Best Trade-Ups for Knives and Gloves Ranked
2025-10-25 - 5 min read
By Skinflow
On October 23, 2025, Valve changed CS2 trade-ups. You can now turn 5 Covert (Red) skins directly into a Gold Special Item. That includes knives and gloves.
The result was instant. Players started mass buying Coverts to trade for Golds. Prices on a lot of mid tier reds shot up 5x-30x because everyone needed them for contracts, and Golds saw their price plummet by 50%.
Quick refresher. A trade-up contract now needs 5 skins of the same rarity from the same collection. You submit those and you get 1 skin of the next rarity.
After the update, Coverts upgrade into Golds. So red rarity can now become knives or gloves.
There is one catch. If you don't buy your inputs from the Steam Community Market you cannot use them right away. You have to wait 7 days before you can put them into a contract.
Float matters more than ever. The float of the output is based on the average float of your 5 inputs. If you feed it low float reds, you can force low float knives and gloves. That is how people try to force Factory New or super clean Minimal Wear on rare items.
Note: StatTrak transfer in trade ups. Do not burn StatTrak reds unless you are doing it to go for a StatTrak from the next rarity.
Trade-Up Contract Interface Screenshot In-Game
Key Factors for Successful Knife/Glove Trade-Ups:
1. Collection Compatibility
All 5 Coverts must be from collections that can actually roll into Golds. For knives this usually means things like Mirage or Dust 2 style collections.
2. Float Optimization
Keep the average float of your 5 inputs below 0.10 if you want chances at Factory New knives. People pay extra for clean Butterflies.
3. Market Timing
Coverts spiked because everyone is buying them to gamble. Golds got flooded and dipped. That gap is where the profit is if you hit something rare.
A clean Factory New Butterfly Knife can still sell for 5,000 USD or more. People will always overpay for fade, sapphire...
Why Butterfly Knives and Premium Gloves?
Butterfly Knives are status. Patterns like Doppler, Fade, Marble Fade are screenshare bait. People inspect them. People remember them.
Gloves do the same job for your hands. Sport Gloves | Hedge Maze and Pandora tier stuff instantly makes your loadout look rich on stream. Your hands are always on screen when you move and inspect so flex value is huge.
Your odds of hitting the exact thing you want from the exact collection are not high. Think 1 in 10 level in most cases. But if you do hit, the jump in value can be insane. That is why people are gambling hard right now even though Gold prices dipped overall.
Cheapest Coverts Ranking
| Rank | Skin | Wear | Price (USD) | Best Gold target if you stack 5x of these |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | MP7 | Bloodsport | Battle-Scarred | $37.13 | Can feed into knife pools. Dream hit is Butterfly Knife tier pulls. People like it because it's cheap Covert SMG you don't mind sacrificing. |
| #2 | M4A4 | In Living Color | Battle-Scarred | $39.27 | Used in higher end glove / moto glove style pools. Good if you are aiming for flashy gloves for stream flex instead of knives. |
| #3 | AK-47 | Head Shot | Battle-Scarred | $39.99 | Commonly thrown at knife contracts chasing Butterfly Doppler / Fade style Gold pulls. Budget AK Covert so people spam it in bulk. |
| #4 | AK-47 | Legion of Anubis | Battle-Scarred | $39.99 | Great budget red for glove rolls. People target Sport Gloves / Pandora style wins with stacks of cheap AK reds like this. |
| #5 | FAMAS | Bad Trip | Battle-Scarred | $45.70 | Frequently sent into glove pools hunting rare purple / neon gloves. Players like it because it's a recent Covert rifle that lines up with current Golds. |
| #6 | Five-SeveN | Angry Mob | Battle-Scarred | $46.41 | Cheap Covert pistol to pad a 5x contract. Goal is usually gloves that look expensive on hand cam even in lower wear. |
