CS2 Sticker Crafts Explained: SP%, Positions and Scraping

A sticker adds only a fraction of its market price to a skin, and that fraction is the Sticker Percentage (SP%). As of October 2026, SteamAnalyst’s calculator puts normal stickers at about 2–5% SP. Published figures for Katowice 2014 Holos run from 5–15% in SteamAnalyst’s guide to 15–50% or more in its calculator. Position, scrape level, base skin and how well the stickers fit together move the number.

How many stickers can a CS2 weapon hold, and are they permanent?

Every weapon takes up to five stickers, and applying one is permanent. The cap was raised from four in the A Call to Arms update of 6 February 2024, the same patch that introduced flexible placement. Knives cannot take stickers, and neither can gloves or agents.

Stickers can be placed anywhere on the side of the gun shown to the player, and they can be rotated. Stickers applied before the update stayed where they were originally attached.

Applying consumes the sticker and locks the position. The only way out is scraping, which destroys it. Finish matters for price: Paper, Holo and Gold stickers exist, and the Budapest 2025 capsules dropped Glitter and Foil in favour of a new Embroidered type.

What is a Sticker Slab and how does it differ from an applied sticker?

A Sticker Slab is a charm that seals one sticker so it can be shown on a weapon without being applied. HLTV described it as a way to display stickers without permanently attaching them to the gun, and it arrived in the Budapest Major update of 12 November 2025.

• Cost: The slab costs $0.50 in-game.
• Recovery: The sealed sticker can be returned to the inventory at any time by cracking open and discarding the slab.
• Trading: Slabs are marketable and tradable.

A slabbed sticker is not locked in, so a buyer has little reason to pay an SP% premium for it. That is market reasoning, not a published rule. A slab suits testing a placement or showing a rare sticker while keeping it liquid.

Why isn’t a sticker’s listed price what it adds to a skin?

A craft is worth the base skin plus a share of the sticker price, never the full price. The formulas are: sticker value added = sticker market price × SP%, and estimated craft price = base skin price + sticker value added.

The share stays below 100% because an applied sticker cannot be peeled off and sold separately, only destroyed. Stickers are liquid and crafts are not, so only part of the sticker’s value carries over. A loose sticker sells to anyone. A craft sells only to someone who wants that skin with those stickers.

Worked example: a $40 skin with a $200 sticker at 5% SP is worth about $40 + ($200 × 0.05) = $50. A seller asking $240 for it is asking for 100% SP.

What is a typical SP% by sticker type?

Published SP% figures disagree, so any single number is a starting point, not a quote. The table compares figures from sources opened in October 2026.

Source	Sticker	SP%	Basis
SteamAnalyst calculator	Normal stickers	2–5%	Typical range
SteamAnalyst calculator	Crown Foil, Flammable	5–15%	Typical range
SteamAnalyst calculator	Katowice 2014 Holo	15–50%+	Desirable skins
SteamAnalyst guide (Jan 2026)	Katowice 2014 Holo	5–15%	Typical range
SteamAnalyst guide (Jan 2026)	Katowice 2014 non-Holo	3–8%	Typical range
SteamAnalyst Crown guide	Crown Foil	About 20%	Median over 197 CSFloat sales in a year
SkinsInspector	Regular to Katowice 2014	0.5–15%	Overall range

The sources do not even agree with themselves. The guide’s non-Holo Katowice 2014 band is 3–8%, while SteamAnalyst’s Katowice 2014 guide gives 30–60% of sticker value for a single non-Holo in the best position. That page’s SteamAnalyst’s sticker value guide is a good starting reference.

Key takeaway: The most reliable benchmark is the recent sale price of a near-identical craft, not a percentage table. Cheap stickers trend toward zero SP%, because nobody pays extra for a $0.10 paper sticker.

What else moves the value: position, coherence and base skin?

Buyers pay more when a sticker is visible and looks intended. Guides commonly say the best position earns two to three times the SP of the worst.

Position

On the AK-47 the wood position is most desirable, on the AWP the scope, and on the M4A4 and M4A1-S the spot above the magazine. SteamAnalyst’s AWP table puts the scope at 2–2.5× and the stock at 0.5–0.7×. These rankings come from the preset-slot era. Since free placement, buyers also price the look of the whole layout.

