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//- DATA - READING A PRICE

Ask, Bid, Last Fill — What a Listing Is Really Telling You

A Marketplace listing shows several numbers at once, and they don’t mean the same thing. Learn which one you’d actually pay, which one is history, and which one is mostly wishful thinking.

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//- 01 - THE THREE NUMBERS

THE THREE NUMBERS ON EVERY LISTING

Every item on the order book carries up to three different figures, and mixing them up is the most common beginner mistake:

  • Lowest ask — the cheapest price any seller is currently offering. This is the number that matters if you want the item now: meet it, and the trade can happen.
  • Highest bid — the most any buyer is currently offering. This is the number that matters if you want to sell now: accept it, and your item goes at that price.
  • Last fill — the price of the most recent completed trade. It is history, not a quote. It tells you where two strangers once agreed; it does not promise you the same deal today.

Only the first two are live offers; the third is a record. Treating a last fill like a price tag is how sellers end up watching a listing sit untouched.

Three numbers, three different meanings.
//- 02 - THE SPREAD

THE SPREAD TELLS YOU HOW HEALTHY THE MARKET IS

The gap between the lowest ask and the highest bid is the spread, and it is the quickest health check an item has. A narrow spread means buyers and sellers nearly agree: the book is active, and a fair trade is easy. A wide spread means the two sides are far apart — sellers holding out, buyers unconvinced — and any trade requires someone to give ground. No bid at all is the loudest signal: nobody is actively trying to buy, whatever the asks claim the item is “worth.”

The spread is the quickest health check.
//- 03 - FILL AT THE RESTING PRICE

YOU FILL AT THE RESTING PRICE

One rule surprises almost everyone the first time: your order fills at the price already resting in the book, not at the number you typed. When you place a buy order, you set a maximum — a ceiling. Example (illustrative): you set a maximum of 8,500 Credits while the lowest ask sits at 8,400 — your order fills at 8,400, not 8,500. You pay the seller’s resting ask; your ceiling only decides whether the match happens at all. Selling works in mirror image. A generous ceiling doesn’t overpay you — it just stops you missing a fill over a few credits. Note the fee lives on the seller’s side — 10% of the sale price comes out of what the seller receives.

You fill at the resting price.
//- 04 - WHAT A PRICE CAN'T TELL YOU

WHAT A PRICE CAN'T TELL YOU

A price is a snapshot of offers at one moment, and there are things it cannot say. It can’t tell you what the item will be worth next season — nobody knows that. It can’t tell you an item’s “true” value, because there isn’t one apart from what a buyer will actually meet. And it can’t warn you about timing: a newly acquired item sits under a 15-day resale hold, so a tempting price today is not a quick flip. Read a price as the current state of negotiation between strangers, and it will serve you well.

A snapshot, not a prophecy.
//- 05 - A WORKED EXAMPLE

A WORKED EXAMPLE, START TO FINISH

Example (illustrative): imagine a listing showing a lowest ask of 5,000 Credits, a highest bid of 4,200 and a last fill of 4,800. Here is how each number speaks. The spread is 800 Credits — noticeable, but not a dead book; the two sides are within reach of each other. The last fill at 4,800, much closer to the ask than to the bid, hints that recent buyers were the ones giving ground. If you want the item now, you pay the resting ask: 5,000. If you set a maximum of 4,600 instead, your order rests as the new highest bid and waits. And if you are the seller accepting that 4,200 bid, remember the fee: 10% comes out of your side, so 3,780 is what actually reaches your balance.

One listing, read start to finish.
//- 06 - READING MISTAKES

WHAT PLAYERS GET WRONG WHEN READING A LISTING

The commonest error is treating the last fill as a promise — quoting it to a seller or expecting it as a buyer, when it is only where two strangers agreed once, possibly weeks ago. The second is ignoring the bid side entirely: a page of confident asks with no bids underneath is not a market, it is a noticeboard. The third is reading meaning into a single listing. One ask, in either direction, is one person’s position; the pattern of asks and bids together is the information. Read all three numbers, every time, and a listing will tell you far more than any one figure can.

Read all three numbers, every time.
//- 07 - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Straight answers

THE THREE NUMBERS

The cheapest price any seller is currently offering. This is the number that matters if you want the item now: meet it, and the trade can happen.

The most any buyer is currently offering. This is the number that matters if you want to sell now: accept it, and your item goes at that price — before the seller fee comes out of your side.

The price of the most recent completed trade. It is history, not a quote: it tells you where two strangers once agreed, and it does not promise you the same deal today. Treating a last fill like a price tag is how sellers end up watching a listing sit untouched.

It’s the cheapest current offer — not the same thing as a valuation. With only one or two listings, it may be one seller’s optimism. The fuller picture comes from ask, bid and spread together.

No. Your bid is a maximum, and the trade fills at the resting ask. Bid above it and you pay the ask — the extra headroom only guarantees the match, it doesn’t raise the price.

READING THE BOOK

The spread is the gap between the lowest ask and the highest bid, and it is the quickest health check an item has. A narrow spread means buyers and sellers nearly agree and a fair trade is easy. A wide spread means the two sides are far apart, and any trade requires someone to give ground.

Because no buy orders are resting for it right now. That happens with thin, unpopular or newly tradable items — and it means a seller who lists has to wait for a buyer, or lower the ask until one arrives.

Less than the headline price: the 10% fee lives on the seller’s side. In this page’s worked example, a seller accepting a 4,200 Credit bid receives 3,780 — the fee is why the amount that reaches your balance differs from the price the trade filled at.

No. A price is a snapshot of offers at one moment. It cannot tell you what the item will be worth next season — nobody knows that — and there is no “true” value apart from what a buyer will actually meet.

No. A newly acquired item sits under a 15-day resale hold, so a tempting price today is not a quick flip. Read a price as the current state of negotiation between strangers, and it will serve you well.

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