Have you considered that perhaps the seller wants you to PM them to inquire about the price? Maybe they're feeling lonely and are looking to make a new friend. Or maybe they'd just like a little smalltalk about the weather, or to trade some golf tips.

Just PM them and find out. Here, I've created an example for you to follow:

Seller auctions WTS Golden Efreeti Boots
You tell the Seller, How much for the GEBs?"
Seller tells you, "1k OBO"
You tell the Seller, "Ok thanks. You feeling ok, need to chat with someone or anything? And how's your golf swing these days?"
Seller tells you, "Thanks for asking. I'm ok, golf swing is coming along nicely."
You tell the Seller, "Cool man, cya around."
Seller tells you, "Thanks bro"

You have the power to socialize with a stranger on the internet! Use it wisely.

This would be in stark contrast to those who post "WTS Fungus Covered Scale Tunic 55k" and, by the time you send them a tell, they have camped and are in the process of uploading their logs to the wiki's auction tracker. :rolleyes:

I'll explain it. Its pretty easy to understand.

People who auction without a price are hoping to catch someone looking to buy it and willing to pay top platinum for it....maybe even over pay.

You don't want to undersell yourself by auctioning something for 2k when someone is in the zone willing to pay 3k. Give that person the opportunity to message you inquiring about the item and giving you their offer VS taking 1k less because you already said you would take 2k.

If you see someone place a price next to their item, they're eager to sell it and likely don't care if they maximize the value.

If you see someone not place a price next to their item odds are they're not overly motivated to sell it and are likely after max value.

Hope this helps.

Evia above explains it perfectly. The only issue I've come across are people that are adamant about you being the one that makes the first offer when they're advertising something they want to unload. For me, it usually goes down like this in a /tell.

(Me) "I am interested in the X item. How much did you want for it?"
(Them) "Make me an offer."
(Me) "Actually, that's not an answer to my question. You obviously have an idea of what you would want for the item. Go ahead and name it."
(Them) "Make me an offer and I'll tell you if it will work."
(Me) "Thank you for your time."

At this point I've had sellers waste about 6 to 8 /tells to me asking what my problem is or why I wouldn't make an offer if I wanted the item at all. I guess being polite about refusing to play the "the first person that makes the offer loses." game isn't acceptable to some folks.

Offer them services of a value roughly equivalent to the item (quillmane farm or something), then when they say they want plat then you can say as they have an amount of plat in mind perhaps they can number it as you already made your offer?

I've always done something similar. I can't stand the "make an offer" bullshit. So once they start that game, I either give them a lowball offer, or just reply with a simple "nah". Once a couple minutes go by and they start to realize they are about to lose a potential buyer they usually cough up a price.

"When I walk into a store to buy things, they don't ask me what I'm willing to pay. Good luck!"
/ignore

“If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it” - A Fat Cat (presumably)

Retail 101; If an item is not priced, shoppers assume it's too much $.

i recently had someone offer me an entire bag of garbage for a tola robe. Like 800 plat and a menagerie of gear worth like 150pp insisting it was "good stuf". Dont be like this guy.