Auctioning and posting prices

[Tallenn]

When you auction stuff to sell, do you post the prices? I've noticed that a lot of people don't.

When I am looking to buy stuff, I almost never bother with auctions where the seller doesn't post their prices up front. The reason is that I'm not one of those guys that likes to haggle. I prefer to just shop around until I find what I want at a price I feel is worth paying. Yes, it probably takes me longer to find what I want, but that's the way I shop. I almost always eventually find what I want for a price I think is fair.

I don't know why some people choose not to post a price up front. My guess is that they ARE the kind of people that likes to haggle, and feels they can probably get a better price that way. Fact is,they probably can, but I also think they are missing a significant portion of the buying market by not posting prices, because people like me usually never even look twice if there's no advertised price. Also, it could be debatable that they are getting better prices, since the majority of people that contact them about it are ALSO the type of people that like to haggle, and hence, are probably pretty good at it.

Now, on high-end and rare items that aren't sold very often, it makes a lot of sense to sell that way. For items that are sold pretty much every day though, I think you're missing out on a lot of potential buyers, who are just waiting for someone else to put the item up for sale at a fair price that's advertised up front.

Maybe it's just me, but nearly every time I've sent a tell to someone asking "how much", they either say, "make an offer" or tell me a price that's 30-50% higher than what I'd consider paying, meaning I either have to haggle or just forget about it. Eventually, you get to the point where you just don't bother with them at all.