| #7 | M4A4 | Temukau | Battle-Scarred | $55.56 | Anime M4A4 Covert. People feed five of these in mixes trying for Marble Fade / Fade style Butterfly pulls because they don't mind losing Temukau copies. |
| #8 | AK-47 | Nightwish | Battle-Scarred | $61.41 | Used in knife chase contracts for flashy finishes like Butterfly | Fade or Doppler style pulls. People burn ugly high-float Nightwish just to roll for knives. |
| #9 | MP9 | Starlight Protector | Battle-Scarred | $62.12 | Thrown at glove pools because people don't feel attached to MP9 skins. Hit chance target is premium gloves with clean patterning. |
| #10 | FAMAS | Roll Cage | Battle-Scarred | $66.41 | Old school Covert FAMAS. Favored by older players who trust this as safe red input when they target higher tier knives in the Gold slot. |
| #11 | Glock-18 | Wasteland Rebel | Battle-Scarred | $66.41 | Pistol Covert you can live without. People send five+ Glocks with other reds to try for Butterfly knives without risking pricier AK skins. |
| #12 | AUG | Chameleon | Battle-Scarred | $68.55 | Classic Phoenix era AUG. AUG reds aren't fan favorites, so it's easy to recycle them into glove attempts instead of holding them long term. |
| #13 | P250 | See Ya Later | Battle-Scarred | $69.54 | Comic style Covert pistol. People spam these in cheap 5x stacks hunting sport glove style hits that look rich in first person. |
#1 Best Trade-Up: Butterfly Knife Guaranteed (The Breakout Collection)
Inputs: 5x P90 | Asiimov, Expect around 400-600 USD total cost if you are going for low floats.
Output target: Butterfly Knife | Fade or Slaughter in Factory New. Current sale range can be around 2,500 USD.
Why people chase it: the iconic Butterfly Knife which is one of the most popular CS2 Knives and is a guarantee in this trade-up.
#2 Best Trade-Up: Sport Gloves | Pandora's Box (Operation Hydra Case Coverts)
Inputs: 5x Minimal Wear Five-SeveN | Hyper Beast from Operation Hydra Case Coverts. Around 400-600 USD total if you shop right.
Output target: Sport Gloves | Pandora's Box in Minimal Wear. These can go up to 30k USD.
Pandora's Gloves are one of the most expensive CS2 Gloves you can possibly get, they are highly sought-after especially in Factory New condition.
Float tip: try to average your 5 inputs under 0.07. That keeps the final gloves in a clean Factory New range instead of pushing you towards Minimal Wear.
#3 Best Trade-Up: Butterfly Knife | Dopplers (Spectrum 2 Case Coverts)
Inputs: 5x Field-Tested P250 | See Ya Later . Total around 300 USD if you are not picky on float.
Output target: Butterfly Knife | Doppler Sapphire feeling skins. A decent hit can still move for something like 5,800 USD even after the drop in Gold prices.
Why people chase it: Phase 2 blue heavy patterns. People love anything that looks like a sapphire. The update made inputs cheaper for a bit so this path became a budget "pull a sapphire style knife" dream.
Watch your floats here. If you feed it garbage battle floats you can end up with something that looks scuffed and loses a lot of value.
#4 Best Trade-Up: Sport Gloves | Vice (Clutch Case)
Inputs: 5x Factory New M4A4 | Neo-Noir. Around 1000 USD total entry cost which is low for a shot at Factory New Vice Gloves.
Output target: Sport Gloves | Vice in Factory New. These can still move around the 15,000 USD area. Clean color blocking.
Why people chase it: this is another iconic set of gloves that has often stayed at the top of the gloves market along with the Pandora's, with Factory New fetching ridiculous amounts compared to Minimal Wear.
Trade-ups are still gambling. You can lose a lot and brick your balance. But if you control float, pick the right collection, and understand timing on the 7 day Steam Market lock, you can hit a Butterfly that covers your whole run and then some.