How CSWatcher Prices a CS2 Skin — Float Bands & Tiers
Every number on a Smart Watcher card comes from a real listing, and every rule that turns listings into a ceiling is written down here. No model, no guess: a ceiling you cannot trace back to a listing does not exist on the page.
Float bands
An item’s wear is a float range — Field-Tested runs from 0.15 to 0.38 — and inside it a lower float sells for more. So the range is cut into bands anchored at the floor (0.15–0.16, 0.16–0.17, 0.17–0.18, then wider ones), and each band is priced on its own. The card shows every band’s ceiling in a strip; the green min. ceiling is the lowest band’s.
The item ladder: 95% of the lowest listing
For each band the app reads the marketplace’s listings inside that float bracket and takes the lowest one. The band’s ceiling is 95% of that price, rounded down. Five percent under the cheapest listing is where a listing becomes a deal rather than the going rate.
The tier ladder: advised plus a fifth of the premium
A paint-seed tier list — a Case Hardened Tier 1, a Fade 100% — is worth more than the plain item, but not the whole of what its sellers ask. For a picked tier the app reads the cheapest listing on that list per band and sets the tier ceiling at the band’s advised price plus one fifth of what the tier asks above it. Both ladders live on the same card, each in its own colour, and a listing is judged by the ladder that applies to it: a seed on the list by the tier’s, any other by the item’s.
The shared cache
Every read, by any user, goes into one shared cache keyed by item, phase and float band, so the next card for that item is priced at once and a Doppler phase is never mixed up with another phase of the same knife. The cache stores prices and times, never who asked.
Neighbour fill and the monotone rule
A band with no listing yet is filled from its neighbours — the previous, wider band first, then the next narrower one — but only after a Price $? read has run for the card, and filled bands are marked so you can tell them apart. And a ceiling may never rise as the float gets worse: each band’s ceiling is capped at the one before it.
Your own number
Every ceiling is typable. Type a different one and every band of that ladder moves by the same amount; the filter, its preview and its live check follow. The arrow keys nudge it by one percent, Shift by five, Alt by one dollar.
Watching the numbers work
Preview Results reads the live listings the filter would see and marks which would trigger at the current ceilings; drag a ceiling on the chart and the listings are re-judged. The 30d replay does the same against the last month of pooled observations. Both are there so that you never arm a filter on a number you have not seen tested.
Where does a card's price come from?
From real listings. The float range of the item is cut into bands, and each band's ceiling is 95% of the lowest listing seen in that band.
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A tier list gets its own ladder: the band's advised price plus a fifth of what the tier asks above it.
What if a band has no listing yet?
The card fills it from its neighbours: the previous, wider band first, then the next narrower one, and only after a Price $? read has run. Filled bands are marked so you can tell them from measured ones.
Why can a ceiling never rise as the float gets worse?
Because a worse float is never worth more than a better one of the same item. The ladder is kept monotone: a band's ceiling is capped at the ceiling of the band before it.
Is the price cache shared?
Yes. Every read any user makes for an item and phase goes into one shared cache, keyed by name, phase and float band, so the next card for that item is priced instantly.
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The cache never stores who asked.