they go bankrupt, but as we now know Volvo finally know what the people want (borderless), I find it unlikely they're going to make radical changes to the sticker designs when they know they can make more 0s than I can count.
As far as investing goes I don't think, even with the outrageous supply, you're ever going to lose money unless CS dies, even RMR have turned a profit and they look garbage.
I'll finish off with my advice and thoughts for general investing, as someone who has made every mistake in the book with stocks and crytpo as a learning curve.
1) Diversify - this is the number 1 rule, minimizes risk, although generally CS stuff rises in tandem
2) Do not overinvest yourself
3) Always try leave some spare money in Steam in case you see a good investment or there's a downswing, you don't want to be panic selling to buy a bargain, it's not a bargain anymore if you've just sold something you wanted to hold and it's tanked 40%
Where do I see CS investing realistically going?
It's almost certainly a bubble of that there's no doubt to me. I think the very old, very rare stuff will retain it's value. I think the middling stuff will approach the "asset" territory, this includes capsules but is more limited in scope to me, because they're very overinvested and probably will be for years. I think old limited skins from retired cases will grow more naturally than capsules, and less likely to have sharp drop offs unlike cases/capsules/stickers, but you're never going to me a millionaire from them.
I'll add to that 4 on that note:
Have realistic expectations. Remember you're always going to be taking a relatively high it on fees when you're selling whether that be SCM or TP. Do I think CS is going to be a millionaire? No. Do I think I can probably get "free" games for the rest of my life, absolutely, and that appeals to me even as someone who can afford games, so I can absolutely see why this would appeal to someone in a worse situation or a country with a difficult economy. Start small, be patient and don't get greedy.
I've gone off on a tangent here so back to the title point - Just wonder what other peoples thoughts and views are in general on the above?
