How to Price Check Items in PoE 2 0.5
Forget the old whisper grind. In 0.5 the trade economy runs on an asynchronous in-game Market: you buy from a seller's Merchant Tab through an NPC, no whisper, no waiting for anyone to log in. Bulk currency goes through a separate Currency Exchange order book. So price checking is now mostly an in-game job. Two dads, two minutes, then back to mapping. Here is how it actually works.
01 The in-game price check (the fast way)
Stand in town or your hideout. You cannot price check while mapping. Hold Shift + Alt and left-click the item. The game opens the Market panel with that item's mods pre-loaded as a search, so you see live listings for similar gear instantly.
One gotcha: it filters on the exact mods it reads off the item. A rare with eight modifiers will return almost nothing. Strip the search down to the two or three mods that actually carry the value, then look at what is left. You can also open the Market panel directly with the forward slash key and search by hand.
This is a search, not a sale. Buying happens through the Secure Item flow: you click to reserve the item and get sent to the seller's hideout NPC to collect. Nobody has to be online. No whisper is ever sent.
02 Read the listings, dodge the price fixers
The cheapest listing is almost never the real price. People park a single fake-cheap item to anchor the market, then ignore every buyer for weeks. The number you want is the cluster: the floor is wherever five or six consecutive listings sit at the same value.
- 1 div, 1 div, 1 div, 8 div, 9 div: the floor is 1 div. That is a real wall of sellers.
- 1 div, 9 div, 9 div, 10 div, 10 div: that lone 1 div is bait. The real price is 9 to 10.
Ignore single outliers below the pack. Sort by quantity for currency and stackables so you are reading a real supply, not one stale post. For anything above 5 divine, cross-check a second source before you commit. A price is only real if you can actually click Secure Item on it.
03 Currency is a different machine
Bulk currency does not go through the item Market. It goes through the Currency Exchange, a live order book. You pick what you have and what you want, and the game shows the current ratio pulled from real standing orders.
Two ways to fill: take the shown rate for an instant fill against existing orders, or set your own rate as a limit order and let it fill automatically while you map. There is a small gold fee that scales with the size of the trade. For pricing a chunk of orbs, the Exchange ratio is the price. No listing-reading needed.
04 Where our tools fit
The in-game panel is great for one item at a time. For everything else, we built faster lanes:
- Singles: use /market to track named uniques, omens, and fragments at a glance without opening the game.
- A full stash dump: paste it into /stash and get a total valuation in one pass, instead of Shift + Alt clicking forty items.
- Bulk currency: /exchange mirrors the Currency Exchange order book so you can scout ratios before you log in.
- Single orb values: /currency is the quick lookup for what one orb is worth right now.
05 Quick FAQ
Do I still whisper sellers to buy in 0.5?
No. That was the old model and the prior version of this page got it wrong. Since the in-game Market arrived (patch 0.3), trading is asynchronous: you click Secure Item on a listing and collect it from the seller's Merchant Tab through an NPC. The seller does not need to be online and no whisper is sent.
What is the exact price check hotkey?
Hold Shift + Alt and left-click the item while you are in town or your hideout. It opens the Market panel with the item's mods pre-loaded. You can also open the Market panel on its own with the forward slash key. Price checking does not work while you are out mapping.
Why does my price check return zero results?
The in-game filter searches for the exact mods on the item, so a rare with many modifiers matches almost nothing. Trim the search down to the two or three mods that drive the value, then read the listings that remain.
How do I avoid getting fooled by a fake low price?
Anchor on the cluster, not the single cheapest listing. The real floor is where five or six listings sit at the same number. A lone listing far below the pack is usually bait left by an unresponsive seller. For high-value items, confirm against a second source before you buy.
How is pricing currency different from pricing an item?
Bulk currency runs through the Currency Exchange order book, not the item Market. The exchange shows a live ratio from real orders. You take that rate for an instant fill or set a limit order that fills automatically. For currency, the ratio is the price, so use /exchange and /currency rather than reading item listings.