A price with no publisher, no issuer and no floor

A wagering account has a currency the operator issues. An object balance does not. Its price comes from a market of strangers trading consumer goods, and it moves for reasons that have nothing to do with the account it is credited to. This page explains where the number comes from and why two objects from the same line are not worth the same.

Open the partner account Start with the exit arithmetic

Yours to move: an object in your own inventory, a listing you can withdrawFrozen: an object inside its hold, unreachable at any priceTheirs to decide: the valuation, the commission and the cash-out

Direct answerAn object’s price is set by the cheapest comparable listing on a third-party marketplace, adjusted for two properties that are generated when the object was made - its wear (a decimal value, usually called a float) and its pattern (the position of decorative elements, called a seed) - and then for supply and demand for that exact combination. There is no issuer, no redemption price and no floor: the publisher does not buy, the operator does not guarantee, and the only firm number in the market is a bid, which is always lower than the asking price it sits beside.

The four inputs

input 1

model The line itself. The finish applied to a base object. This sets the order of magnitude and nothing else: within one line, the spread between the cheapest and the dearest object sold in an afternoon can be a multiple, not a percentage.

input 2

wear / float A decimal generated at creation. Lower numbers mean less visible wear, and the distribution of possible values is not even - the extreme lows are rare by construction, and rarity is priced.

input 3

pattern Where the decorative elements landed. Two objects from the same line with identical float can differ several-fold because collectors pay for a particular arrangement. This is the input that makes two visually similar objects genuinely non-fungible.

input 4

supply How many exist and whether more can be made. A change to how objects drop, a re-release, or a change to the trade rules can move the price of a whole line without any buyer changing their mind.

Worked example - same line, same look, different money (illustrative) Two objects from one line. Both are described identically in a lobby.
Object A: float 0.18, ordinary pattern → market asking price 100 units, best bid 87.
Object B: float 0.03, sought-after pattern → market asking price 320 units, best bid 278.
Ratio: 320 ÷ 100 = 3.2× for the same line, the same game and the same visible description.
If both are sent to a wagering account at a flat 90% valuation of a single reference figure of 100, the holder of object B is credited 90 units for something the market bids 278 for - a gap of 188 units, 67.6% of the object’s firm bid, created by the valuation method rather than by the market.
That is the arithmetic a reader should run before sending a rare object in: a flat percentage against a flat reference is generous to common objects and expensive for rare ones.

Why an asking price is not a value

Every marketplace displays two numbers and they are often read as one. A listing is an offer to sell at a price the owner chose; a bid is an offer to buy at a price a stranger chose. Only the second is a purchase somebody will complete today. The gap between them is the market’s price for immediacy, and it is not a fee - nobody is charging it, they are simply the two sides of a market with a queue in the middle.

This is the single most expensive misreading on this subject. A reader who counts a lobby at asking prices and then funds an account has valued their position at a number that no counterparty has agreed to, and will discover the gap on the way out.

What the price does not depend on

The account it is credited to. The operator’s credit is derived from the market, not from anything the operator underwrites. If the market halves, the credit does not hold its level; the operator simply revalues on its stated schedule.
What was paid for it. The price is current supply and demand. An object bought at 300 and sold at 90 lost value because the market moved, not because the buyer was misled.
Whether it is a "safe" holding. There is no floor, no issuer and no redemption. Nothing in this structure is a store of value, and the publisher’s rules are a live risk to any object’s tradability, independent of its price.

Reading a price properly, in four steps

Look at the bid, not the listing. The bid is what the object can become today; the listing is what a patient seller hopes for.
Compare like with like. Filter by float band and pattern before comparing prices at all. A line’s median says almost nothing about a particular object.
Check the fee and the currency at the other end. The market page covers the seller’s cut; the number on the listing is not the number that arrives.
Discount for the hold. The price you can act on is the price on the day the hold ends, which is a date you did not choose. See the hold.

What this desk will not do with a price. It will not tell a reader that an object is cheap, that a line is due a rise, or that a float band is worth collecting. Those are predictions about a market of consumer goods with no issuer, and a page on the internet - this one included - is not a source for them. The only claim here is structural: the number exists, it comes from two sides of a market, and the account it is credited to uses a different number that the operator chooses.