In the May 21-22, 2026 patch, timed with the IEM Cologne 2026 Major, Valve changed something that had been untouched forever: souvenir skins. And it wasn't a small tweak — there are two big changes that affect both how you use these skins and how much they're worth. Here's the no-nonsense breakdown.
What a souvenir skin is (quick recap)
Souvenirs are special skins that used to drop from Major souvenir packages. You recognize them by their gold stickers: both team logos, the map sticker and a player's gold autograph. Until now they were "untouchable" pieces — they couldn't go into trade-ups, and their value depended on the rarity of the match and the stickers they carried.
That has completely changed.
Change 1: souvenirs can now be used in trade-ups
For the first time, you can use souvenir skins as inputs in a Trade Up Contract, on their own or mixed with normal skins of the same grade. But there's important fine print:
- When you put a souvenir into a contract, it loses all of its souvenir attributes: the gold stickers and the autograph are gone for good.
- The result of a trade-up is always a normal skin (non-souvenir) of one grade higher.
In practice: you're sacrificing the "souvenir" status in exchange for grading up. It makes sense with cheap souvenirs, but think twice before doing it with a valuable piece.
Change 2: the Souvenir-O-Matic (turn any skin into a souvenir)
This is the opposite feature and, for many, the most eye-catching: you can now take a normal skin and turn it into a souvenir yourself, from the Major Hub.
How it works, step by step
- Open the Major Hub from the main menu.
- Pick the skin from your inventory you want to convert.
- Select a match that has already been played in the current Major (future matches don't count).
- Choose the player whose gold autograph you want applied.
- Review the token cost and confirm (it's permanent).
The skin gets four gold stickers: both team logos, the map sticker and the autograph of the player you chose.
What you need to know
- You pay in tokens, the Major currency (in the Major shop, 100 tokens ≈ $0.99, or free by stacking them through the Pick'Em).
- The cost varies with the skin's rarity and the demand for the stickers (popular teams and players cost more).
- It doesn't work with StatTrak (it's incompatible with the souvenir category).
- It destroys any stickers the skin already had.
- It keeps the float and pattern intact.
- It's irreversible: there's no undo.
- It replaces souvenir packages: random packages no longer drop from watching Major matches.
What this means for your skins
It's a small earthquake for the market. Cheap souvenirs that were worth a couple of euros are now raw material for trade-ups, while expensive, rare souvenirs lose some of their exclusivity because they can now be manufactured. If you have souvenirs sitting in your inventory, it pays to know which went up and which went down — we break it down in our article on the market impact.
In short
Valve turned souvenirs from static pieces into items with two new uses: grading up through a trade-up (losing the souvenir status) or crafting one to order with the Souvenir-O-Matic. The result is a far more dynamic — and more volatile — market.
If you want to move skins while the moment is hot, check out our help center for how the selling process and payout methods work.