[drc]

At sale, when I want something to sell asap I'll have a lower price. Then if it isn't sold I raise it to the normal price.

In auction, unsold items can sometimes sell for more after they're relisted at the same or lower minimum bids. So some of the pricing goofiness is due to buyers.

When I was a kid there was a rich man in the neighborhood who had years before invented a complicated computer meteorological system used by private companies. When he invented it he offered it for sale for $2,000 (made up number) but there were to takers, so he had a marketing expert advise him. The marketing advisor said the problem was the sales price was too low. At $2,000, companies will assume it was no good. So the guy raised the sales price to $15,000 and they sold.

As long as I'm on the somewhat off topic invention story. Another neighbor became wealthy as he invented Warfarin, which some of you may have heard of. Until recently and for decades Warfarin was the best selling anticoagulant in the world, used in hospitals for heart attacks, heart valves, blood clots, etc. The funny thing is it's initial use was as a pesticide-- the substance would make the rats and mice bleed to death. It wasn't until later that it's noble human medicinal uses were discovered. But he made money both ways.