★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire (Minimal Wear)

★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire in Minimal Wear (MW) is the top two hundredths of a scale that ends at 0.08. Sapphire is a rare phase of the Doppler finish and one of the gems of CS2; the ordinary phases of the same finish cost several times less. Covert rank, with the ★ mark, and the finish drops from the Chroma series of cases. What sets it apart from the normal version is the kill counter on the blade, and the premium for it is the most noticeable among this model's gems.

What the ★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire looks like in Minimal Wear

The blade is a dense blue: light sky-blue patches are pulled toward the spine and the hole, and dark blue swirls run across the rest of the face. Blue covers the saw on the spine, the guard and the ring too; the handle is gray, unpainted. The saw teeth are painted through, and the cutting edge is left light, which is how the finish is built.

The floats in this wear run 0.07 to 0.08. Scuffs in this wear land on the edge and the saw teeth, and the blue on the guard's lug has in places worn down to light metal. In Factory New (FN) all three areas are still covered by paint, and that is the whole difference. The counter window sits at the base of the blade, and wear does not touch it.

Where the ★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire came from

Valve itself made the Doppler finish, not a Steam Workshop artist: no submission is recorded for it. The release date is January 8, 2015, the Full Spectrum update, and the Chroma Case opened in CS2 at the same time. The finish's number in the Valve catalog is 416. Two more cases of the Chroma series hand out the same finish.

What to check before buying

In a ★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire listing, check these parameters:

• the counter reading: it cannot be zeroed and travels with the knife;


• the edge and the saw teeth in the screenshot: scuffs are already there in this wear;


• the phase: blue copies of Phase 4 look like a gem in the preview, but that is a different item;


• the applied name: the knife accepts a name tag, and someone else's text is visible in the listing.

Between 0.07 and 0.08 the look does not change.

Phase and pattern

Doppler has seven phases, and in the item name the phase stands next to the StatTrak™ mark. In this wear the ordinary phases cost several times less than Sapphire: the phase weighs more in the price than the wear does. Inside the gem the artwork is a solid blue fill with swirls, while on the ordinary phases the pattern is more mobile. Sources write about rare Sapphire copies in different ways, and we put no price on pattern here.

What the ★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire costs in Minimal Wear

The premium over the normal M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire here is about two fifths, while on the model's other two gems the counter adds less. At the same time, Factory New with a counter is cheaper than Minimal Wear, whereas on the normal version the order is reversed. Among the model's Covert finishes with a counter, Sapphire is first from the top here. Below come M9 Bayonet | Doppler Phase 2 and M9 Bayonet | Doppler Phase 4, both cheaper by almost a factor of four. M9 Bayonet | Marble Fade trails by more than five times.

Getting the ★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire

The knife arrives as a rare ★ item from the Chroma Case and the next two cases in the series; the game decides the phase and whether there is a counter. The second route is a contract: five Covert skins of one collection go for a random rare special item. For a counter version the contract is built only from inputs with a counter, and the game does not accept mixed sets.

Normal and Souvenir

Without the counter, the same gem is sold as the M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire and costs noticeably less. Valve never released Souvenir packages with knives, so a Souvenir Sapphire does not exist.

Who this wear suits

Minimal Wear on the ★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet | Doppler Sapphire is worth it here if:

• you want a blue gem with a counter, and scuffs on the edge do not matter in play;


• the counter reading suits you: it cannot be changed;


• your set already has Mil-Spec items and the knife is picked to match them;


• the top two hundredths of the scale do not bother you: below it, the finish has only Factory New.