NationStates

Recently, I have lost two auctions where my bid was significantly higher than what the card ultimately sold for. I'm sure I'm just missing something, and I'll feel stupid when someone explains it, but I have to admit that I am stumped. How is this happening?

The final sale price of the card is the average of the matching bid and ask, so it's often lower than the bid or higher than the ask. You can see the current sale price in the middle of the asks/bids list.

When the auction ends and there's a difference between the matching ask and bid, the card is traded for the average between those two values. Say I sell a card for 10.00 bank, then Nation A bids 40.00 and Nation B bids 50.00 - the final match will be (10+50)/2 = 30 bank. That means in fact Nation B will buy the card for lower than Nation A bid, but that's on purpose.

For more details about auctions you can read the Trading Cards section of the FAQ.

I am so confused why that's a thing. I bid $20 and it sold for $11. I just assumed the middle number was .01 higher than the next highest max-bid. So, what happened was someone probably bid $22 or something? And even though they bid $22, they get to buy it for $11?

Corp Nations wrote:I am so confused why that's a thing. I bid $20 and it sold for $11. I just assumed the middle number was .01 higher than the next highest max-bid. So, what happened was someone probably bid $22 or something? And even though they bid $22, they get to buy it for $11?

Yes. If the ask is 0.01 and the bid is 22, it sells for the average at 11.

Ok. Weird. Thanks for the clarification.