Coherence and theme

Four copies of one sticker, a team theme or a deliberate shape generally sell better than five unrelated stickers. After free placement arrived, some stickers rose in price because players used them to spell words. Extreme crafts exist: an AK-47 Case Hardened pattern 661 with four Titan holos sold for nearly $450,000. The pattern matters on its own.

Base skin and float

SteamAnalyst lists a more prestigious base skin and a better condition as factors that raise the applied percentage. That is why expensive stickers usually go on clean, low-float skins. Souvenir skins are a special case because they come with stickers already applied.

What does scraping do to a sticker’s value?

Scraping wears an applied sticker down and permanently lowers what it adds to the skin. CS2 wears it down step by step and shows a preview of each stage before you commit. There is no undo, and a sticker scraped all the way off is destroyed rather than returned to your inventory.

Scrape level	SteamAnalyst guide: value retained	SteamAnalyst calculator: SP retained
Light	50–75%	60–80%
Medium	25–50%	30–50%
Heavy	10–25%	Little to none

Treat both columns as rough. Guides also disagree on the mechanics: some describe up to 10 scrape steps, while others mention a slider for the exact amount of wear. The in-game preview is the authority.

Scraping suits cheap stickers. CSDB’s rule is to scrape cheap stickers for aesthetics and leave rare or expensive ones pristine. Details are in CSDB’s scraping guide.

Why are Katowice 2014 stickers the exception?

Katowice 2014 stickers carry the highest SP% because supply has been closed since 2014. Valve sold the two capsules “for a limited time” in March 2014 and never sold them again. Ten months later the iBUYPOWER ban turned one of those team logos into a memorial. CSDB’s history of the capsules covers the full story.

Prices are extreme and liquidity is thin. As of October 2026, SteamAnalyst showed Sticker | iBUYPOWER (Holo) | Katowice 2014 at an average of about $99,664, with the lowest listing at $64,994 and only 5 listings. Since January 2026 it has traded between about $54,948 and $143,000. A quoted price and a price you can actually get can differ enormously.

How do I check the stickers on a listing before buying?

Work out the implied SP% before paying. The steps below do that.

1. Inspect the item and confirm each sticker’s name and finish.
2. Check each sticker’s scrape level.
3. Note each position and whether the stickers form a coherent craft.
4. Find the price of the same skin and float range without stickers.
5. Look up the loose price of each sticker in the same finish.
6. Compute implied SP% = (listing price − base skin price) ÷ total sticker price, then compare it with recent sales of similar crafts, not asking prices.

Tip: An implied SP% far above the benchmarks above needs a reason, such as a premium position, a clean theme or a rare Katowice 2014 Holo. Without one, expect a hard resale.

Opening cases or buying skins for crafts costs real money, and no outcome is guaranteed. Each case on CSDROP’s all cases page shows its item pool and drop rates before opening. CSDROP’s provably fair system lets players verify results from the game history. That checks integrity and does not change the odds. CSDROP is 18+ (or the age of majority where you live, if higher); play only with money you can afford to lose.

FAQ

What does SP% mean in CS2?

SP% is the share of a sticker’s market price that carries over to a skin once the sticker is applied. A $100 sticker at 5% SP adds $5 to the skin’s value. It is a market guideline, not a fixed rule, and published ranges vary by source.

How many stickers can a CS2 weapon hold?

Up to five on every weapon except knives, which take none. The update of 6 February 2024 raised the limit from four and added flexible placement and rotation.

Can you remove a sticker and get it back?

No. An applied sticker can only be scraped, and scraping it away destroys it. To keep a sticker recoverable, seal it in a Sticker Slab instead of applying it. Cracking the slab open returns the sticker and discards the slab.

Does scraping a sticker change the skin’s float?

No. Scraping changes only the sticker’s wear, not the weapon’s float or exterior. The real cost is lost sticker value: SteamAnalyst’s guide estimates a lightly scraped sticker keeps roughly 50–75% of its value.

Are Katowice 2014 stickers worth using in a craft?

They have the highest SP% in the game, but published estimates range from about 5% to 50% or more, depending on the source. Single Holos cost tens of thousands of dollars, and thin listings make the quoted price hard to realise. Most players build crafts with cheaper stickers.