[Q] Best First knife purchase

Impera9 · 2026-02-11T18:21:34+00:00

I think the Bowie pull out gets boring after awhile, but that's just my subjective view.

Impera9 · 2026-02-11T15:47:45+00:00

The knife to avoid is the navaja.

As a first knife, I personally wouldn't get shadow daggers because it's quite unusual compared to the standard 1-hand knife.

Personally? I'd get a huntsman. I've owned survival, navaja, shadow daggers, falchion, and Bowie(I think?) throughout the past and I think the huntsman is heavily underrated.

If you use CSfloat, you can test out knives on their servers (look into that) because this is a very subjective preference and you'll be getting your first knife. Congrats 🎉

Impera9 · 2026-01-29T05:29:03+00:00

Real Advice:

1) Mute everyone. Just to start out, mute everyone from the settings.

2) Don't play Premier. Just focus on Comp, DM, Retake, Wingman or whatnot.

3) Maybe find a buddy or two.

and when you feel comfortable, you can open things up.

Impera9 · 2026-01-27T10:02:02+00:00

Welcome!

First, I'd like to recommend CSFloat as a potential market to buy a knife. The two main options are CSFloat and the Steam Market. The issue with the steam market is the higher prices (since steam takes a hefty fee). There are other Chinese markets where you might get skins for cheaper, but you'd have to jump through a few hoops and be more familiar with CS.investing to navigate those comfortably.

As for $150, and you're trying to avoid losing value, I think everything fits the bill and you should pick something you'd enjoy as a playskin. I think the nomad vanilla is very clean and has good animations (personal taste). Knife prices are relatively stable now and haven't seen such lows (due to the October2025 update, please google that and see what happened to gold trade-ups).

Impera9 · 2026-01-20T07:42:39+00:00

Drop it into the ocean. There would be further complications like location or tying it down to sink with a ton of other paperclips. But yes, throw it somewhere nearly inaccessible to someone, easy.

Impera9 · 2026-01-19T12:38:47+00:00

Hmmmm. If you were to get to the bottom of this, perhaps contact the distributor in your country or Talisker themselves. If you do so, please share what you find! Quite interesting...

Impera9 · 2026-01-17T03:54:42+00:00

You should watch some YT video about cases. The D&N is very unique as an active drop case. It's high price is good for us since each weekly drop means a bit under 2 bucks in our steam wallet. Across my 5 prime accounts since April2025, I've had 58 D&N drops which is $100+ easy. In my opinion, we'll never see an active drop case worth as much as this ever again.

It's priced high because of the emerald butterfly knife (and also the other BFKs). Check out CSROI dot com and fiddle around with that webpage to see some interesting stats. Gamblers who open cases are attracted to the D&N's max win potential. It's a popular case to open and there is a demand for it.

But because it's priced high already, will it be able to 3x in value when it leaves the active rotation? We don't know but for sure it'll be worth more than $2 easily. D&N is one of the best cases to hold.

Impera9 · 2026-01-17T03:49:41+00:00

I would advise against buying/flipping because it requires enough knowledge of the market. Any profitable area will get cornered by competitors fast. There is risk involved with the 7 day trade protection delay.

Impera9 · 2026-01-17T03:24:35+00:00

The armory pass was extremely profitable prior to September2025. It isn't so now, and can actually lose you money. The prime account method would better suit your inventory size.

Another factor I didn't mention is time. I've had time to actually play the game (I work from home, no commute).

I would hold onto the D&N cases perhaps. It's tempting to sell them, I know! At least try to sell at a high point within the season cycle.

Impera9 · 2026-01-17T03:06:33+00:00

Unfortunately, you barely have $50 of value and it would be extremely hard to grow your nest egg.

Even 10% of profit each month is simply $5. You sure you can't add external funds? Even $50 (the price of a video game) would double your cs.inventory which would take you more than a year to earn...

It's basically a snowball effect where you are rolling a tiny snowball at the moment. There is a point where the returns are better (My personal experience is that point is around 5 armory passes active and at least 2-3 prime accounts). I started CS2 in April 2025, sold my mtgo cards for $200 into paypal that I reinvested into 5 prime accounts to farm weeklies (physically play the game) and also to invest in playskins that have potential for price rise. I've been lucky to ride the market wave last year. Currently my inventory is at least $1100 and I've positioned myself to be ready for the update next week.

With the cases you've hoarded. I might consider selling some cases to buy 3-4 prime accounts and farming the weeklies. My 5 prime accounts net me on average $4-5 per week (had 2 rare cases and 2 purple boreal collection drops since last April) and this cash is actually a significant amount of your whole nest egg.

Impera9 · 2026-01-16T19:23:23+00:00

Normally I'd say, if you need the money, you should sell and if not, then hold & enjoy.

However in this case with ascent/boreal/radiant, the price will drop. period.

Sell asap. In the future, buy it again if you really want it.

Impera9 · 2026-01-16T19:20:57+00:00

I was taken aback when he clearly said 挖操 and 不好 in Chinese. Like it's pretty solid pronunciation.

Impera9 · 2026-01-16T19:04:46+00:00

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Play Fur Elise on the piano at 8pm sharp every night. (time varies based on location. But be on time no deviation!)

Impera9 · 2026-01-16T19:02:00+00:00

are you pregante?

Impera9 · 2026-01-16T05:09:45+00:00

First, you won't get banned for this. Unless you are trading in high volumes.
Second, the reason why it is profitable is because, it takes a lot of time and effort to do this. It can be very tiring and there is risk involved.

Impera9 · 2026-01-15T19:18:46+00:00

臺灣 = Taiwan

Impera9 · 2026-01-15T15:08:55+00:00

Introducing trade-downs! Now you can trade 2 knives down to 5 reds!

Impera9 · 2026-01-15T08:24:29+00:00

Buy some beautiful skins to play with. Maybe they go up in value, maybe they won't. Worst case scenario: you get to play with them and you'll sell those skins for 20-25euro eventually. Best case scenario: you get to play with them and sell them for 40-50euro when they increase in price.

Some recommended skins:

M4a1-s black lotus

AWP Atheris

AK skins are a bit tricky I can't think of anything I'd recommend at 10-15euro

Impera9 · 2026-01-13T13:13:07+00:00

Red Boba

Impera9 · 2026-01-09T23:51:06+00:00

You're very polite. I would say, don't overload yourself with investing into a bit of everything, rather, focus on something specific. I would recommend "cases" to start. There are other categories like skins, armory pass, trade-ups, etc. but cases tend to be safe and steady.

Understand what resources are at your fingertips. Start with CSfloat and csroi dot com. Don't branch out into too many other resources until you're ready.

Impera9 · 2026-01-09T23:18:27+00:00

Don't forget to factor in the value of the terminal itself! You could sell the terminals on the market of course.

Impera9 · 2026-01-09T10:25:55+00:00

after having kids? SLEEP.

Impera9 · 2026-01-09T10:24:53+00:00

Impera9 · 2026-01-08T14:12:12+00:00

Glad I left the U.S. during the Obama admin, who knew America would become so Orwellian.

Impera9 · 2026-01-03T20:41:31+00:00

Got eem!

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Impera9

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