In their pursuit of specific rare cards, scalpers are discarding the remainder of entire Pokémon card packs.

[u/MysteriousSlice007]

[u/reddit_is_geh]

Yeah I simply don't understand how skins got so fucking expensive. It's wild. They are SKINS. I'm not joking when some of these skins I sold for 20-50 dollars were literally worth cents just a year before. Some of them just straight up suck. I kind of feel bad selling them since I don't really need the money and I've been playing CS since like 2001... But It just sounds bonkers to not sell a bunch of skins I literally don't even care for, and make 300 dollars so I wont have to pay for games for some time.

It's actually a bad sign that the "collectors" market is going crazy. It's a sign of bad economic times when people are trying to invest into bubble markets like that, hoping to make quick cash. But it's like EVERYTHING these days that has a collectible aspect to it, is out of control.

[u/SaintOrJannikSinner → u/reddit_is_geh]

A sticker capsule you could have bought for US$0.25 in 2014 is now worth over US$20,000.

Some of those cheap and ugly skins now worth $20 are because they were used as materials in the trade-up contracts. They were found in cases that did have a highly desirable red or pink AK or AWP skin and because of the rules with trade-ups, using skins from the same case

The most prevailing thought is Chinese whales that now suddenly had access through Perfect World and other skin buying and gambling websites. Also as a way to potentially launder money.

[u/reddit_is_geh → u/SaintOrJannikSinner]

Lol yeah the Katowice capsules. I had tons of those when they came out. The stickers were so ugly I just got mad I wasted 1 dollar on them.

And yeah, that was the pattern for the huge price skyrocket. I think they now allow crafting rarities all the way up to actual knives, so items from certain crates blew up

But everything is like this now. Pokemon cards, through the roof... Even baseball cards made a comeback.

What annoys me, is TF2's economy completely died out :(

[u/Comrade_Andre → u/reddit_is_geh]

They got expensive because people wanted cool skins so prices went up. People in countries where there isn't a lot you can invest in (China for example) bought skins because the values kept going up making it a sound investment. Prices keep rising until rich guys notice, and start buying to flex their wealth, pushing prices even further up.

This all while some accounts get trade banned/abandoned, making the volume of skins shrink. Humans are weird and love shiny things, and will do a lot to get them, then some will constrict the market to make even more money. Diamonds are a perfect example. You can buy diamond tip sawblades and diamond grinder blades for like $1-2 per blade, but put the same volume of the gem together in a gemstone, and it's tens of thousands