Karambit Case Hardened 387 - The $1.5 Million Blue Gem
The legendary Karambit 387 is known as the most expensive skin in CS2. There are only 9 in existence, but only 1 in Factory New, making it quite a rare collector’s piece. But what makes it rare and expensive? How come there are only 9 registered? Let’s dive deep into this.
On August 14th, 2013, the “The Arms Deal” update was released, introducing the CS:GO Weapon Case 1. This case contains many classic skins such as the AWP | Lightning Strike and AK-47 | Case Hardened, but alongside those, some legendary knives as “Rare Special Items”, one of which is the infamous Karambit | Case Hardened. Later on, this knife could be found in 11 cases total, with the last being the Revolver Case in December 2015.
What makes the Pattern 387 Special?
Each skin in CS2 has a pattern between 0 and 1000. When it comes to Case Hardened skins specifically, the pattern determines the percentage of blue and yellow on the skin. “Blue Gem” skins are skins with a big percentage of blue on the Case Hardened skin. They are usually divided into four tiers, with Tier 1 Blue Gems being the most blue. The pattern 387 is community-rated as the best blue gem out of all patterns.
Karambit blue gems can also be divided into frontside and backside blue gems. Backside is the side the player sees, while the frontside is the side that can be seen when inspecting the karambit. Karambit 387 is a backside blue gem.
Here’s a list of all Tier 1 Karambit Blue Gems, ranked based on community Steam guides. Blue percentages provided by Dispattern:
#1
Tier 1: 73 (91.27%), 269 (94.25%), 442 (96.23%), 463 (79.44%), 510 (86,59%), 776 (91,34%), 809 (87,24%), 853 (92,89%), 888 (84.04%), 905 (88,73%)
Odds of getting a FN Karambit 387
The chance of pulling a knife from any of the 11 cases is 1 in 391, or 0,26%. There are 5 knives in each case, so the chance of pulling a Karambit is 1 in 5. The chance of the knife being a Karambit | Case Hardened is 1 in 13. For it to be specifically pattern 387 is a 1 in 999 chance, as there are 999 patterns (Pattern 1000 is only attainable with trade-ups). The odds of it being factory new are 3%. If we want the knife to be StatTrak™, that’s a 1 in 10 chance (All 9 Karambit 387s are non-StatTrak, so we will exclude this chance and use a 9 in 10 chance).
When combining all these numbers, it works out to be a 1 in 403,009,308 chance.
For any float value, the chance is 1 in 25,415,000.
Due to the new Knife Trade Up system, there is another way of getting a Karambit 387. If we were to use 5 M4A4 | Royal Paladins, for example, we would have a 1.54% chance of getting a Karambit | Case Hardened. This would cost about 1000 USD, but it would skip the 0,26% chance of getting a gold in a case.
How much is a Karambit 387 worth?
In 2021, someone offered 1.2 million euros in Bitcoin for the legendary Factory New Karambit 387, which was about 1,500,000 USD at the time. The owner, who is still the same owner today, rejected the offer, saying the amount was too low. They have since privated their profile and inventory, with no other known offers in the past five years.
In April 2023, a WW Karambit 387 and #1 AK-47 661 ST MW with 4x Titan Holo sold for $500,000 USD.
In July 2023, a newly unboxed FT Karambit 387 sold for $169,000 USD. In February 2026, someone offered $70,000 USD for the same knife.
In December 2023, a BS Karambit 387 sold for $37,800 USD.
In August 2024, a low-float FT Karambit 387 was sold for an unknown price. At the time, its value was estimated at $250,000 USD.